“Long ago God spoke to the fathers
by the prophets at different
times and in different ways. In these last
days, He has spoken
to us by [His] Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the
universe through Him. The Son is the
radiance of God’s glory
and the exact expression of His nature,
sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at
the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
(Hebrews 1:1-3 HCSB)
Have you ever known someone who had to have the last
word? Are you married to him/her? Are you that one? Somebody does get the last word—and it is
God! Who can dispute His decree or
debate His decision? He is infinite
wisdom backed by almighty power residing in an eternal Being—He gets the last
word.
The truth is—God speaks.
I am communicating His truth now.
Since we are made in His image, we speak and listen, read and
comprehend. As cash is a medium of
exchange, so our words are the currency of communication.
The best of books is the Good Book—the Bible. There had to be a Bible—this God who reveals
Himself desired to convey His nature and clarify His will by having His Spirit
inspire the prophets and apostles to document His work and words in the Holy
Scriptures.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that God has spoken. He has done so in different times and in
different ways through His spokesmen.
For instance, God spoke to Moses in a burning bush—he heard an audible
voice. God whispered to Elijah. God gave Isaiah a vision. He had Ezekiel convey His truth through
object lessons. Hosea lived out God’s
message in his own marriage. God took
His finger and wrote down His Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone. He told Jeremiah to have his scribe write
down what He dictated to him. There were
occasions that God sent an angel to speak to His prophets. God has spoken.
Now, He has spoken His last Word—and that Word is a
Person—Jesus Christ. Someone has well
said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and in Jesus we have the complete
picture of God. He told His disciple
Philip, “The one who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9b) When Jesus worked, people saw the works of
God. When He spoke, people heard the
words of God. Where He walked, people
saw the wonder of God. There is no
further revelation given—none is needed.
He is the last word—He is the living Word.
All of the Old Testament revelation was preparation—telling
us that the Living Word is coming. The
Gospels are manifestation—telling us that the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. The remainder of the New
Testament truth is explanation—telling us what it means that God has spoken
through His Son and what we need to do about it. The canon of Scripture is closed with a book
appropriately named, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” God’s last Word has come—and is coming
again—and will have the last word in judging the world and calling into being
new heavens and a new earth.
The author of Hebrews wants us to know that Jesus is superior
to all things and in every way. He is
the extreme excellence of all excellences.
His intent in stressing this was to stop some in their tracks who were
starting to slip away from their profession of faith. They were Hebrews who had announced a decision
to follow Christ. Then they discovered
that self-denial was hard and carrying a cross meant pain—persecution made them
have second thoughts—and some were turning back.
How foolish! Turn back
to what? Everything else was inferior to
the Son of God. Should they return to
follow the Law of Moses? Jesus was
Moses’ God! Should they listen to
angels? The angels were in submission to
the Son. Jesus is the ultimate—the end
all of all—the final answer and the last Word.
There is none like Jesus—there has never been One like Him
and will never be another. He is Jesus,
the One and Only—the unique Son.
HE IS THE HEIR OF ALL THINGS.
“God has appointed Him heir of all things…”
It is an eternal decree for there has never been a time that
He was not the Son and thus the heir. Still
the possessing of that which is His from eternity will transpire in time, and
be His for all eternity when He reigns forever and ever, King of kings and Lord
of lords. He is the Only Son and claims
the inheritance of His Father.
HE IS THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS.
“God…made the universe through Him.”
Since all things were made by Him, Jesus Himself
is eternal and uncreated. The Triune God
was at work speaking all there is in heaven and earth into being. Since He fashioned it, He owns it. Christ lays claim to His creation—every inch
of soil, each star in the sky, each square foot of the cosmos—all His. We are impressed with the vastness of the
universe. We are in awe of the power we
see in the storms that sweep our planet.
We marvel at the beauty of nature.
How much greater is the One who called it all into being!
HE IS THE RADIANCE OF GOD’S GLORY.
“The Son is the
radiance of God’s glory…”
The glory of
God is His essence visibly manifest.
That radiance is the outshining of His attributes. John would phrase it this way concerning
Jesus, “The
Word became flesh
and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) In the Old Testament, the glory cloud took up
residence in the Tabernacle, but in the New Testament, that glory made its home
in a tabernacle of flesh when a Babe was conceived in the womb of a virgin
named Mary. The Light of the World would
burst forth in Bethlehem
HE IS THE EXPRESSION OF GOD’S
NATURE.
“The Son is…the exact expression of His nature”
In essence the
Father and the Son are One. To see Jesus
is to see God. To hear His voice is to
hear God speak. To observe His character
is to observe God’s character. The Greek
term translated “exact expression” was used in the minting of coins. The image of a king would be stamped on the
metal. If someone asks you, “Who is on a
quarter?” Your response is, “George
Washington.” Now, it isn’t really the
“Father of our Country,” but is his likeness.
In a far greater way, Jesus bears the imprint of God—the Eternal One
engraved all over Him because He is the eternal Son. Jesus is fully God and yet the Father is not
the Son and the Son is not the Father.
One God—three Persons—and the image of the invisible God the Father is
identically seen in the Son of God.
"Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel" (Charles Wesley)
HE IS THE
SUSTAINER OF ALL THINGS.
“The Son is…sustaining all things by His powerful word”
Jesus is not
only the One who spoke all things into existence as the source, but His word
holds all things together as the sustainer.
I had a friend who when he was young put some chicks on a turntable to
give them a ride. “It will be like a
merry-go-round,” he thought. So, he
turned the record player on 78 RPMS and it was a disaster—chicks went hurtling
everywhere, slapping into the walls with deadly impact. Think about the fact that the globe you are
on is spinning at an incredible rate of speed, turning on its axis. At the same time, our planet is flying at
high velocity through space in its annual circuit around the sun. While all this transpires, our moon is
orbiting the Earth. Then, there are
other planets in our solar system that are orbiting, spinning, with moons, and
the solar system itself is on the move through the galaxy, and the remarkable
thing is—why doesn’t everything fly apart like those chicks? Jesus holds it all together by the sheer
power of His command!
HE IS THE
SAVIOR FOR ALL SINNERS.
“After making
purification for sins…”
This is why He
came to earth. Jesus was born a man to
live a perfect life, qualify as the sinless substitute for sinners and be
sacrificed for us. Many verses in
Hebrews remind us that the Old Testament sacrificial system could never atone
for our sins. Those slain animals were a
bloody reminder that sin required a price, and prefigured the Lamb of God who
alone could come and purify that sin.
Each offering was a shadow of which Christ was the substance. Those Mosaic offerings were an object lesson
to point people to a Savior to come—and through the obedience of their
faith—God saved them “on credit” so to speak, until the payment was made. Thank God it has been—paid in full! That brings me to our final consideration.
HE IS THE
CONSUMMATION OF ALL THINGS.
“He sat down
at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
When your work
is done, you go and sit down—mission accomplished. That is what Jesus has done. Our Lord cried out from the cross, “It is
finished!” All that was required to
bring us salvation had been accomplished.
Every demand has been satisfied.
Now, He sits and waits until the Father will send Him to bring the final
consummation of all things. Then will
come to pass the last, “Amen” of Revelation:
“Then the One
seated on the throne said, ‘Look! I am making everything new.’ He also said, ‘Write,
because these words are faithful
and true.’ And He said to
me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha
and the Omega, the Beginning
and the End.’” (Rev.21:5,6a)
In that day,
every knee will bow before Him.
Some will bow
madly—Satan and his fallen angel followers, as well as the debauched, depraved
and defiant among men. Hitler, Stalin
and Mao will gnash their teeth in anger as they are consigned to the Lake of Fire
Some will bow
sadly—realizing too late that they might have been saved had they called on the
Lord. Fully intending someday to get
right with God, they missed their opportunity and with weeping they are
sentenced to eternal sorrow.
But, I—and
hopefully each of you reading this—will bow gladly! Having received Christ here, we will be
invited into His joy hereafter. If you
want to bow gladly in eternity, then you need to bow gladly on earth. Receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior. What will it be to see Jesus face to face—to
bask in His glory, to worship at His nail-scarred feet, and abide in His love
and peace in the place of breathtaking beauty called the New Jerusalem! Come, Lord Jesus!
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