Hebrews 1:1–3

Readers have often noticed that this letter opens differently from all of Paul's other letters. I have no doubt that Paul wrote it, though I do not argue that here. His usual greeting is missing. Two things pressed hard on the apostle: the theme that filled his mind and heart, and the needs of his readers. With so much to say, it would have been out of place for him to put himself forward. So instead of the familiar name "Paul" at the opening, we have the blessed God brought before us at once.

This letter opens with no introduction or prelude. The usual style of Paul's letters (and I do not doubt he wrote this book) is absent, and for a beautiful reason. "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ" would have been out of place in a letter where Jesus Christ Himself is presented as the Apostle. The author of the book is out of sight; its subject stands out at once in glory.

The words that make up this grand opening are full of meaning, and they are true. In few words they show the character of what God said in the Old Testament. It could not be complete or final. It came piece by piece... He spoke "in many parts." His word came only in fragments. Each was perfect for its purpose, but it was not the fullness He meant to give when the right moment came. God used many different persons in that work, and He used "many ways" of revealing too: open speech to Moses, and usually visions and dreams to others.

God has spoken in the past in many parts; that is, we have to gather the sum of His truth from many portions of His Word. He had to give partial revelations. A full and complete revelation was not possible yet. It had to wait for One who could hold in Himself all that God was.

In times past God spoke to the fathers of Israel at various times and in various ways. God had spoken by Moses, asserting in the law His claims on man. At other times God had spoken by angels in His providential ways with His people. Later, God had spoken by the prophets to call a rebellious people back to Himself. Scripture mentions the prophets in particular, because they came just before the Son.

This was real revelation, but God kept adding to it. So it stayed partial, and it was in no sense a complete revelation of God. Note too that God was free to choose any way He wished to speak. Israel knew this well. When their Messiah came, they should have expected a revelation just as distinct, and worthy of so great a God. Instead they were set on limiting God by their own ideas and tying Him to human tradition.

God had spoken to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. Now those days had come to an end. They were the days of God's dealings with Israel, the age in which the law should have held force... God had spoken in the Person of the Son. There is no break to begin a wholly new system. The God who had spoken before by the prophets now went on to speak in Christ.

The time came for God to set aside partial revelations of Himself. To show all that He is, He spoke in the One who is Son. No one else could do it. No prophet on earth and no angel in heaven could bring to light all that is in the heart of God, or express all His character... The Son was the language in which God spoke.

He is called "the brightness (the irradiation) of His glory" — the glory of God. The picture is something like the rays of the sun. If there were no rays we would not see the light of the sun, even though the sun might be in the sky… And so the Son of God is like the rays — the shining out of the glory of God. The Son is the same in essence. He is the shining out of that essence, so that it might reach us — so that there would be something to teach us the glory of God.

Notice that this is not something the Son became, or was made, in the course of time. Other glories tied to His work and His offices might have a beginning. But the glory we are speaking of now belongs to Him as Son. It is the essential glory of His Person — true of Him before time began, and true of Him when time will be no more.

He is also called "the express image of His person" (that is, substance). The word "substance" means essential being, or existence… The illustration is that of the impress of a seal. Though you had never seen the seal, I might show you the impress of it, the thing exactly like it, and from that impress you could form a true idea of the seal. So Christ is the "Impress" of the substance of God. He is the One in whom all the thoughts and feelings of God essentially are. This too was true of the Son before all worlds.

He is not merely the outward display of what God is, but He is the very impress, the very character of God's own being. He is therefore one with God. You cannot think of the Son without thinking of God. As our Lord said: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."

In verse 3 we also find the wonderful fact that the Son is the Upholder of all things. All things are upheld and hang together by the word of His power. We sometimes talk about the laws of the universe. We may watch the law of gravity at work, though we do not know the real why and how of it… We know that THE LAW of the universe is the word of His power. This is all that really matters.

No creature could share in this work. That divine and glorious Person undertook the whole work alone, and He would not take His seat on any other terms than as having perfectly finished it… Then, and not before — not until sin had been perfectly put away — did He sit down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So our sins are gone according to the perfection of the place of glory where He is now seated.

Hebrews 10 presses this to its full consequences for us: "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God… For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."

All that glory does not frighten me — and He is in the middle of the glory and majesty of the throne of God itself. This wonderful truth comes in: the glory of God is in the face of a man who has put away my sins, and who is there as the proof of it… I could not see Christ in the glory if there were one spot or stain of sin not put away.