5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for the heart-encouraging hope with which this text begins: There is “a world to come” that is completely under your control and filled with your delights. Life is not spirally out-of-control, though it often feels that way. Providence, not happenstance, rules.
6 But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? 7 You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor 8 and put everything under their feet.”
In fact, the world to come is dynamically related to the world that is. As your sons and daughters, you created us to know, love and serve you, and to fill the earth with your glory. You made us stewards and gave us dominion. You called, commissioned, and blessed us.
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.
But things went terribly awry. We spurned your love and wrote a different story for ourselves. Instead of wanting to make your name great, we wanted to make a name for ourselves. Now, nothing is as it was meant to be. Instead of being your beloved servants in the world, we have become broken slaves to the world. However…
9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
However, you are a God whose name is Redeemer—a God rich in mercy and abounding in grace. We don’t yet see the world as it will be one Day, but we do see Jesus—our substitute and Savior; our perfect righteousness and our perpetual Advocate; our reigning King and returning Lord.
Father, thank you a gazillion times over, that the gospel is true. Things are not as they appear. You ARE in control and you DO love us. Everything IS going to be more than okay. We’re not waiting for pie in the sky, but Jesus on the earth. So very Amen we pray, in his triumphant and tender name.
