The Letter to the Hebrews is about the person of Christ-His deity, humanity, supremacy, priesthood, sacrifice, and glory. The letter contains more than 20 names and titles for Jesus, with the most common being “Son” and “priest.”

God spoke at various times-to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, and to the prophets-and in various ways, from thunder and lightning to the voice of a trumpet; in a still, small voice or in visions and dreams; in human form and angelic visitations; through a foreshadowing and parable and more.

God did not reveal all of Himself in any one time. The process of revelation was a continuous one, in which the recipients received ever-increasing revelation of God. At no time in that older process did they have a complete idea of God.

At first they began to understand His creative power. Then they perceived something of His moral demands and His character as Judge as He sent the flood to destroy the evil in the world. Soon they were to see Him as a covenant-making God taking the initiative in establishing a covenant with Noah by means of a rainbow; then establishing a threefold covenant with an old shepherd and his wife, Abram and Sarah, promising them offspring in great number, a land in which their children would dwell, and finally that all nations of the earth would be blessed through their descendants. They perceived Him as a God interested in individuals and families, while yet judging the nations of the earth. Later God revealed that in spite of His judgments, He would always save a remnant and from that remnant bring about a new people. The whole world would discover Him to be a God who would pay a tremendous price out of redeeming love for the salvation of all people in Jesus Christ.

No, God did not say all about Himself at one time or in one period of revelation. Rather, He spoke in bits and pieces at various times and through different methods—events, prophets, individuals, history. All prior revelation pointed to God’s final revelation in Jesus. Through Jesus, God provided the perfect vehicle for expression: He translated deity into humanity, and this revelation was absolute, infallible, and authoritative according to John 1:14. The world in its entirety was given to Christ as the heir of all things. As the executor of the divine will, one day Jesus will return to enforce its every clause.

God’s very nature- “His glory and the express image”- is revealed perfectly in Jesus because Jesus is God in human form. The Son-who existed before time, was at the beginning of time, and will be at the end of time-is the one who upholds all things by the word of His power and thereby controls history.

The Jews believed angels were the highest beings next to God. To prove that Jesus is much better than the angels, the writer of Hebrews quotes seven of Israel’s own scriptures (six from the Psalms and one from 2 Samuel). The word “better” occurs 12 times in the Letter to the Hebrews, indicating Jesus’ superiority to all of creation and to the Old Covenant. The quotation from Psalm 104:4 that is in Hebrews 1:7 further reflects Christ’s superiority over the angels. They are but His ministers.

When God the Father refers to Jesus as the eternal God, it is one of the Bible’s most irrefutable proofs of the deity of Christ. The comparison must have been clear and obvious. The Son is superior to the prophets! Although He is in the stream of prophetic utterance and revelation, His Person is in unique relationship to God. With a dash of verbal simplicity, the author draws an essential chasm between the prophets and the Son, while at the same time indicating historical continuity between them both. The revelation is essentially one; Jesus the Son is in the line of the prophets. They were precursors; He is the finality! They preached expectantly of the coming Messiah and divine kingdom of God; the Son is the fulfillment and Messiah-King Himself, who will build the kingdom, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The title “firstborn” does not mean that Jesus was created but refers to His exalted status and authority as the ruler of all creation. His superiority to the angels is also proven by the fact that all the angels of God worshipped Him at His birth and worship Him now at the throne of God. Although angels are not superior or equal to Jesus, they play an important role in the lives of believers today as ministering spirits.

In Bible times, a person’s name was the outward expression of who they were, encompassing not only a person’s proper name but his or her identity-including rank, authority, fame, and character. The more excellent name Jesus inherits is “Son”-He is the eternal Son of God.

While Scripture sometimes refers to angels as “the sons of God,” nowhere does God say of angels, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” Only to Jesus does the Father speak in such personal, familial terms.

How did Jesus look on Himself in reference to this term? What was the meaning of “Son of God,” and how unique was the relation between God the Father and this Son; how special was the Son’s relation to the Father? What was His essential identity that He could call Himself or be known by others as Son of God?

The Gospel record shows that among Christ’s statements there are both direct and implied answers to these questions. The following belong to the latter category.

1.Jesus considered Himself a special envoy of the Father.

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2. Jesus proclaimed Himself as a unique fulfillment of the law and the prophets; in Him was the fulfillment of the kingdom of God. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus says, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill”. He took it upon Himself to reinterpret the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees with an authority which implies a primal understanding of the very nature of the law.

3.Jesus claimed the authority to forgive sins, and in so doing incurred the indictment of blasphemy, for only God can forgive sins.

4. Jesus stated a unique power to oppose and judge Satan in the last times.

5. Jesus claimed superiority over the angels.

6. Jesus claimed so unique a relation to the Father that when people recognized or perceived His true identity, they would see the Father.

Surely by these statements Jesus places Himself above the Law, the prophets, Satan, and the angels. He claims to be in a category above them all. But how much higher? What is His relation to the Father? What is His essential identity as the Son of God?

First, Jesus speaks of Himself as the Son in a unique relationship to the Father. In John 5:19, Jesus said that “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner”.

Second, in John 8:48–59 Jesus claims a kind of pre-existence with God, even using of Himself a name that is used only of God.

Third, when speaking to the woman at the well in John 4:14, Jesus tells her that the water He will give “will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life”. To the person who believes in Him He promises eternal life, that this person will not come into condemnation but already has passed from death to life.

Fourth, The Jews believed that the resurrection of the dead in the last days was to be only by the power and redemption of God. Talking with Martha before the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus said in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

Finally, perhaps the most telling of all Jesus’ claims to be essentially one with God is His statement in John 5:26–27 in which He claims to have the essence of life within Himself even as does the Father.

 When Christ was appointed heir of all, His ultimate authority and possession flowed naturally from His being Son. Both presently and ultimately there is no possession apart from Him. Without Christ we are destitute; we are without those resources which He both controls and distributes to His people. As we share in His resurrection, we share also in His inheritance. As we fail to share in Him, we are bereft of the inheritance and fail to have the necessary resources for life.

And how does Christ come about this control, possession, and authority to distribute? There are two reasons: first, He Himself is creator of all things, and second, through His death and Resurrection He has been given dominion over all principalities and powers. It is He alone who has defeated the satanic powers and gained the victory over death and the grave. He is indeed Christus Victor!

Christ is the primal radiance of God’s glory; that is, because of the nature of Jesus Christ we know there must be some radiating source—God’s own glory. Nicodemus could see that when he said in John 3:2, “No one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

The character of God must radiate; He must express Himself. Jesus Christ is the earthly and human expression of God, God’s own character in human form. Moreover, when we analyze Jesus Christ we learn about the radiant source, the glory of God. There is no other being that so radiates the glory of God, and no other one by whom we may completely know the Father.

A small boy was looking at a picture of Jesus, musing long over it in thoughtful silence. Noticing the boy’s studious quietness, his father asked, “What are you doing, son?”

“Looking at this picture of Jesus.” Then with an approving and decisive nod of his head, the boy added, “Hmm, best picture God ever had taken.”

He had caught the meaning our author was attempting to portray—Jesus is the unique likeness of God the Father. Again “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father”; or, to paraphrase, “If you have recognized my true identity, then you know what God is like.” When we hear Jesus, we hear God. When we see Jesus, we see God. If we ever want to know what God is like or how He might act or where He might go, all we have to do is watch Jesus.

(To hear an audio version of this post, please click this link: Hebrews 1 verses 1-14 What is God Like)

Bibliography

1. Jeremiah, David: The Jeremiah Study Bible: New King James Version Brentwood, TN: Worthy Publishing; 2013; pp. 1744-1746)
2. Evans, L.H., Jr., & Ogilvie, L.J.: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Vol. 33: Hebrews (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.; 1985; pp. 37-63)
3. Stanley, C.F.: The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible: New King James Version (Nashville, TN: Nelson Bibles; 2005)
4. MacArthur, J.F., Jr. The MacArthur Study Bile: New American Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers; 2006)
5. Lucado, M.: The Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson; 2010; pp. 1689-1690)