Hebrews 1

1. Historical Background:

On a personal note, the Book of Hebrews is one of my favorite Scriptures.  Scripture cannot be pitted against each other as if one portion of Scripture is more inspired than another, however I simply appreciate the hermeneutics the author employs to interpret the OT scriptures.  It is an inspired guide to bible interpretation.

The author is anonymous though many names have been put forward, Paul being one among them and is the author in my personal opinion.  Hebrews speaks much about the temple and is apparent that normal cult activities continued at the time of the books composition (9:25), which would show Hebrews being written when the apostles were still alive.

It is becoming customary for me to begin mentioning the purpose a book in my notes for each first chapter.  The design of Hebrews seems to warn Christians, who have begun in the Christian doctrine, not to be persuaded to return to Judaism.  Of course Jewish Christians would be the first who might do this.  After all, their culture, especially if the Temple was still in service, offered inclusion for those who kept Moses’ law and exclusion for the Nazarenes (Christians). Therefore we have a defense of Christian doctrine by interpreting and demonstrating how Moses’ writings in particular point to Christ.  As Christ fulfills the laws, prophecies, and other elements of the OT, those who intend to obey God would recognize God’s purpose and refuse to return to an inferior method of relating to God.

The Word of God spoken through Jesus Christ vv1-4

And as all proper Bible interpretation points to Christ, Hebrews begins doing so from its first verse.  I think the opening of Hebrews is not the place to be distracted by chapter and verse separations.  Rather, it might be easier to see the larger message if one can assume verses 1-4 to be one verse, and read it all together without pausing.  As I suggest to all my Bible students, it is helpful for understanding to write a sentence or two of every paragraph they read.  In this case, Hebrews 1:1-4 might be summarized this way: “The word spoken through Jesus Christ is the final and ultimate form of God’s word. The OT Scriptures mediated though angels was considered authoritative and highly respected, how much more is the word spoken through God’s own Son, who is not merely a servant, like an angel, but is the image of God and the radiance of His glory.”

There is of course more theology we could deduce, but it is important not to miss main point by focusing on details.  The obvious point of Hebrews is that no matter what standard we compare Jesus to, He is better and His revelation is final.

Jesus is Better than Angels vv5-14

Consider now this Jesus who has a superior name than that of angels.  God never appointed an angel to be the “Son of God”, the highest name under heaven.  The Hebrews author follows this sonship theme through OT scriptures that begin with David but ultimately points to Jesus Christ (v5 cf. Ps 2:7, 2 Sam 7:14; v6 cf. Deut 32:43; v7 cf Ps 104:4; v8-9 cf. Ps 45:6-7; v10-12 cf. Ps 102:25-27; v13 cf Ps 110:1).

2. Theological Observations:

God speaks (v1). This might seem an over simplified observation, but I assure you it is not.  People worship things which do not have the ability to communicate, and what often happens is that within a person’s heart, they invent what their god might say.  Usually it ends up being whatever their heart is set on at the time.  To our shame, Christians do this as we metaphorically set up the golden calf in our heart, a god of our own invention, and then ascribe the name of Jehovah to our idol.   If we were to take the Bible seriously, much of that invention would be smashed in that conflict between the god of our heart, and the God of the Bible.  It is not often where my depraved heart and the God of the Bible agree.  Even when it comes to the ministry, choices I should make, and ways that I should go, my heart can easily be fooled by something masquerading as the Word of God.

God has a Son (v2). This will need some clarifying as many Christians will think nothing special of this remark.  Not everyone believes in the Trinity, but almost everyone in Christendom will say God has a son (lower-case “s”).   It can be said that David was the son of God (Psalms 2:7).  In fact the author of Hebrews makes it a point that Psalm 2:7 originally applied to David is ultimately applied to Jesus who expresses God’s reign on earth.  But we do not say that David is part of the triune God just because he is called God’s son.  Perhaps this is partly why many Jews have refused Jesus in that He seemed to make Himself something greater than just a human king.  As verse two suggests, Christ’s Sonship goes beyond merely holding onto an earthly throne, but rather His expression is an exact representation of God Himself, and His throne is “on high”.  David could not make such claims about his own throne.  Angels who were revered as messengers in the OT could not claim the status of “Son”.  Angels are merely servants (v14), but Jesus is the Agent in creation (v10). The angels worship the Son (v6), which if He were not God would otherwise constitute blasphemy. The Son sustains all creation by the word of His power (v3).  The Son is immutable (v12) just like Jehovah, a statement that refutes anyone who says Jesus is not God. Therefore we must add to our knowledge of what the Sonship of God actually means.  In the OT, sonship was an expression of God’s attribute in some facets, but when it comes to Jesus Christ, He is the Son who expresses God in all of its facets.  These themes in the OT are ratcheted up until their final fulfillment in the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

God has an expressive image (v3). This was not always the case in the Old Testament because God is a Spirit, supernatural, above and beyond what scientific instruments may detect.  But ever since the birth of Jesus, we have an expressive image of God.  Not merely a physical image, but the divine-man where we find all of God in the flesh.  Therefore the actions, attitudes, and communication from the Lord Jesus, is in fact a perfect expression of God’s hypostasis (person), which lends more weight for the argument of the Trinity.  Because we see something in Christ that we have never seen before, we understand that the communication of God is progressive revelation. We are bound to learn things in Christ that were not revealed before.  The knowledge we learn through Christ, would not otherwise be obtainable through any human means.  Therefore our hermeneutical process must account for this, all the while keeping in mind as we read the OT, the human authors did not always speak with perfect understanding of what they saw.

3. Fulfillment in Christ:

The book of Hebrews is about how the OT scripture points to Christ. If you work through the arguments of the author, then you will see how each standard in the Old Testament is ultimately fulfilled in Christ. But nonetheless here are my observations.

God speaks ultimately through Christ. One of the points that author as made is God has spoken with finality in Christ.  It is the last days before the great judgement therefore we must heed with great attention to Christ’s commands and teaching for the hope of eternal life.  Grasping this ought help the reader to guard against false gospel and teacher who may abuse God’s word to teach contrary to Christ.  There are no “other testaments” because God has spoken in finality through Christ and His apostles which are all now dead  which exclusion to Christ.

God’s Son is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not until Chapter two where God’s Son is identified as Jesus.  Assuming that chapter one provide an argument for Christ’s deity, then we are enabled to understand how one man’s suffering as the sufficiency to perfect and bring salvation to all who believe (see 2:10).

Christ is the expressed image of God. God expresses Himself through prophets, actions, miracles, but ultimately in Christ so perfect that this one final expression is sufficient enough to purge all our sins (v3).  Since the purpose of an expressions to help another person understand knowledge about a person.  We conclude to say that understand who God is leads a person to life (cf. 2 Pet. 1:3), and since Jesus is the perfect expression of God, knowing Jesus, which is the same as knowing God, is sufficient to lead people to eternal life.

4. Application:

I  have already mentioned some practical applications regarding not being fooled by false teaching.  When a mormon or similar religion approaches you with “another testament”, believe it not.  For if Christ has already made you perfect through the revelation of His suffering, then you are not in need of “another”.  On the contrary, Jesus, Paul, and Peter constantly warned the disciples of false teaching that would arise in the later days.  And if anyone joined themselves to these false teaching they do so at the peril of believing “another gospel” which has no power to save.  They may feature a Christ, but they do not correctly convey the Words of God which is the agent of a persons second birth. Know that your Bible is sufficient for your perfection before God.