The Superiority of Christ

The Recovery of Man's Lost Destiny
by
John MacArthur
All Rights Reserved

(A copy of this message on cassette tape may be obtained by calling 1-800-55-GRACE)
Hebrews 2:5-9    Tape GC 1605

Introduction

A. The Purpose of Hebrews

The book of Hebrews is dedicated to the majesty and the absolute superiority of Jesus Christ over anyone and anything, particularly over everything related to Judaism prior to the coming of Christ. It is incongruous to accept the Old Covenant and reject Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant. The Holy Spirit presents Christ as God--the center of the universe and worship. All things converge on Christ and all things radiate from Him. He is the key to every page and every chapter in Hebrews. He is seen as the holiest among the mighty and the mightiest among the holy. He is seen as the King of kings and Lord of lords. One day He will come and put all enemies under His feet, and He will reign supreme. The entire universe exists by and for Jesus Christ, and it hastens to His coronation--the day when the world for which He shed His blood will belong to Him.

The message of Hebrews from beginning to end is the superiority of Jesus Christ. When Christ came as the Messiah of Israel, the one who fulfilled all the Old Testament promises, the Jewish nation rejected Him. They made the mistake of favoring the pictures, types, symbols, and rituals of the Old Testament over the reality behind them. So the writer of Hebrews attempts to show the folly of doing so.

B. The Promise of God

Throughout Hebrews, the Holy Spirit uses Old Testament passages to prove the superiority of Jesus Christ. The Jewish people needed to understand that Christ is the redeemer God had promised. He is the redeemer all true saints hoped for. And He is the only redeemer men will ever know. How were people saved in the Old Testament? They weren't saved by keeping the law; they were saved by believing the promise of God. How is someone saved in the New Testament? By believing the promise of God. It's the same promise, only from a different perspective.

Redemptive history in the Old Testament focuses on Christ. The Old Testament was like a kindergarten in that God's people were trained in divine pictures, but were told to look for better things to come. And those better things finally came in Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, God taught His children the alphabet. In the New Testament, He taught them to put the letters together, and they spelled Christ. It is Christ who fulfills all the pictures of the Old Testament.

1. Fulfilled in prophecy

Isaiah 53 is a prophecy of the Messiah's death, and it is fulfilled to the absolute letter in Christ's death. Psalm 22 describes the crucifixion of Christ. It even tells us what He would say on the cross. Isaiah 7:14 prophesies that the Christ would be born of a virgin. Micah 5:2 predicts that He would be born in Bethlehem. Every Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament resolves itself in Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matt. 5:17).

2. Fulfilled in types

Types are Old Testament pictures of Christ--either of His person or His work. The type could be a man, an event, an animal, a situation--anything that pictures Christ.

a) The sacrifices

When a sacrifice was made, its blood was sprinkled on the Ark of the Covenant (the symbol of the presence of God), thus appeasing God's anger over sin. The sprinkling of blood pictured a more noble and perfect blood that would be shed once for all at some future time (Heb. 10:14). Jesus shed His perfect blood and became the antitype, or the fulfillment of that type.

b) The tabernacles

When the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, they dwelled in tents, or tabernacles. That was a type of one great Person whose residence in human flesh was but a temporary humble dwelling that was beneath His dignity. Jesus said He had come to tabernacle or dwell among men (Heb. 8:2).

c) The Passover lambs

The Passover lambs allude to another Lamb who would shed His blood and bring eternal deliverance (1 Cor. 5:7).

There are so many types of the death of Christ in the Old Testament that the apostle Paul was prompted to say, "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3). When Paul said that, the New Testament had not been completed, so what scripture was he referring to? The Old Testament. Christ died for our sins according to the Old Testament. Throughout the Old Testament are numerous pictures of Jesus' death for us, both in prophecy and type.

To accept the Old Covenant and reject Christ is ridiculous because it is a rejection of everything the Old Testament pointed to, and that was the Jewish dilemma. Jesus told the Jewish leaders, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39). What was He referring to? The Old Testament. Later on the road to Emmaus He said, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!... And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them, in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:25, 27). To reject Jesus Christ is absurd if you accept the Old Testament. In the book of Hebrews the Holy Spirit attempts to show the Jewish people that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, and that He must be received as such or everything is meaningless.

Review

First the author of Hebrews, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, had to show that Jesus is superior to angels because the Old Covenant was brought by angels. He does so by showing that Jesus is the fulfillment of all God did in the Old Testament. That presentation warranted an invitation from the writer in Hebrews 2:1-4. Since Jesus is God, and since He is superior to angels, there ought to be a response to Him.

Lesson

Beginning in Hebrews 2:5, the writer returns to a discussion of the superiority of Christ over angels. He presents a fantastic point in verse 5 (and then elucidates it in verses 6-9): "For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, of which we speak." What is he saying? That God will not give angels subjection of the world to come. Jesus Christ is the sovereign of the world to come, which means He is superior to angels.

Hebrews 2:5-9 accomplishes several things. First, it is another tremendous proof that Jesus is better than angels. Second, it answers a potential objection: Since Jesus was a man, how could He be superior to angels? And third, these verses reveal the only hope for man's recovery of his lost destiny. Man today has lost the meaning of his existence. This passage is going to teach us what man's destiny is and how he can recover it. We'll look at three simple points: man's destiny revealed by God, man's destiny restricted by sin, and man's destiny recovered by Christ.

I. MAN'S DESTINY REVEALED BY GOD (vv. 5-8a)

A. The Role of Angels (v. 5)

"For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, of which we speak."

God never promised to subject the coming world to angels. In fact, Hebrews 1:14 says that angels are "sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." In the world to come, angels will be ministers, not rulers.

The phrase "put in subjection" is the translation of the Greek word, hupotasso, which is a military term used for arranging soldiers in order under a commanding general. It refers to a system of administration. God ordains every power (Rom. 13:1). He gives out the right to rule, and He chooses the various sovereigns. Angels will not be among them in the world to come. Certainly the world to come is the world of perfection. It will be a great and glorious world. Whoever reigns in it must be glorious beyond glory, but it won't be angels.

1. In the future world

Who is going to rule in the age to come? Men. Thus, the authority of angels over men at present is only temporary. An important point to understand is that the Greek word translated "world" in verse 5 is not kosmos, which means "the system" or aion, which means "the ages"; it is oikoumene. The Greek word oikos means "house" and oikoumene means "inhabitants." The writer is referring to the inhabited earth. Amillennialists maintain that there is no future earthly kingdom. But this verse clearly indicates that an inhabited earth is to come. Now that earth isn't our present one. It will be replaced by the great millennial kingdom. All the creatures that go into that new earth will be totally different. The animals will be different. Even the people will all be redeemed. Someone will have the sovereignty in that inhabited earth, but it won't belong to angels.

2. In the present world

The world to come will not be put in subjection of angels. But the world to go, which is this one, is right now in subjection to angels.

a) Satan

Who is the number one fallen angel? Satan. Who is the prince of this world? Satan. Who is the sovereign of this world? Satan. Ephesians 6 tells us this world is ruled by demons, that they are sovereigns in the world. They're referred to as principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high offices (Eph. 6:12). Those are ranks of demons that are ruling the world.

b) Holy angels

Satan and his fallen angels are not the only ones who rule in this world; even the holy angels now have a kind of sovereignty.

(1) Daniel 10:20--An angel told Daniel, "Knowest thou why I come unto thee? And now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Greece shall come." The rule of this earth is now in the hands of both fallen and holy angels, and this "joint" rulership obviously involves extreme conflict.

(2) Daniel 12:1--"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people." Michael is seen as a defender of God's people.

Technically our present earth is subject to angels. But the earth to come won't be. The only reason our present earth is subject to angels is that men lost the sovereignty God gave them in the beginning. But in the kingdom, that sovereignty will be restored to men. That is important to understand because this argument is sure to come: Since Jesus was a man, how can He be better than angels? That's no argument at all because when God made the earth, He intended for it to be subject to men, not angels. But Satan stole it from men. The inhabited earth is under the sovereignty of angels, both holy and unholy, battling over it. Yet it is God's final destiny for man to have his sovereignty restored.

B. The Role of Man (vv. 6-8a)

"But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him."

The earth to come will be under the control of men. And that's revealed in verses 6-8, which are direct quotes from Psalm 8, which describe God's destiny for man. They refer to man, not to the Messiah.

Emphasizing the Divine Instrument

The writer does a clever thing in Hebrews 2:6 by stating, "But one in a certain place testified." He is referring to David's testimony in Psalm 8. The writer was not ignorant of scripture; he knew David wrote Psalm 8. Yet throughout the book of Hebrews he didn't name any Old Testament author, perhaps because he wanted to diminish the human instrument and emphasize the voice of God. He was so concerned that his Hebrew readers understand who really wrote the Old Testament that he never ascribed it to anyone but God. That's why he passed over David.

God's original destiny for man was to be king of the earth, and for everything in existence to be in subjection to him. David was asking, "Why? What is man that You would do this for him?" In comparison to the universe, man seems to be an insignificant dot in the middle of infinity. What right do we have to be so much in the mind of God? Yet David said, "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet" (Heb. 2:7-8).

1. Created to be king

Man is king. God made him that way. And that is man's destiny as revealed by God. He made a race of kings. David undoubtedly took his thoughts from Genesis 1:26-31: "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.... And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." God's original design for man in his innocence was to be king over the undefiled earth. Hebrews 2:7 tells us that God also created man a little lower than the angels. So the chain of command is God, angels, man, and earth.

Hebrews 2:6 includes the phrase "son of man." Some interpret that to be a reference to Christ, but I believe it is a reference to men. Son of man is simply a Hebrew way of referring to mankind. For example, Ezekiel is frequently called the son of man--he was born of man. So David was asking, "What is so good about man that You've made him king of the earth? Why have You visited him?" The word translated "visitest" in the Greek text refers to God's desire to benefit man. Why does God hold such importance for frail humanity? Man must be of great importance for God to make him king.

2. Made lower than angels

Notice that Hebrews 2:7 says, "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels." That does not mean he was made lower spiritually, or that God loved man less than angels. Man was made lower in the sense that he is physical and angels are spiritual. Angels are heavenly and man is earthly.

a) The designation of time

The phrase translated "a little lower" in Hebrews 2:7 is a designation of time in the Greek language. Verse 7 should be translated, "Thou madest him for a little time lower than the angels." From the beginning of creation God knew that the ultimate destiny of man would not be something lower than angels. He set up only a temporary chain of command. God has a destiny for man that sets him up as king on an equal footing with angels. It is only for a little time at the beginning that God has made man lower than angels.

b) The difference between men and angels

In what way was man made a little lower than the angels? At the time of his creation, man was confined by a physical body while angels were able to move freely as spirits. Man was confined to the earth--he could not ascend into the supernatural. Angels were not confined to the supernatural-- they could move about on the earth whenever they wanted. Man's only communion with God was when God revealed Himself to man. Angels have access to the throne of God whenever they desire. Angels are supernatural; man, though sinless, was still natural. Angels are spirit beings; man was made out of the dust of the earth. After Satan's rebellion, the faithful angels were secured in holiness forever; after Adam rebelled, all men were cursed with him. In Adam, all died (1 Cor. 15:22). The key is this: There was no possibility for angels to die, yet there was with men. God said, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). Only in the possibility of death was man made lower than angels, and then only for a short period of time.

c) The design for the future

In God's plan redeemed man will be gathered to Him and no longer be lower than the angels.

(1) The possession of the kingdom

(a) Daniel 7:18--"The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever." Who will take the kingdom? The saints of the Most High--redeemed men.

(b) Daniel 7:27--"The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominion shall serve and obey him." Isn't it fantastic that God has promised the ultimate kingdom to redeemed men? No wonder David said, "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" (Ps. 8:4).

(2) The preview of the kingdom

(a) The equality between men and angels

In Luke 20 the Sadducees came to Jesus and asked Him questions about a hypothetical situation. A woman was married to a succession of brothers who kept replacing the previous one after he died. So they asked Jesus, "Whose wife will she be in heaven?" Jesus said, "The sons of this age marry, and are given in marriage; but they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that age [the kingdom], and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. Neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels" (vv. 34-36).

The hierarchy in the Kingdom age will be completely different from what it is now. Man and angels will be equal. Man will be crowned king in Christ. And the earth will be redeemed. That's God's promise for the future.

(b) The reign of men over angels

Revelation 3:21 says that redeemed man will sit with Christ on His throne and rule. Ephesians 1:21 says that Christ will reign over principalities and powers. What are they? Angels. Since Christ reigns over angels in the Kingdom, and we will sit on His throne with Him, we will reign over angels.

3. Given the right to rule

Hebrews 2:7 says, "Thou crownedst him with glory and honor." When God made Adam, who was pure and innocent, He gave him honor and glory. He was crowned with the stephanos, which is the Greek word for the crown of rank. God crowned man king of the earth. Verse 8 says, "Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet." In the first century, kings were always elevated above the people, and it was often said that the people were under the king's feet. When anyone approached the king, they would have to bow before him, sometimes even kissing his feet. Man has been given the right to rule as a king, and everything God has made has been put under his feet. Verses 7-8 say, "[Thou] didst set him over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet." There is nothing that wasn't subject to man in the original creation.

God's revealed destiny for man was that he was made lower than angels for a short time. In innocence he was king over the undefiled earth. The earth served man--it fed him and provided everything he needed. But then something drastic happened.

II. MAN'S DESTINY RESTRICTED BY SIN (v. 8b)

"But now we see not yet all things put under him."

A. The Tragedy of Man

Unfortunately, a tragedy took place--Adam sinned.

1. The curses revealed

a) To the serpent

Genesis 3:14-15 says, "The Lord God said unto the serpent ... thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." That is a prophecy concerning Christ's conflict with Satan.

b) To the woman

Genesis 3:16 says, "Unto the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

c) To the man

Genesis 3:17-19 says, "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Verses 22-24 say, "The Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from where he was taken. So he drove out the man."

2. The crown removed

a) The earth rules man

What happened when Adam sinned? He immediately lost his crown. Man had been designed by God to have dominion over the earth. The earth supplied man's every need. He had only to accept and enjoy the earth as it provided for him. But then man sinned and Satan usurped the crown. There was then a change in the chain of command. Man fell clear to the bottom and now the earth rules man. We don't rule this world; it rules us.

Immediately after Adam sinned, there was murder among his own family. Polygamy soon followed. In the next few chapters of Genesis there was death. By the time we come to chapter six, God destroyed the world with a flood because it had become so debauched. The earth is now in the midst of conflict between holy and unholy angels. When man lost his crown, he was no longer a master of himself. He was totally sinful and became a slave to sin. The animals became subservient to man in the sense of fear and no longer in the sense of affection and service. Much of the animal kingdom is unable to be tamed. And instead of the ground yielding good things that are easy to eat, it now produces thorns, weeds, and other harmful things. Extremes of heat and cold, poisonous plants and reptiles, earthquakes, typhoons, floods, hurricanes, and disease were released upon men at the Fall. Man was no longer a king but a slave fighting all his life to exist. And he has been fighting a losing battle ever since. He is a dying creature and his earth is dying with him.

b) Satan rules the earth

Who is now the king of the earth? None other than the usurper who stole the crown, Satan himself. First John 5:20 says that the whole world lies in the wicked one. Man's destiny has been restricted by sin. The earth is ruled by Satan and his evil angels, who are in conflict with holy angels acting as God's ministers.

B. The Tragedy of the Earth

The earth is cursed, and it knows it. Romans 8 shows us the pain the earth is going through as it groans for its redemption. In Romans 8:18-19 Paul said, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." The earth groans while waiting for the day when the redeemed rule in God's glorious Kingdom. Once the Kingdom starts, the earth will be liberated from the curse. Verse 20 says, "The creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope." God subjected the earth to this vain curse that man might have trouble all his days. Man needed to know that God was aware of his sin and that he had to pay for his sin in part by fighting against the earth, which was originally designed to be subject to him. Verses 21-22 say, "The creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."

Groaning with the Earth

The earth is aware of the curse that came upon it as a result of Adam's fall. It groans for the day that the sons of God will be manifest in the Kingdom because it knows it will be liberated from the bondage of corruption. Man is subject to the earth. He sows but he doesn't know who will reap. He builds his cities and palaces, but lightning or earthquake or flood or corruption destroys them. Man lives in jeopardy every hour. Just at the height of professional achievement, his brain may develop a tumor. Just at the brink of athletic triumph, he may be injured and become a helpless paralytic. Man fights against himself and against his earth. Every day we read about the distress of nations--about the impossibility of agreement between statesmen in a world that languishes in political and social conflict. The creation groans with the whine of pain from dumb animals, with the struggle of trees to combat disease and insects, and from the presence of hospitals that house the sick and dying victims of our cursed earth. But God never designed things to be that way.

No wonder the creation groans. Some day in the world to come hospitals will be closed, doctors will be out of business, and the ravenous nature of wild animals will be changed. Vegetation will no longer be stricken. The game of politics will be over. Wars will cease. The Bible says that men will "beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isa. 2:4). There is coming a day when in the wonderful plan of God, man will receive once again the dominion that he lost. He will be, as Jesus said in Luke 20:36, equal to angels in a permanent sense, and will reign over them forever.

III. MAN'S DESTINY RECOVERED BY CHRIST (v. 9)

"But 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, should taste death for every man."

Man's revealed destiny, restricted by sin, has been recovered by Christ. The ultimate curse of man's lost destiny is death. God said to Adam regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17).

A. The Requirement of Death

In the restored Kingdom we will be elevated again over a redeemed earth. But how is that going to happen? If we're all sinners, how are we ever going to be king again? The only payment for sin is death. Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death." The only way man can ever be a king again is to have the curse removed. The only way you can remove the curse is to pay the penalty of death. So if man is to be restored to his reign as king, he must die. Then he must be resurrected as a new man with sovereignty. But how? I can die, but I can't raise myself on my own.

B. The Removal of the Curse

1. The penalty is paid

Romans 6:10 says, "In that he [Christ] died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, He liveth unto God." Jesus Christ is the one who died. Verse 3 says, "Know ye not that, as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" Did you know that I died years ago? I died in the sense that Paul said he died in Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ." The moment I put my faith in Jesus Christ, I was identified with Him: I died on the cross, I was resurrected, and began to walk in newness of life. In John MacArthur's case, the curse was removed. I am a king! (Now I haven't inherited my dominion yet, but I'm patient!) The same is true for every one of you who know and love Jesus Christ. The Kingdom belongs to the saints of the Most High, and He will get around to giving it to us in His time.

My present body will die someday, but I won't die. When my body dies, I'll be liberated into the presence of Jesus. Then again, maybe I'll be around when the rapture comes and He takes me with Him, body and soul, into the Kingdom.

2. Death is conquered

Jesus had to be a man to regain man's dominion. He was "made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death" (Heb. 2:9). Why? Because He had to "taste death for every man" (v. 9). If a man had to die for his own sin, he would doom himself to hell and the crown could never be restored. So Jesus came and died and conquered death. As you and I identify ourselves with Jesus Christ in His death and receive Him as Savior, the curse is removed. We are made kings once again and restored to dominion.

C. The Results of Redemption

1. Angels minister to believers

Hebrews 1:14 says, "Are they not all ministering spirits [angels], sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" According to that, I'm no longer in subjection to angels. As a king, angels minister to me. If you're a Christian, they minister to you. You're at least equal with them now, and in the Kingdom you will be sovereign as you sit on Christ's throne and reign with Him.

2. Believers will reign on earth

Revelation 5:9-10 says, "They sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God a kingdom of priests, and we shall reign on the earth."

a) The Kingdom revealed

If we're going to reign on earth as kings, there has to be a Kingdom, and there will be one. It's described in Revelation 20:1-4: "I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled .... And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." We will be the ones on those thrones. And the One who made it all possible is the King of kings. What does the phrase "King of kings" mean? It means that we're the kings and that He's the King over us.

b) The earth redeemed

The earth will also be redeemed--the curse will be removed.

(1) Man

Isaiah 2:2-4 says, "It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Men will be changed in the Kingdom.

(2) Animals

Isaiah 11:6 says, "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them." Verses 8-9 continue, "And the nursing child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

(3) Plants

Isaiah 35:1-2 says, "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom like the rose. It shall blossom abundantly."

There is going to be a different world. And man is going to be restored to the place of a king.

Notice that Hebrews 2:9 says, "By the grace of God." God's grace-- God's love for us is the key. Christ tasted death for you and me. He did it to recover your lost destiny. If you've been groping around trying to figure out why you exist, I hope you know why you do now. There's no reason for you to be a slave or a pauper, because you can be a king! Men today ask, "What is man?" The idolater and the animist says, "Man is inferior to birds and animals, to creeping things, and to stones and sticks." The animist bows down and worships such things. The materialist says, "Man is a chance product." But God says, "Man is the king of the earth." It is only for a little time that he has been made lower than angels. Some day he will be equal to them and sit on the throne of Jesus Christ, reigning with Him in His Kingdom. I trust you'll be there reigning with Christ.

Focusing on the Facts

1. How were people saved in the Old Testament (see p. 1)?

2. What is a type? What are some of the Old Testament types that were fulfilled in Christ (see p. 2)?

3. Name three things that Hebrews 2:5-9 accomplishes (see p. 3).

4. Who is going to rule in the future world? Who has the rule in our present world (see p. 4)?

5. Why is the present earth under the rule of angels (see p. 5)?

6. What was probably the writer's intention when he said, "But one in a certain place testified" (Heb. 2:6; see pp. 5-6)?

7. What is God's revealed destiny for man (see p. 6)?

8. In what way was man made lower than angels (see p. 7)?

9. What does the phrase "a little lower" in Hebrews 2:7 mean? What significance does that have for man in God's chain of command (see p. 7)?

10. What will the hierarchy be in the Kingdom age (see p. 8)?

11. What were the various curses that God pronounced as a result of man's sin (Gen. 3:14-19; see p. 9)?

12. What happened to God's chain of command when Adam sinned (see p. 10)?

13. Describe the pain that the earth is undergoing in its unredeemed state (Rom. 8:18-22; see pp. 10-11).

14. What does man have to do if he wants to be restored to his reign as king? Explain how that is accomplished (see p. 12).

15. Describe the changes that will take place when the curse is removed from the earth (see pp. 13-14).

Pondering the Principles

1. Match the following types with their corresponding verses:

a. The red heifer 1. Exodus 40:21 (Heb. 10:20)

b. The brazen altar 2. Genesis 2:9 (Rev. 22:2)

c. The mercy seat 3. Numbers 19:2-6 (Heb. 9:13-14)

d. The veil 4. Exodus 27:1-2 (Heb. 13:10)

e. Cities of refuge 5. Exodus 25:17-22 (Heb. 4:15-16)

f. The tree of life 6. Numbers 35:6 (Heb. 6:18)

What do each of these types prefigure? What new insight have you gained from this small study of types?

2. How has your perspective of your future changed as a result of this chapter? Thank God for that future, and thank Christ for securing it for you. Now that you know what your destiny is, and how it was lost and then restored, how would you approach an unbeliever who is searching for meaning to his life? Utilize the main points in this lesson to frame your own presentation for leading someone toward recovering their lost destiny.

Added to the John MacArthur "Study Guide" Collection by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 119
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986