A Gift Worth Understanding Series

Now, let me stop here for a moment. When he speaks of the son of man, he’s not speaking of the God. Many times the son of man is referred to as God but he’s not here. He’s referring to us, humans. In fact, when he said, "What is man that thou rememberest him or the son of man that thou are concerned about him?" It’s just a repeat of the same thing. In other words, the son of man is just us, we humans. Simple mankind. In the book of Ezekiel, that was an expression. Son of man in the Old Testament is an expression of mankind, not of the divine son of God. In fact, in Ezekiel alone, God, 80 times, calls Ezekiel, the son of man. And all the psalmist is saying is, "God, what are we and why are we so that you would know us, that you would remember us, that you would love us so much that you would come and die for our sins?"

Well, it’s very simple. Because in the very beginning, in creation, God had a plan for us, and when Adam and Eve sinned, that plan fell through. Now, watch what I mean. You see the plan and design for mankind when God created Adam and Eve was they were to be dominant, they were to have dominion over everything. Genesis, 1:28, "Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." In other words they were to have dominion. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they lost that dominion, they lost that power. Whatever you can say about fallen mankind, what you really can say for certain is that man, after the fall, was never what he was intended to be before the fall when God created him to be dominant over everything on earth.

That brings us to verse 9. In verse 9 the story begins to change and the Hebrew writer says, "But we do see Him who was made for a little while, lower than the angels; namely, Jesus. Because of a suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that by a grace of God He might taste death for everyone." Into this situation, God sent Jesus. Here’s the story, here’s the picture. Adam and Eve sinned, fell, were not what they were designed or created to become, they lost their position. They lost their privilege. They lost their power. Into this situation, Jesus Christ, the Hebrew writer says in verse 9, comes into the world to begin to restore us back to that original position.

There are three basic ideas that are given to us in this verse. Let me give them to you:

A. Man was created to have dominion over all things.

That’s a fact. You and I were created to have dominion over all things.

B. Through sin instead of dominion, we suffer defeat.

Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden; they lost the privilege and the position that God had given them in the beginning. So through sin instead of having dominion, we had defeat.

C. Into this defeat enters Jesus and his purpose for coming.

One of the four reasons was to restore us back, to give us dominion again over all things. And when the Hebrew writer begins to list the four reasons why Jesus came he said, first of all, Jesus came into this world to recapture our lost destiny.