Hebrews 1:1-2 (HCSB)
Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe through Him.
The writer of Hebrews, though unnamed and unknown, is writing this letter to the Jewish Christians throughout the Roman Empire. There were many of these – after all, virtually ALL the people brought to Jesus over the first decade or more of the Church were converts from Judaism.
Many of the Jewish Christians were being drawn back into the practice of Judaism and away from the simplicity of salvation by grace through faith. Even though the first believers met in the temple courts and celebrated the Jewish feasts each year, they understood that making sacrifices for sins was no longer necessary, because the death of Jesus had paid for the sins of the world, and no earthly sacrifice could add to it.
But now, the second and third generations of Jewish Christians were being taught that strict obedience to the ceremonial law was essential for salvation, and that Jesus was a remarkable rabbi and prophet, but He was not the one and only Son of God. So, this writer felt that a corrective to this flawed theology was needed.
He begins by acknowledging that God did indeed speak and reveal Himself through the prophets of old, and through the signs and wonders He performed for His people. But he clearly shows that God’s final and most conclusive revelation of Himself to the people of the world had come through Jesus, His Son.
The writer of Hebrews pulls no punches. He doesn’t even name Jesus in these opening verses, but simply calls Him “the Son”. And he clearly tells all his readers that “the Son” was not a formal or ceremonial title. The fact that Jesus was the Son of God, God in the flesh, was a solid reality. And Jesus, the Son, was NOT merely a remarkable rabbi or prophet. Instead, He has been appointed by God Himself as heir of all things, things in both heaven and on earth, a pronouncement which would have dropped the jaw of many of His readers. But that’s not all! He goes a huge step further, claiming that the universe, which all Jews understood as being created by the word of God, was actually created though Jesus, the Son.
The writer doesn’t apologize for these facts or speak them quietly out of fear of offending his readers or of being contradicted somehow by facts. He is confident that over the next thirteen chapters he will be able to conclusively prove his opening thesis.
Father, just like today, these truths about Jesus probably had a hard time fitting into the worldview of a lot of Jewish people, even Jewish Christians. But just because something is challenging for us to fully understand doesn’t mean that it isn’t true. Indeed, many of Your truths are deeper than our mere human brains can grasp. They are mysteries that we can see the edges of, but we have to take the rest on faith, to know that, even if we can’t see the whole thing on our own, You always tell the truth about everything. Lord, help me to grasp as much of Your truth as I can, and to willingly accept the rest through faith in You, so that I can always hear the whole truth, know the whole truth, and speak the whole truth in every area. Amen.