Hebrews 2: 9, We see Jesus (1)
A reader wonders how it can be true that Jesus is Lord of all, having all things put under him when the Hebrew writer says (2:8) that we do not yet see all things subject to him. Ephesians 1:19-23, 1 Peter 3:22, Philippians 2:5-10, Matthew 28:18, from among scores of texts, affirm Christ’s established Lordship over all. Even Hebrews 2:8 says, "In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him." See too 1 Corinthians 15:27.
So have all things been subjected to him or not? Well, of course they have! That he hasn’t yet obliterated all his enemies is no proof that he isn’t the Lord of them. That he chooses to work in and through his enemies (and to work for many of them—see Peter 3:9) is no reason to deny his already existing Kingship. As Psalm 110 puts it, he rules in the midst of his enemies.
As yet we don’t see all his enemies destroyed or humiliated. But then there are a lot of things we don’t see or experience; but that doesn’t deny the truth and reality of them. We don’t see all the gangsters, corrupt politicians, sleazy landlords, porn and vice and drug barons, warlords, paedophile rings or financial tyrants exposed and punished—but we see Jesus!
"If Jesus were already Lord over all evil they would have been destroyed by now." Would it indeed? God has been God and Lord from the moment of the sinful Rebellion—why wasn’t it crushed right at the beginning? Maybe 2 Peter 3:9 and passages like it come into play here. One day we will see, that is, personally observe, in all its fruit, the already established Lordship of Jesus
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.
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