The Son is also the impress, the express image, of the substance of God (1:3). The impress of God’s substance is like the impress of a seal. The Son is the expression of what God the Father is. God’s substance is Spirit (John 4:24), and Christ is the impress of this substance.
The glory is the outward expression, and the substance is the inward essence. God has His essence, His substance, as well as His appearance. God’s essence is His substance. He has substance as well as glory. Our God is glorious and substantial. As far as God’s glory is concerned, the Son is the effulgence of this glory. As far as God’s substance is concerned, the Son is the impress of this substance.
The Son is not only the effulgence of God’s glory but also the impress of God’s substance. This means that the Son is God coming to us. When God does not come to us, He is simply God. When God comes to us, He is the Son as the impress of His substance.
Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, having spoken of old in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets, has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son.” Our God is revealed because He has revealed Himself in His speaking. The living God imparts and infuses Himself into us by speaking (2 Tim. 3:16-17; Ezek. 37:4-6). When God speaks, the light shines, bringing us understanding, vision, knowledge, wisdom, and utterance (Psa. 119:105, 130). When God speaks, life is imparted, and this life includes all the divine attributes and human virtues of Christ (John 6:63; 1:1, 4). When God speaks, power is transmitted, and this is the growing and reproducing power of life.
The whole universe came into being by God’s speaking (Rom. 4:17; Heb. 11:3; Psa. 33:9). In the Old Testament, God spoke in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets, in men borne by His Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). Now at the last of these days, that is, in the New Testament age, God has spoken to us in the Son, in the person of the Son. To us, Christ, the Son of God, is the mouthpiece of God, the oracle of God. The Son is God Himself speaking. To say that God has spoken to us in the Son means that God speaks in Himself. God has spoken in the Son, and the Son is God; this indicates that God speaks in Himself. God Himself speaks to us in His divine being, not through some other agent. The Son is God Himself (Heb. 1:8), God expressed. God the Father is hidden; God the Son is expressed. No one has ever seen God; the Son, as the Word of God (John 1:1; Rev. 19:13) and the speaking of God, has declared Him with a full expression, explanation, and definition of Him (John 1:18). God speaking in the Son means that the Son speaks God.
In the New Testament, God speaks in the Son, in the person of the Son. This person was first an individual and then became corporate. God today speaks in a person, and this person has been increased to be a corporate person, including all the apostles and all the members of this person’s Body (1 Cor. 14:4b, 31). Because all the members of the Body of Christ are the sons of God in the firstborn Son of God, their speaking for God is also God’s speaking in the person of the Son. The firstborn Son of God and the many sons of God are considered as one in the person of the Son. Today God is speaking through a corporate person. Therefore, “the Son” mentioned in Hebrews 1:2 is corporate.
God is still speaking in the Son, and we believers are a part of the Son. Throughout the past twenty centuries, the speaking of those who spoke forth the Lord according to the New Testament and its principles has been the Son’s speaking. In the New Testament the apostle Paul is an example of one whose speaking was the Son’s speaking.
God speaks in the sonship. The sonship in God’s New Testament economy is not only individual but also corporate. Christ is the firstborn Son of God, and we are the many sons of God (Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10). God has many sons, and the many sons have been incorporated. The Firstborn plus the many sons are the collective, corporate Son. The entire New Testament is the speaking of the processed God in the person of the Son with all His members. We are the members of the Body of Christ, and the Body is composed of all the sons of God. God begot many children to become His sons, and these sons are the components of the Body of Christ. Therefore, we are the members of the Son. Today God is still speaking in the corporate Son in the principle of incarnation.
God today continues to speak in His Son who has been enlarged to become a corporate man, the Body of Christ. The evil intention of the Jewish religionists was to terminate the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, by crucifying Him. But after His crucifixion, the Lord entered into the realm of resurrection, and in resurrection He became the Head of the Body. Before His crucifixion and resurrection, the Lord Jesus was restricted by the flesh; it was not possible for Him to be universal. But through death and resurrection He was enlarged from an individual to a corporate man. On the day of Pentecost Christ came down as the all-inclusive Spirit upon His disciples to make them members of His Body. This Body, a corporate man, includes the resurrected Christ as the Head and the millions of believers in Christ as the members. Now, just as our whole body speaks whenever we speak, so the Body of Christ speaks whenever Christ speaks as the Head. Today the Son of God is no longer merely an individual; He is a corporate, universal man. For this reason, all the members of the Body can speak the word of God.
God’s having many sons means that there should be “many speakings.” A son of God should speak for God everywhere. As the sons of God, we all need to be those who speak forth Christ. All the sons in the divine sonship should speak Christ, and Christ speaks for God. In the New Testament God speaks in Christ as His firstborn Son, indicating that all the brothers of His firstborn Son as His many sons, the members of the Body of Christ, should be the word of God, speaking for God.
In the four Gospels the Son came to speak God, not only with clear words but also with what He was and what He did. He is altogether the Word of God and the speaking of God. Sometimes He spoke with words, and other times He spoke with actions. All that He was and all that He did spoke God. “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). The entire four Gospels were His speaking, either by word directly or by what He was. He spoke much by words, but He spoke even more by what He was. Whatever He did, whatever He spoke, whatever He worked, and however He behaved was altogether His speaking.
Whenever the Son speaks, He is the Spirit. The speaking Son is the Spirit. The Son of God is the Word. When the Word speaks, it becomes the Spirit, and when the Son speaks, His word is the Spirit (6:63). Eventually, to the churches He is the speaking Spirit. At the beginning of each of the seven epistles in Revelation 2 and 3, the Son speaks, but at the end of each epistle, it is the Spirit speaking to the churches. God speaks in the Son, and when the Son speaks to the churches, He is the speaking Spirit. By His speaking, the churches will become one with Him. At the end of Revelation the Spirit and the church speak as one (22:17). God speaks in the Son, the Son becomes the speaking Spirit, and the speaking Spirit is one with the church speaking for God. This is the speaking history of our God, a history that is a speaking story.
This speaking story is recorded in the Bible. The entire Bible is a history of God. This history is a speaking story. When God created all things, He did so by speaking. When He contacted humanity in the Old Testament times, He did it by speaking in the prophets. When He came to mankind in the New Testament age, He spoke in the Son, in the person of the Son as His Word. He comes into the churches today by speaking as the speaking Spirit. By speaking as the Spirit, He makes Himself one with the churches. Eventually, this speaking story consists of not only God Himself but also of all the churches. Meeting after meeting, the church life is a speaking story. We are a speaking people. By this speaking, God is transfused into people. By this speaking, many human beings are being infused and saturated with the divine element. This is the church life. This is God speaking.
The essence of the Epistle to the Hebrews is God’s speaking in the Son. God speaks in the Son, the Son speaks as the Spirit to the churches, and ultimately, the Spirit speaks with the church. It is altogether by this speaking story that God is brought into man, and man is brought into God. God and man, man and God, become one. This is the wonderful church life.