The Revelation Of God
THE REVELATION OF GOD
HEBREWS 1:1-4
This grand opening shows us the main theme of this letter: the person of Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
This short paragraph forms an introduction to the whole letter. It concentrates on the revelation God has made of himself: we are to remember the implication that people by themselves do not come to know God. He has revealed himself in many different ways from past times, as the prophets witness (1:1). But the culmination of the revelation has been reserved until recent times when he spoke “by a Son” (1:2). The contrast is between the prophet who knows God externally and can say only the things that are given him from outside, and the Son who shares in the nature of deity and can speak of what God is in himself and show what God is in his actions as well as his words.
The author proceeds to bring this out by insisting on the high place Christ occupies. “Whom he appointed the heir of all things” (1:2) should not be understood as if God adopted Christ into his family. Rather, it is a way of saying that Christ stands to God in the relation of heir. It is a way of emphasizing his excellence, not of bringing him down to the level of created beings. Far from being himself created, he was the means of the world’s creation. He “reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature.” He upholds the whole universe. He “made purification” for sins. He sits at God’s right hand. It is difficult to see how words could more clearly convey the thought that he belongs with God and not with humanity, that in him we see the very revelation of God himself.
Note 1:3: “reflects” really represents a noun with a meaning like “effulgence”; it is not so much that he reflects glory from elsewhere as that the divine glory shines from him. “Very stamp” (character) means exact representation. He shows us exactly what God is. “When he had made” is an aorist tense which points to a completed work. This is brought out also with the reference to sitting at God’s right hand.