Hebrews 1:1-4 is perhaps the most spectacular opening statement in any NT epistle. It’s like a tightly compressed spring that will pop open over the rest of the letter. It’s like flower whose petals will unfold over the next 13 chapters. The whole letter is summarized in these jam-packed verses.
A couple observations:
First, Paul (yes, Paul – this is his 14th canonical letter) skips the usual formalities at the beginning of the epistle. Why? Perhaps because the matter he is addressing is so urgent, he has to get straight to business. If you went to the ER with a real emergency, you would want the doctor to skip the greetings and get right to work. That’s what Paul does here. The Jewish Christians he is addressing are in grave danger of drifting away and hardening their hearts. He has to get right to the point. This is an ER letter.
Second, Paul’s opening lines in Hebrews cover the whole span of theology. The supremacy and finality of Christ is the overarching theme. All lines from the old covenant converge on him and find resolution in him. God spoke in various times and ways in the past, but now he has spoken in a climatic way through his Son. This means Christ is a prophet but also more than a prophet. He does not merely deliver God’s message, he *is* God’s message. The finality of revelation in Christ is tied to the finality of Christ’s saving work. He completes God’s revelation because he completes God’s redemptive plan. He has made purification for sins and has now taken his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The contrast here is not merely with old covenant priests who never got to take a seat while they were on the job in the tabernacle because their sacrifices were not effective; the point is that, having offered the definitive sacrifice as our Great High Priest, he is now seated on the heavenly throne to rule over all things as King. Thus, these opening words show us Christ is the ultimate prophet, priest, and king – as prophet he brings the final revelation, as priest he makes the final sacrifice, as king he brings the final form of God’s reign into history.
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“After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:3).
Note the progression from making purification to being enthroned.
Jesus’ work as priest leads to Jesus’ reign as king. The victim becomes the vindicated. The shamed one becomes the one crowned. Redemption leads to reign. These are themes that will be unpacked in the rest of the letter.
According to the flow of Hebrews 1:3, he moves from sin-bearer to heavenly lord. He moves from altar to throne. He moves from shedding blood to ruling over all, from purification to coronation, from sacrifice to glory, from the darkness of the cross at Golgotha to the right hand of the Majesty on high.
The entire gospel is encapsulated here, in this movement from purification to enthronement. This one line from Hebrews includes cross-resurrection-ascension-reign, the whole story of the Son.
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Hebrews 1:3 calls the Son “the brightness of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” Obviously, this is a deep piece of Trinitarian theology. The opening verses of Hebrews clearly declare Jesus to be fully divine, calling him the one through whom all things were made and in whom all things are held together. (John 1 and Colossians 1 ring out similar themes of Christ as creator and sustainer.)
No man can see the brightness of God’s glory. When Moses asked to see God’s glory, God said, “no man can see my face and live.” God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock as the backside of God’s glory passed by. If our eyes cannot stare into the created sun, we surely cannot endure the radiance of the Creator’s glory.
But now God has wrapped up his glory in the flesh of Jesus. God’s glory has come to us in incarnate form. Jesus is the invisible glory made the visible. He is the overwhelming radiance of God’s glory coming to us in a form we can behold.
The “exact imprint of his nature” could be misunderstood. The point is not that the Son is a copy of the Father the way a photograph is a copy of the thing pictured. It’s not as if God is the original and the Son a mere picture of that. No, the point is that the Son has the exact same nature and being as the Father. He is not a pictorial representation of the Father; rather, the glory of the Father is reproduced in its fullness in him. He is the brightness of the Father’s glory because he shares in and possesses the same divine glory. Jesus is the revelation of God. If we want to know what God is *really* like, we look to Jesus, who embodies the divine glory in himself. All of the divine perfections and attributes are on display in Jesus. When we look to him, we see what Moses longed for, but was denied – in Jesus we see God’s glory face to face.
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Hebrews 1:2 tells us that God created the world through the Son, and the Son is heir of all things.
Thus: all things come from the Son as creator and all things return to the Son as heir. Christ is creation’s source and goal. The world was made for him and through him. He is alpha and omega, the beginning and end of all things. Christ is all in all.
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