2/16/19
Tom Lowe
Lesson 2: God’s Revelation in “Son” (1:2-4)
Scripture: Heb. 1:2-4 (KJV)
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Introduction:
This passage serves two functions. First, it has to do with the appropriate response of the hearers to the new mode of God speaking through His Son. Second, it presents a broader concept of all God’s dealings with humanity starting with the Bible and extending to the significance of the divine Son. The theme that permeates throughout is how to hear and respond to God’s revelation. It is the same God who has spoken in the distant past, and therefore the Old Testament may be used to interpret the person and work of Jesus. The apostle emphasizes the divine closeness of the Son to God the Father.
The second half of verse 3 refers to the saving activity of the Son, the sacrifice of himself for sins and His exaltation into heaven. Verse 4 both announces the theme of the section to follow and concludes the proceeding statement.
Lesson 2
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
The prophets “of old” were both seers of the Messianic hope and speakers for God concerning the revelation of redemption that was progressively drawing near. Now, however, “in these last days”; that is, this is God’s last dispensation of God’s grace to men”?we have been living in the last days since Jesus came into the world. Since then, God has “spoken unto us” directly “by His Son,” [better, through His Son] not through another prophet, as high and holy office as that is. No longer must we get God’s message relayed through the prophets as middlemen. It has now come to us through the Son, by whom the world was created, who reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of His nature, and who upholds the universe by His powerful Word. When we say that Christ is the Son of God, as it is claimed here, we mean much more than that He is the Son of God in the same sense that converted men are sons of God. Those, who from among men are raised to that privilege, become Sons of God only by regeneration and adoption. But Jesus Christ is God’s Son by nature and generation.
The motive for God speaking on so many occasions and in so many ways was love. The fact becomes clear when we ask why did God speak again, and this time definitively, through the incarnate Son? Clearly it was necessary for God and the human family to be able to speak the same language. God is engaged in a stunning love affair with the human family. In the person of the Son, God exposes himself as incarnate to satisfy our need to grasp Him with our senses: to see Him, to listen to Him, to touch Him.
God has spoken completely only through the Son. The apostle Paul confronts his friends immediately with the God who has intervened in human history with His awesome word addressed to different generations of people. His ultimate word, however, was uttered through one who is distinguished from the earlier series of prophets by reason of the relationship he sustains with God. He is God’s Son. As such, He was uniquely qualified to be the one through whom God spoke His final and complete word.
whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
In these last days God has spoken to us by His Son, “whom he hath appointed heir of all things.” Here Paul gives a penetrating description of the divine honor, dignity, grandeur, and glory of God’s Christ ? He who became our Savior. The Son of God became the Son of man, so that we might become the Sons of God through His finished work. Jesus came to do the Fathers will, and He finished the work the Father sent Him to do, for which He was given the highest seat in heaven, at the right hand of the Majesty on High. Yet the grandeur of the Son is beyond our imagination. It would be utterly impossible for the finite mind of man to coin words that would fittingly describe the glory of God’s Christ!
When we think of an “heir,” we think of one who, at the death of another, becomes inheritor of an estate. The word also means “one who has right of succession to a title.” The general meaning describes one who is possessor, sovereign or Lord. Scholars agree that that is the meaning here. God’s Son is the “heir,” the heir (possessor) of all things. But this has nothing to do with His deity or His position in the Godhead; it has to do with His humanity, His eternal estate in relation to humanity.
by whom also he made the worlds;
We are reminded of John’s insight that “all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3), and of Paul’s profound word that “by Him all things consist (Col. 1:17), that in Christ all the great star systems of the universe and every last atomic particle in all creation hold together.
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged [made atonement for] our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
The lengthy statement in verse 3 anticipates the full elaboration of the writer’s argument that we have a great High Priest who secured atonement for His people by offering His life to God as an unblemished sacrifice. At this point, however, the writer did not say that Jesus is a priest. He simply ascribes to the Son a distinctly priestly action.
Jesus revealed God by being Himself. It was not so much what He said and did that shows us what God is like; it is what He was like. The revelation of the prophets was great and manifold, but it was fragmentary and presented by those methods they could find to make it effective. The revelation of God in Jesus was complete and was presented in Jesus Himself. In a word, the Prophets were the sons of God; but Jesus was “the Son.”
When the Son’s redemptive work on earth was done, and He had made purification for sins [past and future sins], He sat down at the right hand [the place of power, honor, authority] of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name He has obtained is more excellent than theirs (vs. 3-4). This powerful statement reminds us of Christ’s virgin birth, His matchless works, His sinless life, His sacrificial death, His victorious resurrection, and His final ascension into heaven. Greek scholars tell us that the word translated “name” refers universally to a proper name or title. It has a much broader meaning in the language of the Bible. It means much more than that by which a person is called. It denotes everything which the name embraces? rank, authority, fame, character, excellency.
This passage tells us seven great things about Jesus:
1) The original glory of God belongs to Him. Here is a wonderful thought. Jesus is the brightness of God’s glory; therefore, we see with amazing clarity that the glory of God consists not in crushing men and reducing them to abject servitude, but in serving them and loving them and in the end dying for them. It is not the glory of shattering power but the glory of suffering love.
In the Old Testament era, the glory of Jehovah rested in the Ark of the Covenant, and when the Ark was removed the glory of Jehovah departed: “. . . The glory is departed from Israel; for the Ark of God is taken” (1 Sam. 4:22).
2) The preordained Empire belongs to Jesus. The New Testament writers never doubted His ultimate triumph. They themselves faced savage persecution and were the humblest of people. And yet they never doubted the eventual victory. They were quite certain that God’s love was backed by His power and that in the end the kingdoms of the world would be the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ.
3) The creative acts belong to Jesus. The early Church held that the Son had been God’s agent in creation, and that in some way God had originally created the world through Him.
4) The sustaining power belongs to Jesus. These early Christians had a tremendous grip on the doctrine of “providence.” They did not think of God creating the world and then leaving it to itself. Somehow and somewhere they saw a power that was carrying the world and each life on to a predetermined end.
Today, the Lord Jesus is literally “upholding all things by the word of his power.” In Colossians 1:17 we read, “And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.”
5) To Jesus belongs the redemptive work. By His sacrifice He paid the price of sin; by His continual presence He liberates from sin.
6) To Jesus belongs the mediatorial exaltation. He has taken His place on the right hand of glory; but the tremendous thought of the writer of Hebrews is that he is there, not as our judge but as One who makes intersession for us so that, when we enter into the presence of God, we go, not to hear His Justice prosecute us but His love plead for us.
7) To Jesus belongs glory and honor and praise. The dignity of God’s Son is confirmed by the proclamation of His enthronement and the announcement of His superiority over the angels (vs. 3c-4). The statement that the Son is superior to the angels (v. 4) flows naturally from the central affirmation that He has been given the seat of honor at God’s right hand.
4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
In the previous passage the writer was concerned with proving the superiority of Jesus over all the prophets. Now He is concerned with proving His superiority over the angels. That he thinks it worthwhile to do this proving shows the place that belief in angels had in the thought of the Jews of His day.
The angels were really the beings who were the instruments in the bringing of God’s Word and the working of God’s will in the universe of men. They were said to be made of a ghostly fiery substance like blazing light. They were created either on the second or fifth day of creation. They did not eat or drink and they did not produce children. Sometimes they were thought to be immortal, although they could be annihilated by God, but there was another belief about their existence as we shall see. Some of them, the seraphim, the cherubim, and the ofanim were always around the throne of God.
In the Old Testament angels were ascribed a broad role in revelation and in redemptive history. It was commonly understood that the Law had been mediated to Moses, the greatest of the prophets, through angels. That understanding was shared by Paul and his friends, for at a later point in this section the Mosaic Law is described as, “the message declared by angels (2:2).” The assertion that Christ is superior to angels prepares for the demonstration of that superiority in the next lesson (vs. 5-14). This demonstration, in turn, is foundational to the thought that the new revelation through the Son is far superior to the old revelation mediated by angels (2:1-4). I would think that everyone would know that God’s eternal Son is, and always has been superior to angels. Since He is Creator of all things, He created the angels; and it stands to reason that He would be greater than that which He created.
Christians are redeemed by a mighty Savior and wonderful Lord whose name is above every name.
Summary
In verse 1 the apostle directed attention to the human mediators of the old revelation, the angels. He thus put emphasis on what he has to say about God’s Son, the Mediator of the new revelation, with allusions to the mediators of the older revelation to which his friends had responded with respect and obedience. The emphasis he gives serves to highlight the basic importance of the new revelation through the Son.
