THE Apostle has stated that God has spoken to us now by his Son. God has now spoken to us by Jesus Christ, and in Jesus we have a fuller and more complete revelation of God and his saving love towards us. As God spoke in the past by the prophets, it is important to establish the credentials, to the Jews specially, but also to us all, of the Son as the chief spokesman of God. The Apostle does this in various ways throughout this letter, but he starts in these opening verses by telling us how much greater Jesus is to all others whom God has used to speak to the world.

Jesus has been appointed heir of all things. The heir is the one who inherits all the possessions and dignity of the Father. In the case of God the Father and God the Son, this inheritance is a permanent one as the Father is eternal as the Son is eternal. As the heir of all things, the Son, Jesus Christ, is placed on a equal footing and dignity with God the Father, and so perfectly expresses the revelation of God. Jesus expressed this in John 14 when he says to Thomas, that he who has seen Him has seen the Father.

Because of this dignity the Son was the creator of the universe with God the Father, and so again is far above all others in creation, whether angels or men, and so most perfectly speaks for God.

The next two verses interpret this dignity in more detail. As heir of all things, the Son is God, but the Apostle makes this more explicit by saying that the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. In other words, when we look on Jesus we have an exact view of God in all his perfections, glory and power. When Jesus became incarnate, this dignity and glory was veiled in flesh, but what shines through the flesh, through the humanity of Jesus, is a true and perfect revelation of God. In the context of proving that Jesus is the true and perfect spokesman of God, this statement concerning Christ shows how utterly he has the true authority to speak the revelation of God, and that he expresses most perfectly that message of God, and his words supersede and update all that God has said before his coming.

It is also true that Jesus speaks as much in the revelation of his person, as in his teaching. Further Jesus is speaking to us from God in his great and glorious work of giving his life a ransom for many. Even when Jesus was incarnate, and made man for us, he did not give up his authority as the heir of all things, and so still while on earth, Jesus sustained, held together and maintained, the universe he had created. This is almost, if not completely, more than our minds can handle, but it is true. Even on the cross and in his death, he was sustaining all things.

God has spoken in his Son the greatest wonder of all when his Son, according to the will of God the Father, provided purification for our sins. This is the wonder of wonders in the revelation of God to sinners, spoken by the Son. God has spoken a message of salvation in Jesus. In Jesus we see God’s plan to redeem sinners from death and hell. The problem of sin, and the necessity of God to judge and punish sin, is dealt with. Sin and its offence towards God has to be purged. It can only be purged by justice being exacted, the sentence of eternal death being carried out, and God’s holy law and justice being thus fulfilled. So the Son purges our sin by taking our sin upon himself, and dying according to the just sentence of God’s holy law against sin, and suffering eternal death on the cross. In this way our sin is purged, cleansed, and put away, and God reveals to us in Jesus that we can be reconciled to him for ever.

We shall see, as we go on in this letter to the Hebrews, that this purging of sin was just what all the revelation of God through Moses and the prophets and the Levitical system could never achieve.

Jesus now, as heir of all things, and particularly now as perfect redeemer, is sat down on the throne of the majesty on high. This sitting down expresses that work has been completed. God was said to rest after the work of creation had been completed, and now we read that the Son has sat down after the work of redemption had been completed.

But Jesus sat down on the throne of God. The throne in heaven is the throne of God and the Lamb. This sitting down on the throne is the expression and revelation of the fact that Jesus reigns to make his redemptive victory effective, until all his redeemed are gather in, and all his enemies are under his feet and defeated completely and for ever.

In one sense there could not be a more complete declaration of the authority of Jesus as the one who speaks to us from God, but we are not left with just this revelation. The rest of the letter amplifies and explains more perfectly all that Jesus is and has done for us and for all who believe on him.