September 7, 2003
To help our understanding of Hebrews 1, I want to tell you a story. It is
a story of Abraham, and his son Isaac, as it is found in Genesis, Chapter
22. It is part of the earlier revelation of God that the writer of Hebrews
refers to when he says God spoke to us in the past and many times and in various
ways.
The story is recorded in Genesis 22, but let me just relate the events.
God promised Abraham a son, even though both Sarah and Abraham were way
past child-bearing age. Sometimes Abraham and
Sarah had a hard time believing that this would happen.
But in his time, God did just what He said he would do. Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah.
Of course, Abraham and Sarah loved their son. And
this was the child of promise. This was the son
from whom God had promised He would give Abraham offspring as numerous as
the sand on the seashore.
If we have any sensitivity to what is happening, we are shocked when we
read that one day, after Isaac had grown into a young boy, God tells Abraham
to take his son, go to Mt. Moriah, and offer him as a sacrifice as he customarily
did with a lamb.
And Abraham went. And as he was about to kill
his son on the altar he had made, God called to him, "Do not lay a hand
on the boy. Do not do anything to him."
You know what happened. Abraham looked over
and there was a ram caught by its horns in a thicket.
He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it on the altar. And Abraham called that place JEHOVAH JIREH. THE
LORD WILL PROVIDE.
But the words I want you to ponder are what God said to Abraham after He
told him to not do anything to the boy. He said
this: “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from
me your son, your only son."
I find myself saying, "But you already knew what was in Abraham's heart. You didn't have to have it revealed through his actions."
And this is true, is it not? God wasn't lacking
knowledge. And yet it was very important to God
that what was in Abraham's heart had a chance to be revealed.
Now, here is a great thing about God. He lives
that way as well. God doesn't say, "I love the
people of the earth." He demonstrates it by His actions, just as Abraham by
his actions revealed his heart, just as our actions and words reveal our hearts.
God's actions reveal what is in His heart.
God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son.
This tells us that when our hearts are right with God, when they are listening
to God, God treasures and values the actual working out of our hearts into
the world. When we do good, God is immensely pleased, just as He was with
Abraham.
This quality of God is important in understanding what seems to be an odd
way of speaking about Christ in this first chapter of Hebrews.
What am I talking about?
In the first four verses we looked at some of the characteristics of Jesus
Christ. We are told that the universe was created
through Him. We are told that Jesus Christ sustains everything by His powerful
word. We are told that Jesus Christ is the essence of God.
In other words, He is God.
How could Jesus be any greater than what He already is?
Jesus Christ cannot become greater. He is already the greatest because He
always has been and always will be God.
After we learned these things, we learn in verse 4 that Jesus provided purification
for our sins (which we know is referring to what He did on the cross), and
then He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
For the rest of the chapter, the writer is going to make a case for how
much greater Jesus is than the angels. And he
will make several points along that line. And
all the points he is going to make flow from this event, this event in which
Jesus provided for our purification from sin.
But what seems strange to our ears is the phraseology that the author uses.
In verse 4: So he BECAME as much superior to the angels
In verse 5: You are my Son; today I have BECOME your Father
Again in verse 5: I WILL BE his Father, and he WILL BE my Son
In verse 9: Therefore God, your God, HAS SET you above your companions
We are left scratching our heads a little bit. How can the one Who is the
heir of the whole universe, Who is the creator of the universe, Who sustains
His creation every nanosecond by His words, how can such a one “become” superior?
How can He become God's Son when He has always been so?
Well, the short answer to that is, He can't. God
can't become greater. Jesus Christ did not become
greater when He came to earth and lived a perfect life and died on the cross.
But He can reveal more of the greatness that He already possesses.
You see, all of these comparisons hinge on an event.
In verse 4: He provided purification for sin.
This is an event. This represents the perfect
life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And after this event, verse 5 says, "so he became."
Did Jesus become greater at that moment? No. Not intrinsically greater. He
was not less God before and more God afterwards.
But now His greatness, His superiority was revealed.
And this is what we need to grasp. God was impressed that Abraham would
not withhold his only son from Him.
God knew what was in his heart beforehand. But
the event was important because it revealed what was in the heart of Abraham. Abraham was the same man before and after that event. But the event was important because it revealed Abraham. And so in a sense, through the event, Abraham became
greater.
Jesus Christ has never changed. But he became
greater in the eyes of all creation when He came to earth and died for us
and rose again. He became greater because now
what was before true of God but not known was revealed.
Let’s go back in time, clear back before the creation of the universe. Although it is difficult for our minds to comprehend,
there was a time in which all there was was God.
The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit existed together just as they
do now. One God in three distinct persons. And all in this close relationship. This is why when God created Adam he said let us make
man in our image.
Now everything that God has done including creation, and then all the things
he did throughout the Old Testament time, was to reveal Himself.
This is God's delight: to share His glory and
greatness with His creation and especially with man, who was created in His
image.
Here is what I believe this tells us. When God reveals Himself, the whole
world is changed. He does not change. But the world changes because now more of Who God
is is revealed.
This is what happened during the 33 years that Jesus was on this earth. God was revealing Himself to an extent that causes
His previous revelation to pale in comparison.
Nothing can ever be the same because Jesus became man, lived a righteous
life, and died and rose again.
And now the greatness of Christ can be seen and so (in a sense) He has become
greater.
When Jesus Christ hung on the cross, and just before He died, said, “It
is finished.” The earth shook literally in
an earthquake in Jerusalem, but also figuratively an earthquake rumbled that
was off the charts. In that moment our world was changed because it had forever
been penetrated with the light of the world.
The love of God, the holiness of God, the person of God, the glory of God
were revealed in such a way through Jesus that nothing will ever be the same
again.
Never again.
Now, with that said, let’s get to the actual comparisons that are made in
this first chapter.
Remember again the context. These were strong
Jewish Christians, who had paid a great price for their faith in Christ,
but who were being tempted to sort of go back to OT practices. And again, the author is reasoning with them and
saying, "The anticipation has been exceeded by the actual event!”
Why would you want to go back when now our understanding of Who God is is
so much greater and better than it was before? You
can’t go back without dishonoring the Son.
And the first thing he turns his attention to is angels.
Angels were highly respected among Jewish people. They
still are. And certainly if Gabriel was to visit
us from the presence of God as he did Zechariah and Mary, we would be terrified
as they were.
But angels don't hold a candle to Jesus.
First they don't hold a candle in relationship.
Vv. 5-6: “For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my son,
today I have become your Father.-‘ Or again, ‘I will be his Father, and he
will be my Son.’”
And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says, "Let
all God's angels worship him.”
The relationship between the Father and the Son has always been the same. But no one understood that until Jesus came and revealed
it.
Page through the gospels and you might be surprised how much time Jesus
spent talking about His relationship with the Father.
He would say things such as,
I and my Father are One.
My teaching is not my own, but I only teach what the Father gives me.
The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.
No one knows the Father except the Son and those who the Son chooses
to reveal him.
He who hates me hates my Father.
Consider this: No one understood this relationship
between the Father and the Son until Jesus revealed it.
Even the angels didn't understand it.
Peter writes about this in I Peter 1:10-12: Concerning
this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you,
searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time
and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when
he predicted the suffering of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving
themselves but you, when they spoke of things that have now been told you
by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from
heaven. Even angels long to look into these
things.
Angels are wonderful creatures. But they do
not have the close, intimate relationship that exists between the Father
and the Son.
And what is more is that they are amazed that this relationship would be
extended to sinful human beings through the gospel.
Remember, angels have no trouble understanding the majesty and greatness
of God. At least some of them exist in the direct
presence of God. They behold his face moment by
moment. Imagine how they marvel that this awesome
God would extend this relationship between the Son and the Father to a race
of people who are utterly vile and sinful.
So the question becomes, "Why would you want to go back to our understanding
of God that we had before the Son was revealed? Why
would anyone in his right mind want to do that?”
The fact is, we can't do that. Nothing will
ever be the same. The Son has revealed God in
a way that there is no going back. We dare not turn our backs on what God
has revealed.
Angels do not hold a candle to Jesus in relationship with God.
And they do not hold a candle to Jesus in righteousness.
Next comparison, vv. 7-9: "In speaking of the angels he says, ‘He makes
his angels winds, his servants flames of fire.' But about the Son he says,
‘Your throne, 0 God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be
the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions, by anointing you
with the oil of joy.’”
Again, angels are very impressive. They are
compared to winds and flames of fire.
But as impressive as they are, I cannot relate to them.
They live in a different realm.
You and I live in a world that is brimming with evil and and strife and
difficulties and uncertainties. And I need to
know what righteousness looks like in that realm.
Jesus revealed that to us.
Jesus loved righteousness and hated wickedness in the world we live in.
No one ever did that before.
Think of the opposition of sinful man He endured.
Think of the temptation He withstood to compromise when His life was threatened.
Think of being misunderstood as being of Satan, of being accused of being
a liar, a deceiver, and a hater of God. Think of how difficult it was for
Him who truly loved the Father to be accused of being evil, of doing wrong
things and sinful things, to even have His power attributed to Satan. This
was the true measure of the old saying, “No good deed will go unpunished.”
Yes, Jesus lived His life out in a world that was hostile to righteousness. And yet He never, never, never failed to love righteousness
and hate wickedness.
No wonder Jesus is set above all His companions. Isn’t it interesting that
the reward for His faithfulness is God anointed Him with the oil of joy? Jesus
knew and experienced the joy of the Father through all the opposition He
went through. And through Him, we too can know this joy.
Finally, angels do not hold a candle to Jesus in their intrinsic greatness
and power.
Vv. 10- 14: "He also says, In the beginning, 0 Lord, you laid the foundations
of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment.
You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But
you remain the same, and your years will never end. To which of the angels
did God ever say, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool
for your feet.' Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those
who will inherit salvation?”
Angels have impressive duties, important duties of ministering to God's
people. And when everything is revealed, no one
who inherits eternal life will have lived his life without the help of angels,
whether he was aware of it at the time or not. Angels
are Christ's messengers to help His people.
But consider the glory and power of Jesus Christ.
He not only laid the foundations of the world, but He will one day transform
them and make them new. The writer says He will
roll them up like a robe. In other words, His
power is such that it will be easy. He remains the same.
His years never end.
And God has told Him to sit at His right hand and the day is coming when
everything is brought into complete submission to Jesus Christ.
Now, let’s be clear. Does this imply that something
is outside of His control now? No. But today He allows rebellions even while
He controls them.
But a day is coming when all rebellion is brought to an end forever. Events
are important to God.
And the revelation of God through Jesus Christ means that our world was
changed.
God has never changed.
But our understanding of Who He is, or His greatness, His character, and
His purposes has been moved forward tremendously in the person and ministry
of Jesus Christ.
There is another passage of scripture that seems to me to be a summary of
what the writer of Hebrews has tried to convey about how important the revelation
of Jesus is to us.
It was written by the apostle Paul and is found in the second chapter of
Phillipians, verses 5-11.
God lives by the premise that actions speak louder than words.
He has acted in history to reveal Himself to us through His Eternal Son.
He is the touchstone for every life and for every moment of history.
God has exalted Him to the highest place.
And through Him, God has enabled us to please God. He has made it possible
for us to live in such a way that God can say of us, “Now I know that you
fear God.”