Entries in series (10)

Romans 8:18-39: General Procedure

Here’s the general procedure I’ll be using for doing an interpretive paraphrase of this passage.

  • Step 1 is to place the passage in context; first, within the book of Romans, and then within the particular section of text surrounding it.
  • Step 2 is to divide the passage in paragraphs.
  • Step 3 is to copy the first verse from the four translations I’m using comparing them and using that comparison to help me decide which words and phrases might be key to understanding the meaning of the verse.
  • Step 4 is to underline the key words and phrases in the verse. The general guideline I use is to underline all the nouns and verbs and any connecting words for which I see the possibility of different meanings reflected in the translations I’ve used.
  • Step 5 is to consider the meaning each underlined word or phrase, using a comparison of the different translations, information on the meaning of the word gathered using my Strong’s concordance, and finally (and optionally), what I glean from the commentary.
  • Step 6 is to write a paraphrase of this verse from what I’ve learned.
I’ll keep doing steps 3-6 until I’ve finished paraphrasing the entire passage.  Yes, it’s a lot of work, but it gets to be less work as time goes on, for at least two reasons. First, like anything, it gets easier with practice; and secondly, a word may only need to be studied thoroughly once and then that information simply reviewed every time the word is repeated in the text.
Posted on Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 08:42AM by Registered Commenterrebecca in , , | CommentsPost a Comment | EmailEmail | PrintPrint

Romans 8:18-39: A Few Questions Answered

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to do a series of posts producing an interpretive paraphrase of Romans 8:18-39, with the aim being to show one way to go about doing this sort of Bible study. I’m starting the whole thing off by answering a few questions that might be asked about this planned series of posts.
 
Why do an interpretive paraphrase?
Because I think that producing an interpretive paraphrase is probably the best way for the ordinary person to do in-depth personal Bible study. 
 
What is an interpretive paraphrase?
Short answer: It’s explaining, in one’s own words, what the author meant to communicate to his original audience. The paraphrasing step comes only after careful study to determine what it is the author intended to say.
 
What tools will you use?
I am going to pare my tool supply down to what I think most of those reading along would have easily accessible and would be able to use well. I’ll be using
 
  • Four translations of the Bible for comparison—the NASB, the ESV, the NLT, and the NET Bible (mostly for the spiffy translation notes). I’ll get my text from Bible Gateway for the the first three translations and Bible.org for the NET. (You might be surprised to see the NLT on the list of translations I’m using. I always use one commitee-done thought-for-thought translation when I do an interpretive paraphrase. That’s about the only time I use one, but I do find a dynamic equivalent translation useful for this purpose.)
  • Strong’s Concordance.
  • One commentary intended for the lay person. Mine happens to be The Epistle to the Romans by John Murray, which is from The New International Commentary on the New Testament.
Here are a few other tools that could be used:
 
  • The Greek text of Romans, if you are competent. I have a Greek text, but I wouldn’t be able to muddle through Romans.
  • A Greek lexicon, if you have one and know how to use it. I considered using my lexicon, but decided against it, because many people find a lexicon confusing to use, and I’m not sure most people have a good lexicon available for personal study, anyway.
  • A Bible dictionary, like Vine’s, for instance. I don’t like Vine’s much, but some people do. It could be helpful, I suppose, especially if you keep in mind that it has a theological bias that shows in some of the definitions.
Why that passage from Romans 8?
Because for the last two Sundays, it’s been the scripture read in church, and both very different sermons, by two different men, have been based in it. And I like this passage a whole lot.  
Posted on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 06:37PM by Registered Commenterrebecca in , , | Comments3 Comments | EmailEmail | PrintPrint

Seven Statements about the Son: Seated at God's Right Hand

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Hebrews 1:2b-3 gives us seven statements about Christ, the Son of God. This post winds up a series of posts on these statements by looking at the last statement: Christ sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. As I did with a couple of the other posts, I’ll start at the end phrase in this statement and work my way forward.

  • The Majesty On High
    The Majesty isn’t a common way to refer to God. It’s used again in Hebrews 8:1, and that ‘s pretty much it. It refers in both places to God the Father, and emphasises the greatness of God. Christ is at the right hand of God the Father in all his greatness.

  • At the Right Hand
    The term right hand of God is figurative language. We can’t take it (as some people have this week in a certain thread on the Baptist Board) to mean that God has a body. God and heaven are beyond our abilities to describe exactly, and the writers of scripture often use word pictures to convey important truths about them to us.
     
    In this case, the image of Christ  at God’s right hand is meant to tell us something about the relationship Christ has to God—and all of creation, too—after he completed purification for sin. The right hand of God is a place of honor—the highest possible place—right next to God. Christ humbled himself to make purification for sins, and after that he returned to his place of glory and dignity and authority.  1 Peter 3:22 tells us that Christ
    has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
    That Christ is seated at the right hand of God assures us that he is not just another created being, but one to whom all creatures are subject. And if all creatures, even creatures with special authority, are subject to him, then he is not a creature at all, but rather in the class of one and only Creator.
     
    And yet, that Christ is at the right hand of the Majesty on high also suggests that he is distinct from the Father. He is with the Father, but he is not the Father. His placement also indicates a degree of subordination to the Father.  The one “at the right hand” is the one who carries out the will of the one he sits beside. We know from some of the other statements in these verses that Christ is equal to the Father. We have already, for instance, been told that Christ is God’s exact imprint. So this subordination must be a voluntary subordination, and not subordination that comes because Christ is somehow less in value or worth or importance than the Father.

  • Sat Down
    And Christ is sitting.  In Hebrews 10, we learn a little more about the significance of this sitting position.
    And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 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. (Hebrews 10:11-14)
    It is because Christ’s work of atonement is finished that he is no longer can take a seat. I wrote a post on this once called Christ Who Sits, and maybe I’ll just quote from that. I’m allowed to do that, right?
    An old covenant priest stood daily in his priestly work. He was always in a standing position in God’s presence because his ministry was never done. Over and over again, every day, he offered the same sacrifices—sacrifices that that had to be repeated because they were ineffectual, for they didn’t actually take away sins… . The old covenant priest’s sacrifices never cleansed completely, and the outward cleansing they provided was only temporary… . Day in and day out they had to do exactly the same work, and that it was necessary for them to keep repeating only served as a reminder of how unsatisfactory the work they did really was.

    The text gives us a very different picture of Christ’s work as Priest, however. Christ offered one sacrifice of himself, and then he sat down on the right hand of God. His work was over because his work was effectual… . It “perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” Never again does his work have to be repeated, for this Priest did a complete job: his work cleanses completely and cleanses forever. It is finished.
So what does it mean for us that Christ sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high?
  • It means that we are subject to his authority.
  • It means that he deserves our worship.
  • It means that we can rest—we don’t have to work for our salvation—because he is resting, having completed all the work required for it.
  • That Christ is equal to the Father and yet at his right hand gives us a model for the rightful existence of ordered authority among people who are  equal in value or worth.
In the last post, I mentioned that I thought this statement and the one before are really two halves of one statement, so that this section isn’t really seven statements about the Son, but six, with the last one being, “After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high… .” For one thing, taking it that way makes it parallel with the statement in chapter 10 that I quoted above, which says that “when Christ had offered for all time a sacrifice for sin he sat down at the right hand of God.” 
But there’s another reason why I think the two statements (and perhaps verse 4) might go together. I noticed something while composing these posts. Some of the statements seemed to parallel others, and I think those parallels might show something of chiastic structure, but I don’t know enough about it to be a good judge of it. So let me show you, and you draw your own conclusion. I’ve used the letters a, b, and c to show the parallels in the statements: 
  • a. whom he appointed the heir of all things,
  • b. through whom also he created the world.
  • c. He is the radiance of the glory of God
  • c. and the exact imprint of his nature,
  • b. and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
  • a. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, [and I’d probably add verse 4 as well] having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
There you go. You tell me: Do you think there is chiastic structure there or  not?
And while we’re at it, can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us? Is there anything else you’d like to discuss?
Posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at 02:01PM by Registered Commenterrebecca in , | Comments8 Comments | EmailEmail | PrintPrint

Seven Statements about the Son: One Who Mades Purification for Sins

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Hebrews 1:2b-3 give us seven statements about Christ, the Son of God. In this post, it’s the sixth statement we’re examining: He made purification for sins.  Starting at the beginning, then.

  • Made Purification
    Christ brought about cleansing from sin. Other places in Hebrews tell us more about exactly how Christ accomplished that, but the emphasis here is that the job was done. Sinful people are cleansed by what Christ did.

    Have you noticed that this statement is a bit different from the others? For one thing, none of the others require the incarnation, but this one does. The only way Christ could make purification for our sins is by becoming one of us1. So the sustainer of the universe, whose word alone created all living things, and whose word alone keeps all living things alive, leaves heaven behind so that he could die to purify us from our sins. How’s that for a contrast?
     
    In addition, except for the statement that Christ created the world, all of the others are present tense, indicating that they are continuing right now and will continue forever. But this one? It’s is a done deal. The verb tense tells us this purification accomplished by Christ is a completed action.
     
    Later in Hebrews we learn that Christ offered himself “once for all” time.”2 Christ’s made complete purification in his one act of sacrifice, and that complete purification cleanses sin for all time, in contrast to the Old Testament sacrifices that had to be offered over and over because they never really did the job. The old sacrifices were a surface cleansing only, but the source of the dirt was still there, continuing to dirty things up over and over and over again. But Christ’s sacrifice is a deep cleansing: it cleanses the conscience and puts away sin forever, so that there is no need anymore for perpetual cleansing.  The cleansing is completed; the work is finished.
     
  • For Sin
    There are many ways to look at sin, but in this case, used with the word purification, the emphasis is on sin as defilement. Sin makes us impure or unclean, and we are in need of cleansing if we are to be in the presence of a holy God. 
The five previous statements have been an affirmation of Christ’s deity. This one is less clearly so, although I do think it argues for his deity, too, but in a more round about way. In Hebrew 7, our writer argues that bulls and goats and human priests are inadequate to make permanent purification for sin and give us unhindered access to God. What’s required is a perfect human sacrifice and a perfect human priest1, but also, a priest who is the Father’s equal.
For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.3
No only does our priest need to be human and sinless, he also must be exalted above the heavens. Christ is uniquely able to fulfill all the requirements as the one sinless God-man. So the statement that Christ made purification for sins does affirm the diety of  Christ, since it was necessary for the “once for all” sacrifice to be God.
 
However, I’m not sure it was the writer’s intent for this phrase to stand alone as an argument for Christ’s deity. It is an argument for deity, but it’s not as obvious as the others, is it? The more I look at these statements, the more I think this one is meant to coupled with the next statement that tell us that Christ “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high”, making one complete statement. The whole statement, then, is, “After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high… .”, and it is a very straightforward affirmation of Christ’s deity.
 
But that’s enough of that for now. I’ll explain in the next post the primary reason I think these two last statements are really two halves of one statement.
 
So what does it mean for us that Christ “made purification for sins.”
  • It reminds us that sin isn’t something that a holy God can simply overlook. The defilement of sin must be removed before we can be in the presence of a holy God.
  • Taken together with with the previous statements, it gives us an idea how far Christ stooped to perform his redeeming work. This should make us extremely grateful for what he’s done, since without his cleansing work, we would be unable to have access to God.
  • Because the purification for sin is a done deal, nothing needs to be added to what he has already accomplished. Not only is Christ’s work necessary for us to have access to God, it is entirely sufficient to provide access to God. Nothing any other human being or any institution has done or will do is of any help in this matter, because Christ has finished the job. This should cause us to rest in his work alone for cleansing and forgiveness for sin.
  • We can draw near to God with confidence—with full assurance of faith—because Christ’s finished work has purified us and it is trustworthy.

Can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us? Is there anything else you’d like to add or discuss?
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2007 at 08:26PM by Registered Commenterrebecca in , | Comments2 Comments | EmailEmail | PrintPrint

Seven Statements about the Son: Upholder of the Universe

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Hebrews 1:2b-3 give us seven statements about Christ, the Son of God. So far, I’ve posted something on the first four statements, and this post is on to the fifth: he upholds the universe by the word of his power. As in the other posts, I’ve divided the statement into phrases, which I’ll look at individually.

  • Upholds the Universe
    It is because of Christ that the universe continues to exist. Paul makes a similar statement in Colossians 1:17 when he says that it is by Christ that “all things hold together.”
     
    The word upholds means “sustains” or “maintains”, and the verb tense tells us that Christ is continually upholding “all things.” Right now, as I write, and right now, as you read, everything in the universe continues to exist because Christ is sustaining or maintaining it. That the laws of the universe continue to be laws we can count on is through Christ’s upholding work. The gravity that coheres everything is here because Christ continues throughout history to sustain it’s existence.
     
    Do you think of God’s relationship to the creation as something like a watchmaker’s relationship to a watch? The watchmaker puts the pieces together and then winds the watch and lets it run. This statement tells us that Christ’s relationship to his creation is much different (and more involved) than that of a watchmaker. There is no “letting it run” with Christ; He continually keeping things in the universe running by his own power.
     
    But there’s even more to it than that. Leon Morris says that the thought is that Christ
    is carrying [the universe] along, bearing it toward an important goal. Creation is not aimless: it is part of God’s plan and the Son is continually bearing creation along toward the fulfillment of the plan.1
    Previously in this text, we learned that Christ is the creator of the world: what’s here is here because he made it. Now we learn that Christ is the upholder of the world: what’s here continues to work because he continues to run it.
      
  • The Word of His Power
    Christ’s word—his powerful word—is the means by which he upholds all things. Later on, in Hebrews 11, our writer tells us that the universe was created by God’s word, and it’s the same word for word used in both places. In Hebrews 11, it is God’s word that creates everything, and here it is Christ’s word that carries everything along toward God’s goal for it.  This is a perfect time to use the word fiat, which is a command that accomplishes something on the basis of that command alone.  Christ’s powerful word is an effective command, and that’s exactly the idea in this phrase. Christ created it all by fiat and he sustains it all by fiat. Christ commands and the universe responds. 
If you were around me in real life, you’d find that this statement is a piece of scripture that I quote fairly often. I like it a lot. There is something about those words that intrigues me, even though I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s very comforting to think that the universe is nothing like a watch winding down; but rather, there is a rational and personal will keeping it together, and a rational and eternal energy source carrying it along. It’s also exciting to think that God’s command, which is able to bring thing into existence out of nothing, is not simply something that was used once in the past at the creation. It is something that is used for every nanosecond of time itself, and for every nanosecond of my life and every small detail in it. God’s command called up the sprouting seeds in my garden.
 
This statement is quite closely related to the second statement in this text, the one telling us that Christ is the creator of the world. That one was an affirmation of Christ’s diety, and this one is too. (Do I sound a little like a broken record?) Having the sort of authority that comes with an assuredly effective  command, like the creative command of the second statement and the sustaining command of this one, is authority that belongs to God alone. 
 
What does the statement that Christ  upholds the universe by the word of his power mean for us?
  • It should cause us to worship him.
  • No matter what our circumstances, we can view our lives and everything in them as being sustained by God’s powerful word, and know that he is carrying everything along toward his own perfect goal.
1 Leon Morris, Hebrews: Bible Study Commentary, page 20.

Can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us? Is there anything else you’d like to add or discuss?
Posted on Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 11:56AM by Registered Commenterrebecca in , | Comments2 Comments | EmailEmail | PrintPrint

Seven Statements about the Son: Exact Imprint of God’s Nature

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Hebrews 1:2b-3 contains seven statements about Christ, the Son of God. This post examines the fourth of those seven statements: [The Son] is … the exact imprint of his nature. As I did in the first post in this series, I’ll start with the ending phrase and then move forward to the first phrase.

  • His Nature
    The his, of course, refers to God the Father. It’s God’s nature our text is referring to.

    The word nature means substance, essence or being. It’s the essential nature of something. God’s nature, then,  is what God really is, and this statement tells us that  Christ is the “exact imprint ” of what God really is.
  • The Exact Imprint
    The word translated exact imprint is the word used for an impression made on metal by a die or by a stamp on hot wax. The word was also used more generally for anything that was a copy of an original, or for something that is just like the thing it comes from.

    The point of saying that Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature is to tell us that the Son shows us exactly what God is. Christ is exactly like God, not just like him in a few ways, but of exactly the same essence or being. Christ is essentially identical to God. Paul says something very similar in Colossians 1:15 when he says that Christ is “is the image of the invisible God.”
     
    It’d be possible, I suppose, for the word “imprint” to lead us in the wrong direction were it not for the rest of the phrase. An imprint is often something less than the original, like the imprint of a stamp is less than the whole stamp; but in this case, we know that Christ is the imprint of what God really is—the whole of God’s essence or being— so he can’t be anything less than what God is.
     
    However, while an exact imprint is just like the original, it is also distinct from it, and this may well be another of the truths that our author is expressing by the word “exact imprint.” Christ is exactly like the Father; he shows us the Father perfectly; he is of the same nature or being as the Father; yet he is distinct from the Father..
Can you see how closely related this statement is to the previous one, which said that Christ is the radiance of God’s glory? That Christ is the radiance of God’s glory means that he show us all of what God is. So, also, with this statement. Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature, which means that he shows us exactly what God is. These are, I think, parallel statements. I bet you’re not surprised that the church fathers used this statement latest in their arguments against the Arians, too.
 
What does the statement that Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature mean for us?
  • It is another affirmation of Christ’s deity: that he is equal with God, and of the same nature as God. It is also an affirmation of Christ’s distinction from the Father.
  • It teaches us that we can know the invisible God only through Christ, since Christ is God’s perfect representation, and he came to earth to show us God
  • It should cause us to worship Christ as God..
Can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us?  Is there anything else you’d like to add or discuss?
Posted on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 08:36PM by Registered Commenterrebecca in , | Comments2 Comments | EmailEmail | PrintPrint

Seven Statements about the Son: Radiance of the Glory of God

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In this post, we’re moving on the the third of the seven statements about the Son made by the writer in Hebrews 1:2b-3. Christ, the writer tells us, is the radiance of the glory of God. Athanasius used this statement in his fight against the Arian heresy because he said that it showed that Christ was co-eternal with God the Father. Just what exactly does it mean that Christ “is the radiance of the glory of God,” and how did this help Athanasius prove that Christ was without beginning in the same way that the Father is without beginning?

  • The Radiance
    The word translated radiance can be understood in two ways. It can refer to the shining forth of brightness like the rays of the sun shine forth from the sun; or it can refer to the reflecting of brightness like a mirror reflects light.
     
    The Message takes the word in this second way, saying that the “Son perfectly mirrors God.” A few commentaries interpret it this way, too, explaining that the Son reflects God’s glory. Most translations and commentaries, however, seem to understand radiance in the first way—that Christ shines forth with God’s glory. Commonly, the word effulgence, which means “the quality of being bright and sending out rays of light,” is used to describe this sort of radiance. God’s glory is in Christ, we might say, and he beams it outward. One way to express this idea might be to say that Christ expresses the glory of God to us in the same way that the brightness of the sun shows forth the sun itself.
     
    As you can probably tell from how much space I’ve given to explaining the second way of understanding radiance, this is the meaning that I think is the most likely. But either way, the statements tell us that we see the glory of God in the Son.
     
  • The Glory of God
    The phrase “the glory of God” is almost synonymous with God himself in all his majesty. All of what God is, taken together, is the glory of God.  Wherever God is present, his glory is present, too; and God’s glory is inseparable from God.

    We are told in Colossians 2:9 that “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” in Christ, and I’d think that the phrase “the whole fullness of deity” used in this verse is very close to the idea of the glory of God. In Colossians 2:9, then, we have the fullness of deity dwelling in Christ; in this statement from Hebrews 1, it’s God’s glory (or his majesty) radiating or reflecting from Christ.  If the the first statement from Colossians is a claim of deity for Christ, so is our statement from Hebrews.
To summarize, we can understand the statement that Christ is the radiance of the glory of God to mean that God’s majesty (or his deity) shines forth in Christ. It is another way of saying that he is God.
 
This is the way Athanasius understood it, too, and he argued for Christ’s full and eternal deity from this statement in ATHANASIUS, Against Arius:
But these men dare to separate them, and to say that He is alien from the substance and eternity of the Father; and impiously to represent Him as changeable, not perceiving, that by speaking thus, they make Him to be, not one with the Father, but one with created things. Who does not see, that the brightness cannot be separated from the light, but that it is by nature proper to it, and co-existent with it, and is not produced after it?
According to Athanasius, this statement in Hebrews showed that Christ is of the same nature as God; that he is eternal in the same way God is; that he is both inseparable from God, and yet distinct from him.
 

So what does the statement that Christ is the radiance of the glory of God mean for us?

  • Just like the previous statement in this series, this one is also a strong affirmation of Christ’s deity and co-eternality with the Father, and should be useful as biblical evidence for the full eternal deity of Christ
  • That Christ is the radiance of the glory of God compels us to worship him.
  • Because of this statement, you can sing Shine, Jesus, Shine guilt-free, since it is not without at least one morsel of theological meat: Jesus does indeed shine with the Father’s glory, and that tell us some important things about him. 
    • Can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us?  How do you understand the word “radiance” in this statement? Anything else you’d like to add or discuss is welcome, too. 
    Posted on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 05:54PM by Registered Commenterrebecca in , | Comments2 Comments | EmailEmail | PrintPrint

    Seven Statements about the Son: Creator of the World

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    This post examines the second of the seven statements about the Son made by the writer in Hebrews 1:2b-3: through whom also he created the world. I’m starting at the beginning of the statement this time, so it’s forward ho!

    • Through Whom He Created
      This statement tells us that Christ is the agent of creation, an idea that is found in other places in the New Testament as well. One of these texts, Colossians 1:16, was used in the previous post in this series, where Paul tells us that “by [Christ] all things were created.” Another is John 1:3:
      All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
      Want more? There’s also 1 Corinthians 8:6:
      … one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
      It is through Christ that God made the world and everything in it. All that exists is in one of two wholly separate classes, either creator or created. Christ is in the creator class, which means he cannot be a created being. And he must be eternal, because in order to have been the one through whom the universe is created, he must have existed before the beginning, or in the eternal realm. He himself, then, could have no beginning. Both of these things—that he has creative power and that he is eternal—are affirmations of Christ’s diety. That he created means he is one with the Father, eternal God himself.
    • The World
      The word used here is literally “the ages.” Some take this to mean that Christ is the one through whom all times are created, and of course, that Christ created all times is true. But the word can also be used to simply mean “world” (or in this case, since it’s plural, “worlds”) and that’s the way I’m more inclined to think the writer of Hebrews meant it to be taken. I’d think it refers to the whole universe in the same way that the all things that Christ inherits refers to the whole universe. Either way, however, it means that Christ is the agent by which everything that exists came into existence. 

    So what does the statement that God created the world through Christ mean to us?

    • It is a strong affirmation of Christ’s diety and of his equality with the Father, which should cause us to worship him.
    • Knowing that Christ possesses the creative power that called the universe into existence should give those who belong to him, who are “new creation” in him, the impetus to act as the new creation they are in Christ.

    Can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us? As you can see, I’ve come up a little short on this one! And how do you understand the word “worlds” in this statement? Anything else you’d like to add or discuss is welcome, too.

    Posted on Thursday, May 31, 2007 at 01:42PM by Registered Commenterrebecca in , | CommentsPost a Comment | References3 References | EmailEmail | PrintPrint

    Seven Statements about the Son: Heir of All Things

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    Yesterday I listed seven statements about the Son made by the writer in Hebrews 1:2b-3. Let’s look at the first one: whom he appointed the heir of all things.

    And let’s live dangerously by starting at the end, moving forward from finish to start. Since each bit of the whole statement means all of what it means because of what follows it, why not just start with what follows in the first place? Beginning at the end, then!

    • All Things
      This is everything in the whole universe, the whole created order, everything in heaven and on earth. Or, irreverently, the whole enchilada: not just people, not just the earth, but everything that exists or will exist.

      How do we know that all things is so universal in scope? Because, first of all, the very next phrase says that the Son is the creator of what exists. How can he be heir to less than the whole of what he himself has made? And secondly, this tells us the Son is God’s own heir, since it’s God the Father (See verse 1.) appointed him heir. Christ is heir to God’s estate, you might say, and God’s estate is all of the created order, so the “all things” that Christ inherits is nothing less than everything that exists.

    • The Heir
      Christ is God’s heir. In this instance, we can’t understand heir as we normally do, as the one who comes into possession of an estate after someone dies, since God is eternal. Leon Morris says that “in the New Testament [the word heir] is often used of firm possession, no matter how the possession took place.”1  So at the very least, this means that all of creation belongs to Christ.

      That Christ is heir also means that all of the universe is intended for him. This phrase, “heir of all things,” taken together with the next one, “through whom also he created the world,”  echoes (but in reverse order) Colossians 1:16:

      For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

      Christ is the “through whom” and the “for whom” of creation—both the Creator and the heir. In God’s plan, what was created was created to be Christ’s possession.

      In addition, the word heir carries with it the idea that Christ is God’s Son. In the estate of the whole universe, in the domain of the entire created order, in the land of Everything-That-Is-and-Ever-Will-Be, the high position of son of the owner is his. This would put him on the same plane as God the Father himself. He is, then, God’s equal.

      And there may be one more thing. It’s hard not to think of the phrase “heir of all things” without thinking of Psalm 2:8 (Psalm 2:7 is quoted in verse 5, after all!) where God says to his Anointed:

      I will make the nations your heritage,
      and the ends of the earth your possession.

      If our author is indeed alluding to this Psalm with this phrase, then he is intentionally pointing to Christ as the Messiah with this statement, too.

    • He Appointed
      The he, of course, is God the Father. Any difficulty in this phrase is with the meaning of the word appointed. What meaning is added by saying that Christ is appointed heir that wouldn’t be there if the statement simply said that Christ is heir? It may mean merely that Christ was designated heir in advance. This would go along rather nicely with Psalm 2, where God says that his Anointed, whom he declares to be his son, will inherit the earth.

      Or it could be pointing to a specific event in which Christ is appointed heir, like his ascension, when he returned to the place of honor that was his before he humbled himself to carry out his sacrificial work. Taking the statement this way makes it parallel to the statement at the end of verse 3 of this passage, where it says that after Christ made “purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” The idea, then, would be that once Christ’s work was finished, he was appointed once more to his position as heir of all things. We find the same idea in Hebrews 10:12-13:

      But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

      Upon his ascension, Christ assumed the position of active ruling heir at God’s right hand. It may be that it is in this sense that the writer intends us to understand Christ’s appointment as heir. His appointment is made on the basis of his finished redemptive work in which he redeemed people and destroyed sin, death, Satan, and all the forces of darkness; yet he awaits a future time when the full effect of his inheritance becomes reality.

      I’m leaning toward understanding appointed in this last way, because one of the major themes of the whole book of Hebrews is that with the coming of Christ and his completion of his work, things have changed, and changed in a big way. Directly preceding this statement, as a quick example, the writer tells us that “God spoke …  by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken … by his Son.”

      But whatever is meant precisely by the word appointed, it means that it is by God’s authority that Christ inherits, and that we can be sure that in the end, “The kingdom of the world [will] become the kingdom … of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15)

    So what does the statement that God has appointed Christ heir of all things mean to us?

    • It shows us Christ’s exalted position—his equality with God.
    • It ensures for us that Christ will keep his promises, because everything belongs to him and he has authority over everything.
    • It ensures those who belong to Christ that they will inherit as well, since they are fellow heirs with Christ.
    1 Leon Morris, Hebrews: Bible Study Commentary, page 18.

    Can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us? Anything else you’d like to add, like why you agree with the way I understand this statement or why you disagree? Perhaps you’ve a comment on the meaning of  the word “appointed” here, or you’d like to let us know whether you think this is an allusion to Psalm 2:7 or not.
    Posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 11:53AM by Registered Commenterrebecca in , | Comments3 Comments | References1 Reference | EmailEmail | PrintPrint

    Seven Statements about the Son

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    in Hebrews 1:2b-3.  (Keep in minds, too, that these come right after the author to Hebrews tells us that the Son is the culmination of God’s revelation and right before he tells us that the Son is better than the angels.)

    1. Christ is the heir of all things.
    2. Christ created the world.
    3. Christ is the radiance of the glory of God.
    4. Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature.
    5. Christ upholds the universe by the word of his power.
    6. Christ made purification for sins.
    7. Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
    I think each one of these statements is worthy of a short post of its own, don’t you?
    Posted on Monday, May 28, 2007 at 03:23PM by Registered Commenterrebecca in , | Comments6 Comments | EmailEmail | PrintPrint