Hebrews 1:2 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 1:2

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Previously God spoke indirectly, but now he speaks directly, through his Son. All of God’s word comes to us with divine authority, whether it is spoken through intermediaries or not, but we attach special significance to the message we have received from the Son of God himself. As Christ said of the expectation of the householder in the parable, ‘But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son’ (Matthew 21:37). The world ought to have listened with special care to what God’s own Son said to them. Of course, the Old Testament also is the word of the Son. It is through the agency of the second person of the triune Godhead, that the whole of the Scripture is given, but it's much more apparent to us that it is true of the New Testament, because he was incarnate. This chapter will prove that he is high above all created beings, that he is divine in nature. God has not only given us his word, but he has come himself into this world in the person of his Son, the Word of God. These words are intended to help us see the extraordinary privilege we have, living in an age when God has spoken so intimately, so clearly; there can be no greater speaker than Christ himself, the Son of God. Of course he is superior to the prophets, they testify and prophesy, he fulfils. They speak by instruction, but he is the Saviour of whom they speak; they are servants, he is the heir of all things; they are passing, he is eternal. They are learners – they read even their own prophecies of Christ with great interest, and they sought to understand them. They spoke better than they knew. Sons inherit from their fathers, and the Son has been appointed heir of all things, all created things. But don’t all things already belong to him, for he made all things out of nothing, and as Creator he must own what he has created? As the Son of God this is true, but the Son of Man has not always existed. He had a beginning when he was born 2000 years ago. This appointment is made in relation to the Christ, the Messiah, the God-Man, and it is as one who possesses two natures that he is made heir of all. But heir is meant in a slightly different way from how it is used with regard to us. When applied to us, ‘heir’ highlights the fact that salvation is something we never earned. It came to us rather like an inheritance. But when the term ‘heir’ is applied to Christ, you are looking at the element of the word that has more to do with right. To say that the Son has been made heir of all things, is to say that one who is eternally the Son of God, and yet is also a creature, has been elevated to the highest possible position, and human nature has been exalted beyond all bounds. It is as the God-Man that he inherits all: this world and all the glory of it, which Satan falsely offered, as well as the world to come. ‘By whom also he made the worlds.’ See the careful language. God the Father is the ‘he’, yet he made the worlds by the Son, by Christ. Long before his incarnation, as we are told at the beginning of John's gospel, he was with the Father, and through him all things were made. We cannot explain the mystery of the Father having creation attributed to him, and the Son being described as the special agency of creation. Both are true. Father and Son and Holy Spirit act together, though they are distinct as persons within the one divine everlasting essence. Why are we told this? Isn’t it sufficient for us to know that God created all things? We need to know that it was particularly through Christ that the will of the Father was carried out, because it helps us to see the indescribable scope of the mercy of Christ. Even as he created all things, he knew that humanity would fall and be cut off from God and come under condemnation. He knew that he personally was going to have to come and enter into this fallen world, and suffer and die to redeem it and individuals. So it's very valuable to know that it was through his agency that all things were created.

Application

How can we not believe that Christ is sincere when he invites us to come to him for mercy? His sincerity is demonstrated by his leaving the courts of heaven to come into this sin-infested world. Why would he pay such a price to deliver a message which he did not intend to make good on?

This is the last period of earth’s history. This present era will end with the return of Jesus Christ in power and in glory with the consummation of all things at his appearing. There will be no further alterations of the church while time continues. The church will continue until Christ returns and the New Testament teaches how it should worship, how it should be governed, how it should work and serve. In the Jewish era of ‘the church’ was a mixed multitude of saints and sinners within Israel, which was a state and a church. The members of that congregation in ancient times consisted of a minority who truly love the Lord and a majority who were just formal worshippers. But in the New Testament there is a new order, we are a regenerated church as far as we can ensure. People should only join the church if they can give testimony of having been converted and brought to Jesus Christ. These are the last days; there will be no further additions to the Scripture. That is why what the Charismatics do is very dangerous: believing that people can receive words of knowledge and words of revelation and words of wisdom in these days. The Church of Rome went off the rails in a similar way. They started adding rites and ceremonies of their own devising, and very quickly they went away from the truth and they lost it. We are called to guard and defend the Scripture, which is complete and finished and sufficient for all our needs. That is what the writer of Hebrews under inspiration says: ‘Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.’ Christ spoke and the apostles recorded everything that he said and we are led into all truth, so that after the generation of the apostles there is no more truth.

Questions

What are the last days? They are the final age in earth’s history when God’s revelation has reached its final form and his plan for earth is nearing completion. There are no more eras: this is the last era – ‘in these last days’. The next stage in God’s plan which his people can expect is the eternal age.

There are broadly two views of the Christ’s Sonship. The biblical view is that he is eternally the Son of God. There is however, a view which has been adopted by various Christians down the ages that this speaks only of incarnational Sonship, and the term Son of God is only really relevant to Christ after his human birth. That is quite incorrect and misses something extremely important. From John 3:16 it is quite clear that he was the only begotten Son when he was given. The Father did not give the second person of the Trinity to be the only Son at his incarnation; he already was the only Son. Similarly in verse 17 you see he is already the Son even as he is appointed and even as he is sent. John 3:16 doesn't make anything like as much sense, if you take that away. The whole idea is that God so loved that he sent his only Son, one who was so close to him. What about the words ‘his only begotten Son’? Does that suggest that there was a time when he was not the Son? No, it doesn't mean that. Quite apart from the fact that many nowadays prefer to translate it ‘one and only Son’ – and that may well be right – it doesn't mean begotten in the sense of being born newly. You might say, ‘the only existing Son’. If he is described as the Son of God, that means he is the same as God the Father, the same essence, equally divine. So he is eternally begotten, eternally brought about, which is a great mystery, but there never was a time when he was not. The idea of Christ being God's Son draws attention to his closeness to the Father. In olden times you very often had a king whose son was co-regent, or ruler, with him. The son was no longer a boy; he was not subservient; he was not under authority.

It’s a wonderful thing that we have, at this end point of history, tremendous historic confessions of faith. Crowning them all are the little group of 17th-century confessions of faith: the Westminster Confession, the so-called Baptist Confession, the Congregationalists or Independent Savoy Confession, largely compiled by John Owen. The amount of scriptural consideration and deep theological thought that went into those confessions is unsurpassed in all history. Historic Protestantism in its better form rests on the Bible but also on these confessions of faith. They give us a structure of doctrines drawn from the Scripture. At times in church history people haven't had that, or haven't taken them seriously. In the 19th century there was the emergence of the Brethren movement, and the Brethren, although often very accomplished in Scripture, have never had much enthusiasm for confessions. At a very early stage the movement divided many times. One such division resulted from a person who succeeded JN Darby, who came up with this doctrine of incarnational Sonship. There is a certain amount of confusion about it because he seems sometimes to teach the eternal Sonship, but mainly he expounds incarnational Sonship. Wasn’t he warned that that was really heretical? Wasn't there some mechanism to correct him? No, there was no mechanism, because they didn't have much regard for the confessions of faith, which would have shown them what at least was orthodox and normal to understand.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Hebrews 1:2 Commentary and Bible Study