Hebrews 1:1-14
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 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. 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, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”?
Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”?
And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God's angels worship him.”
Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.”
But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”
And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
Angels are very prominent in this text. In fact, the angels of God are admired and commended as ministering spirits whose service to the church is in relation to her salvation. The vibrant heavenly angels in their worship of God are incomparable beings. They are winds and flames of fire to the advantage of God's people. They are exceptional and mercurial. To call anything angelic is to offer a high compliment, for the station of angels is noble. The faculties given them are astonishing, and their proximity to God is enviable. On Jacob's ladder (Gen. 28:12), the angels were ascending and descending from the very precincts of heaven. We salute them as emissaries and servants of the Most High God.
Yet, though high and holy, the angels provide here perhaps their most valuable service -- not by being what they are, but in showing what they are not.
They are not the Son of God. Not even close. They are not the creators of the world. Not in the slightest. They are not those who uphold the universe. Not even a little. They are not the One who vanquished sin, not even a smidgen of it let alone the whole of sin. They are not the exact divine depiction of God. They do not sit at God's right hand. They are not eternally begotten. They are not to be worshipped, and they possess no throne or scepter.
Angels are prominent in this text by virtue of the fact they are not prominent. As magnificent and agile as they are, as reverential and light-invested as they may be, never did God say to one of them, even the greatest of them, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.”
Meaning no disrespect to angels, this text is really about the One who in Nature, Person, and Work bears the Name above every name (Phil. 2:9-11), Jesus Christ. He is the eternal Son of God of the same essence as God the Father. He is the God made flesh who came to shed his blood as vicarious atonement for the sin of the world. He plummeted into death. He descended so far as to make himself nothing. He took the nature of a servant and humbled himself even to death. Yet, by this sheer plunge into mankind’s iniquity, descending to serve the lowest grade of vile humanity by undertaking our sin’s accountability and consequence, He inherits a name and standing to surpass even that of angels.
We Christians may dare to contemplate the greatness of angels. Somewhere in our flights of thought informed by Scripture we can feign to envisage angels for they are creatures, yes of a different nature than we mortals but not of a different origin.
But of God Himself there is not even one scant footing for our imagination. Do not imagine He is God. Christ Jesus is God. God has no genesis. He is not confined to the realm of angels. He exceeds and surpasses the best of love for He Himself is love and the beloved of God. He excels purity, goes beyond righteousness and surmounts perfection. No holy angel presumes to be his peer but is content to worship in wonder the God whose throne and kingdom is forever and forever.
Dearly beloved. This is the God who gave Himself for you, the Author of creation and Conservator of the cosmos. He is the exact representation of divinity, God Himself. He is the One whose Name cannot be uttered except by holy lips, the One far above the stars and unconfined by space — aloft the realms of light.
He made purification for your sins and mine. He was crucified for you and me, hating iniquity yet loving the iniquitous so as to pay double for all our sins (Isaiah 40:2). In sublime unity with God the Holy Spirit who is “the oil of gladness,” this Christ, this Redeemer, this God of our salvation is the meaning and material of God's Word. Next to the greatness of His Name, nature, and work, the eminence of angels can only retreat. Together with them, “with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven” we laud and magnify His holy Name. Yet, our highest praise can never soar as high as God's own Word, for when God the Father sent His only-begotten Son, He was speaking to us in a tongue of such beauty that even angels cannot express.
“In these last days God has spoken to us by his Son.”
Blessed are we. Beyond the pinnacle of wisdom, beyond the greatest soaring anthem of praise, God has spoken to all the world. He has given us His Son!
