at the end of these days has spoken to us in [the person of the] Son, whom he has established heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
God's last word does not come through a messenger. It comes in the Son Himself, and this verse sets three things side by side: God speaks in the Son, the Son is heir of everything, and the Son made everything.
The old order came in pieces, through many speakers across long centuries. The phrase "in these last days" closes that sequence for good.
There was a constant, increasing unfolding of truth. But now the Son of God has come. The Sun in all its glory and splendour has burst upon the vision of faith. What further revelation can there possibly be? This is not "the last days" in the sense Scripture sometimes gives that phrase. It does not mean days when Christianity declines. It does not mean the time when Israel will be restored and God will begin to deal with His ancient people — though then Messiah will have brought in blessing. Those are smaller uses of the phrase "the last days." Here it simply marks the revelation of Christ.
Prophets passed on a message from someone else. Here God does not use a go-between.
In the past God spoke by the prophets. But now He has spoken to us, not by or through anyone else, but "in His Son." He Himself spoke to us directly, in that character, for the Son was and is God just as much as the Father. So there is nothing more to be said.
The ESV reads "by his Son." Other translations have "in Son," because the Greek has no article before "Son." Commentators say this marks the character in which God spoke, not just the messenger He used.
Many learned men say the missing article is caused by the preposition in front of it, or by the emphatic position of the word. It is neither. The wording is deliberate… Yet the phrase has no article, so it does not set the person before the mind as an object. It brings His character to the front. The prophets were, like Moses, only servants. He in whom God spoke at the end of these days was Son… Now God spoke no longer in the prophets, nor in the form of an angel as He often had, but as Son.
English does not carry that as well, so J. N. Darby paraphrased the phrase in his translation and explained why in a note:
On the whole I have paraphrased it: in [the person of the] Son. It is God Himself who speaks. Not by another. Not as the Father. Not merely by the Holy Spirit using a person who is not divine, but as Himself a Divine Person — and that Person the Son.
The heirship is not a reward handed to an outsider. The One who will receive the universe is the One who called it into being.
The universe exists by the creative power of the Son; it is through Him that it has its being. In becoming "Heir of all things" He will take possession of that which owes its very existence to Himself. It will all be put under His hand, and He will acquire the glory of it all in a public way. And this, let us remember, will be in Manhood. As Man He will be "Heir of all things."
Human ambition reaches for the very same things.
Men are trying to own the earth, to rule the sea, and conquer the air. They strive to inherit power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessing. Christ, as Son, will inherit all, for He is the appointed Heir of all, and He alone is worthy of all… Man had completely rejected the One who is the appointed Heir of all things, and nailed Him to a cross.
The ESV says He created "the world"; other translations read "the worlds." The Greek word usually means "ages," and here it carries a wider sense.
tous aiōnas generally means "the ages." But Greek-speaking Jews also used it, beyond any fair dispute, for the universe — perhaps as the stage on which God's dealings through the ages take place — as here and in Hebrews 11:3.
That claim lands hardest when you put it next to the cross.
Yes — the very Man they crucified by the hand of lawless men, the Man crucified in weakness! At the moment He bowed His head and died, He was holding all creation up. If He had been only a man, it would be absurd to think or say such a thing. But He was God.
The Heir has not yet taken possession, and the delay has a reason.
He is waiting for all the joint-heirs to be called out. He will give them the inheritance at the same moment that He takes it Himself. For if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.
- Spoken — God has moved from speaking through many prophets to speaking in one Son. Nothing is left to add.
- Son — God speaks as a divine Person, with no go-between. "In Son" marks the character of the speaking.
- Made — the Son made "the worlds," a word meaning the ages and, by use, the whole universe.
- Heir — He will publicly take possession, as Man, of what already owes its existence to Him.
- Shared — He waits until God has called out every joint-heir. Then He and they enter the inheritance together.
who being [the] effulgence of his glory and [the] expression of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, having made [by himself] the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high,
This verse stacks up who the Son is before it says a word about what He has done. It holds two things together: a Person who carries the whole universe, and the same Person seated because He has dealt with our sins.
The first title uses a picture from light.
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.
This shining is not a rank He picked up along the way.
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.
The second title moves from light to a seal pressed into wax. Older translations read "express image" where the ESV has "exact imprint."
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.
Because of this, the Son cannot be thought of apart from God.
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."
What holds the universe together is a word.
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.
Between the upholding and the throne stands the work. He did it alone.
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.
He sat down, and the sitting is the point. The same letter draws out what that means for those who trust Him.
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."
And the glory that would otherwise terrify becomes the proof of pardon.
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.
- Radiance — God's glory reaches us through the Son, as sunlight reaches us through its rays.
- Imprint — He is the exact stamp of God's own being. See Him and you see the Father.
- Upholder — The universe hangs together on the word of His power. That is what really matters.
- Purifier — He made purification alone. No creature shared that work.
- Seated — He sat down only after putting sin away. So the glory that could terrify now proves the sins are gone.