God His Spoken His Decisive Words in His Son
By Richard Howell
The conviction that God cares for people and relates him - self to them through his spoken word is explained by the writer of Hebrews. His revelation is superior to all other previous modes of revelation delivered through men and angels. Until the coming of the Son the revelation of God remained incomplete. In Christ, God personally intervened in human history and spoke the decisive word. Hebrews describes Christ as having all the attributes and privileges of the royal Son, the Wisdom of God, and the royal Priest. Consequently, he is uniquely qualified to be the one through whom God spoke his final word.
Authority of the God Who Speaks
In the opening lines the writer focuses on the authority of the God who speaks. The place of God's spoken word for him was the Scriptures. He introduces passages from the OT as God's direct speech (e.g., 1:5–13; 5:5–6; 7:17, 21). The persuasion that God's word is living and active in human experience (4:12), under girds the appeal to the authority of the Scriptures. This prepares the hearers for the solemn exhortation not to refuse the God who is speaking (12:25). What is our attitude to the word of God we hear?
Celebrating Christ's Dignity as Mediator and Heir
The writer speaks about Jesus Christ as the royal Son (Ps.2:2b) and the royal Priest (Ps.110:3c), and explains the Son's role in creation, revelation, and redemption. Jesus is introduced as the divine Son (v.2a), the Wisdom of God and "the radiance of God's glory." He is the mediator of revelation, the agent and sustainer of creation, and the reconciler of others to God. God's nature is such that nothing can be said to be an exact representation of his nature. Yet this is precisely what the writer to the Hebrews declares concerning the Son. In Jesus Christ there is provided a perfect visible expression of the reality of God.
The Son not only embodies God's glory but also reveals this to the universe as he sustains all things and bears them to their appointed end by his omnipotent word. The writer explains the cosmic dimensions to the work of the Son for indeed the One who revealed God as fully and ultimately as did the Son must share in the divine government of the world.
The effect of Christ's death is cleansing from sins. Sin constitutes a barrier to the approach to God. Although the Son is described as the radiance of the divine glory from eternity (v. 3a) His exaltation is described as a heavenly enthronement (v. 3). That the Son has been exalted to God's right hand means that he lives and rules with the authority and power of God himself. In verse 4 the transcendent dignity of the Son is confirmed by the proclamation of his enthronement name and the announcement of his superiority to the angels.
The presentation of Jesus as the one who sustains everything by his powerful word demonstrates that he is able to sustain the people of God in periods marked by stress. Even today Christ provides us with the assurance of his sustained concern for us and his ability to strengthen and vindicate us when we become objects of contempt in a hostile world. |
