The Crowns of Glory and Grace

 

Thursday, June 10, 2021

And furthermore, it is not angels who will control the future world we are talking about.  For in one place the Scriptures say, “What are mere mortals that you should think about them, or a son of man that you should care for him?  Yet for a little while you made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.  You gave them authority over all things.”  Now when it says “all things,” it means nothing is left out.  But we have not yet seen all things put under their authority.  What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.”  Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone.  Hebrews 2:5-9

The writer to the Hebrews was pressing a familiar point to people who have always experienced trials and oppression, his fellow Jews.  But in a broader perspective he was talking to everyone who trusts in the name of Jesus Christ.  If you have placed your faith in Jesus’ act of taking your judgment for your sins on Calvary’s cross, the grace that drove that sacrifice, where Jesus tasted death for everyone, prepares you for a crown of glory and honor. 

This passage also says clearly that angels, who, in their complete obedience  to God, surround the throne of God, will not be the primary object of God’s affection in the coming Kingdom.  God’s honor will be showered upon those who love His Son, Jesus.  The simple math of this thought is that if we love Jesus now, His grace and glory will be ours then. 

The pressing issue of what to do with all the trials of living in the kind of world that now exists is also covered by this math; God is leading through every moment of pain and suffering imaginable, and the grace that sustains us will one day be transformed into the glory that is life eternal in the presence of the Almighty! 

Paul said it this way:

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.  Romans 8:18

For You Today

Your life’s story may read like a success manual, blessings poured out like the Niagara River spills water over the falls.  Or it may read like Jean Valjean’s diary in Les Misérables, suffering piled on top of injustice without measure. 

Someday God is going to straighten out what is crooked, and set at right whatever wrong ever existed.  And for those who love Jesus, that grace, and the crown of glory will be an eternal reality.

As Horatio Spafford wrote in that great hymn of the church, you also will be able to proclaim:  It is well with my soul!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!   

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

A Little Lower Than the Angels

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Thursday, June 14, 2018

And furthermore, it is not angels who will control the future world we are talking about.  For in one place the Scriptures say, “What are mere mortals that you should think about them, or a son of man that you should care for him?  Yet for a little while you made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.  You gave them authority over all things.”  Now when it says “all things,” it means nothing is left out.  But we have not yet seen all things put under their authority.  What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.”  Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone.  Hebrews 2:5-9^(NLT)

I love this picture of an angel covering a city for two reasons:

a.      It displays God’s design for angels to protect God’s creation

b.      It shows the angel as Scripture depicts them, strong, warrior-like, and not effeminate little wimps, like a Hallmark™ Christmas ornament

Now, don’t get me wrong (save the cards, letters, and emails), I, who have zero artistic abilities, would not willingly trample the artistic interpretation of those who do possess such gifts; it takes a lot of time and talented skill to create pictures or sculptures.  But this is just one of those theological pet-peeves of mine.  How can you assign gender to that which God hasn’t?

Gender is a base, necessary to reproduction here on earth, but not in heaven.  Just as God is without bodily gender distinction, the angels neither marry, nor procreate.  No amount of text-proofing can change that.  But all that attention to whether (or not) angels interacted with female humans to create a race of giants in pre-recorded history misses the point.  Angels are God’s servants.

So, what is it like to be a little lower than the angels?  Look in the mirror!  Our flesh, including its limitations and its dependence on gender for reproduction, along with those human frailties (just to mention a few, there is age, our bodies need sleep and food, susceptibility to disease, and let us not leave out the big one – death,) are what’s lower in the sense of physical prowess; the angels need none of this.  But the redeeming, set-apart quality humans possess is that stamp of God’s image on our souls, that which possesses free will.  In this, the angels can only wonder.

And therein is the glory and the rub.  Our free will opens the possibility of pathos, feelings and deeds of love or hate.  Angels aren’t exactly automatons, incapable of independent action (remember Lucifer was an angel who led a third of the heavenly host in a rebellion against the Father).  But angels who rebel are not quite free agents like humans, but also, those who serve at the throne above are not touched by the darkness of sin, as are we sons and daughters of Adam.

In all, Scripture declares humans a little lower than the angels…for the time being.  The writer of Hebrews declares that in the order which is still to come, angels will not rule with Christ; those humans who have given their hearts to follow Jesus will be transfigured, changed in the twinkling of an eye to be with Christ, and also rule with Him.  The angels will be a little lower than the redeemed of God’s family.  Considering the picture that we see of this mighty angel standing guard over the city, that’s going to be quite a change!

For You Today

Your day will include some kind of training that God has laid-out for you to be ready to be just a little higher than the angels.  Don’t waste it!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com