"For not unto angels did he subject the world to come." This "world to come" has been thought to refer to the present (the gospel) dispensation, called "the world to come" from the Old Testament point of view, in contradistinction to the former dispensation, which was under the rule of angels. (Verse 2.) This world (dispensation) is under the rule of Jesus, the glorified God-man. But the word "world" in this place means--not "age," as it often does, but "inhabited earth." We would hardly take it to mean "dispensation," then; but it would naturally refer to the "new heavens" and the "new earth," wherein dwelleth righteousness, in which Christ will reign, and his people forever and ever. (Rev. 22:5). It was God's design at the first that man, not (as in former ages and even now) angels, should have dominion over the earth; and here we see that design again, but enlarged so as to include man's rule of the whole universe. [32]

      The portion of the universe we can behold with our eyes or reach with our greatest telescopes is probably only a small corner of God's immense handiwork, but the magnitude of even that portion is inconceivable. Our earth is the merest speck in it, insignificant, unnoticeable; and man is but a very small and very temporary speck on the earth. It must have been when David was gazing into the starry heavens and was lost in wonder and awe of God's glory as revealed in the enormous galaxy above him that the Holy Spirit made him understand at one stroke how small and how great man is. "O Jehovah, our Lord," he exclaimed, "how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who hast set thy glory upon the heavens! . . . When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" It is a confession of littleness, but not that only; it is also an exclamation of wonder, astonishment, at what greatness man must hide in his lowly guise, that God, even God, would deign to notice him and visit him. What must man be if you, great Maker of the universe, do commune with him and deal with him? The Spirit supplies him the answer. God had [33] great designs in making man. For the time he is lower than the angels; but what is he in God's ultimate purpose? See the answer in verses 7, 8. But has that design been fulfilled? "Not yet," which is a word of hope, for it implies that some time it shall be. What assurance have we of it? We see Jesus. We have known his career, his humiliation, his suffering, his obedience unto death, his exaltation. Now he is at the right hand of God, all authority in heaven and on earth committed to him, "angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him." (1 Pet. 3:22.) In his career we see the prophecy and prediction of ours. As he, so we. He is our forerunner. He is the Head; we are the body. If we suffer with him, we shall be glorified with him. As the career of the first Adam is the prophecy of the sin, failure, and death of his race, so the victory and exaltation of the second Adam is typical and prophetic of that of his new race; and the meanwhile Jesus Christ's exalted position makes the benefits of his sacrifice available to every man. (Compare Acts 5:31.)

      "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block." Two things were very hard for the Jews to accept--one, that a human [34] being could be the Son of God, or, rather, that the Son of God could have been man; the other, that their great Messiah should die--a criminal's death, at that. The first of these Jesus tried to make clear to them (Matt. 22:41-46); the second was the standing objection the Jews had to Jesus' claim to the Messiahship. "We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?" (John 12:34.) The rest of this chapter (Heb. 2) declares and explains the fitness of the Son's becoming man and suffering with and for man.

      "Both he that sanctifieth [Jesus] and they that are sanctified [the Christians] are all of one"--of one Father. So Jesus calls them "brethren." (See Matt. 12:50; 28:10.) But, still, Jesus preserved a distinction. If he is Brother, he is our Elder Brother, forever higher in rank and nearer the Father. If we are sons of God, yet he is the Son of God, the only begotten; and no one stands in equal rank with him. This distinction Jesus carefully observed in all his utterances on this subject. He never says "our Father," in common with the disciples, but "my Father" and "your Father;" never "our God," but "my God" and "your God." (John 20:17.) But through his work of redemption we become "partakers of the divine [35] nature," children of God; and so Jesus is not ashamed to call us "brethren." In the days of his flesh and his humiliation he was made like unto them; he, like they, was separated from his Father by the veil of flesh; like they, he must walk by faith, not by sight, and put his trust in God while passing through the darkness. (Heb. 2:13.) The "children" mentioned in verse 13 are children of God presented to Christ. (John 6:34; 17:2.) Moreover, he tasted the whole lot of man, even unto temptation, suffering, and death; and in dying he brought to naught the devil--first, because in his death he became an atonement and sin-offering for the sins of men; and secondly, because the devil could not keep him in the bond of death, seeing that death is the wages of sin, and in him was no sin. So it was a triumph in every way. To Christ, Satan is once for all a vanquished enemy. To all that are in Christ he is nothing more. Death cannot hold them (Rev. 1:18); and instead of death's being their terror and curse, it is through Christ become a blessing (Rev. 14:13).

      It so pleased God, then, and was a proper thing in his eyes, that Jesus, having come to bring help to men, should be united with them in the bond of a sympathy born of common experience; that he should traverse the whole scale [36] of their weaknesses and sufferings, bear their burdens, fight their battles, win their victories, and blaze the path for them into a better life.

      Our Father, we thank thee for the wonderful provision thou hast made, that through the life and death and resurrection and high priesthood of Jesus Christ we may be admitted into nearness to thee and obtain again the promise of the dominion of the universe, which our sin and disloyalty had forfeited. We spread our wants and weaknesses and sins before our High Priest, confident of his sympathy and mercy. Grant us through his intercession the victory over evil, the triumph over death, and the exaltation that we may behold thy face and serve thee forever and ever. Amen.

      The next lesson covers Heb. 3:1-6. In what sense were these brethren holy? Why does he yet tell them to follow holiness? (Heb. 12:14.) Note the similarity and dissimilarity between Jesus and Moses as set forth here. How was Moses' work a testimony of the things that were afterwards to be spoken? What condition insures us a continuance in God's house? [37]

[LOH1 31-37]