Radiance, Power, and Purification

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. (Hebrews 1:1–4)

There are two things that the Bible will not let us separate — as though in order to make one look great, you need to diminish the other, or to make the other look important, you need to diminish the first. Those two things are the majesty of Jesus and the greatness of what he’s done, on the one side — and, on the other side, the practical implications of that in the way Christians are supposed to think and feel and act.

Some people are very practically oriented: “Just tell me about the kinds of things I’m supposed to do, and show me how valuable Christianity is for the ethical framework that it provides.” And other people are very idea-oriented or theology-oriented: “Tell me about the greatness of God and the majesty of Jesus and the glory of what he’s done.” And what I’m saying is that the Bible will not let you play those off against each other or neglect the one in favor of the other. This is one reason why it is so valuable to immerse yourself in the Bible every day, year after year, decade after decade, so that it becomes second nature to see things the way God sees them.

Jesus’s Superiority in Hebrews

The book of Hebrews is especially remarkable for holding together the greatness of Christ and its practical implications for daily life. No other book in the New Testament is as relentless in portraying the majesty of Jesus by focusing on his superiority over everything else. If you do a word search on the word “better” (kreittōn) in the New Testament, you find it once in 1 Corinthians (7:9), once in 1 Peter (3:17), and once in 2 Peter (2:21). But here in Hebrews it occurs twelve times.

• Jesus is better than angels (1:4–14).
• Jesus is better than Moses (3:1–6).
• Jesus is a better priest than the Levitical Old Testament priests (7:19).
• His ministry is better than the old ministry (8:6).
• The covenant he makes is better (7:22).
• The sacrifice he gives, the blood he sheds, is better than all the bulls and goats (9:12, 23).
• The tent and altar he builds in heaven are better (9:11).
• The hope he offers is better (7:19).

And there are more. The overarching theme of the letter is clear, and Kenny nailed it with the phrase “Jesus is better.” Every book in the New Testament aims to show the magnificence of Jesus Christ, but Hebrews stands out because it portrays the majesty of Jesus Christ by focusing on his superiority over everything else. Jesus is better.

“The Son himself, by a mere word, holds billions of galaxies in being. He is God.”

The focus is on his superiority over the Old Testament. And the reason this works is that the Old Testament is glorious. You don’t magnify the greatness of a mountain by comparing it with a molehill. But if you show somebody stunning photographs of the fourteen mountains in the world that are over 25,000 feet, and then you say, “Oh, there is one more: Mount Everest is better. It’s taller than all of them” — then you have magnified Mount Everest.

Here’s the way Paul uses the glory of the Old Testament to magnify the glory of Christ and his work:

Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. (2 Corinthians 3:7–10)

That’s Jesus in the book of Hebrews: not better than a molehill — better than Everest.

Christian Living in Hebrews

But as you make your way through Hebrews, what happens is that, before long, you meet the practical implications of all this superiority of Jesus for your daily thinking and feeling and acting.

• “Pay much closer attention” (2:1).
• “Hold fast [your] confidence” (3:6).
• “Take care [lest you be taken in by the deceitfulness of sin]” (3:12).
• “Do not harden your hearts” (4:7).
• “Strive to enter [God’s] rest” (4:11).
• “[Don’t] be sluggish, but [imitate] those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (6:12).
• “Strive for peace . . . and for the holiness without which [we will not] see the Lord” (12:14).
• “Offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (12:28–29).
  
• “Let marriage be held in honor . . . and let the marriage bed be undefiled” (13:4).
• “Keep your life free from love of money . . . for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (13:5).
• “[Since] Jesus also suffered outside the gate . . . let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured” (13:12–13).
  

And in all these practical implications, God is “working in us . . . through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever” (13:21). All this magnificence of Jesus, all this theology, is aiming at this: Let’s go with him outside the camp of our security, and bear reproach in his service, and do it gladly since there’s no one like him.

The Bible will not let us choose between nitty-gritty, daily, practical, risk-taking Christian living, on the one hand, and the great portrayals of the magnificence and the superiority of Jesus Christ, on the other. And today, the focus is on the magnificence of Jesus.

Jesus’s Magnificence on Display

There are eight depictions of the magnificence of Jesus in Hebrews 1:2–4. I’m picking it up where Kenny left off, in the middle of verse 2. Verse 2 begins, “In these last days he [God] has spoken to us by his Son.” Who is that? Hebrews 4:14 makes the identification explicit: “We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.” We are talking about Jesus. Hebrews 1:2 continues:

. . . [1] whom he appointed the heir of all things, [2] through whom also he created the world. [3] He is the radiance of the glory of God and [4] the exact imprint of his nature, and [5] he upholds the universe by the word of his power. [6] After making purification for sins, [7] he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, [8] having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (Hebrews 1:2b–4)

We will leave that last one (superiority to angels) for Kenny, who will take verse 4 to the end of the chapter next week, which is all about Jesus’s superiority over angels. Just one comment on verse 4: When it says he became superior to angels by inheriting a more excellent name, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t superior to angels before his death and resurrection. It means he added superiority to superiority. By his death and resurrection, he was designated the Son of God in power — power over sin and death (Romans 1:4). And he became Savior and Lord as the God-man over the universe. Peter says that this is so amazing that angels long to look into it (1 Peter 1:12).

So, that leaves us seven depictions of the magnificence of Jesus:

1. The heir of all things
2. The Creator of the world
3. The radiance of God’s glory
4. The imprint of God’s nature
5. The one who holds the universe in being by his word
6. The one whose death made purification for sin
7. The one who now sits at the right hand of God

Believing the Spectacular

Sometimes the reality of what we believe doesn’t sink in until we are confronted with people who believe very differently — for example, people who would reject every single one of those seven magnificent descriptions of Jesus. That would include all the Muslims in the Twin Cities (about seventy thousand). It would include all the Jewish people here who don’t embrace Jesus as their Messiah (about sixty thousand). It would include all the Hindus (about forty thousand; one of the largest Hindu temples in America is in Maple Grove). It would include all the Buddhist people in the Twin Cities (about ten thousand, with one of the largest Buddhist temples in America in Hampton, Minnesota, just south of the Twin Cities).

And of course, thousands of nominal Christians in the Twin Cities don’t really believe these seven things about Jesus. And by “really believe” I mean they only believe in them the way they believe in oxygen. If you ask them, “Do you believe in oxygen?” they would say, “Of course.” But that belief makes no difference in their lives. If they stopped believing in oxygen, nothing would change. And there are many people who self-identify as Christians for whom nothing would change if they stopped believing these seven things about Jesus. They would probably still go to church, even still pray, because it’s psychologically useful, relationally useful.

So, as we talk about these things, ask yourself honestly, “Do I really believe these phenomenal things about Jesus? Is this who he is for me? Are these spectacular realities having an appropriate effect on my life?”

Beginning to End

You probably noticed that the order in which these seven depictions of Jesus come in the text is not the order of their emergence in reality. For some reason, the writer didn’t put them in the order that they actually happen. For example, if I were describing the order in which they actually came to pass, the order would go like this:

From all eternity the Son of God has been the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his nature (verse 3a). And then he becomes the agent of creation and God creates everything through him (verse 2b). Then, having made the world, “he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (verse 3b). Then he enters into the world and makes purification for sins by dying on the cross (verse 3c). Then in triumph he takes the seat of honor at his Father’s right hand (verse 3d). And now he sits there, superior to all the angels as they do his bidding on the earth (verses 4, 14). And at God’s appointed time, the Son will inherit everything (verse 2b). That’s the order that things actually happen.

But it’s not the order that he gives us. I think it’s important to see both sequences. It’s important to penetrate through to reality and how reality actually exists and moves out from God in his purposes. But it’s also very important to humble ourselves under the writer’s intention and ask, “What’s your purpose in ordering these things the way you did?” I always assume that a biblical writer has reasons for the way he writes. I can’t just shuffle it around any way I please. So, let’s walk through these the way the writer presented them and see if we can understand.

Jesus as Heir

He puts first what I put last. He starts describing the Son of God by pointing to the end of all things: Christ is going to inherit everything — the universe and everything in it (verse 2). But notice, the appointment isn’t at the end. The appointment to be an heir is at the beginning, in eternity. This is extremely important, very illuminating. In those two words, “appointed heir,” we have a picture of how the mind of God works. I think you could put it like this: God plans the universe and the never-ending history of man backwards (if we can imagine sequence in God at all). He ponders, as it were, “Where is everything going to end? What’s my ultimate goal of creation and redemption and history?” And the ultimate goal he decrees is the centrality of his Son as the heir of absolutely everything. And so, in eternity past, he appoints that. He decrees that. That’s going to happen — that’s where everything is going. He declares “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10).

I’m suggesting that the reason the writer starts with the appointment of Jesus as heir of all things is to show us that this was the plan from the beginning. This creation, this universe, this history is about Jesus Christ coming into his supremacy as the heir of all things. The universe is about Jesus. Redemption is about Jesus. History is about Jesus. It is all moving toward the glory of Jesus as the heir of all things.

So, what does that mean, “heir of all things”? Doesn’t Jesus as the Creator already own all things? Yes, he does. But in God’s plan, all things are not his the way they one day will be. Satan is “the god of this world,” according to 2 Corinthians 4:4. Millions of people are in rebellion against their Creator (Romans 1:18; 8:7–8). The creation itself has been subjected to futility and bondage and brokenness (Romans 8:19–23). But the day is coming when Satan and all rebels will be cast into outer darkness and will not be part of the new creation. And “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). And Christ will come into his inheritance in the fullest sense, and all those who have believed in him are called, amazingly, “fellow heirs” (Romans 8:17). So, you have a huge stake in his being the heir of all things.

Jesus as God

Then in verse 2c, the writer goes back and shows that Jesus is not only the end and goal but also the beginning. God created the world through him. Literally, he “created the ages.” Time and space are created through Jesus Christ. This gives unfathomable depth to the statement in Hebrews 13:8 that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” If he created everything, then he was not himself created. And if he was not created, he has always been. And if he has always been, he cannot not be. He is absolute reality. And therefore, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Nothing is solid in this world; Jesus is solid.

Then, after saying he’s the end and he’s the beginning, the writer clarifies: He’s not the beginning in the sense that God chose to begin creation by using an angel. Here’s where the Jehovah’s Witnesses go so wrong (and all other religions, for that matter). The writer says, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). The Trinity is a great mystery, but it is not foolishness. It says that there is one God, and he exists in three persons. These three persons — the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit — are all God. Not gods; they are one God. Look at verse 8: “But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.’” The Son of God is God.

“It is fitting that today Jesus sits in kingly authority at the right hand of the majesty of God in the highest place.”

And here in Hebrews 1:3, the writer is giving us some glimpse into the mystery — namely, how the Father and the Son are one. Not just one in purpose, but one in being, in nature. “Radiance of his glory”; “exact imprint of his nature.” Both of those phrases say that the Son is not the Father. They are two persons. But he is the very nature of the Father. He is the Father’s glory, radiating. From all eternity, God the Father has beheld his own glory and his own nature reflected back to him in his Son. Jesus is not the Son because God had sex with Mary and got himself a human heir. From all eternity, God has existed as Father and Son and Holy Spirit (whom we meet in chapter 2).

Now the writer draws out one of the implications of this divine nature of the Son. He says that the Son “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (verse 3b). Notice in verse 2 that it was God the Father who created the world through the Son: “through whom also he [God] created the world.” But now, after making clear that the Son is very God, he says the Son himself upholds the universe. He could’ve said the Father upholds the universe through his Son. But he doesn’t. The Son himself, by a mere word, holds billions of galaxies in being. He is God. You are, and you live among, the works of Jesus every moment of every day.

Jesus as Savior King

This brings us now to the dominant theme of this book, underneath the supremacy of Christ — namely, he made purification for sins (verse 3c). Isn’t it amazing that the last thing he would say before saying that Jesus died in order to purify us from our sins is that “he upholds the universe by the word of his power”? It may be that the most beautiful thing about Jesus is not that he holds the universe in existence by the word of his power, and not that he willingly suffered, was rejected, and died to make us acceptable to God through faith. Rather, it was the coming together of those two. He moved from the place of absolute authority and power over all things to the place of total humiliation and rejection and torture in order that we, his former enemies, might be his fellow heirs of all things.

It is fitting that today he sits in kingly authority and honor at the right hand of the majesty of God in the highest place. There is absolutely no one like this, occupying the highest possible place of authority and glory and divinity, and then stepping down to take our place in suffering for the sins that we’ve committed, to make us pure forever. There’s nobody like this. He is so worthy — to be trusted, to be treasured, to be obeyed.

So, I join the writer in Hebrews 13:13–14 and beckon you and myself:

Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.