In this message we will begin to consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ as revealed in Hebrews, one of the greatest books in the New Testament. Every aspect of Christ revealed in this book is significant.
Christ the Son is the center, the focus, of the book of Hebrews. In the Godhead He is the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of God’s substance. In creation He is (1) the means through which the universe was made (1:2); (2) the power that upholds and bears all things (v. 3); and (3) the Heir appointed to inherit all things (v. 2). In redemption He accomplished the purification of man’s sins and is now sitting on the right hand of God in the heavens (v. 3).
This book reveals to us the contrast between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was of the law in letters and forms, of man, earthly, temporary, and by sight and issued in a religion called Judaism. The New Testament is of life, spiritual, heavenly, permanent, and by faith and is focused in a person who is the Son of God.
In Hebrews 1 Christ is revealed as the Son of God, who is superior to the angels. This chapter quotes the prophecies in the Old Testament to tell us that the Son, through whom God speaks, is God Himself (v. 8). The angels, however, are merely the servants of God and even of those who inherit God’s salvation (vv. 6-7, 14). Christ as the Son of God is God Himself, and God is certainly superior to the angels. Therefore, Christ is superior to the angels.
Christ is nothing less than God Himself. He is also the appointed Heir of all things and the means through whom the whole universe was created. Furthermore, He is the effulgence of God’s glory, the impress of God’s substance, and the One who accomplished redemption. Because our Christ is the essence of God, He is superior to and more excellent than the angels.
Hebrews 1:10, a quotation from Psalm 102:25, is applied to Christ and indicates that, as the Son of God, Christ created the heavens and the earth: “You in the beginning, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands.” Christ, the Son of God, is God Himself as well as the Lord; hence, He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
All things came into existence through the Son (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; 1 Cor. 8:6). As the Creator of the heavens and the earth, Christ is the origination and the source of all the created things. His creation of the heavens and of the earth began the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan to carry out God’s intention to have a full expression in man in the universe.
The angels, which are like winds and flames of fire, are simply creatures, whereas the Son is the Creator. As creatures, the angels are much inferior to the Son, and as the Creator, the Son is much superior to the angels.
Hebrews 1:2 tells us that God made the universe through Christ the Son. The word universe in this verse literally means “ages”; the ages is a Jewish expression that means “the universe.” Ages here does not refer to the matter of time but to creation (the universe) unfolded in time through successive ages. Here the universe not only implies time and space; it also means the aggregate of all the ages.
Most Christians know that Christ created the heavens, the earth, and all things. But very few know that after His creation He is still continually forming the ages, age after age. Hence, the universe refers not only to the heavens and the earth but also to all the ages in the heavens and the earth. For example, after the creation of the heavens and the earth, Adam was created; thus, there was the age of Adam with its history. When the age of Adam was over, the age of Noah with its history began. After the age of Noah, the age of Abraham with its history occurred. When the age of Abraham was over, the age of Moses came, at which time the law was decreed. When the age of Moses was over, the age of David came. Then after all the ages of the Old Testament, there was the age of Jesus Christ, the age of the New Testament. These ages did not take place merely by human development or natural evolution; rather, they were founded, instituted, by Christ.
After creating the heavens and the earth, Christ instituted the ages, age after age. If there were only the heavens, the earth, and all things, without the succession of ages, then no events could have happened. Hence, the universe includes not only time and space but also all the events that have happened in time and space. This is the entire history of the human race.
The purpose of Christ’s forming the universe is to afford God the opportunity to obtain what He wants. All the events that have happened in time and space—all the things that have occurred successively in the universe—have given God the opportunity to capture, save, and gain His chosen people one by one and to gather and blend them together into the one Body of Christ. In other words, the universe, which is composed of all the successive ages in time, provides the opportunity for God to gain what He desires in His economy.
We also need to see that God made the universe through Christ the Creator. This implies the Divine Trinity. Christ the Son created the heavens and the earth, yet through Him God made the universe. Moreover, in Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God was involved in God’s creation of the universe, for the Spirit of God was brooding upon the surface of the waters in order to generate life. God the Father created the universe in God the Son and by God the Spirit.
In the Bible the trinity of the Godhead implies God’s activities for the dispensing of God Himself in His trinity into His chosen and redeemed people. Thus, God’s intention in creating the universe is to dispense Himself into His chosen people. God the Father in the Son and through the Spirit needed to make the universe in order to impart Himself in His trinity into us.