Heb 1:2 God's Son
Notes
Transcript
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
We all face important decisions in life, what career you going to choose, where to go for college, who you are going to marry. I remember that when I was deciding about college it seemed like a huge decision, family members would suggest options and ask why I was choosing that specific college etc. But after you consider all your options, you have to make your own decision. But when we make our decisions we need to consider the consequences of our decisions.
But, truly the most important decision that we can make has eternal consequences. This decision is trusting in Jesus for our salvation and for eternity. Our relationship with Him has eternal consequences.
Therefore, our salvation and eternity hangs on Jesus of Nazareth. There is a multitude of evidence that points that Jesus was on Earth in the first century as the Scriptures describes. It was necessary for Jesus to be fully man in order to be a substitute sacrifice. He had to be a man in order to pay the penalty that we deserve, dying in our place.
Furthermore, Jesus had to be fully God in order to carry the weight of all our sins, not only ours, but the whole world.
The uniqueness of Jesus is outstanding comprehension. He is fully God and fully man.
It reminds me of the passage in Rev 5:2-5
English Standard Version Chapter 5
2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, 4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
There is no one else, no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth that can save us. It is only Jesus.
No wonder that Jesus said in John 14:6 : “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
When Jesus was on earth in the 1st century no one doubted His humanity. They saw Him in the flesh and according to the prophet Isaiah 53:2 “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” When people saw him they didn’t see anything special, he seemed pretty normal.
We could say that his beauty, his majesty, his glory was hidden. His first coming as a humble servant didn’t brought attention to himself. He was on a mission. And I’m so glad that he accomplished his mission. To take my sin upon himself, when I still hated him, I didn’t deserve for him to love me; and even now I am not worthy of his love and his sacrifice. Praise the Lord, for His grace and mercy is beyond any human understanding.
It is only because of His sacrifice that we can be reconciled to God, it is only because of what He did that we have a righteousness not of our own, which is given as a free gift to anyone who believe in His name.
But all of this wonderful and eternal gift is only possible, because Jesus was not only a man, but because He is fully God. And this is the concept that the author of Hebrews is zooming in on with v2-3.
After he addressed how God spoke in the OT through the prophets, now in these last days God is speaking in a sense directly to us, God is Speaking through himself, His Son.
First of all it says in v2 but in these last days, contrasting with v1 long ago. Often when we hear the word last days we think of the end times concept. But here the context is not the end times last days, but rather last days in the history of the salvation of the world. This time period started 2 thousand years ago when Christ was on earth and it will end when Christ returns. This is the time period we are living now, the time when grace is available, but Peter reminds us that this time will one day come to an end
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
When we look at the news today it can seem to be the worst of times, but it is the best of times. We need to be grateful that we live in the time where grace and mercy is available to us and we can share this great hope with others. So they too can look beyond the “here” and “now”
This hope is not a hope that is dependent on ourselves or anything else. It is a living hope, it is a hope in the one who is alive and able to save. He is able to save because he was fully man and is fully God: Heb 1:2-3 gives us 7 descriptions that points to Jesus’ Deity.
but in these last days he has spoken to us 1 by his Son, whom 2 he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also 3 he created the world.
4 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the 5 exact imprint of his nature, and 6 he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, 7 he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
God’s Son
Appointed by God the Father as the heir of all things
The world was created through Him
He is the radiance of glory of the Father
He is the exact imprint of God the Father
He upholds the universe
He is sitting at the right hand of God the Father
Today we will look at the first four of these descriptions. Starting with the title God’s Son
God’s Son
God’s Son
When we hear this title we make the direct correlation to the deity of Christ, that He is God. It wasn’t a title that Jesus used often, it seems that he preferred the title Son of Man. Which to us today seems like a lower title, but actually is not. When considering the prophecy of Daniel regarding the Messiah, he called him the son of man.
The title Son of Man in the prophecies was a more clear title that pointed to his divinity specifically to the Jews. The title Son of God, is a more clearer title for gentiles as a reference to his deity. Here in Heb the author is clearly declaring that Jesus as the heavenly, eternal Son who is equal to God himself.
This title means that Jesus existed eternally; before anything existed. That He is the same as the Father and the Holy Spirit. That means all of the attributes of God are also attributes of Jesus. For example when a few weeks ago we were talking about the Aseity of God, and how God doesn’t need anything from creation, this also applies to Jesus.
Jesus was in perfect glory and exaltation, and He came down, becoming a man, to be humiliated and hung on a cross for our sake, for our salvation. He didn’t even need you to begin with, but He gave His life for you. Think about it for a second, He who died for you while you still hated Him, never needed you for anything, but out of His love for you, laid down his life for his sheep. So now you can love him, because He loved you first.
Everywhere we look in our society it tells us that we should get what we deserve. If you buy any food or product that is bad or doesn’t work we have ingrained in ourselves that we should get what we deserve. But with God, all that we truly deserve is hell, complete separation from God eternally, that is what we deserve. All that we deserve is rightful judgment from God for our sins and trespasses against Him.
But we didn’t get what we deserved, instead we got grace. And not just a little bit of grace, rather 93 billion light years of grace, through Jesus Christ! And now we love Him, because He loved us when we were still spitting in his face… it was then he died for you.
What an amazing grace, What an amazing God we serve.
PAUSE
The Heir of All Things
The Heir of All Things
The author of Hebrews goes on describing the deity of Christ by saying that God the Father appointed Jesus as the heir of all things
The term heir is somewhat lost on us today. Yes, we inherit items or money from parents, etc. But thinking of nobility and kings, the word heir means a lot. Often it means the kingdom and the place of authority. So when it says that God the Father appointed Jesus to be the heir of all things, means that The Father is giving the Son everything and also indicates the authority that Jesus has over all creation.
We might look at the news and think, How is the earth in Christ’s possession right now? It does not look good, it seems like evil is winning.
There is a lot we could talk about here, but we need to remember the Sovereignty of God means that He is in control. If we aren’t careful we can sometimes think of God as having equal power as the devil. That good and bad are battling. But that’s wrong. The devil is much, much lower than God. God is above all of his creation, and even the devil is in submission to God’s sovereign hand.
A clear example of this was when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. Imagine yourself being an Israelite, a slave in Egypt, you are praying to God for deliverance. Then this guy Moses appear telling that God appeared to Him and that God is going to deliver you from slavery. Furthermore, you see the signs, the plagues that God sent to Pharaoh, but Pharoah is fighting back making your lives more and more miserable, you are beat up and demanded to work even harder, and God is sending plagues, but Pharoah doesn’t seem to change his mind. Now when we look back we know that God was not battling Pharoah, but God was using Pharoah to demonstrate the mighty hand of God, His power and glory, through the plagues and the great delivery of the Israelites from Egypt.
God is in complete control even when we find it hard to comprehend, and we can’t understand. He is still in control and everything still belongs to Christ.
But you might still be puzzled by all the evil in this world and why God is allowing all of this to happen.
First we need to recognize that the greatest injustice that ever happen in this world was Jesus dying on the cross, taking the payment for sins from fallen human beings upon himself.
Secondly we need to remember the evil and sin of this world is not going to last forever. This world is coming to an end. There is an appointed time and day, when He will come and judge the living and the dead and every wrong from the beginning of creation to its end will be punished. Everyone and everything, every sin, every word and deed will punished with eternity in hell.
But still we might consider how is Christ reigning now, because we don’t see it. What we see is sin reigning now. The first consideration that we should take is that we don’t have God’s mind, we can’t comprehend his plans, His mind is higher than ours and his thoughts higher than ours.
If you were a Israelite slave in Egypt you would have no idea how God would have set you free from slavery, even after all the plagues were pass. God’s plans are so amazing and in many ways unpredictable.
Another thing we can observe is the kindness, compassion and goodness of God as He is bringing people to himself, saving them, saving us and not giving us what we deserve, but giving us grace. So we do see Christ reigning in all nations as the gospel is reaching not only all nations but is advancing as people come to salvation.
Another thing that often we don’t see is that in the worst of times for people and countries is when people are seeking answers and are open to be found by God. Because they had to come to the “end of their rope” or the end of their own strength before they can recognize their need for a savior.
He Created the World
He Created the World
That is not the only thing we don’t see, the other thing we don’t see is how creation came into existence. According to v2 is says through whom also he created the world.
What we know about creation is what God told us in Gen , now here in Hebrews God teaches us that Jesus was involved the act of creation and it was through Him that the Father created the world.
But Heb 1 is not the only place that says that Jesus was involved in creation. Paul tell us something similar in Col 1
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
We know from Gen 1 that God spoke and things came into existence. Now God tell us that Jesus also was involved in creation. It makes sense, because there is one God and three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The passage in Col goes even further by telling us that everything was created through Jesus and for Him.
So when we observe all of creation and its beauty. When we see the universe and all its amazing beauty and vastness. When we see the finger of God and His wisdom and design in creation we need to worship Him, because ultimately it was created by Jesus and for Jesus, for His glory.
These two passages, Heb and Col have such an exaltation of Christ. That gives us a gigantic, enormous confidence in who He is, and that we can fully trust Him for our salvation and for our lives now.
V2 is more than enough for us to have the confidence in who Jesus is, that He is fully God. But the author of Hebrews continues in v3 in exalting the deity of Christ. He says
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
If you ever have any doubt about the deity of Christ, this verse alone should testify and remind us who Jesus is. There is so much in v3 despite being only a few words. Since there is so much we will only start looking at this verse today.
First it says that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God.
But what is the glory of God?
What is the Glory of God?
What is the Glory of God?
Some words are easy to explain and describe, while others can be very difficult. When Byron asks me daddy what is a road sign or what is a grasshopper. Those words are fairly simple to explain. But other words can be very hard to explain or put into words such as what is perfection, or beauty.
A much harder question is what is the glory of God? I’ll confess when I first thought about it I thought was an easy question, but then I realized I couldn’t put an explanation into words for you
One might ask, if it is hard question, why should we even consider the question? But, it is often in the hard questions that we find sure footing for our faith. I think it is important for us to understand the glory of God, because the text says that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God. So even though is hard to define it, we need to understand it, so that we can have a better understanding of who Jesus is, the one in whom we place our faith.
First we need to understand that in a sense the glory of God is undefinable, because we are trying to understand the one that for all of eternity we will still be learning about Him. He is infinite; we are finite. We are creatures; He is the Creator.
There were two main Scripture passages that help me understand the glory of God. These two passages make a connection between God’s holiness and His glory.
First, Lev 10:3 makes this connection between holiness and glory.
3 And Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke, saying: ‘By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.’ ” So Aaron held his peace.
It seems to me here that there is connection between God’s holiness and his glory.
Then Isaiah 6:3
3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Here when the seraphim or angels (whom we will be studying later in Heb 1) are worshipping God in His throne, and they say holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his.... we would expect they would say holiness, but it says glory. This leads me to believe that the glory of God is the display of God’s holiness, His perfection.
John Piper said in his attempt to define the glory of God:
The glory of God is the infinite beauty and greatness of God’s manifold perfections. All of his perfections and greatness are beautiful as they are seen, and there are many of them. Here it is in another sentence: the glory of God is the infinite beauty and greatness of his manifold perfections.
Therefore if the glory of God is the display of God’s holiness and manifold perfection. Heb 1 says that Jesus is the radiance of God’s holiness and perfection. Or we could say that He is the display of God’s holiness and perfection.
This vision of Christ should encourage us to seek Him even more. The glory of God is something that we should desire and long to see. But are we living like we have experienced and seen his glory? this is not a one moment experience, but rather it is a lifetime of interactions that culminate in our continued learning and worship in eternity.
Remember Moses was pleading with the Lord in Ex 33:18-22,
18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”
19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”
21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock,
22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
So we see here that Moses was able to see God’s glory because he was standing on the rock. I think the reference here to the rock is a reference to Jesus, the cornerstone.
Do you realize that because of Christ we have the same privilege as Moses?
But we have a privilege to see the glory of God emanating, radiating through Christ in the cross and at his Resurrection. At the cross we see God’s holiness and His mercy and grace displayed.
Like Moses, we stand on the rock, the cornerstone, Jesus the Son of God, the heir of all things, through whom He created the world, who is also the radiance of the glory of God.
When we looked at v1 few weeks ago, we were reminded that we need to listen to God, that is a privileged that He spoke and we have His words. I think these verses today are asking us:
Do you have your eyes on Jesus?
Most of us here I am assuming know Jesus and have come to faith, so you have seen Him and believed in Him and you love Him.
But are you continually putting your eyes on Him?
In the days we are living in, it seems like everywhere we look is bad news, disaster and discouraging things happening around the world and around us. We often remind ourselves that God is in control and that He is coming back. This is good, but I don’t think it is enough.
God has given us 5 senses. Two of them we relied the most. Our Hearing and our Sight. Is it any wonder that God, in these two verses in Hebrews, challenge us to keep these 2 senses on Jesus?
So, are you listening to God? Are you looking at Him?
We might say yeah sure, sure. But, are we really? If we reflect on how much time we spend watching, listening fill in the blank, in your phone, computer, tv, radio etc. Compare it the time you spend listening and looking at Jesus, what is the percentage? If you want to know how much time you are wasting listening and watching, get rid of it and replace it with reading the Bible, praying, singing worship songs etc.
I think is safe to say that things are not going to get better but are just going to get worse. There is one thing we got it do. We got to spend time looking and hearing intentionally at God’s Word looking at the glory of Christ, His character His actions. For we know in part, but until the perfect comes we need to keep our eyes on what we know about Him keeping our eyes on Him. Having our ears ready to listen and obey and with our eyes fixed at our glorious Savior, Our King, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen