Untitled Sermon

A. God’s Final Revelation in His Son (1:1–4)

1 In earlier times God spoke to our fathers by the prophets at various days and in many ways,

2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by one who is his Son, the one whom he has appointed heir of all things, the one moreover through whom he made the universe.

3 This Son, the effulgence of God’s glory and the very image of his being, who bears all things along by his enabling word,4 made purification for our sins and then sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

4 He has become so much superior to the angels as6 the name which he has inherited is superior to theirs.

1–2a “God has spoken.” This initial affirmation is basic to the whole argument of this epistle, as indeed it is basic to Christian faith. Had God remained silent, enshrouded in thick darkness, the plight of mankind would have been desperate indeed; but now he has spoken his revealing, redeeming, and life-giving word, and in his light we see light. Our author is not thinking of that general revelation of himself which God has given in creation, providence, and conscience—

“Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways:

and how small a whisper do we hear of him!”—

but of that special revelation which he has given in two stages: first, to the fathers through the prophets, and finally in his Son. These two stages of divine revelation correspond to the Old and New Testaments respectively. Divine revelation is thus seen to be progressive—but the progression is not from the less true to the more true, from the less worthy to the more worthy, or from the less mature to the more mature. How could it be so when it is one and the same God who is revealed throughout? Human conceptions of God may change, but the evolution of the idea of God is quite a different thing from the progress of divine revelation. The progression is one from promise to fulfilment, as is made abundantly clear in the course of this epistle: the men and women of faith in Old Testament days did not in their lifetime experience the fulfilment of the divine promise in which they had trusted, “because, with us in mind, God had made a better plan, that only in company with us should they reach their perfection” (11:40, NEB). The earlier stage of the revelation was given in a variety of ways: God spoke in his mighty works of mercy and judgment, and made known through his servants the prophets the meaning and purpose of these works; they were admitted into his secret council and learned his plans in advance. He spoke in storm and thunder to Moses,10 in a still small voice to Elijah. To those who would not heed the gently flowing stream of Shiloah he spoke by means of the Euphratean flood.12 Priest and prophet, sage and singer were in their several ways his spokesmen; yet all the successive acts and varying modes of revelation in the ages before Christ came did not add up to the fulness of what God had to say. His word was not completely uttered until Christ came; but when Christ came, the word spoken in him was indeed God’s final word. In him all the promises of God meet with the answering “Yes!” which seals their fulfilment to his people and evokes from them an answering “Amen!” The story of divine revelation is a story of progression up to Christ, but there is no progression beyond him. It is “in these last days” that God has spoken in him, and by this phrase our author means much more than “recently”; it is a literal rendering of the Hebrew phrase which is used in the Old Testament to denote the epoch when the words of the prophets will be fulfilled,14 and its use here means that the appearance of Christ “once for all at the consummation of the ages” (9:26) has inaugurated that time of fulfilment. God’s previous spokesmen were his servants, but for the proclamation of his last word to mankind he has chosen his Son.

2b-3 Seven facts are stated about the Son of God which bring out his greatness and show why the revelation given in him is the highest which God can give.

(a) God has appointed him “heir of all things.” These words no doubt echo the oracle of Ps. 2:8, addressed to one who is both the Lord’s Anointed and acclaimed by God as his Son:

“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

And the ends of the earth your possession.”

Our author applies the preceding words of this oracle to Christ in v. 5 below. But in his mind the inheritance of the Son of God is not limited to earth; it embraces the universe, and particularly the world to come.16 This is restated in fuller detail in 2:5–9, where Jesus, as the last Adam, has all things put under his feet.

(b) It was through him that God “made the universe.” The Greek word here rendered “universe” is aiōnes, which primarily means “ages”; but its meaning cannot be restricted to “ages” either here or in 11:3, where it reappears in a similar context. The whole created universe of space and time is meant, and the affirmation that God brought this universe into being by the agency of his Son is in line with the statements of other New Testament writers that “all things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3) and that “all things were created through him and for him” (Col. 1:16). In these and other statements to the same effect we may trace the language of a primitive Christian hymn or confession of faith in which Christ, as the Word or Wisdom of God, is acknowledged as the Father’s agent in the work of creation.19 This conception of Christ is based (i) on such Old Testament passages as Prov. 8:22–31, where Divine Wisdom is personified and pictured as being the companion and assessor of the Almighty in the beginning, when he created heaven and earth, and (ii) on a very early Christian identification of Christ with Divine Wisdom incarnate—an identification arising perhaps from the fact that Christ on occasion actually spoke in the rôle of Divine Wisdom.21

(c) He is the “effulgence” or “reflection” of God’s glory. This statement, like the last, is involved in the identification of Christ with the Wisdom of God. In the Alexandrian Book of Wisdom, a work with which our author may well have been acquainted, Wisdom is said to be:

… a breath of the power of God,

and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;

… a reflection of eternal light,

an unspotted mirror of the working of God,

and an image of his goodness. (Wisdom 7:25f.)

The word “reflection” or “effulgence” (Gk. apaugasma) used both there and here denotes the radiance shining forth from the source of light; and Philo similarly uses it of the Logos in relation to God.23 But while our author’s language is that of Philo and the Book of Wisdom, his meaning goes beyond theirs. For them the Logos or Wisdom is the personification of a divine attribute; for him the language is descriptive of a man who had lived and died in Palestine a few decades previously, but who nonetheless was the eternal Son and supreme revelation of God. Just as the radiance of the sun reaches this earth, so in Christ the glorious light of God shines into the hearts of men and women.

(d) He is the very image of the essence of God—the impress of his being. Just as the image and superscription on a coin exactly correspond to the device on the die, so the Son of God “bears the very stamp of his nature” (RSV).24 The Greek word charaktēr, occurring here only in the New Testament, expresses this truth even more emphatically than eikōn, which is used elsewhere to denote Christ as the “image” of God (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15). Just as the glory is really in the effulgence, so the being (Gk. hypostasis) of God is really in Christ, who is its impress, its exact representation and embodiment.27 What God essentially is, is made manifest in Christ. To see Christ is to see what the Father is like.

(e) He upholds all things “by his enabling word.” This expression is probably an instance of the Hebraic adjectival genitive: “the word of his power” may mean “his mighty word” or “his enabling word.” The creative utterance which called the universe into being30 requires as its complement that sustaining utterance by which it is maintained in being. So Paul can write to the Colossians of Christ as the one in whom all things were created and also as the one in whom “all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). He upholds the universe not like Atlas supporting a dead weight on his shoulders, but as one who carries all things forward on their appointed course.

The words “the effulgence of God’s glory and the very image of his being, who bears all things along by his enabling word” may be quoted from a hymnic formula; this is suggested by the introductory relative pronoun (“who”), the succession of participles (“being … bearing”), and the rhythmical structure.

(f) He has “made purification for our sins.” Here we pass from the cosmic functions of the Son of God to his personal relationship with mankind, to his work as his people’s high priest, which is elaborated throughout the epistle. The reference here, as appears from its fuller development later, is to the cleansing efficacy of “his one oblation of himself once offered.”32 The wisdom which created the worlds and maintains them in their due order may well beget in us a sense of wondering awe; but the grace which has provided a remedy for the defilement of sin by a life freely offered up to God on our behalf calls forth a sense of personal indebtedness which the contemplation of divine activity on the cosmic scale could never evoke. The underlying emphasis here, however, is that by making purification for sins the Son of God has accomplished something incapable of achievement by anyone else. And this accomplishment has as its proper sequel the seventh in the present series of facts which bring out the unequaled greatness of the Son of God.

(g) He “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” “The Majesty on high” is a periphrasis for God. That Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of God is one of the earliest affirmations of Christian faith; it goes back to Jesus’ own application to himself of the opening words of the divine oracle in Ps. 110: “Sit at my right hand.” That no literal location is intended was as well understood by Christians in the apostolic age as it is by us: they knew that God has no physical right hand or material throne where the ascended Christ sits beside him; to them the language denoted the exaltation and supremacy of Christ as it does to us. Paul can express the same thought in different language by saying that Christ has “ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” (Eph. 4:10), that “God has highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9). Ps. 110 provides the key text of this epistle, and the significance of Christ’s being a seated high priest is explicitly set forth in the following chapters, especially in 10:11–14, where he is contrasted with the Aaronic priests who remained standing because their sacrificial service never came to an end. It may also be observed that the oracle of Ps. 110 is addressed to a prince of the house of David, and it was evidently a prerogative of the house of David to be seated in the divine presence, like David himself when he “went in, and sat before Yahweh” (2 Sam. 7:18).

Thus the greatness of the Son of God receives sevenfold confirmation, and it appears, without being expressly emphasized, that he possesses in himself all the qualifications to be the mediator between God and the human race. He is the Prophet through whom God has spoken his final word; he is the Priest who has accomplished a perfect work of cleansing for his people’s sins; he is the King who sits enthroned in the place of chief honor alongside the Majesty on high.

4 His exaltation to the right hand of God in itself marks him out as being superior to the angels—a superiority which is further shown by the title which he bears. His name which is more excellent than theirs may be inferred from the context to be the title “Son.”37 If he is said to have “inherited” the name of Son, this does not mean that the name was not his before his exaltation. It was clearly his in the days of his humiliation: “Son though he was, he learned obedience by what he suffered” (5:8). It was his, indeed, ages before his incarnation: this is the plain implication of the statement in 1:2 that God has spoken to us in “his Son, … through whom he made the universe.” He inherits the title “Son,” as he inherits all things (v. 2), by the Father’s eternal appointment.

The comparative adjective “better” is used thirteen times in Hebrews to contrast Christ and his new order with what went before him. Here his superiority to angels is asserted, and elaborated by the following chain of Old Testament quotations, for two specific reasons—to show (i) that the final message of God, communicated by the Son, is safeguarded by even more majestic sanctions than those which attended the law, communicated by angels (2:2f.), and (ii) that the new world over which the Son is to reign as Mediator far surpasses the old world in which various nations were assigned to angels for administration (2:5). It may be that there was also a general reason for emphasizing the Son’s superiority to angels, if “all sorts of strange teaching” against which these Hebrews are warned (13:9) included a doctrine of angel-worship such as seems to have been introduced among the Colossian Christians; but this must remain uncertain.