Hebrews 2:5, 16: “It is
not to angels that he has subjected the world to come . . .” “For surely it is
not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.”
It has been suggested in
preliminary discussions that the above passages might seem at variance with the
theme being developed. We do not think so. It seems to us that the point of
such passages is that angels were not sufficient of themselves to be given the
Kingdom, and this is precisely the point. Jesus is the key, first and
foremost, since without him there would be no way to angelhood. Further,
it was necessary for him to work among his human brothers, or, again, there
would be no angels. To be even more precise, it was not just to any child
of Adam that Jesus came to help, it was to those who were also Abraham’s
children—and of some of these (those who were willing to accept him) he
“took hold” or “helped”.
The world to come is subjected
to Christ, and he shares it with his angelic redeemed; that, it seems to us, is
the basis of these passages. The identity of these “angels” is again, as we
see it, established by v10 of Hebrews 2: “In bringing many
children to glory . . . make the author of their salvation perfect through
suffering.”
We have
already seen that these sons/daughters whom God is bringing to glory are those
who will be revealed in their true sonship by the redemption of their bodies (Romans
8) and that they are the same “sons” as those who God told Job (Job 38:7)
rejoiced at creation. Again, though, it could not be so without the redemption
in Jesus. To think it might be would be putting the cart before the horse—“it
is not angels he helps but Abraham’s descendants.” Without the work, and
particularly the death, of Jesus there would be simply be no angels.
When the Lord,
in the garden, said, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at
once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would
the scriptures be fulfilled . . .” (Matthew 26:53-4) he touched upon the
point. Without his fulfilling of the scriptures those called to be angels would
never attain unto angelhood, without his obedience, there would be no angels—at
least, not from this creation. Comment: This saying of Jesus is,
though, the one passage, referred to earlier, which might just be taken to
suggest that there are angels who did not originate from among the descendants
of Adam. However, it is just one small passage among many and should be
interpreted in the light of the rest. The one outstanding point about this
saying is that the legions of redeemed were there precisely because he would
not, and did not, fail. (Paul Launchbury with Steve Cooper, Beyond Our
(Kind of) Time: Exploring the Realities of Eternal Life [Gembrook,
Victoria, Australia: Food for the Journey Press, 2009], 301-3, emphasis in
original)
