Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Psalm 8:5-6 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.
GOD'S GLORY REVEALED
Mankind was created to have dominion over the rest of creation, but through the fall into sin that dominion has been diminished. While we still have our intellect, the peace which ruled in the Garden of Eden before the fall is now gone. Today we hear about animals killing human beings, human beings killing animals, and human beings killing human beings. We fight against disease and sicknesses, weeds in our yards and gardens, pests like mosquitoes and flies, floods, droughts, earthquakes, fires and much, much more. It hardly feels like we have dominion over creation with all that happening in our world.
Our sin has also ruined our relationship with God. But through Christ all that is restored. The writer to the Hebrews enlightens us with how this has happened. The Holy Spirit first quotes these verses from our psalm and then continues, "For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him" (Hebrews 2:8). God has put everything under subjection to mankind, but we are not achieving that subjection now because of sin.
"But" the writer to the Hebrews continues, "we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone" (Hebrews 2:9). At this time we do not see all creation put in subjection to mankind. But it has been subjected to the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Because of our sin we deserved death, But Christ died in our place. Jesus came and was made man, to suffer and to die for the sins of all people. Jesus had a very important task while He was here on this earth. He came to restore the peace that existed between God and man before the fall into sin and to repair the relationship which had been destroyed because of our sin. Through Jesus God's glory was revealed, and as a result of His glory we also will be restored to glory in heaven. 