Following Judah's Lion

Who is Jesus?

This will be a study centered around Hebrews 1:1-3

The first word of the book of Hebrews is “God”. This book was written to first century Jewish Christians who were very young and vulnerable in their faith and of course at the center of their vulnerability was the issue of who was Jesus. The divine nature of the Lord Jesus has been a particularly favorite target of the enemy and the Jews who espoused the “The Lord our God is one God” doctrine needed much teaching and reassurance in their embryonic faith concerning the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. There were many Jewish teachers who dabbled about Jesus by accepting His prophetic status while rejecting His divine incarnation and so many obstacles were placed in front of these Jewish believers sometime in the very first century after Pentecost and this book of Hebrews was written to address some of the most important ones.

Heb.1:1 - God...

So it is fitting that the first word in Hebrews is God because one of the main themes throughout this book is that Jesus was God in the flesh. This is an extremely hard truth to embrace especially for Jews and only the Holy Spirit can enlighten a person to who Jesus really is. I personally believe Paul wrote Hebrews with the help of a Jewish scribe but the book offers no author. Suffice it to say that the Holy Spirit is the author as He is of all 66 books, so with that in mind the writer begins with a truth that every Jew would agree with and understand.

Heb.1:1 - ...who at sundry times and diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

All of Israel knew and accepted Moses and the prophets as the voice of God and so they could jump on this line of truth and be open to the coming teaching. You see while some Jews taught that Jesus was to be integrated into the law, others taught that the Old Testament was to be completely thrown out. Both views were wrong and extreme, the Old Testament and its law were schoolmasters to bring us to Christ and they are to be studied as prophetic revealers of the Messiah Jesus but never to meshed with the freedom found in the Lord Jesus. So the writer of Hebrews establishes the prophets as true communicators from God. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and all the rest were incorporated as prophetic voices that were used to shepherd Israel and the whole world to the present culmination.

Heb.2:2 - Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son…

Wow. Right off the bat the writer follows that historical path of the Old Testament prophets to the person of Christ who he identifies not as Jesus of Nazareth but as God’s Son. This, as we have seen in the gospels, would be considered blasphemy by the Jews because it makes Jesus divine as God’s Son. Notice the verse doesn’t say that in these last days God has spoken to us through His Son along with the coming prophets and teachers, no, because as we will see in Hebrews all the gifts and callings within the church speak for, about, and from the person of Christ Jesus. He is the last voice through which God will speak and Jesus even proclaims that the coming Holy Spirit “will speak of me”.

This is very difficult for the Jewish people to accept and be comfortable with not just because of the mystery of the incarnation but because they were used to thousands of years of structured religious observances that included days, moons, feasts, and hundreds of other outward adherences to Spiritual customs and commandments. Now the Spirit wants to bring them into the Spiritual realm which is Christ Jesus and those former observances were a shadow to be abolished because the body, the substance, is Christ Himself. (Col.2:16-17) Remember Jesus prophesied that the Father was seeking those who would worship Him in Spirit and in truth, not outward tokens of religious patterns that spoke of the weakness of the law. Think of how difficult it was for Jewish believers to leave behind those customs that had been a part of their lives for thousands of years. And even today there are movements to bring back Advent wreaths, Lent observances, priestly clothes, and other outward customs that are man made and again speak of the things of the law and will eventually bring people into bondage. Paul says in Colossians chapter two that we should not allow people to judge us who use no outward artifacts to aid in worship because that is the way God desires it because after Jesus came we no longer need things to worship, we have the Spirit. We should worship with our whole hearts, free in His Spirit, and without any accoutrements that shadow the law which was an especially difficult transition for the Jews. God has spoken to us by His Son.

Heb.1:2 - …whom He hath appointed heir of all things…

Jesus has inherited all things by the will of the Father. For us to dissect the fullness of that truth is like a month old infant doing brain surgery. The Father God has revealed Himself in three distinct persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now I immediately confess my total inadequacy in teaching this mystery that deals with the essence of the Triune God. The Scriptures teach very little of the Trinity, they just reveal God in those three persons. But the relationship between the persons of the Godhead and the interaction between them is somewhat explained for our benefit and edification as well as our example.

Heb.1:2 -…by whom also He made the worlds.

Let’s try and piece these two thoughts together. Jesus was the Creator of all things, we sometimes mistakenly believe that it was the Father but the Scriptures are clear, it was Jesus. (Jn.1:1-3) But are not Jesus and the Father the same and didn’t Jesus say that “He who has seen the Son has seen the Father”? Throw out the life raft we might start to drown in a deep ocean of glorious truth which by the way the Spirit helps us discover and is pleased when we diligently seek the Lord. Well, if Jesus created everything then why did He have to inherit it if it was already His? I believe the submitted relationship that our Savior had with His Father indicates that He created everything according to His Father’s will (I do the will of My Father) and it was for His Father’s glory (The heavens declare the glory of God). But because of the love relationship the Father had with the Son He made Jesus the heir of all creation for the Son’s glory. And yet they are One with the Spirit. These glimpses into the Godhead are like making the element Californium, it comes with a lot of preparation and only exists a couple of seconds. No one can ever enter the Tabernacle in which the Trinity dwells and fully comprehend the depth and length and width of the eternal mystery, but the Spirit has been sent to both quench our seeking hearts with glorious glimpses and create thirst for more to those who diligently desire it.

Heb.1:3 - Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person…

Just when it seemed it could not get any more sacred, the Spirit beckons us into a deeper chamber of the knowledge of the Almighty. To put it succinctly, Jesus is God. God’s glory is not limited to just a brilliant, golden light, but it goes much deeper than that. The brilliant light that often shines from and around the Lord actually serves as a revelation of His glory, but this verse explicitly says that the very being of Jesus is not only that glory but He is the brightness of that glory. Do you desire to see God’s glory, well look at Jesus and you have seen it in all its fullness. His birth, His miracles, His life, His teachings, His sufferings, His death, His resurrection, and the totality of who He is and always has been and always will be and you have seen the brightness of God’s glory. And do you wish to clearly see the invisible God, look at Jesus and you have seen God. Not a copy and not an exact replica but the express image of His person. As if God was hiding behind a celestial tree in the Old Testament and only speaking through His prophets about Himself, God steps out from behind that tree and then by the mouth of angels one night in Bethlehem proclaims “Here I Am”, come and learn of Me for I am now among you. Make no mistake about this one truth from which all others must come, Jesus was, is, and always will be the Creator God, Jehovah and Elohim, Savior and Lord, existing from eternity past to eternity future, and reigning for all those who will bow down and worship Him. All other revelations of Jesus are man made caricatures created by the spirit of anti-christ and will one day be consumed by the Word of His power and the brightness of His amazing glory. Halleluiah!

Heb.1:3 -…and upholding all things by the word of His power…

Jesus did not just create everything and leave them to their own devices, no, He continues to support all creation with the power of the same Word that originally set them in motion. In actual fact, there is no power other than the Word of God which is in a mystery, Jesus Himself. (Jn.1:1) The Word is Jesus and Jesus is the Word, inseparable. Jesus Himself said, “All power is given unto Me” so never get the impression that Jesus is the Captain of one powerful army and Satan is the captain of another powerful army with both of them fighting as equals. Never. Satan has no power and he masquerades his suggestions and whisperings as power when in fact they are just powerless lies which are given worthless substance by those who listen and believe them. Everything in the universe continues only through the sustaining power of the Word of the Lord Jesus and the only reason that the Lord Christ has not consumed everything by now is His patient love that endures until the last sheep is brought into the true sheepfold. The moment the last name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and Jesus removes His power from this present creation everything will perish and be rolled up as a garment. And this truth which should be heralded as a warning throughout the world and the church seems to be marginalized so as to give so many a false sense of security when in reality the Word that now offers life will soon speak eternal death to all those outside the fold.

Heb.1:3 -…when He had by Himself purged our sins…

Alone. Jesus purged our sins by Himself, alone. Willingly, lovingly, completely, and alone. Another cavern within the sacred mystery of that which pertains to the Lord Jesus is the infinite and divine loneliness that accompanied the solitary, isolated, and even quarantined sacrifice on salvation’s tree. It was Him and Him alone without the aid of even His Father. There was never such aloneness, such desertion of someone who was giving His own life for those who had abandoned Him. The Spiritual depth of this isolation will only be understood by Jesus Himself, and with that loneliness He had assured that no one else could claim even a small part of the glory of His salvation, it is His work alone. The only sacred head now wounded was His; the only offer of grace was His; the only sufferings were His; the only blood was His; the only redemption was His; and the Author of our salvation was also the Finisher. Works? Denominations? Baptism? Communion? Church membership? Good intentions? Self sacrifice? Feeding the poor? Away with all of them into a cesspool of impurities that can never have a part of “so great salvation”, no, Jesus and only Jesus will forever be the Lamb that was slain for our eternal salvation. And as His blood flowed, the offer was made, look and live, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, no man comes to the Father but by Him, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Not just any blood, His blood alone. The blood of God. (Acts 20:28)

Heb.1:3 -…sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high…

It is finished. In the original language it is one word, tetelestai. The Greeks used this word to mean several things. When an artist had been working tirelessly on a masterpiece, and after many touch ups he finally puts down his brush, stands back and admires his work, he proclaims "Tetelestai!". When a war had been waged on a far flung battlefield and the victory had been won, the general would dispatch a fleetfooted soldier to run with every ounce of energy, and as he arrived at the king's palace he would collapse while shouting "Tetelestai!". When a man owed a great sum of money but was unable to pay it he was cast into prison. Now if a rich benefactor took pity upon him and paid the debt in full, the clerk took the paper that posted his debt and he wrote "Tetelestai!" across the debt and the man was set free. And when Jesus had completed His crucified masterpiece, and had won the battle, and had paid in full our debt, He says "Tetelestai", it is finished. God has completed the labor of love that He walked through Mary’s womb to accomplish because God has so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Ps.24:7-10 - Lift up your heads O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up ye everlasting doors and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory.

I often wondered about the setting for those prophetic verses because obviously Jesus is the King of Glory, but why is He coming into the celestial gates, where has He been, and what battle has He won? And then I realized they speak of The Lord's return to heaven after His ascencion, fresh from His eternal victory, and in all His glory. He, the Lord of Hosts, sits down upon the empty throne that had awaited His triumphant return, and reigning from that Majestic throne all of heaven bows in utter awe and worship. The King of Glory has conquered over death and hell forever. King Jesus, the Lamb, the Lion, the Word, the Christ, the Morning Star, the Root of David, Faithful and True, the Alpha and Omega, the Resurrection, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Son of the Living God, and in one word of eternal truth………..

God