Hebrews 2:6

June 9, 2013 Evening:

Title: What is man, that you are mindful of him?

Old Testament Passage: Deuteronomy 32:1-9 – The great God, the Father of His Israel

Gospel Passage: Mark 8:31-33 – Jesus rebukes Peter regarding the cross

Sermon Text: Hebrews 2:6 – Psalm 8 – What is man?

Sermon Point: It is shocking that the Almighty God cares about mankind as He most obviously does.

[6] It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?

The author of Hebrews has told us plainly in the previous verse that he is writing about the world to come. That world is the great theme of Christian hope. We have much information in both the Old and New Testaments about what that final environment of the new heavens and new earth will be like. Nonetheless, even the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

The entire Bible is full of food for thought regarding the present heavens and the life to come. The author here in Hebrews 2:6 draws our attention to Psalm 8. How will this psalm help us to more diligently pay attention to Christ and His Word?

Psalm 8 is ambiguous. When the author writes of “man” and “the son of man,” who is he referring to? Is this about Adam and all who are found in Adam, or is it about Jesus and all who are found in Him? As with many of the ambiguities that we are blessed to discover in the Scriptures, we would do well to follow the advice of Ecclesiastes 7:18, “It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand,” since there may be important truths that we find in the passage that we will miss if we insist that with God there is no possibility of deliberate ambiguity.

Psalm 8:4, concerning the first Adam, reminds us that God was far above all humanity, and yet He not only created Adam and his descendants, he cares for us.

Psalm 8:4, concerning Jesus, the second Adam, adds an additional important thought: God's care for us included His giving the eternal Son of God to become man for us, so that a new world could be secured by His blood.

Taking both of these together, we marvel at God's care for us in creation and providence, but then we fall down in worship before God through Jesus when we consider our sin and the costly redemption that is ours through such an amazing Sacrifice.

Almighty God obviously cares about us. He cares about the world that is perishing, Adam's world. He cares about humanity enough to provide a Redeemer, the second Adam. If God loves this dying world enough to give His only Son that whoever would look to Jesus in faith would find life, imagine His love for the new world that is coming into being through the resurrection of Jesus.

Two applications to consider: First, we should have a proper respect for all humanity. There is a dignity to all who bear the mark of Adam upon their souls. By creation they are in the line of the sons of God. Second, we must use our every consideration of the glory of the new creation to cause us to pay much closer attention to the Resurrection King of the world to come and to follow Him now.