The peculiar form of the phrase then “in a Son,” difficult without loss or a paraphrase to convey adequately in our language, is simply to characterize the relationship, not Who but what, as in Matt. 4:6; 9:29; 27:40, 43, 546And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. (Matthew 4:6)
29Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. (Matthew 9:29)
40And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. (Matthew 27:40)
43He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. (Matthew 27:43)
54Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God. (Matthew 27:54), Luke 4:33And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. (Luke 4:3), John 1:11In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) (last clause θεός), 5:27, 8:54, 10:33, 36, 19:7, as well as in Heb. 3:6; 5:8; 7:8, 286But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. (Hebrews 3:6)
8Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; (Hebrews 5:8)
8And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. (Hebrews 7:8)
28For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore. (Hebrews 7:28). Where the person is the object before us, the article is invariably inserted, as may be seen in the context of these texts and in Scripture generally. “In the person of the, or His, Son,” or “in Him Who is Son,” would therefore require ἐν τῷ υἱῷ. A subordinate sense where the article is absent is in no way the truth, in the mind either of friends or of foes. Where character is predicated, the article is excluded, as here. Only in English we must say “a” or “the” which so far enfeebles the expression of what is here intended: “a” as capable of implying others which is not at all meant but the reverse; “the” as presenting Christ objectively, where is meant predicatively that character of intimate relationship to God which is proper to Him only in eternal title and right. Some only have it subordinately by creation, as angels; others again, as the faithful, by sovereign grace through faith in Christ and eternal life in the Son.
Next comes His heirship. “Whom He appointed Heir of all things, through Whom also He made the worlds:” testimonies to the glory of Christ of exceeding moment, to which we shall return after citing the passage in full. “Who being the effulgence of His glory and the very impress of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, made so much better than the angels, as He hath inherited a name more excellent than they” (ver. 2-4).
As in Rom. 9 to Gentile saints, so here to Jewish, in general “the ages,” but also beyond just dispute used by Hellenistic Jews for the universe (perhaps as the theater of the divine dispensations or ages) as here and in chap. 11:3. See Eccl. 3:1111He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) in the Sept., said elsewhere. the apostle proves that Christianity reveals the Messiah in a grandeur far surpassing the imagination of the former or the tradition of the latter. He is Son as none else. He is Heir of the universe; and no wonder. For as He created the worlds, so He upholds all things by the word of His power. Yes, the very Man Whom they crucified by the hand of lawless men, Who was crucified through weakness At the moment He bowed His head and expired, He was sustaining all creation. It were absurd to think or say so, had He been only man; but He was God; and the dissolution of the tie between the outer and the inner man in no way touched His almighty power.
Jesus then is not merely the Messianic Heir of the nations as in Psa. 2. He is the Heir of all things as He created all. Compare John 1:33All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3). All things in the heavens, and the things on the earth are to be summed or headed up in Christ: such is God's good pleasure which He purposed in Him (Eph. 1:9, 109Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:9‑10)). He is exalted accordingly to the highest seat, the pledge of all that is to follow; for now we see not yet all things subjected to Him, but we behold Himself crowned with glory and honor. And we know from elsewhere why He does not yet enter on the immense and glorious inheritance. He awaits the calling out of all the joint-heirs whom He will invest with the inheritance at the same time as He takes it Himself; for if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. Such are the wondrous. counsels of God, through His Son and to His glory.
He, Who is the appointed inheritor of the universe, and also fully entitled as being the Creator of the worlds, is yet more set forth in ver. 3: being the effulgence of God's glory and the very impress of His substance or being, and upholding all things by the word of His power. He is in the highest sense (as intrinsically there can be none other) a divine person no less than the Father, and the Holy Spirit. But He is specially the displayer of Godhead, as in power and providence so in goodness, and in grace even to the lost. (Compare 2 Cor. 4:44In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4) and Col. 1:1515Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: (Colossians 1:15).) And this comes into the utmost prominence in the words that follow— “having made,” or when He made, “purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;” where we may observe that, even omitting “by Himself” with the oldest uncials and good versions, &c., the participle carries in itself the remarkable force of having done it for Himself. He took His seat on high on the accomplishment of His work in the purification of sins. For this He had come as being the will of God, and only goes on high to take that place of glory when He had Himself done the work.
It will be observed that Christ is said here to be the outshining of God's glory. In our Epistle it is not the Father (as in John) but God. Both are true and each has its own importance. And it is scarcely needful to say that “person,” borrowed in the A. V. from that of Geneva, is a mistake. It is “substance” or essential being, as in Wickliffe, Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Rhemish from the Vulgate. The doctrine of course is one hypostasis and three persons, as is commonly known: both truths are made evident in Isa. 6 compared with John 12 and Acts 28, as indeed by many other scriptures.
Christ's maintenance of the universe presents His divine glory in a striking way. “By Him all things consist,” as the apostle affirms in Col. 1. They were created by Him and for Him, and they subsist together in virtue of Him. This becomes all the more remarkable because He deigned for the deepest purposes to become a man. This however trenched not on His deity; for the incarnation means not Godhead swamped by humanity, but this taken into everlasting union with itself, each nature abiding in its own perfectness, not metamorphosed but constituting together the one person of Christ. As He therefore brought all into being, so does He sustain all the universe, and ever did so.
There is another and profounder element of His glory, His effecting in His own person the purgation of sins. To create needed but His word; to sustain, His will; but not so redemption. To command in this case would have been wholly insufficient. The purging of sins could not be without the shedding of blood, without sacrificial death, for which the O.T prepared men from the beginning. The earthly sacrifices could neither suffice for God's glory, nor cleanse man's conscience, as we are taught fully later on. But they were weighty testimonies from the days of Adam downward, though only elaborated into a system most full and instructive of types by divine inspiration under Moses. Christ's was indeed “A sacrifice of nobler name, And richer blood than they.”
Christ alone gives the full meaning and the true dignity to sacrifice, as is here briefly shown and bound up with the glory of His person. Sin is rebellion against God; it is lawlessness. God therefore is the One invariably concerned, whether it be also a human wrong or not. “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight:” yet he who so cried had been guilty of blood as well as of the worst corruption. As God's majesty and character are thus intimately in question, it is He who undertook to settle all in His Son. But here nothing less than His death could avail, yea, death of the cross, where He Himself laid the sins on the spotless Victim's head (Isa. 53) that they might thus be borne, and borne away. Not otherwise could there be forgiveness of sins according to God. There must be the purification of sins; and it is the “blood of Jesus Christ His Son” that “cleanseth from all sin,” from every sin.
No wonder this deepest work of God is treated here as part of the divine glory of Christ. He must be man on behalf of men, He must be God to be available with God; He is both in one person; and thus as the justification was thus perfect, the result is unfailing for all who believe. Once cleansed thereby the worshippers have no more conscience of sins; and He, having offered one sacrifice for sins, “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,” sat down in perpetuity, as Heb. 10 tells us, not only forever but without a break in the efficacy of His sacrifice. How could it be otherwise if God in the Son undertook that work? And as this is thoroughly reasoned out and applied in the latter part of the Epistle, here we have the great truth stated clearly at the start: a truth “hard to be understood,” by a Jew particularly, accustomed as he was to the routine and repetition of sacrifice as well as all other Levitical observances. But the Holy Spirit of God does not keep it back, giving it a foremost place in the introduction.
It was scarce needed to say that Christ “by Himself” made purification of sins. For He alone suffered for sins; He alone was sacrificed for us. The Father had His will in giving Him for the purpose; and the Holy Spirit bears testimony to the complete efficacy, as He previously held out types and predictions and promises. But it was for Christ alone to suffer for sin; and this He did to the uttermost. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and Jehovah hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all......It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin,” &c., “He poured out His soul unto death; and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isa 53)
And this is the basis of what the apostle elsewhere calls the “righteousness of God,” that righteousness, not of man which the law sought, yet found not in the sinful, but of God Who in virtue of Christ's propitiation can fully bless all that believe, and freely plead with and call on all men as they are. The purification of sins effected by a divine person is not limited and cannot fail; but it necessarily can take effect on none that hear the gospel unless they believe: God would be consenting to the dishonor of the Son if He made light of men's unbelief. Besides, the word received in faith has a morally cleansing power, as all believers are born of water and the Spirit. But here it is the work, not in man, but efficacious before God which occupies the apostle, and this is the purification of sins by Christ before He sat down at God's right hand.
What an attestation is that seat of His to the perfection and completeness of the work He undertook! When Jehovah laid our sins on Christ, He was made sin for us, and treated it as it deserved at the hand of God. For what did man, or even saints, know then of that infinite task? God indeed marked it by a darkness for which nothing in nature can account, and Christ confessed it in that cry of His inapplicable to all others but Himself: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Yes, this was the necessary result of sin-bearing: absolute abandonment by God. Though He were His God, yet Christ was made sin; and it was no make-believe, but real if anything ever was; no slurring over the least sin, no leaving out the greatest. It was Christ bearing the judgment of sin, the sole righteous way for the purification of sins. And the work was done, finished, in such perfectness, that the only adequate seat for Him Who had borne all was at the right hand of the Majesty on high. David's throne will be taken another day when blessing dawns on the earth on Israel. And when the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory; and before Him shall be gathered all the nations. But here is a seat incomparably more august, and in fact proper and possible to none but a divine person; yet is it also presented as the place suited to Him Who had just made purification of sins. In this He suffered and wrought; on that He sat down, the work finished and thus accepted. What more glorious for the humbled Messiah? What more blessed in its fruit for the believer? A sacrifice to God, He gave Himself up for us.
There is another word added here, the bearing of which is no less evident on Jewish minds They thought much of angelic glory. The law they received as ordained by ministry of angels (Acts 7:5050Hath not my hand made all these things? (Acts 7:50), Gal. 3:1919Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. (Galatians 3:19)). They were wont therefore to regard with awe and wonder those obedient messengers of God's power, of which there can be no stronger proof than John's temptation in Rev. 19; 22. Hence the gravity of the further testimony to Christ's glory here, “made so much better than the angels, as He hath inherited a name more excellent than they” (ver. 4).
It is Christ Who renders evident the ground of God's counsel to raise from among men those destined to a place incomparably higher than that of angels. If the Son of God became man, it was at once intelligible, becoming, and necessary. And the redemption that is in Christ, and our consequent nearness of relationship into which grace brings the believer makes plain our association with Him and our elevation above angels. For they are not called, but kept. Not sunk into moral ruin, they have no experience of the mercy that saves and unites with Christ. Hence angels are never said to reign. They serve, instead of sitting on thrones. We are to reign with Him, yet shall we serve then as we serve now, and all the better through grace, because, delivered from the lowest estate of guilt and evil, we are objects of His ceaseless and infinite love, and shall share His glory as surely as we now rest on His grace. Angels know not either extreme, as we do, but all we boast is through Him Who became so much better than the angels as He hath an inheritance more excellent than they.