October 27, 2024: Sunday School

Order of Service

• Scripture Reading & Lesson — Hebrews 2:5-9
• Scripture Reading — Genesis 1:26-28
• Scripture Reading — Psalm 8
• Sermon
• Closing Prayer

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Sermon Title: Christ the Fulfillment of the Dominion Mandate

Scripture: Hebrews 2:5-9

I. Background: The Problem of Subjection and Splendor

A. The Dominion Mandate in Genesis 1:26-28

1. Mankind made as God's image-bearers, bearing attributes of righteousness, holiness, and knowledge
2. Commissioned to be fruitful, multiply, and exercise dominion over creation as vice-regents
3. This mandate given jointly to man and woman together

B. The Fall disrupts the mandate (Genesis 3)

1. The attributes needed for righteous dominion are marred in humanity
2. Creation resists subjection — weeds, hardship, death
3. At death, mankind becomes subject to creation: "to dust you shall return"

C. Psalm 8 reflects on the mandate and poses a riddle

1. David meditates on the vastness of creation and asks, "What is man that you are mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4)
2. The word care for him (Hebrew: visit) echoes God's faithful attention to his people — cf. Genesis 21:1 and Genesis 50:24
3. Man is crowned with glory and honor and given dominion over all things (Psalm 8:5-6) — yet the Fall means we do not see this fully realized
4. The riddle: Psalm 8 speaks of a glory mankind does not presently possess — it awaits a solution

II. Christ Identifies with Man

A. The writer of Hebrews applies Psalm 8 to Jesus, not to angels (Hebrews 2:5)

1. The world to come is subjected not to angels but to the Son
2. The shift from "a little lower" (positional) to "for a little while lower" (temporal) points to the humiliation of the Incarnation

B. Jesus is the Son of Man — the title connects him to Psalm 8:4

1. The son takes on full humanity, made like us in every way
2. This is the first explicit naming of Jesus in Hebrews, marking a shift toward emphasis on the humanity of the Son

C. Both Christ and redeemed humanity are in view simultaneously

1. Psalm 8 speaks of God's image-bearers broadly, but its fulfillment comes only through union with Christ
2. Only Christ can make Psalm 8 apply to believers

III. Christ Fulfills the Mandate Through Suffering and Exaltation

A. The Son is crowned with glory and honor through suffering and death (Hebrews 2:9)

1. His death and resurrection must always be held together
2. His Ascension is his crowning — the man Jesus, in glorified humanity, sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high
3. Acts 2:33 — exalted at the right hand of God, he receives glory forever

B. The already / not yet tension (Hebrews 2:8-9)

1. Already: all authority has been given to Christ; he reigns; believers are raised and seated with him in the heavenly places
2. Not yet: we do not yet see everything in full subjection — we live by faith, seeing Jesus through the Scriptures
3. One day, at his return, all will be placed under his feet fully and finally

C. The gospel restores what the Fall destroyed

1. In Christ, the Dominion Mandate of Genesis 1:26-28 can be fulfilled in God's people
2. The hope of the Incarnation, death, resurrection, and exaltation is that Psalm 8 becomes true for those united to Christ
3. Believers will one day reign with him as always intended — only through grace, only through the gospel