Hebrews 1 and the Era of Distractions

By Neil Earle

Ours has been called an age of distractions.

What was our news about this morning? Was it encouraging, uplifting? How can we stay close to God in such a DISTRACTING time? Where are those friends you once loved who now seem to be absent from church every time you are there? What makes Christianity differ from Islam or Judaism or any other religion? Or is there any difference? How do I sort out the differences between the Old and new Testaments?

The Book of Hebrews specializes in answering these questions.

Was Jesus Created?

The New Testament’s use of Father/Son language when speaking of the relationship between God and Jesus has led some to conclude that Jesus was created by the Father and thus in an inferior position. As we have shown above, this is not the way it works and if it did would undermine Jesus’ status and his work in being fully able to pay the price of all human sin.

Early on Christian advocates and thinkers answered these arguments. It is contained under the erudite sounding title “the eternal generation of the Son.”

The Alexandrian teacher Origen (185-254) – who was tortured for his faith – addressed this issue when he asserted “there was never a time when the Son was not.” Later claims contradicted that but Origen’s dictum prevailed such as “the existence of the Son derived from the Father, but not in time, nor does it have any beginning.” The begettal of the Son came in eternity before time itself began, so there must be no thought of precedence or ranking within the Godhead.

Later, St. Basil from the area we call Turkey today took this argument further. “Things subject to birth or corruption are described as prior to one another,” he wrote.” Are we therefore to compare God the Father as superior to God the Son, who exists before the ages?”

Basil expounded John 1:1 “in the beginning WAS the word” as meaning, “Thoughts cannot reach beyond was or the imagination beginning. No matter how far your thoughts travel backwards, you cannot get beyond the WAS. No matter how hard you strain to see beyond the Son you will find it impossible to pass outside the confines of the beginning. Therefore true religion teaches us to think of the Son with the Father.” Right. See John 14:10 again.

When Trinitarian theologians speak of God the Father and the Son as being “distinct but not separate” Origen’s analogy of the sun and its brightness is helpful. When you look at the sun what do you see, the sun or the brightness? You see both. Distinct but not separate In this way he argued for what Hebrews 1:3 calls the exact identification of the Son with the Father.

The Holy Spirit is there also, but that is another subject.

It has long been analyzed as a strong exhortation to believers not to abandon the Faith in a time of difficulty and strain. Specifically, Jewish Christians seem to be addressed who are in danger of turning back to Judaism or the temple system in some form. There is persecution and danger, it seems (10:32-39).

What is going on?

Hebrews reminds us of the cardinal principle that the Bible is FOR us today even if it is not always TO us today. It began as a first century caution to Jewish Christians who may have been rattled by the martyrdom of St. James, the leader in Jerusalem, in 62 AD or some such crisis, a crisis that could set up a stream of events that would lead to the end of Jerusalem only eight years later in the bloody and devastating Jewish War with Rome (66-73 AD).

Hebrews 2:1-4 is adamant to its first readers: Do not NEGLECT so great a salvation as is only found in Christ. This is excellent advice to Christians of all generations as they seek to live faith-filled lives in the midst of the multitudinous cares of this life.

The Hebrews letter reminds us of the once-for-all superiority of Jesus Christ over all previous acts of God. “Better” is a key word mentioned 13 times.

Let’s see how that works.

The author of Hebrews shows that Jesus rules in the cosmos.

The Cosmic Christ

Hebrews 1:1-4 is a majestic opening statement. The first word is “God” but it soon moves into a theological capsule-summary of Jesus Christ the Son as the ultimate expression of God’s glory (though Jesus is not mentioned specifically by name until Hebrews 2:9.) Leon Morris sees in these first four verses seven crucial propositions about the one called the Son in these verses.

Jesus is, first, the heir of all things, meaning the entire universe. He is also co-creator with the Father as reinforced by John 1:3; he represents in praiseworthy terms the very radiance of God’s glory and an exact imprint of God’s being, as we see in Colossians 1:15, mentioning the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in the Son (Colossians 2:9); the Son upholds the entire universe and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17) which is interesting as many scientists now report on a basic instability behind the outwardly orderly pattern of the universe.

So Jesus, then, is sustainer of the vast cosmos and most importantly in the here and now he is the One who purged Christians of sin through his work on the cross and then went on to "sit down at God’s right hand," the position of executive power in the first century world of kingship.

These are impressive credentials, an unparalleled resume as we might expect for the Son of God, Savior of the world. This is more important than a dozen ESPNs.

Alexandria today – once the home of brilliant Christian advocates and defenders.

Who is God’s Son?

Next Hebrews 1:4-14 moves into a specific agenda regarding exactly who and what Christians should be focused on in the age of CNN and Twitter and a thousand diversions. These verses again demonstrate the clear superiority of the risen exalted Christ to all that has gone before. In the Old Testament teaching Israel was considered God’s Son, at least poetically (Hosea 11:1), as was the King (Psalm 2:7) and angels (Job 38:7). Note how this first section asserts Christ’s superiority over all these elements. The writer uses the Promise/Fulfillment style by expounding the Christian true meaning of seven OT quotations:

1. Psalm 2:7 applied to the kings of Judah as being God’s small “s” sons. Of course God is the ultimate father of us all but…the early Church saw there must be more to the verse than that. Christians viewed this verse as applying to Jesus’ eternal Sonship before his human birth in Bethlehem (Hebrews 1:5a). Whereas some of the learned rabbis saw this Psalm in particular as relating to the Messiah, Christians went further and applied this to the begetting of the Son in eternity before time itself began. The early church claimed “the Father cannot exist without the Son” based on John 14:10 showing the superiority of Jesus to all that has gone before.

2. Hebrews 1:5b references the great Jewish hope of God’s promises to David of eternal kingship reiterated in 2 Samuel 7:14. Whereas this OT quote may have originally referred to Solomon, NT teaching applied this also to Christ. At his conception, when Jesus’ mother Mary was approached by the angel Gabriel she was told that “the Lord will give him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1).

In 70 AD the highly venerated temple system in Jerusalem was destroyed. Was this part of the background to the Letter to the Hebrews?

A Glimpse inside God’s Mind

3. Hebrews 1:6 once again directs our attention back to the majesty, the grandeur, the exhilarating aspect of the Father’s bringing the Son into the world. It is almost like we are overhearing a conversation between the Father and the Son in eternity. As David Ferguson writes, Hebrews gives backsliding or complacent Hebrew Christians a much deeper understanding of the Christian message (New Bible Commentary, page 1322). Hebrews 1:6 cites Psalm 97:7 from the Greek NT showing Jesus worshipped by angels, a fact reiterated all through the book of Revelation.

4. Hebrews 1:7 attests that while angels are often manifested in fire and wind (Psalm 104:3-4) the eternal uncreated Jesus is completely superior to and outside the world of matter.

5.Hebrews 1:8 can be a bit tricky. It quotes Psalm 45:6-7 (a wedding psalm, originally) and lifts the meaning to a new level under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Here the passage is interpreted by the author of Hebrews as applying with more certainty not to the small “G” gods (as in judges and kings) but a direct address to the Son as God in the flesh, “Your throne, O God, is forever.”

6. Hebrews 1:10-12 is the longest OT quote stressing the PREEXISTENT origins of the Son in eternity (Ps. 102:25-27), as we have mentioned.

7. Psalm 110 was a major text in the early church and Jewish leaders saw it as relating to their coming Messiah (Mark 12:36). Hebrews 1:13-14 it is re-presents this text as Christ’s exaltation in heaven after his finished work on earth (Heb. 1:13-14). The move from the Old to the New Testament usage is not mere lifeless copying in a “stenographic” way, but a facet of the Holy Spirit editing and updating his own inspired words to pass on new information surrounding the appearance and office of Jesus (see F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture).

This merely scratches the surface of this marvelous book as impressive and as breathtaking in its way as Mount Sinai or the Rocky Mountains. Hebrews is a lofty peak of revelations and insight, a behind-the-scenes look into the majesty and glory of Christ the Lord. It reviews much in the Bible teaching that has gone before but excites with mind-expanding import. And that’s beats a thousand distractions.