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Hebrews 2:5-8

⁵And furthermore, the future world we are talking about will not be controlled by angels. ⁶For somewhere in the Scriptures it says, “What is man that you should think of him, and the son of man that you should care for him? ⁷For a little while you made him lower than the angels, and you crowned him with glory and honor. ⁸You gave him authority over all things.” Now when it says “all things,” it means nothing is left out. But we have not yet seen all of this happen.

Reflect

In 1989, Psychology Today conducted a survey about “Who is the ideal man?” The first sentence of their report is telling. “Out of the struggle to redefine masculinity and femininity, a new ideal is emerging, a hero who takes the inward way to manhood.” Throughout the report, we discover that the ideal man is hard to come by. For example, a woman from Seattle wrote, “My husband is an excellent man. His problem is he thinks he ought to be ideal. He says to me, ‘Good enough isn’t good enough.’ He is tortured by the ideal of perfection.”

Since God didn’t give sovereignty of the future world to angels, Jesus had to come to earth as the Ideal Representative Man. Adam lost his dominion and right to rule when he sinned. Jesus won back that sovereignty by conquering Satan, by His death on the cross. Jesus will exercise that sovereignty in the “world to come”.

Respond

Why was it so important for Jesus to come to earth as a the Ideal Representative Man?

Have you ever tried to be the “ideal person”? If so, did you achieve the ideal?

The last line says, “But we have not yet seen all of this happen.” Do you think that refers to His new kingdom on earth?

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