Hebrews 1:5–6

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!"

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).