Hebrews 1:3-4
I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews. We’re going to finish up that opening section, the introductory section in verses 1 to 4 of Hebrews chapter 1. Let me go ahead and read that. Just to start us off. Hebrews 1:1 to 4. “God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, spoke to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, Who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power; who, having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.”
As I said, we looked at the opening two verses of that, verses 1 and 2 last time. And the main point of verses 1 and 2 is that God has spoken his final word by a son. So it’s his son, but there is no possessive pronoun in the original. There’s no definite article, the son. It’s just a son. And the emphasis in that section is on the character of sonship. The relationship is kind of what’s in view.
You could maybe say an attenuated relationship between God and the prophets through whom he spoke. Not so with one who is designated a son. So God spoke his final word by a son, by the Son, his son. The entirety of Hebrews is really about the implications of God speaking by the son. What the writer to the Hebrews, the pastor, mentions a few times in this, what’s a brief exhortation a sermon, written sermon, basically, he says if God was really serious when he spoke by the prophets, and not listening to the prophets through whom he spoke was something punishable by death, then what heed ought we to give to this final word?
It’s not just a general statement to all Christians, at all times, he really does have a focus; there’s an occasion in mind. There’s a concern he’s addressing, but he really is trying in this opening section to elevate this issue of God has spoken and you need to listen and there’s a Son through whom he’s spoken and it’s very serious that we stay nearer to the son.
The relationship between God and the instruments of his speaking obviously differ between the prophets and then the one who is his very son. Pastor wants us to see that, but then the focus shifts in verse 2 from God, this one who spoke, it shifts over to this son, the one through whom he spoke, by whom he spoke. He’s the one, as verse 2 says, “Whom God appointed heir of all things and through whom also he made the world.”
The first clause there, “whom he appointed heir of all things” is the pastor’s way of saying that the son is the prototokos, the firstborn, the preeminent one. And then when he says, “through whom he made the world,” the son is not the means of creation, he’s the direct agent of creation. So from the focus of on God the Father in verses 1 and 2, the pastor then shifts his focus even more so in verses 3 to 4 to the son.
And as we noted last time, the father seems well pleased to give center stage to the son, appointing him heir of all things and then the focus in verses 3 and 4 is on that pronoun, who, “who is the radiance of his glory.” And on it goes. That becomes the subject of the verbs used in verses 3 and 4.
And I want to draw your attention just very briefly to the structure in all that’s written. In verses 3 and 4, the pastor kind of reveals his main point with two finite verbs. There are a lot of participles here that he uses in these verses, but there are a couple of finite verbs. The first is, he sat down, at the end of verse 3, and then in verse four, he has inherited. Those are two finite verbs that really reveal the main point of the author.
So the pastor’s main points, God’s final word the son sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And so the son is far better than the angels, and he has inherited a more excellent name than they. All right, so that’s just a very brief introduction based on what I just said, based on our fuller introduction to Hebrews.
What are some of the reasons you think the pastor makes these points? The son is sat down, finite verb that’s happened and then he has inherited. So finished work on the cross. It is finished, tetelestai, it’s a done deal. That’s a perfect tense there, tetelestai, it is finished and has been finished, is done and the finished work has a continuing effect.
Massively important statement on the cross, and here is a picture of that, finished work is him sitting down at the right hand of the father. So back to that finished work. He’s at the right hand of the father. He has inherited that more excellent name and that continues to this very moment.
There are some certainties that will not be moved, no matter if they are cast out of Rome yet again, no matter if they lose house, property, job, whether they go to prison, what happens to their loved ones, what happens to their families. There’s many things in this world that are not certain, aren’t predictable. We don’t know tomorrow. But there is one certainty that we can bank our life on, and that’s that Christ has finished his work.
He’s at the right hand of the father. He has inherited that more excellent name that he was promised. Everything’s good in the universe. Everything’s good in the universe. So everything’s good with my soul. All right, again, back to the occasion of Hebrews. What’s going on with this church? They’re facing heating up Neronian persecution.
You know, Nero’s the emperor. He’s nutso, so he’s burning down the huge quarter of the city, blaming it on the Christians. Things are getting pretty wild pretty fast. It does not look good. They’ve been through something similar before in Claudius’s reign when they were expelled from Rome.
Now that it’s getting really hard again, some of them want to go back to the synagogue and just duck for cover and pretend that we’re Jews and try to go back to that system. So the the author of Hebrews is saying, don’t do that, don’t do that. He’s he’s trying to stabilize and solidify them in Christ, right here at the very beginning.
Let me go ahead and read verses 3 and 4. Once again, we start out with that relative pronoun who in verse 3, “Who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power; who, having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
You can see that these are participles, and they’re rolling toward that finite verb. “He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.” And then another participle, “having become as much better than the angels as he,” there’s another finite verb, “has inherited a more excellent name than they.” Okay, so in that section it’s giving us five reasons for the supremacy of the son, his nature, his power, his work, his rest, and his triumph. His nature, power, work, rest, and triumph and I’ll go through those more slowly as we walk through.
First, his divine nature. His divine nature. After I say the point, I’ll give you a little sentence that kind of summarizes what we’re covering. So his divine nature and the sentence is this, the son perfectly radiates God’s glory. The son perfectly radiates God’s glory. Verse 3a, being, that’s a participle there, “being the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature.”
The LSB reads who is the radiance, etcetera, but it’s a verb, of being, that’s in a participle form, so it’s being ongoing, “is the radiance of His glory the exact representation.” First of two participles here, both are prior to the main verb kathizo, to sit down, and the second participle, bearing or translated, upholds, in the LSB upholding. We’ll look at that in our next point.
But just want you to see that both of those participles being the radiance of his glory, exact representation of his nature, bearing all things by the word, his power. Both of those are modifying the main verb kathizo, sat down. So we want to keep those participles together in our minds and understand that they inform the sitting down, they show up at that place of honor and authority.
Okay, so going back to those first two clauses, his divine nature; first clause, the radiance of His glory, the pastor is using this word apaugasma. It’s not used anywhere else in Scripture, and the translation, radiance, is a good translation for that. Also, you could translate it as outshining or effulgence, but it refers to in the physical spectrum of light. It refers to like a bright light shining, but it’s coming from a source, so it’s what radiates outward from that source.
One commentator says of apaugasma, suggest rays of light emanating from like a bright fire with the idea of splendor, magnificence, beauty. That’s what we see in the son. That’s what we understand to be in the son. And when we think about the word glory or glorify, we have to understand that it doesn’t always and only refer to a shiny thing we can see with our eyes, you know, as if it has no reality apart from physical sensation of light.
Glory can refer to the manifestation or the representation of something. So there’s a manifestation of glory. Was there a manifestation of glory prior to creation? When there was only God? Was there visible spectrums of light? No, because light is a creative thing, right? How is the son glorifying the father prior to the creation of all things? In representation. And that’s what we see here as well.
Glory can refer to manifestation or the representation of something. To show something, glorify can be to show something as it really is or to represent something for what it really is. And that’s what the son is doing for the father ever since eternity. He represents the father for what he really is, as he really is, and who he really is.
Keep in mind the pastor is writing about the son, as I’m saying in his preexistent state. So this is not post incarnation. This is not after he’s come to the earth. It’s a manifestation of glory. We’re talking about the representation of glory. It’s just as we learned this morning in Colossians 1:15. This is the son’s imaging of the invisible God prior to anything being visible, right?
First to his unique personhood, his only begottenness. We come to the second clause and it’s the same thing. Second clause, it says the he is the exact, and here we see the word representation, exact representation of his nature. It’s just another way to refer to the son’s imaging of the invisible God. And he is the imprint of the father’s print, you could say.
So the word charakter. Charakter is the Greek word used originally for an, engraver, engraving with a tool, an engraving tool, and leaving the mark from the engraving or it could refer to minting coins, so the the stamp pressing the image of the sovereign, the ruler, the emperor, the president in our case, into a gold or silver coin. And the mark that’s left is the exact representation of that image.
He held up and bore something in particular, namely your sins and mine; all of them, past, present, future, thought, word and deed, sins of omission, commission.” Travis Allen
So it’s the relationship of the stamp to the impression that that stamp leaves, same thing, clay to a seal, something like that. So it’s an authentic reproduction, an exact representation in this second clause, the exact representation of his nature. The son is the perfect ECT type to the father’s archetype.
Here it’s the father’s hypostasis. Some people say hypostasis. That word hypostasis literally means that which is placed beneath. So it refers to the foundation of something or the base of something, the reality of something, as opposed to the appearance on the outside. So we’re talking about the father’s substance, his nature, his essence.
It’s also the sons, because he is the exact representation of the father’s hypostasis. Starting out in verse 3 here, who is the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of his nature. This is a bare assertion on the pastor’s part. He’s announcing this, he’s asserting this, he’s proclaiming it. The son perfectly radiates the glory of God. He is the image of the invisible God. He radiates, he images, is representing perfectly the invisible God.
He does so in his preexistence. He does so before anything is made visible. No creature is there to behold the divine glory. The son still from eternity has radiated the glory of God to God and to God alone. So after affirming the divine nature or essence of the being of the son, the pastor moves on to talk about his divine power in that next part of verse 3.
And so number two, point number two his sustaining power, his sustaining power. And here’s the sentence you can write down. The son powerfully upholds God’s world. The son powerfully upholds God’s world. And this is the second part of verse 3, “Who upholds all things by the word of his power” or who bears all things by the word of His power.
Second of two participles. The first is being now it’s bearing. And the pastor uses both of those, as I said, to modify that main verb kathizo that he sat down. We just want to keep on seeing those first two points his divine nature, his sustaining power, in connection to him taking his seat at the father’s right hand. Okay.
So when we think about this sentence, he upholds all things by the word of his power, this clause, in him all things hold together, it’s not exactly the same, but it’s similar. Paul uses in Colossians 1:17 the verb synistēmi. He’s pointing to the son’s role, his continuing role, and continually upholding everything in creation, keeping everything together, keeping everything composed, not disintegrating. If the son had one oops moment, everything comes apart, everything’s destroyed.
Thankfully there is no change in the son, so he never has an oops moment like we do. Here in Hebrews 1:3, the pastor is not using the word synistēmi. It’s a different word. He uses the word phero. It’s not Pharaoh like the guy in Egypt, it’s phero, like to carry something, to bear it, to hold it up. So the first part of verse 3 says the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of nature, that’s about the person of the son. This is about the work of the son and it refers to his post creation work.
So God made the universe by the agency of the son, verse 2, and now it’s the son who upholds it continually. He bears it up. As the son has created all things by the word of his power, here it says in verse 3 Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God.” He’s upholding all things by the word of his power. He’s upholding it constantly by his word.
As the omnipotent God, we need to understand Christ is the same, the son is the same, he is omnipotent as the father is omnipotent, and so there is not one ounce of energy spent whenever he does anything. He doesn’t lose energy, he doesn’t need to recuperate. He has infinite power. He’s limitless. There’s nothing lost and there’s no need of replenishment.
So he was effortless on the part of the son to create the heavens and the earth or in the language of Hebrews 1:2 and Hebrews 11:3, he created the ages, the tusionias, the aions, all of time, all of history, material and physical reality, immaterial and spiritual reality. All this he created with a word. So no energy lost, limitless power, doesn’t even need recuperation.
And now that ongoing word to uphold all things, to bear up the created order is likewise effortless. It’s done by the word, the very same word that called everything into existence out of nothing. He upholds everything by that same word. Keeping in mind, as I said, the need to carry forward these first two concepts, these first two points, his person, his work, and carrying these into what comes next. Why do you think that verb phero, to carry, to bear, to bear up is such a fitting word when we think about him sitting down?
So what I’m trying to say is when he uses this word phero, which means to bear, to carry, there’s something in particular that he bore to that seat that enabled him to take that seat. And it says it right there. He accomplished cleansing for sins. What did he carry? Our sins, he carried the burden, the weight of our sins to the cross. And once the father poured out his wrath, all those sins are gone. All those sins are atoned for, expiated, the father’s propitiated.
That’s why I love this word and I’m kind of geeking out about it because I’m like staring at the details. But I, I hope you can rejoice with me that your sins have been born, this one who upholds all things by the word of his power. He held up and bore something in particular, namely your sins and mine; all of them, past, present, future, thought, word and deed, sins of omission, commission.
I mean a million sins that you do not even know about. He’s taken and borne them to the cross and they’re gone, separated as far from you as the East is from the West and so when he sits on that throne, sits to the right hand of the father. He’s not sitting there with that burden any longer. I love that. So we go from his divine nature and his sustaining power, the first two points.
We come thirdly, to what I think is the pastor’s main point and argument, number three his priestly work. His priestly work. And here the sentence is the son mercifully cleanses God’s people. The son mercifully cleanses God’s people in verse 3c. There’s an A B C and D to verse 3 in a lot of sub points there, But 3C is that the son mercifully cleanses God’s people. And this is about his priestly work.
“Who having accomplished cleansing for sins.’ Having accomplished cleansing for sins, the word is katharismos. It’s a very common word in Scripture. You can hear the word catharsis in that word. That’s where we get it from, is this Greek word, and it refers to, often times in Scripture refers to ceremonial cleansing or a ritual purification and the need for cleansing, whether ceremonially in the temple or ritually.
You think about Leviticus 13 to 14 where it talks about all the skin diseases and how to identify them. And man, that’s tedious, isn’t it, to have to be a priest and have another skin disease come in, like, okay, all right, let me take a coffee break and I’ll get back right back to you. Let’s talk about that.
But I mean, there’s stuff in the house, there’s stuff in the wall, there’s stuff in the clothing, and there’s stuff in the scalp and all that. And then there’s processes for declaring that person clean, restoring them to the community. All of this is katharismos, this cleansing and purification, and even the picture of leprosy is just a picture. It’s an ongoing kind of a word picture, an object lesson to point to a deeper need for cleansing.
The need for cleansing is based on this underlying reality of a guilt before God and a resulting moral defilement that’s caused by our sinning. And it was portrayed so clearly in Israel’s sacrificial system. William Lane, a commentator, says “The uncleanness of the people was acknowledged before the Lord at the altar, and from this defilement they had to be cleansed by the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrificial animal, and the blood covered and obliterated the sins upon the altar.” And the word in Exodus 30 verse 10 in the Septuagint is katharismos. He goes on to say, “The purification of the people was similarly achieved by blood in an act of expiation, Leviticus 16:30.”
So as the history of Israel shows, and as the argument of Hebrews continues, we see the purification rights of Israel didn’t suffice. I mean, they had to keep coming year after year. They had to keep on killing more and more animals, always slaughtering animals, always draining blood, so they could sprinkle it all over everything, because people keep on sinning.
Even the priests themselves who are supposed to bring this offering, they’re sinning, so they need blood sprinkle on them, when they’re set apart for the work. Not with Christ, not with his sacrifice. And here’s where the nature of this eternal person, our first point, and the power that’s evident in his creating and his ongoing work to bear and uphold all things. Here’s where that comes into play more acutely and more intimately and for our good.
The participle here is poiēsámenos. The verb is poieo, to do or to make or, here, you could translate it this way to accomplish. And that participle is in the aorist tense. It indicates that this is a done deal, it’s a finished work. It’s a constative aorist, just kind of looking at the action as an entirety, a whole. And it’s also this aorist participles in the middle voice. It can’t have a reflexive idea or it can have an, accomplishing in and of himself idea.
And it’s that second idea in the middle voice of the participle. Here the son accomplished this work all on his own, all by himself. It’s all consummated in him, accomplished in him, finished in him, and it’s a done deal. Such a contrast to the temple, to the priesthood, to the sacrifices, and all through the years of the sacrificial system. So much blood shed.
Here our Lord offered the once for all sacrifice for sin, so no other sacrifice is necessary. And it’s so settled, so settled, that to attempt to offer any other sacrifice insults his finished perfect work. This is why the sacrifice of the Mass and the Roman Catholic Church is such a serious offense and repugnant to God. To attempt to offer any other sacrifice.
I mean, who would dare to keep on sacrificing once the son is offered up himself to just for the unjust to reconcile us to God? It’s actually the point of the author of Hebrews too. I’ve titled this point his priestly work and said that the son mercifully cleanses God’s people. To be clear, the writer to the Hebrews never calls the son a priest here, does he? He doesn’t call him a priest here.
A million sins that you do not even know about. He’s taken and borne them to the cross and they’re gone, separated as far from you as the East is from the West.” Travis Allen
So how would I defend my point? This is the argument of Hebrews. That’s how I defend it. He’s introducing the elements right here in verses 1 to 4 that he’s going to deal with in the entirety of the book. And actually, this is a big one, this cleansing for sin. All the other elements that we’ve covered so far, the divine nature of the son, the sustaining power of the son, and verse 2, the agency of the son in creating the world. Notice that none of that is really featured in the rest of the book of Hebrews. It doesn’t really come up as something major.
It’s just everything that he says rests on those facts, but the facts he really wants to cover, what he really wants to pursue is the priestly work of Christ. And the priestly work of Christ is our hope and our consolation and our joy. It cleanses our defiled conscience. Whenever we commit sin, he takes away the defilement. We look upon this finished work and we plead his blood.
We go to him all the time for sympathy and mercy and compassion and our time of need. Listen, even when we’re dead wrong, you can still go to him. And he receives us to himself because he’s sympathetic, kind as a high priest at the right hand of the father. He’s cleansed us. There’s nothing more to be done, nothing more to be accomplished. And So what the pastor is arguing in the brief exhortation is the finished work of Christ in cleansing us and the ongoing ministry that he has to apply his perfect work to our souls, to our consciences, to our hearts. That’s what this whole book is about.
All right, fourth point, very quickly, his kingly rest. And this is really the main verb that governs verse 3. It’s closely connected to the priestly work of the son. But the brief focus here is on the royalty of the son. And here’s the sentence. The son fittingly receives God’s reward. Verse 3d. The final point in verse 3, “He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.”
He sat down is in aorist form of kathizo and it shows completion, completion. So the picture here is kind of a royal throne room, you might say, the Great Hall of a mighty king, a mighty king that the author identifies as the majesty on high. He actually uses that term later on as well. And here he’s referring to God the father as the majesty on high.
And I just want to give you another picture just to visualize a little bit. Listen to this. You don’t need to turn there. You can if you’re quick. But Daniel 7:9 and 10, listen to this. Daniel says, “I kept looking until thrones were set up, until the Ancient of Days was seated.” That’s the majesty on high. “And his clothing was like white snow. The hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with fire, it’s wheels were a burning fire, and a river of fire was flowing and coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands were attending him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before him. The court sat and the books were opened.”
Ancient of the days, God the Father, he’s seated on the throne, he’s surrounded by myriads of angels ready to judge and in the language of Hebrews 1:3 this is the majesty. He’s the megalōsynē. He’s the greatest, the most prominent one. His greatness and prominence is to the uttermost. He adds that preposition, on high, enhypsēlos highest greatness.
I mean, he’s just trying to magnify this esteemed preeminence that can’t go any higher. He’s piling on these superlatives, but he’s not doing with any kind of verbosity. He’s doing it with like an appropriateness and a fittingness and a beauty here. We can read in Daniel 7:13. “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And he came up to the Ancient of Days and came near before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not be taken away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.”
So this one like a son of man who comes, is in no ways out of place in coming. Being the radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of his nature, man, he belongs there, he fits there, he corresponds to the one who is the ancient of days. With that picture in mind, we look at Hebrews 1:3. We come to recognize the pastor who writes this. He’s referring to this prophetic imagery with the son as the coregent of the father.
Where do you get that concept from? Psalm 110 verse 1, “Yahweh says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies as a footstool for Your feet.” That theme comes up again and again in Hebrews. He sat down, indicates the work is finished; at my right hand, indicates approval, reward, until I put your enemies as a footstool for your feet, indicates a rest, while he’s awaiting honor and glory, the reward of his obedience.
And here he’s in the throne room, he’s at the father’s right hand. So this is a royal scene here. The son is awaiting God’s reward. He’s enjoying his kingly victory. He’s resting, but he’s not doing nothing. He’s not doing nothing. Christ is there serving God’s people. He’s ministering mercy. He’s an eternal high priest, as Psalm 110:4 says, He’s a priest after the order of Melchizedek, and he serves God’s people from a place of reward and peace and rest.
It brings us to a fifth point, final point, his eternal triumph, his eternal triumph. His eternal triumph and the sentence is that he eternally fulfills God’s will. He eternally fulfills God’s will, verse 4, “Having become as much better than the angels as he has inherited.” There’s the second finite verb, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they.
Name is not referring to moniker, there, is referring to who he is. He’s inherited a more excellent name than they. Back in verse 2, “God appointed the son as heir of all things,” aorist tense, constant aorist, completed act. Here in verse 4 the tense changes to the perfect tense of klēronomeō, he has inherited. So it’s a completed act again, but this time perfect tense, continuing results.
So what the father appointed for the son, from all eternity, comes to fruition in time and space in the outworking of redemption, and it continues on into glory. Again, commentator says, “He entered into a perfect state of glory only after His humiliation and sacrificial death. His exaltation is thus described as a heavenly enthronement, verse 3, validated by the proclamation of his name, verse 4, and rank, verse 5, and the call for angelic recognition of his supreme deity, verse 6, and the fresh enunciation of his exaltation in verses 8 to 13.”
That’s who we have ahead of us, is to see that he is so much more excellent than the angels themselves. Simon Kistemacher says that, “the writer portrayed the Son as: one, the prophet through whom God has spoken; two, the creator through who made the universe; three, the heir of all things; four, the representation of God’s being; five, the upholder of all things, six; the priests who provided purification for sins, and seven; the king who sat down at his place of honor.” Very accurate summary of what we’ve read so far just in these few couple verses.
I’d like to close with the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 2. “Although He was existing in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He emptied Himself by taking the form of a slave, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has also highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.”
Please bow with me for a word of prayer. It feels like our little survey father has been all too brief and have a hard time digesting all that’s here. But we do pray that you would help us to reflect on what we’ve heard and maybe go over it later in our Bible reading, just to think about the sublimity of the Son, the supremacy of his being, of his work, of his priestly and kingly role, and his eternal reward. We thank you so much for giving him to us as a savior, our Lord, older brother, a priest, mediator.
We also thank you for giving us to him and reconciling us to you. We thank you that we can now, because we’re in him, we can come to you with every need. We know that we’ll be heard because of Christ’s faithfulness and his obedience. We know that there is no sin separating us truly in a judicial sense, because it’s all been paid for by Christ. We know that we stand before you with a righteousness that is not our own, but a righteousness is found by faith in Jesus Christ.
We’re covered in him, and so as we stand before you, it’s as if the son stands before you. And when we make a plea, it’s as if he makes the plea. Pray that you would sanctify us and fill us with a further knowledge of your will and an understanding of your truth so that when we pray, we pray accurately. We pray things that really do accrue to good and bear fruit and increase in knowledge and glory and understanding and pray you help us to be faithful to what we understand and know. And we be just filled with joy and gratitude for what you’ve done for us in Christ. It’s in His name we pray. Amen.