Hebrews
Highlights #4
Christ as Son and Heir
Hebrews 1:1-4
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in
times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days to us by his
Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the
worlds; 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 at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained
a more excellent name than they.”
In the Christian world there is a tendency to view sons as
subordinates to fathers. We are often mindful that children are called and
commanded to honor father and mother. But a son is ultimately a child bearing
the same nature as a father. A son, especially one who is truly begotten of his
father is ultimately equal in nature to his father. A son, in his childhood is
subordinate to his father, but he eventually moves forward in his life to the point where
he will leave father and mother and begin his own adult life. This is true in
regards to the sons of fathers in the human sphere, and it seems to be something the writer of Hebrews wishes for us to see is true of Jesus Christ, defined as God's Son. A son may pass through a season of training leading to adulthood, but the begotten Son is of the same exact nature as the father. The early church got this right. It rejected Origen's assumption that being a son meant one was subordinate to being a father, and determined that being a begotten son meant having the same nature as a father.
Christ's being the Father's one unique son was joined in the thought of the writer of Hebrews to his being the heir of creation. His inheritance was something for which he would be trained to receive. It was a creation made to be inherited by God's one unique son. From the perspective of the writer to the Hebrews, it seems that the world was created and predestined for the purpose of
highlighting the glory of the Son; who is the radiance and brightness and
perfect expression of God the Father. The world, in which we exist, was made
through him. Our world and the worlds of our universe are upheld by him. The
Son would repair what went wrong by entering into the creation as a human being and suffering and ultimately purging our sins which endangered the creation. When he finished this purging of our sin, when he overcame death he was raised to the right hand of the Father the rightful heir to this world made and upheld through him and redeemed by him. But even more was involved. He did this for us and we were meant to share in all that he did in creating, upholding and redeeming the world. This truly sums up the plan God has for his creation, it was a plan focused in God's determination to reveal that he is love and this love is focused in His Son on behalf of a world that God created and loved.
The writer to the Hebrews wants us to realize who this Jesus is, who
has come to be our Savior. He is the Son of God, the one begotten of the same
nature as the Father so that we who have seen the Son have seen the Father in
the Son. He is the one through whom when God spoke the worlds were created in
and through the Word. He is the one who being born to be a little while
beneath the angels would rise from the dead having overcome sin and death and
become inheritor of the entire world on the basis of his work of redeeming our world from sin. This is the one whom in Christian salvation we call
Lord and Savior, while He calls us brother and friend.
I will close these thoughts on Christ's being the son and heir with two beautiful quotations
from medieval commentators regarding Christ's upholding of creation. The quotes were cited by Philip Edgcumbe Hughes in his commentary
on Hebrews. Hughes quotes Alcuin and Aquinas. Alcuin wrote: “It is no less to govern the world than to create
it; for in creating the substances of things were produced from nothing, while
in governing, the things that have been made are sustained, lest they should
return to nothing.” Aquinas adds: “as the absence of the sun means the
withdrawal of light from the sky so the removal of the divine power would mean
the cessation of the being and the coming into being and the continuing of
every creature.”[1]
This Jesus, who is God's final and eternal word to us shares the Father's eternal substance. He is the one through whom the worlds have been made. He is the one who upholds all creation by his might and perfect will. He is also the one who seeing us in need came to deliver us from our sins and is not ashamed to call us brother and friend. This is the one in whom we have come to trust and believe. This is the one whom we like the Hebrews were tempted to leave, but perhaps we will think on these things and speak as St. Peter once spoke confessing to our Lord, "to whom else would we go to hear words of eternal life?"
[1]
Philip Edgcumbe Hughes; A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Mi. 1977. Pp. 45-46
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