The Adamic power restored back to Man Hebrews 2:5-9, Ps 8:4-6

From creation, God made man a little lower than angels and gave man authority and dominion over the earth. But you see man lost everything after the fall, meaning man voluntary gave his Adamic power to Satan and exchanged his power for fear. Christ had to come to take man’s place in order to redeem man’s divine authority stolen by Satan.

So, Jesus died in man’s place and defeated Satan in his territory. Christ therefore recovered and restored man’s authority and dominion over everything on earth. Man’s victory is in Christ Jesus as shown in 1 John 5:4, Hence when you saw Jesus on that cross, you saw us as well as when Christ was in hell, we were there with him. Therefore, man’s authority is seen by looking unto Christ.

Psalms 8 mentioned the fact that ‘human-beings are a little lower than the angels’; this quotation displays God’s exalted care for the human race, but the ‘son of man’ also hints at a special focus on the Messiah as the truest representative of mankind (Dan 7:13). The author of Hebrews simply shows how Ps 8:4-6 is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The writer of Hebrews in this chapter, gives us four good reasons why Christ becoming human does not make him inferior to angels, but he is superior to angels.

• Christ recovered humanity’s lost dominion; when man lost his divine authority (Gen 1:26-31) due to disobedience, Satan took the authority of man and made himself the prince of this world, a position that was meant for humanity (John 16:11). During Christ’s temptations, the devil implied that humans had given him all ‘their authority & splendour’ and that he could give it to anyone (Lk 4:5-7).

Everything was supposed to be subject to humanity. Rather, humans became salves to sin and the power of darkness. Glory hallelujah for Jesus became the Son of man in order to retrieve the glory & honour lost by humans. Today everything is under Christ’s feet (Eph1:20-23) & as believers, we share Christ’s Kingly dominion see Revelation 1:5-6.

• Christ brings many sons & daughters back to glory; Christ is the author of our salvation, the one who opened the way to the Father (2:10). He gave-up his divine glory and became a man & suffered all that man was to suffer and led the way for man in perfect obedience see (Heb 5:8-9)

We see in verse 13, the writer quotes Isaiah 8:17-18, in which Christ and those who believe in Him (i.e. his children), present themselves before God as ‘signs & symbols’ of trust & faithfulness to God the Father in the midst of adversity (John 17:1-26). Through Christ, believers have the authority to cast out devils and they will obey us because greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world. (1John 4:4).

• Christ defeated the devil and delivered us from the power of death. Because of the fall we are all subject to death’s power, in which every human race died to God & became separated from the life of Christ. For Christ to save us He had to become a human-being like us to pay the wages of sin which is death.

Through Christ death, He acquired victory over death & destroyed Satan who holds the power of death (V14b). Satan being destroyed here does not mean he has been killed yet, note the devil is still here, working to deceive man. The devil keeps trying to steal, kill and destroy, but in Christ my brothers and sisters we have the ability to resist him; if we resist him the bible says he will flee from us (James 4:7)

• Christ became a sympathetic, merciful & faithful high priest. Angels of God are pure spirits. They do not have a corrupt human nature like ours; so, they cannot identify with human’s problems. But Christ who was one nature with us knows the temptations man endure even though he did not yield to any temptation or sin but remained sinless. He had suffered rejection & experienced false accusations (Isa 53:3).

Verse 17 points out that Christ’s suffering prepared him to be a merciful high priest towards humans and a faithful high priest in service to God.

My brothers and sisters, Christ has revealed Himself to us and has given all things under us so when you see Christ seated and reigning, know we are reigning with him. We do not yet see Jesus reigning on the earth because as believers, we are reigning on earth for Him, while he sits reigning in the heavens.

Jesus did not come into the world to gain status or political power but to restore the authority Satan stole from man. Ie He became the second and last Adam to restore the first Adam’s honour, authority, and glory. Christ is Lord of all, He has given His authority to us so that we can reign on the earth until after the judgment when we will reign with Him in heaven at His side forever in the New Jerusalem.

The next time Satan tries to play a fast trick of lies, deception or fear with you; remember this; that ‘greater is He that is in you than the devil in the world’. Note that Satan’s time to wear the saints has not yet come. That time will be in the 3 and half years of the 7 when God will allow him to take total control of the world (Dan 9: 26-27; Rev 13:1-18).

In Christ we have the authority to overcome all the power of evil, not some but all (LK 10:;19); friends let us learn to exercise our authority because any ability we don’t put to practice will be lost. May our eyes be enlightened to know who we are in Jesus Christ Amen.