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.
taking a place by so much better than the angels, as he inherits a name more excellent than they.
Hebrews opens by piling glory on glory upon the Son. Then verse 4 sets Him beside the angels, the highest beings its first readers could name. Why measure Christ against angels at all? And what is this "name" that no angel could hold?
The reason lies in the way the law first reached Israel.
Every Jew knew that angels played a very large part in the giving of the law by Moses, though Exodus says little about them. Stephen's words in Acts 7:53 show this, as does the second verse of our second chapter. This display of angelic might gave a very powerful sanction to Moses and the law he brought, in the minds of the people. And now there appears among men the Divine Spokesman, yet to them He is only Jesus of Nazareth, a humble and despised Man. They see no beauty in Him that would make them want Him or His words. No display of angels backs Him up. So it became vital to insist on the true glory of His person, immeasurably above all angels. Even if ten thousand times ten thousand angels had escorted Him in full view, it would have added nothing to Him!
The angelic ministry itself was gracious, but it carried a message about distance from God.
The ministry of angels is in itself a most gracious thing. Yet angels coming in between God and man does not point to the nearness that Christianity has brought us. It speaks instead of the true mark of the law: no one could see God's face and live. We do see His face — by faith, yes, but still fully revealed to us in the person of His Son — and He brings us near to Him.
The chapter itself spells out that name.
The Son has "become so much better than the angels." This is not only because of the glories He gained through the eternal redemption He obtained for us. It is because of what He is in His very being, in contrast with all the angels. He has "inherited a more excellent name than they." He has the name of Son in His own personal right, and angels do not. Without doubt the "more excellent name," besides "Son," includes "God" and "Jehovah," as the chapter shows later (Heb. 1:8, 10).
Scripture does call angels sons of God, so the difference lies elsewhere.
Scripture calls angels "sons of God" (Job 38:7). But God never called an angel "My son." He never said to any angel, and never could say, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you." This position was unique. It is His alone. He inherited it because of WHO and what He is, and because of His glorious position in the purpose of God.
Some have read "inherited" as though His exaltation made Him Son.
He did not become God's Son by being "appointed heir of all things," or by inheriting a more excellent name than all the angels. If I have an only son and he inherits my property, his being my heir does not make him my son. His being my son makes him my heir.
The ESV reads "having become" where older translations read "Being made." One writer finds two glories held together in that wording.
Verse 4 says two things. First, He has a more excellent name than angels by inheritance. Second, He has been made better than they. The words "Being made" can also read "Having become" or "Taking a place." The first points to His superiority because of His Godhead glory. The second points to the place He now holds as Man, the One who accomplished redemption. Notice that His superiority stands out just as strongly in both. The little words "SO … AS" in the sentence show it. Read the verse again for yourself, and see.
This standing settles where redeemed people belong.
Christ makes clear the ground of God's purpose to raise from among men those destined for a place far higher than that of angels… Scripture never says that angels reign. They serve, instead of sitting on thrones. We are to reign with Him. Yet we will serve then as we serve now, and serve all the better through grace. He has delivered us from the lowest state of guilt and evil. We are the objects of His unending, infinite love, and we will share His glory as surely as we now rest on His grace.
- Name. The excellent name is "Son," and later in the chapter "God" and "Jehovah." He holds it in His own personal right, and God never spoke it to any angel.
- Inherited. Heirship does not create sonship; sonship creates heirship. He inherits because of who He already is.
- Become. "Being made" also reads "having become" or "taking a place." His Godhead glory was always His. The place He now holds as Man is what He entered as the One who accomplished redemption.
- Better. Angels carried the law and kept men at a distance; the Son brings God's face into full view and brings us near.
- Ours. Angels serve and never reign; the Son raises redeemed people above them, to reign with Him and share His glory.
For to which of the angels said he ever, *Thou* art my Son this day have *I* begotten thee? and again, *I* will be to him for father, and *he* shall be to me for son?
The writer has just claimed that the Son inherits a name far above the angels. Verse 5 proves it from Scriptures the readers already knew. It gives two sentences God spoke, and He never said either of them to an angel.
The comparison is not random. The readers' old religious system was itself tied to angels.
The Jewish system was set up in connection with angels. But Christ has taken a position much higher than that of angels, because the name He inherits as His own — that is, a revelation of what He is — is far more excellent than theirs. So the writer quotes several Old Testament passages about the Messiah, to show what He is compared with the nature and position of angels. What these passages meant to a Jew who believed is plain... it was their own Scriptures that proved the Messiah was to have a position far more excellent and exalted than that of angels.
The angels' own place is settled later in the chapter, and it is a place of service.
In verse 7 we have a quotation which plainly states the nature of angels and the reason why they exist. They are spirits in their nature and they exist as ministers to serve the Divine will.
The force of the question sharpens when you notice that Scripture does call angels "sons of God." The distinction lies elsewhere.
He is clearly addressed as man born into the world, for "this day" belongs to time, not to eternity... This is all the more striking because angels too are called "sons of God," as in Job 1:6 and Job 38:7. The sonship shared by all spiritual beings whom the "Father of spirits" (Heb. 12:9) created is one thing; the real relationship of a "begotten Son" is another... Here, in the condition of a creature, is One who is more than a creature. Men may be "offspring of God," and angels "sons," yet neither of them reach this place or inherit this name.
Commentators differ over which moment "today" points to. One reading takes it of His birth in time.
The first Scripture quoted is from Psalm 2:7. God never spoke such a word to an angel. It applies only to Christ. But how? The apostle John loves to dwell on His eternal Sonship... How is He viewed here? As Son of God born in time. We see Him so in Luke 1:32, and still more clearly in verse 35. Taking flesh did not lower His Sonship at all. He was Son of God from eternity, and He was no less Son of God when born of the virgin Mary, as He is in resurrection and forever in glory.
Others stress that these words rest on a relationship which had no beginning.
Adam was a son of God because God breathed life into him. An angel is a son of God as a created spirit. To either of them God might say, once he had been brought into being, "You are My son." But it seems unbelievable that God should say this to either of them before he came into the sphere of creation. Yet the LORD could and did speak this way to His own Son. The whole force of the quotation from the Psalm depends on its being true of the Son alone, who was the Eternal Son without any begetting — true of Him even before He was begotten in time as man.
The psalm this comes from tells of kings conspiring against God's Anointed. Their rage meets one answer: His title.
Why is it that the King in Zion can stand against all the hatred and opposition of the enemy?... it was because that King in Zion was His Son. "I will declare the decree," says the Son; and then He declares it. "You are My Son," God had said to Him; "today I have begotten You." He is in His kingly place as Son of God, and who can set himself against the Son of God with any success?
These words were first spoken about Solomon, David's son who built the temple.
The apostle strengthens this with a second quotation. It applied first of all to Solomon, but only as a picture of another. Even as Builder of God's house, the true Son of David was not Solomon but a Greater One, whose house and kingdom would both last for ever... But the point here is, "I will be to Him a Father and He shall be to Me a Son." On both sides these relations will be all that they imply.
And no created being could fill that second half.
How could any creature, however blessed, be to God all that the name SON means? He alone stands infinitely above all creatures. He alone could present to God, in manhood, what called out every affection of God's heart, and He alone was an object fully worthy of those affections. He alone could give God a response that matched them.
- Name — The Son's greatness rests on a name He inherits, not on rank lent to Him. The proof comes from the readers' own Scriptures.
- Never — God never called an angel "My Son." Angels are sons of God as created spirits. A begotten Son is something else.
- Today — "This day" is the language of time, not eternity. Commentators differ over which moment it marks. All agree His coming as man never lessened His Sonship.
- Throne — In Psalm 2 kings conspire against God's Anointed. They cannot shake the King in Zion, because He is the Son.
- Mutual — The second quotation gives God's side of the bond. Solomon only pictured it. Only One could be to God all that "Son" means.
and again, when he brings in the firstborn into the habitable world, he says, And let all God's angels worship him.
Hebrews 1 sets the Son above the angels. This verse goes further: God commands the angels to worship Him.
The word marks rank and inheritance, not birth order.
When God introduces the Firstborn into the world, all the angels are called to worship Him. God presents Him to the world; but the highest of created beings must then cast themselves at His feet. The angels of God Himself — the creatures that are nearest to Him — must do homage to the Firstborn. The Firstborn is the Heir, the One in whom the glory and power of God begin to appear. It is in this sense that the word is used. It is said of the Son of David, "I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth" (Ps. 89:27). So the Messiah is introduced into the world as holding this place in relation to God Himself. He is the Firstborn — the immediate expression of the rights and the glory of God. He has universal pre-eminence.
Angels know where worship belongs. One of them once told the apostle John so.
The angelic beings around the throne of God could not worship anyone who was less than God. No creature, however blessed by God, or given divine power, could rightly receive such honour. The idea would be sinful in the extreme. Angels know who the Son is, and that He died for man on the cross… They know well to whom worship belongs. John was once overcome by the bright shining of an angel and by the wonderful things made known to him. He "fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed him these things." The angel refused at once. He would not take the homage, but rebuked the mistaken apostle: "You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets. Worship God!"
If worship belongs to God alone, this command settles what the Son is.
So there is no ground for doubt. "Angels" are meant here, and they are commanded to pay supreme honour to the Son as the risen and glorified Man — yet He is no less a divine person. If He were not, worthiness as man and given dignity could not justify the homage God claims for His Son from the highest creatures of heaven… He may take a place of humiliation, or a place of glorious rule, for the glory of God and the blessing of creation. In personal title and divine nature He is as truly Supreme as the Father or the Holy Spirit. To think otherwise is to disown His true Deity.
Commentators differ over this word. Does it mark another quotation, or a second entry into the world? Many read it as His return in glory, and note that He is brought in, not sent.
Of His first coming, Scripture says that Christ came into the world, that He was sent, that He was born. Here Scripture says He is brought, or introduced, into the world… So the promise that the First-begotten will be brought into the world again points clearly back to His earlier expulsion from it. Man drove Him out in disgrace when, by the grace of God, His beloved Son was crucified in weakness. He will re-enter it in majesty, according to the power of God.
Others hold that the point is not the date at all.
The apostle's aim appears to be this: not to fix the time when God brings the Firstborn into the world, but to prove the universal homage of all God's angels to the glory of the Son. Whenever that moment is, past or future, the homage stands. And Luke 2:13-14 is a beautiful witness to it. There is no ground at all to limit "the firstborn" to resurrection… At the same time, we freely allow that the fulfilment of Deuteronomy 32 or of Psalm 97 as a whole awaits the Lord's second coming.
"The world" here means the habitable earth.
This happens when He brings Him into the world, or "habitable earth" — His kingdom of a thousand years. The psalm describes Him coming into the habitable earth as Judge, to take His place and reign. As He comes, the One who once came as the Babe of Bethlehem comes in the clouds with power and great glory, and the hosts of heaven come with Him… There He is, the Object of angels' worship. This was never said of any angel. Angels are worshippers, not objects of worship.
What God commands of angels, the redeemed give from the heart.
God is jealous for the honour of the Son. If He commands the angels to own and respect the personal rights of the Firstborn, then we may be sure of this: the redeemed must and will gladly yield to Him their unbounded adoration. They will adore Him not only as the Firstborn of all creation, but as the Firstborn from among the dead (Col. 1:15, 18).
- Firstborn. The title marks the Heir. It means rank and universal pre-eminence, not birth order — He is the immediate expression of God's rights and glory.
- Brought in. God does not only send Him. God brings Him into the earth that cast Him out, and He re-enters in majesty what He left in weakness.
- Worshipped. God Himself gives the command. No creature may take such honour, and angels themselves refuse it.
- Above. Angels worship; they are never worshipped. That settles the Son's place above the highest beings God has made.
- Gladly. Commentators differ on the timing. No one doubts the end: heaven's command becomes the redeemed heart's delight.