Hebrews Highlights 4 Christ as Son and Heir

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?"

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[1] Philip Edgcumbe Hughes; A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Mi. 1977. Pp. 45-46

Hebrews Highlights 3 Prophets and the Son

Hebrews Highlights #3

Comparing God’s former words and His last Word

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.”

            The Letter to the Hebrews has no formal greeting as most letters have in the New Testament. The letter is written with a sense of urgency concerning what the writer wants to make clear to the recipients. Many scholars, perhaps most, believe that Hebrews was written to early Christians from a Jewish background. They faced opposition and ostracism and were tempted with an option of softening their stance. There is evidence within source material found in relationship to the Essenes that at least some Jews believed that a human messiah, just beneath the angels would be the messiah. Within the Christian faith Christ was being viewed as one who was with God and was God. This was outside of some Jewish expectations of Messiah. So, if Christians softened their stance on Jesus being with God and being God then the tension between Jewish expectations and Christian beliefs could be resolved and the ostracism ended. This may be what the writer of Hebrews was writing to counter. The writer wanted it made known that Christ’s being with and being God were not optional doctrines, but at the heart of the Christian faith. The words found in the first four verses of Hebrews form the foundation to everything written in the Book of Hebrews.

            In our Sunday school class I taught this last Sunday we considered these first four verses. We especially considered how the writer compared Jesus with the earlier prophets, and what it meant for Jesus to be recognized as God’s Son, and their heir of creation. In this blog we will focus on the relationship between Jesus as God’s final word and the revelations made in various times and places through the prophets who preceded him.

            The writer seeks to make clear that what was spoken by the prophets came from God, and at the same time that what God has spoken through his Son is the greater and the final revelation of God.

The apparent implication in this passage is that the prophets spoke messages that were fragmented and diffused across the centuries preceding Christ, while in Christ the full message of God is at one time and in one place revealed in fullness. He is the final unified revelation of the fullness of God. He is more than the messenger with a message. He is himself the very message. The prophets spoke of the God who created the worlds, and is Christ is revealed as the Word through whom the worlds were created. The prophets spoke of the glory of God, and Christ is revealed as the exact representation and the brightness of God’s glory revealed. The prophets spoke of God as the creator and sustainer of the worlds. Christ is revealed as the one through whom the worlds were created and by whose power those worlds are upheld.

            One of the first thoughts the writer to the Hebrews calls upon us to consider is how this Word of God revealed in the person of God’s one true unique Son is his last word of revelation and is supreme over all previous forms of revelation. We might wrongly imagine that this meant that Christ’s Word was in opposition to the words of the previous prophets. But I think the events of this past Sunday evening might illustrate the truth of what really took place between the revelations made in and through the prophets in comparison with what has been brought forth in and through Jesus Christ.

            This past Sunday evening we experienced a rare astronomical event. We had a super moon, where the moon is as close to the earth as it gets in its orbit joined to a lunar eclipse. So early in the evening the moon appeared big and bright in the night time sky. The light of the moon was dominant over the sky in a way that is greater than normal. Here is what it looked like where I live near downtown Tulsa.

 

Super-moon hung over the Tulsa skyline Sept. 27, 2015

            What would we think of our world if we were nocturnal creatures that had never experienced seeing the earth during daylight? We might imagine that the moon was the great source of light that gave the earth its light. That is something like what the people of God faced in the centuries before Christ entered our humanity. They lived, in the night preceding the dawn in which Christ appeared. As the moon light we see in the night time is a reflection of light from the sun off the face of the moon, so the prophets spoke words of truth that had God as their source. The words of the prophets were not words having their origin in themselves. But when Christ appeared he came not only in the flesh, but as the very light of the world, the source of light as well as the presence of light. Thus we can understand that the prophets truly spoke the word of God, but we further understand that Christ not only spoke the word of God, but was Himself the Word of God become flesh, the light of the world coming into the world that we might dwell in the daylight of salvation.

            The reality of how the light of God’s Word is revealed in Christ is beautifully symbolized in a tradition I love within Anglicanism. In the Anglican tradition, there are at least two readings, and in many places three readings of Scripture during the liturgy. When there are three readings there is a reading from the Old Testament Scriptures, the Epistles, and a reading from the Gospels. The reading of the Old Testament Scriptures and the Epistles may be done by a layperson or an ordained minister. But the Gospel reading is to be done by an ordained minister wearing the vestments of his office which is representative of Christ’s authority vested in his ordained ministry. The beautiful scene is how during the reading of the Gospel the minister in his vestments comes down from the front of the church and brings the Word of God with him into the midst of the congregation. The Gospel is read in the midst of the congregation even as Christ entered the world in our humanity to bring the final revelation of God into our midst. Through this tradition we are reminded time and time again that Christ is the singular focus of God’s Word. The prophets reflected his light and truth and pointed towards him from the past looking forward. The Apostles reflected his truth and light as ones to whom it was given to explain the ramifications of his entrance into our world. They both look away from themselves to point us to Christ who has entered the world and is not far from us. He is in our midst. He has entered our humanity. He is among us and he is the light that shines in the darkness, not a reflected light like that of the moon, but the very source of the eternal light which shines in the darkness.