Our Specialness in Christ

So what is man? Just who do we think we are? These are meant to be somewhat confrontational questions, but these are the types of questions that David was wrestling with. These are the types of questions that when he wrote Psalm 8, he was struggling with. And what I hope to pull out of this text today is to show you that our identity, our purpose, and the honor and glory that we see written about, that we've been crowned with, as this particular psalm says, are fulfilled only in Christ where we fail. He is victorious. So let me read Psalm eight, even though we we read it this morning. Oh, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name and all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens out of the mouth of babes and infants. You have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the Avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Psalm 8 is, at least I think, a somewhat challenging psalm because there's actually an immediate meaning, I think the meaning that David wrote about, and then a much deeper, what I'd like to call redemptive meaning. And the fact that there's two simultaneous meanings is what makes it somewhat challenging in this short psalm. But the beauty of it, once we sort of set apart these two meanings and then watch them converge, is that as we've been talking about this Genesis series, God's great plan is illuminated for us. And what I mean by that is we've been talking quite a bit as Keith has started this new Genesis series. about the progressive nature of revelation, right? And that God is pleased, particularly now for us, that we have the entire word of God, that as we continue to flip the pages, more and more of his revelation is exposed, is revealed. So that onion is peeled back more and more as this great story unfolds. And I think we actually see that play out here as you look deeper and deeper. The beauty of the whole scripture given that it tells us that the scripture is alive and sharp, is that it will magnificently weave together these two great meanings for our benefit. So first, David's original meaning. Well, it was a hymn of praise. I mean, clearly we see him open and close as bookends with this same word of praise. How majestic is your name? He is speaking in great wonder and awe at the blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon us. And verse 5 to 8, the specific text that we're talking about, is really an extension from the rhetorical questions that he asks in verse 4. He's marveling that this great creator God that spoke the world into existence, that numbered the stars, that named every one of the stars, would be mindful, would be caring about us. And so we ask, what is man? Who are we in light of this power and glory? Now, this is a man that has been humbled. He's going to be humbled even more, as we know, as his life plays out. He's very aware of our depraved state, as we need to be, and he's humbled by the fact that this great God that has created us is actually mindful of us. And by the way, when we speak of man here, the Hebrew word is talking about man generally, not the gender man, but could be translated as humanity or mankind is the way to think about the word man in this particular passage. But David speaks in spite of this great gulf. He speaks with great praise because the Lord in the midst of that big difference of that great distance between the creator God and us, he's given us this privileged responsibility. One that we talked quite a bit about this morning. We talked about this created order of the cosmos, if you will, the great hierarchy where we have God and we have heavenly beings or angels, as they're translated. And then we have us. We have man. And as we think back to Genesis one and two, the Lord begins day six with creation, the livestock, the beast of the field, the creeping things. But then he reaches this climax of this great creational symphony. that he's been speaking about in chapter one and chapter two. It's the Lord's masterpiece. His crescendo is that second part of day six, the creation of man. And Matthew Henry does this beautifully. He highlights the change in our great maker's tone. If you notice in the first five days, the words he used, let there be, let there be, let there be. But then there's a shift. He says, let us make. Right? There's this, you see the difference in tone. There's a sense of affection. There's a sense of connection, of consultation. There's almost like this preliminary work is done. We finished the easy stuff. We need to move on to the real business, the eternal business of creating man. You also notice, and Keith mentioned this this morning as well, that he describes his work, he adds an extra adverb, as very good. It's a departure from what we've heard in the first five days where he's described all of his work as good. The day that he creates man, man generally again, it's described as very good. So there's something very special going on here. Now, David picks this up and there's lots of aspects of this creational work, of this climactic work, the capstone work, that David could talk about. He could talk about and praise God for the fact that we're made in the likeness, that we are his image bearers. He could talk about the fact that we are meant to be our call to procreation in filling the earth. He could talk about the command to subdue the earth. It's a very trendy topic in Christianity today. And while all these are interrelated, David seems to hone in to really zero in on this idea of our dominion, this specific aspect of our dominion. So God has designed or assigned, forgive me, assigned to us what some call representative rule. over all of creation, all the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the creeping things, everything that moves on the earth. And he's given us seeds and plants and and fruit bearing trees to eat. This is all for our to be under our authority. We've been crowned, as he says, as his surrogate, his vice regents, his stand ins, if you will. And this is the great honor that David speaks about in these verses. We are the maestro, as Keith put it today, I really like this, that should be modeling and leading creation in this great worship symphony of our great creator God. So we could say that God is the ultimate owner of the created realm and we are his divinely appointed caretakers. Now we could stop here, and this would be a great hymn of praise, a great psalm of humility, of thankfulness, a reminder of this great responsibility. But there's something much deeper going on here, too, and that's the second meaning I want to get to. It's a redemptive foreshadowing that I want to pick out of here as well. There's a depth here that I doubt even an inspired David completely understood at the time. So the second meaning, the greater redemptive meaning, I said a minute ago that the Hebrew word for man again meant humanity generally. It could also be translated Adam. And we know as now that as I've given you somewhat of a hint, we know that the first Adam failed in this great role in dominion. He failed to live up to this glory and honor that we see in this song. He was a pinnacle of the creational work. Yet he succumbed to temptation and sin. And because of it, he died. He wasn't satisfied with the glory of honor that he was crowned with in the dominion over the creational realm. He wanted more. And he rebelled against God's authority. And each Adam after him continued to sin, continued to rebel, continued to want a higher honor, a greater crown. And because of it, they ultimately died as well. And fast forwarding to the actual setting of David writing this, Israel, the nation of Israel. It was God's assigned choice that this nation would be the first fruits of this restored humanity, that they would be the people that would glorify and reflect God. Yet they failed once again to reflect that great image and they died. So you see the pattern here, failure and death over and over. But praise God that in his mercy, there was a last Adam. There was a perfect Adam. There was a victorious Adam that did not fail. And that's Jesus Christ. And he still lives, as we know. If we look closely at our psalm here, there are a few hints to pick up on this deeper redemptive meaning. You see in verse four, a name, son of man. And you see in verse six, a description of authority, all things under his feet. Again, language, those of us that, again, have the benefit of the full revelation of God know are usually associated with the coming Messiah, with Jesus Christ, the true representative of mankind. The author of Hebrews, thankfully, I'm not preaching from it tonight, but the author of Hebrews illuminates this great meaning I've been alluding to. So I want to briefly read a portion of what of what Asher read in its entirety this morning. This is from Hebrews two, starting in verse five. Now, it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus. crowned with glory and honor because of the sufferings of death. So that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. So Jesus serves here as both the last Adam and the true Israel where the human race fails. Jesus was victorious. Through the first Adam, as Paul writes to the Romans, sin and condemnation and death came into the world. And we continue every Adam since continues to add to that debt, continues to add to that deserved punishment. And that death spread to all men. As a result, we continued to sin and we failed at our call to obedience. We failed at our call to reflect his glory. We failed at our at our call to be the divine caretakers of his creation. But grace abounded in one man, and that's Jesus Christ. So using this new lens, it really illuminates the true meaning of this psalm. So putting on that new set of lenses, you start to see the deeper meaning illuminated. And so read it again with me with this new understanding. And basically what comes out of it is that because of his great love for us, it was Christ that descended temporarily to levels in that created order below the angels for a little while so that through his obedient life, his suffering of death, his victorious resurrection, He is crowned, and I might add deservingly this time, we did not deserve the crowning of glory and honor. We failed at it, but he was victorious in it. And everything as a result of this honor and glory was eternally put in subjection to him. Not only this life, but the next life, the new heavens and the new earth. That's what the author of Hebrews meant by the fact that you don't see everything that's in subjection to him just yet. So this is the great irony of the passage, and in fact of all of Scripture, is that the greatest honor ever shown to the human race, the greatest honor ever put upon human nature, was not that of dominion, because we perverted that, we failed at that, but this entire honor was exemplified, this entire glory, this gift was exemplified in the grace shown to us in Jesus Christ. And just like with all the Old Testament, again, thinking about the full survey of scripture, as with all the Old Testament, this psalm is perfectly fulfilled in Christ. The entire purpose of the Old Testament, in fact, was to point to the coming Messiah. All the promises and the prophecies are perfectly fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So what we couldn't achieve, Christ and his mercy came to fulfill. So with that kind of theological underpinnings, hopefully you've seen the two simultaneous meanings. I want to just focus for a couple minutes on two points of reflection, two points of application. Again, this is this is a very deep passage. You could go many different directions. These were just a couple that came to me and they mimic the two meanings was kind of my thought process here. The first one, I certainly wish that my thought life and my prayer life identified with the humility that's shown by David in this psalm. You know, what is man? Who are we that in our failure we are still honored? Such sinful creatures, but yet we are still favored. Mere man, but the height of his creation. David is broken over this, and I certainly wish that I wouldn't take for granted so often that the privilege that God bestows upon us of simply his attention much less the responsibility that he gives us. How quickly we pervert or attempt to invert this created order, if you're anything like me. And we start looking down from our self-proclaimed stool, our self-proclaimed pedestal, and questioning the great creator God on his motivation, on his decision-making. We turn that created order upside down. And how often do we need the same rebuke that God gave Job In Job 38, where he said, Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding who determined its measurements. Surely, you know, don't tell me that God isn't sarcastic sometimes. I mean, he's basically saying, Are you kidding me? Are you really questioning me? So I think one of the most humbling couple chapters in the entire Bible for about 120 verses across four chapters. This is Job 38 to 41. If you're interested, if you're ever having one of those days where you're feeling somewhat conceited and arrogant, read Job 38, because it is an eternal beat down. It is it is an historical dressing down that is unmatched in Scripture over and over. We hear where were you? Did you ever? Do you know? Can you? Have you? And Job can do nothing but respond in complete shame and embarrassment. He says, I am of small account. I cannot answer you. I will proceed no further. Forgive me, Lord, for questioning this created order. So let's be careful not to make the same mistake that Adam did, the original Adam, in forgetting, as we learned this morning, that we are completely dependent on God. Completely. We are the clay. He is the Potter and lest us not attempt to invert that creational order. Secondly. I want to talk a little bit more about this idea of specialness. Now, I don't even know if that's a word, but I made up a word last time when I said maximation, so I'm going to continue with this trend of making up words. Specialness. Keith talked a little bit about the nature of us being special in our creation, and that much of his focus was on speaking and targeting non-believers. I want to dig a little bit deeper, because most of us are in Christ, and because I think the more dangerous attempt at this specialness or the more dangerous understanding of this specialness is with believers because it can lead to some self-righteousness. Now remember we were created as we've talked about with a special blessing, a blessing to be his image bearer, his divinely appointed caretaker as we've just said, but we failed in that role and that calling. But God has breathed new life into us. He's restored that specialness if you will. But here's the important part. Here's the however. Here's the but. This ability and obligation to better reflect his glory is not of our own strength. Even as believers, it is not of our own strength. The whole point of this psalm is to show you that there is nothing we can accomplish outside of Christ. Because of our sin, we are no longer inherently special, but rather Christ is supremely special. And through our reliance on him, the Lord calls us out in his mercy to be special once again. Let me say that again, because this is important. Because of our sin, we are no longer inherently special, but rather Christ is supremely special. And through our reliance on him, the Lord calls us out in his mercy to be special once again. I was at, in December 2009, I was at, actually our family was at a Sufficiency of Scripture conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. And it was a wonderful conference. It was actually the end of the, I think it was a three and a half day conference. It was the end of the third day. So we had heard a lot of messages across the three days. The poor kids were pretty burnt. And I think it was the last session of the third day. It was at eight o'clock and Christina and I were even debating on whether to bring the kids. You know, they were tired, but it was Paul Washer. I think it was an eight o'clock session and we were thinking, okay, let's just go for the first half hour. Paul Washer, for those of you that don't know him, I wouldn't call him a pastor, but if you ever want to hear an articulate, passionate, clear explanation of the gospel, I'm not sure there's a better man alive than can bring that gospel message to you. And I can tell you that in the midst of December 2009, as we went to that conference, our church was going through some very hard times in the midst of some of the discipline that we were struggling with. I can tell you and I know brothers and sisters that I talked to intimately through that time would agree with me that Satan was crouching at our door. And Satan and sin were crouching at every one of our homes doors as well. And it was so easy to be consumed by sin, to forget our dependency on God, to trust in our own logic, to trust in our own power through this trial. And we are so susceptible to sin during these trials, during these times of hardship. So that was the state I was in. walking into Paul Washer's session that evening at eight o'clock. And as I said, I expected to hear this great gospel message of encouragement, this great gospel message of motivation, a crowning message on this great conference. But oddly, Paul opened with a warning, a warning that frankly was pretty close to rebuke. And I can't possibly do justice to this, but I was sitting there and he basically opened and said, folks, I have been blessed for the last three days. I have been so blessed in watching you, your obedient children. There were probably 1,500, 2,000 people in attendance, lots of large families. with your obedient children, your large families. It's a beautiful testament to what the blessings that God has given you. You have great marriages. I've seen the gospel play out in the way that husbands and wives are treating each other. I've seen modesty exhibited in the way that the ladies are dressed in the way that the young girls are dressed. Many of you are homeschooled and are proud of that. I see all of you carrying your Bibles like little ducks in a row, walking one behind another from tallest to shortest. And then he looked at us and he said, but don't confuse your righteousness coming from these things. You are not saved by these things. Don't ever be mistaken. that your righteousness and your merit and your standing before God comes from these things. They are wonderful things and it's good that you are proud of them. But please don't pervert the gospel by resting in these things for your righteousness. And I tell you, it hit me like a ton of bricks because I was so caught up in my own power at the time. I was sinning. I was not depending on God. And the Lord in his sovereignty provided that great message through Paul. So I ask you, brothers and sisters, where is the source of your righteousness? Where is the source of your specialness, you might say? Because if it's in your theological prowess, if it's in your work, if it's even in your family, these are all good things. But this psalm is a perfect explanation that if our source of specialness is in anything outside of Christ, we're going to fail yet again, just like Adam did. And let's not just pretend that it's the liberal philosophers or the feminists or the atheists. Those are easy targets to point to and say, yes, see, they keep eating from that tree of knowledge of good and evil. They keep trying to create their own moral order. They keep trying to justify what's right and what's wrong in their own eyes, just like at the time of judges. Because as soon as we start resting in righteousness outside of Christ, we're doing the same thing. And frankly, as Christians, we're blaspheming the gospel and God at an even higher level than those that are walking in darkness. So let's not let our own light shine, but rather as the temple, the living temple of God, let's let his light shine and allow our lives to serve as a living testimony that we are special only because of Christ's victory. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that in your wisdom and your mercy, you have created us, that it was the height of your creation and there was something very special about it. And Lord, we know that we have failed miserably in that calling, in that responsibility, in that call to be special. But we are so thankful that you are merciful. that you did not punish us the way we should have, what we deserved, based upon that failure, but instead you sent a better representative, instead you sent a better Adam, a true Israel, to redeem us, to live that obedient life, to suffer the death we deserved. and who now has resurrected victoriously and sits at your right hand. And I pray, Lord, that all of us would put all of our trust in him, that we would not be self-righteous, that we are special in our own right, but only through His sacrifice and our identity in Him, can we possibly have a right standing before You? I pray, Lord, that we would be a church whose life just points to You. Help us to understand the depths of what David was writing. Help us to understand what You have done with us and for us in Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen.