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THE GLORY OF CHRIST AS THE SON OF GODHEBREWS 1:1-3INTRODUCTION John Owen in his book, “The Glory of Christ” begins by considering the prayer that Jesus prayed the night before he was killed. He prayed that night, for us. In that prayer to his Father, Jesus’ ultimate request was this, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am in order that they might see my glory which you have given to me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” Jesus’ greatest ambition for you and for me is that we would be with him so that we can behold his glory. Why does he want this? There are two ways his motive is expressed in his prayer. He wants us to be with him and to behold his glory because he wants us to have the full measure of his joy in us and because he loves us. These are just two ways of saying the same thing. He loves us and therefore he wants us to be as happy as we can possibly be. That is what love does, it works to secure the highest joy of the beloved. The greatest happiness that you and I can ever experience is to be with Christ beholding his glory. Therefore, the most loving thing that Christ can do for us is to bring us to be with him so that we can behold and relish his glory. This is the end for which God made us and for which Christ was born as a baby and for which he died. Christ did not die so you can have a happy marriage and good health and good friends and nice children and a fulfilling career. Christ came so you can be satisfied with him. Owen points to that poignant moment in the story of Joseph, when, as the prince of Egypt he reveals who he is to his brothers. After calming them down and assuring them that he is not going to harm them for their betrayal he tells them, “Go and tell my father about all the glory I’ve been given in Egypt.” Owens then asks, "why did Joseph want his father to know about his glory?" Just think about what it meant to his father who had lived for almost 25 years assuming his beloved son was dead to discover that not only he is alive but that he is the second most powerful man in the world. He makes this discovery when he and his family are in the throes of a horrible famine and in desperate need. Seeing the glory of Joseph would overwhelm Jacob with joy and delight. Joseph wants his father to know of his glory so his father will be joyful in him and be at peace. This is but a small picture of the joy that will be the reward of every Christian in heaven. However, Owen goes on to make the point that as this is the end for which Christ has saved us so now it is to be the ambition of every Christian to behold and savor and taste something of the glory of Christ by faith. This is what he says, “No man (or woman) shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight in heaven who does not, in some measure, behold it by faith in this world… No (one) ought to look for anything in heaven if he (or she) has not by faith first had some experience of it in this life. If people were convinced of this they would spend more time in the exercise of faith and love about heavenly things than they usually do… it is only as we behold the glory of Christ by faith here in this world that our hearts will be drawn more and more to Christ and to the full enjoyment of the sight of his glory hereafter… On Christ’s glory I would fix all my thoughts and desires and the more I see of the glory of Christ, the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes…” This is my ambition this Christmas morning: to set before our eyes something of the glory of Christ as revealed in his word so we might behold his glory by faith and thus be fit for the glory that is to come. I pray that his glory will outshine the “painted beauties of this world” that have been occupying our attention during this madness we call Christmas in America. MAIN POINT Jesus Christ, the Son of God is the most glorious of beings because…I. He is God’s final and ultimate word (vv. 1-2a) The letter to the Hebrews is written to a group of Christians who are being severely tempted to renounce Christ and return to their old way of life. The temptation to quit is due to both their sin and to the persecution of the surrounding non-Christian culture. So this letter is written to give reasons for remaining faithful to Christ, to not give up. As you read this letter it becomes clear, from the beginning that the main reason not to quit is the greatness of Jesus Christ and his work for us. The very first thing the author emphasizes is the superiority of Christ to the entire OT. He is superior not because there is something wrong with the OT but because he is the fulfillment of what the OT says. The OT is God speaking, but speaking in promise, in type, in foreshadowing. His speaking in and by his Son is the fulfillment and completion of what he only promises in the OT. We can see the superiority of God’s speaking by his Son in several ways. First, the variety of ways that God speaks and the variety of people through whom he speaks in the OT as contrasted with the one and final way he speaks in his Son shows the OT to be the incomplete expression of God’s word whereas this last word by his Son is his final word. Second, the phrase, “in these last days” is taken right out of the OT. In the OT it is always used of those final days when God’s salvation is accomplished in the world. It is a phrase that parallels the phrase, “the day of the Lord” and points to the completion of God’s plan to destroy his enemies and save his people. By saying that he has spoken by his son in these last days he is using the OT phrase to prove that Christ is the end of the OT. He is the final salvation. Third, the prophets, while they are variously called God’s servants and God’s messengers are clearly only men. This one who has now spoken is his Son. The prophets who spoke to the Jewish nation through those long centuries and whose words are recorded in the OT were mere men. However, the one through whom God has spoken to us, to the church, is the eternal Son of God. He saved the best for last. This means a couple of things. First, since the last book of the NT was written back in about 90 A.D. there are no more inspired words from God. What God began to say in the OT he finished saying in his Son. Anytime you hear someone say that they are speaking God’s word and they are not quoting from either the OT or NT or attempting to explain the meaning of some portion of these 66 books, you can know they are lying. No one can say any longer, "Thus says the Lord" unless they are quoting or rightly interpreting a passage of this book. The true and living God has only spoken through the prophets of the OT and now by his Son through his apostles in the NT. All other claims to have a "word from God" are deception. The second thing this means is that there is nothing to know from God or about God beyond Christ. In him are hidden all the treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge. There is nothing greater to know than to know Christ. This will be your preoccupation in heaven and should be your preoccupation now. The third thing this means for us is that we are to be satisfied with what God has said to us by his Son. Many people spend lots of time seeking God’s word about what job God wants them to have or what person God wants them to marry or where he wants them to live. God delights to direct the steps of his people but the main thing he wants to say to you he has already said by his Son. Knowing what God has spoken by his Son is infinitely more important than trying to figure out what he says about your career. Fourth, this means that God wants to communicate with us. If God did not speak, we would know nothing of him. We would be lost in the darkness and confusion of our own imagination. But God, in his infinite grace has spoken. He has revealed himself and told us the truth about ourselves and about the world we live in. Supremely he has told us about himself in his Son. Therefore we can know true things, not because we are smart but because God has spoken. Jesus Christ, the Son of God is the most glorious of beings because…
II. He is God the Son (vv. 2b-3b) I know this sounds redundant and does not stir your heart at all. To say that Jesus is the Son of God does not, on the surface, show his glory to those who are long accustomed to confessing this to be true. But the author to the Hebrews does not leave us with just a title. He fills in the details of this confession by telling us four things about this Son by whom God has spoken to us. I want to consider each of these four things in turn so that we might see the glory of Christ. One thing we need to remember as we examine each of these glories is that God can only communicate with us about his divine glory with human language. He must use the language of the visible creation and of the society of men in order for us to understand anything. Therefore, all the language we are about to consider, while telling us true things about the glory of Christ as God the Son cannot fully express the infinite glory that the Triune God possesses. We will spend all of eternity growing in our admiration of the glory of Christ and so we should not expect here, in this fallen world through the limitations of language to apprehend the fullness of his glory. We know true and glorious things but we cannot now or ever know all of the glory of God. The first thing we are told is that God has made this Son the heir of all things. This doesn’t mean that someday God the Father is going to die and then God the son will inherit everything. Rather we learn something of the nature of the relationship within the Godhead. God the Father is the owner of all things. He stands at the head of the Trinity as the one to whom all things belong. He is not more God than the Son but by right of his Fatherhood he is the owner of all. As the Father and owner of all he appointed his Son as his heir. I’ve known several small business owners over the years and it is a joyful thing when a father is able to give the business he owns into the hands of his child, knowing his son or daughter will manage it well. In a similar way the Father was delighted to place all things into the hands of his glorious son. The “all things” means, all of creation. The Son is not part of creation because he cannot be part of that which he possesses. Jesus Christ, the Son of God possesses all of creation. He owns you, your family, your neighbor, your job, your time, your nation, your city, the air you breath, everything belongs to the Son of God. Now the good news for us is that he possesses all things so that he can give to us his riches. As Paul says in Romans 8:17, “we are co-heirs with Christ.” And in 1 Corinthians 3:21-22 says, “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future all belongs to you and you belong to Christ, and Christ is of God.” Not only is the Son the heir of all things but he is also the one through whom the Father made the universe. It only makes sense that since the Son was the agent in creation that he should also be the possessor of it. The relationship between the Father and the Son is seen in that little preposition, “through”. God the Father created all that exists "through" or "by means of" his Son. We had an architect design this building and a general contractor agree to build it. These two men worked through a whole host of carpenters and electricians and steel workers to get it built. There is a particular glory that goes to the architect but there is another kind of glory that goes to those who actually did the steel work and put up the walls and did the trim. God the Father spoke creation into existence through God the Son. When you marvel at some fresh discovery of the complexity or grandeur of this creation you should immediately turn that wonder towards the Son of God through whom God the Father made that marvel. As we come to verse three the author uses two synonymous phrases to tell us about the unity of these distinct persons, the Father and the Son, whom he has referred to in v. 2. He uses two phrases that essentially say the same thing so that we won’t miss the point. There are not two gods. There is one God who eternally exists as three persons. In these two phrases the unity of being that exists in the Father and the Son is emphasized. Jesus Christ, the Son of God is the radiance of God’s glory. God in his actual, essential being is invisible and always will be. The Son is the visible radiance of God's invisible glory. In a way similar to the way that the light and heat we experience from the sun is the radiance of the glory of the sun, so the Son of God is the radiance of the glory of God. Just as Jesus told Philip in John 14, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” All that can be known of God by man is revealed in the radiance of the Son of God. Or to say it with the second phrase, Jesus is the exact imprint of the essence of God’s being. The eternal, divine Son has made the invisible God manifest in the universe without mixture. When you see the glory of Christ you are seeing the glory of God in his very being made visible. The final thing that the author tells us about the greatness of Christ as God, the Son is that he is right now sustaining the entire universe by his powerful word. The reason the earth revolves around the sun and rotates on its axis so that the sun comes up every day is because the Son declares it to be so. Every atom in the universe continues to exist with the properties with which it was created because the Son of God commands them to do so. The reason this podium remains a podium and does not become a tree or turn into poisonous gas is because the Son sustains its properties as a podium. The world is ablaze with the glory of the Son as he sustains all things as they were created to be by his powerful word. In these few short phrases we are told that all that characterizes Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob also characterizes the divine Son. He is the creator of all, the owner of all and the one who sustains all. He shares in the glory of the Father because he and the Father are one. He is God, the Son. Jesus Christ, the Son of God is the most glorious of beings because…
III. He did what no one else can do (3c) The grammar of this string of clauses aims to emphasize these last two phrases. An expanded translation might go like this, "Even though the Father appointed the Son as the heir of all things and even though the Father made all things through him and even though he is the radiance of his glory, the exact imprint of his actual being, and even though he sustains all things by his powerful word, yet he made purification for sins and is now seated at God's right hand as our intercessor." There is nothing more surprising in the entire universe than that the eternal Son of God made purification for sins and now intercedes with his Father for sinners. What can be more marvelous than this: that the One who upholds all things is born as a baby and willingly endures all the miseries of human life and humbly offers himself up as the perfect sacrifice for sins to cleanse all who trust him from their sins? It is only right that the heavens be full of angels singing his praise at this birth. All creation ought to burst into joyful song and wonder at this amazing grace. How dull we are to know this truth and to not be overcome by awe. The bulk of the rest of the letter to the Hebrews is spent reflecting on what this little phrase, "he made purification for sins" means. The assumption in this phrase is that you and I have sins from which we need to be cleansed. The eternal Son of God would not undertake to do something that is not necessary. As I have often said before, our greatest problem is our sins. It doesn't matter what difficulty you may be experiencing in this life, the biggest problem that faces you is your sins and God's anger against you for your sins. If you remain in your sins, if your sins are not cleansed away then you cannot ever know God and enjoy his glory. John Owens in his book The Glory of Christ says, "A fish would not thank you for taking it out of the sea and putting it on dry land under the blazing sun. Neither would an unregenerate sinner welcome the thought of living for ever in the blazing glory of Christ." If your sins are not cleansed not only will you be unfit to be in the presence of the holy God but you will not want to be in his presence. People who are not trusting in Christ only fool themselves when they talk of their desire to go to heaven. They think of heaven as a place where they get to enjoy all they enjoy here on earth with all their favorite people in perfect health with no guilt. But that is not what heaven is all about. Heaven is about enjoying the glory of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. As I said at the beginning, if you do not enjoy, in some measure the glory of Christ here by faith you will never enjoy it in heaven. The only reason you and I can enjoy the glory of Christ is because the eternal Son made purification for our sins. He removed, by his death, the guilt and the penalty of sin from us. This one who has made purification for our sins now sits at God's right hand. In other words, the one who died for us is now in God's very presence where, as the author of this letter will later say, "he always lives to intercede for us." The hope we have of entering God's holy presence and not being consumed by his wrath is because the perfect Son of God who made purification for our sins is sitting at the right hand of our judge and now acts as our Advocate in God's presence. The Son of God, our friend and the one who gave his life for our life is now occupying the highest position in the universe. Like Joseph who was exalted to the right hand of Pharaoh so that his father and his brothers could safely go to Egypt because he was there to intercede for them before Pharaoh, so our Lord Christ now sits at God's right hand to represent us and to welcome us into our eternal home. The only reason that anyone will be warmly welcomed into the glorious presence of God in heaven is because Jesus Christ the Son of God did what no one else could ever do, he made purification for your sins and now sits at God's right hand to represent you. If you think that you will be able to stand before this glorious God without the Son of God, based only upon your "goodness" or based upon some other religious teaching, you are very sadly mistaken. Your sins make you unfit for God's holy presence and you will be consumed by his burning anger if you attempt to approach him without Christ. Only those who have had their sins cleansed by Christ's death and who therefore now have Christ as their mediator will be welcomed into the glory of God in heaven. Wait no longer, trust the glorious Son of God who possesses all things because he made all things and who is the radiance of God's glory and is now sustaining your life and who made purification for the sins of all who trust him and now represents us before his Father. Jesus Christ, the Son of God is the most glorious of beings because…
© Copyright
2005 John Swanson.
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