Jesus out of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (Hebrews 1)
9 min read
In-depth:
There is a letter written to people who were on the point of giving up. Jewish believers, sometime in the first century, who had confessed Jesus and paid the price for it — mockery, exclusion, loss — and who now, tired and afraid, longed back for the safety of the old, the familiar, for the temple and the angels and the law without the cross. And the letter written to them, the letter to the Hebrews, does not begin the way letters are supposed to begin. No greeting, no "grace and peace," no name of the sender. It begins like an orchestra crashing in mid-crescendo, with one long, breathless sentence that grabs the reader by the collar and does not let go, and that says, in effect: before you go back to the old — look first at Whom you are about to turn your back on.
In many portions and in many ways, God spoke long ago to the fathers through the prophets, he writes — in bits and pieces, a vision here, a law there, a promise somewhere else, a portrait built up stroke by stroke over centuries. But now, in these last days, He has spoken to us in a Son. That is the turning point of the entire history of salvation, in a single breath: God, who always spoke — about His servants, through His servants, in fragments and pieces — has finally spoken His last, complete Word, and that Word is not a message but a Person. Everything the prophets stammered now stands before you, in flesh and blood.
And then follows the description of that Son, and it piles up until it takes your breath away. God has appointed Him heir of all things — everything that exists is His. Through Him God also made the worlds — He was not merely present at creation, everything came into being through Him. He is the radiance of God's glory — not a second, lesser light next to God, but the glow that streams out of the light itself, light from light. And the exact imprint of His being — the precise imprint, as a seal presses itself into wax: whoever sees the Son sees the exact contours of God. And He carries all things by the word of His power — the whole of reality rests on His word, moment by moment. And then, after all that cosmic height, one sentence that pulls everything to the heart: after making purification for our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The Creator of the worlds, the exact imprint of God's being, the Carrier of everything — that One bent down to wash away your sins, and then sat down, because the work was finished.
And from that point the writer does something that must have taken a praying Jew's breath away: he opens the sacred books, one after another, and shows that every layer of Scripture had, all along, been pointing to this Son. For to which of the angels — the highest beings that exist, the burning servants around the throne — has God ever said what He says to this Son? Seven times he reaches into the scrolls, and seven times an old, familiar text suddenly sounds like a portrait of Christ.
You are My Son, today I have begotten You, it rings out from the Psalms — the coronation psalm, now the enthronement of the eternal Son. I will be a Father to Him, and He will be a Son to Me, it rings out from the promise to David — the oath Ethan sang about and that seemed to have fallen into the rubble, here fulfilled. Let all the angels of God worship Him, it rings out from the Song of Moses itself — the angels, whom no human being may worship, kneel before Him. He makes His angels winds, His servants a flame of fire — the angels are servants, fleeting as a gust of wind; the Son is the Lord they serve. And then the heaviest of all: Your throne, O God, is forever and ever — a psalm that addresses the Son, without hedging, as God, with a throne that never wavers. And further: You, Lord, laid the foundations of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain — a hymn that in the Old Testament was sung to YHWH the Creator, and that the writer, without hesitation, places in the mouth of the Father, addressed to the Son. The psalm about the unchanging Creator is about Him. And finally, as capstone: sit at My right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet — and then the question that admits no answer: to which of the angels has He ever said that? To none of them. They stand and serve; He sits and reigns.
And this is the real flesh of it, the core toward which this whole book has been crawling. The Law — the song of Moses. The Prophets — the promise to David. The Writings — psalm after psalm after psalm. The entire threefold Scripture, everything Israel preserved and sang and learned by heart for centuries, turns out to have been one great portrait of a Face it did not yet know — and now that the Face has arrived, every brushstroke falls into place. Here is Jesus out of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings; here the whole Old Testament comes together in one Person, and it fits. This is not a random proof text here and a nice application there; this is the discovery that the whole library of God, cover to cover, was about Him — and the heart catches fire the moment you see it.
Who is a God like You? The question has sounded from the sea to the mountain, from the psalms to the prophets, and here, on the first page of this letter, stands the answer in full armor: no one — not even the highest angel around the throne. The burning seraphim who cover the face of God with their wings bow before Him. He is the exact imprint of God's being; whoever has seen Him has seen the Father. And He, who carries the worlds, took the trouble to wash away your guilt, and then sat down, because nothing more needed to be added. For the frightened believers who were considering slipping back to the old, this was the argument, and it still is: why go back to the shadow, when the One who cast every shadow is standing right in front of you?
ExpertThe chain of quotations
Hebrews 1:5-14 strings together seven quotations, each one showing that the Son stands infinitely above the angels, and they are drawn from all three parts of the Hebrew Bible. From the Law: "let all God's angels worship Him" (Deuteronomy 32:43, in the Greek text; cf. Psalm 97:7). From the Prophets: "I will be a Father to Him" (2 Samuel 7:14, the promise to David). From the Writings: "You are My Son" (Psalm 2:7); the angels as wind and fire (Psalm 104:4); "Your throne, O God" (Psalm 45:7); "You, Lord, laid the foundations of the earth … You remain" (Psalm 102:26-28); and "sit at My right hand" (Psalm 110:1).
Two of these quotations are the sharpest. Psalm 45 addresses the Son directly as God ("Your throne, O God"). And Psalm 102, a hymn to YHWH the unchanging Creator, is placed by the writer in the mouth of the Father, addressed to the Son — so that everything that psalm says about the eternal Creator is spoken over Christ. The question "to which of the angels has He ever said: sit at My right hand?" (1:13) can be answered only one way: to none of them. The highest created beings serve; the Son shares the throne.
ExcursusRadiance and imprint
Two Greek words in Hebrews 1:3 carry the entire christology of this chapter. The first is apaugasma, "radiance, outshining." The Son is not a second lamp burning next to God; He is the glow that streams out of the light itself — just as you cannot separate the sun from its rays, so you cannot separate the Father from the Son. The second is charaktēr, "imprint, impressed image" — the word for the stamp a signet ring leaves in wax, or the image struck into a coin. The Son is the exact, complete imprint of God's being: not a resembling sketch, but the precise contour, so that whoever sees Him sees God as He is.
And there is a third word the reader must not miss, tucked into a small phrase: after making purification for sins, He "sat down" (1:3). In the temple the priests never sat; there was no chair, because their work was never finished — always another sacrifice, always more blood, day after day. That the Son, after His offering, sits down, at the right hand, is a quiet but deafening proclamation: the work is complete. Nothing more needs to be added. The great High Priest has sat down, because the purification is done, once for all.
HeartGod's last Word has a face
Many people struggle with the question of what God is really like. They piece together stray impressions — something of the thunder on Sinai, something of a judgment they fear, something of an old image of God a parent or a church handed them — and the result is often a God they don't dare trust. Hebrews cuts off that piecing-together at the root. God, the letter says, has spoken His last and complete Word, and that Word is not a system of doctrine but a Person: the Son, the exact imprint of His being.
That means you no longer have to guess at God's character. You don't have to timidly stack up your own guesses. You may look at Jesus — at how He treated the broken, the afraid, the ashamed; at whom He touched and whom He brought home; at the hands that let themselves be pierced — and know: this is what God is like, exactly like this, down to the smallest detail. Whoever carries a damaged image of God may set it next to the Son and discover how far off it was. And through it all sounds that one quiet sentence: He sat down. The work on your guilt is finished. You don't have to add anything to it; you may go and rest where He has gone to rest.
*A note on the source text. The opening of the letter to the Hebrews — 1:1-4: God who formerly spoke through the prophets and now in a Son (1:1-2); heir and Creator of the worlds, "radiance of the glory" (apaugasma) and "imprint of His being" (charaktēr), "carries all things by the word of His power," and "sat down" after making purification for sins (1:3). The chain of seven quotations — 1:5-14: Psalm 2:7; 2 Samuel 7:14; Deuteronomy 32:43 (Greek text; cf. Psalm 97:7); Psalm 104:4; Psalm 45:7-8 (the Son addressed as God); Psalm 102:26-28 (the Creator-hymn to YHWH, addressed to the Son); Psalm 110:1 ("sit at My right hand"). The divine Name as YHWH.*
There is a letter written to people who were on the point of giving up. Jewish believers, sometime in the first century, who had confessed Jesus and paid the price for it — mockery, exclusion, loss — and who now, tired and afraid, longed back for the safety of the old, the familiar, for the temple and the angels and the law without the cross. And the letter written to them, the letter to the Hebrews, does not begin the way letters are supposed to begin. No greeting, no "grace and peace," no name of the sender. It begins like an orchestra crashing in mid-crescendo, with one long, breathless sentence that grabs the reader by the collar and does not let go, and that says, in effect: before you go back to the old — look first at Whom you are about to turn your back on.
In many portions and in many ways, God spoke long ago to the fathers through the prophets, he writes — in bits and pieces, a vision here, a law there, a promise somewhere else, a portrait built up stroke by stroke over centuries. But now, in these last days, He has spoken to us in a Son. That is the turning point of the entire history of salvation, in a single breath: God, who always spoke — about His servants, through His servants, in fragments and pieces — has finally spoken His last, complete Word, and that Word is not a message but a Person. Everything the prophets stammered now stands before you, in flesh and blood.
And then follows the description of that Son, and it piles up until it takes your breath away. God has appointed Him heir of all things — everything that exists is His. Through Him God also made the worlds — He was not merely present at creation, everything came into being through Him. He is the radiance of God's glory — not a second, lesser light next to God, but the glow that streams out of the light itself, light from light. And the exact imprint of His being — the precise imprint, as a seal presses itself into wax: whoever sees the Son sees the exact contours of God. And He carries all things by the word of His power — the whole of reality rests on His word, moment by moment. And then, after all that cosmic height, one sentence that pulls everything to the heart: after making purification for our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The Creator of the worlds, the exact imprint of God's being, the Carrier of everything — that One bent down to wash away your sins, and then sat down, because the work was finished.
And from that point the writer does something that must have taken a praying Jew's breath away: he opens the sacred books, one after another, and shows that every layer of Scripture had, all along, been pointing to this Son. For to which of the angels — the highest beings that exist, the burning servants around the throne — has God ever said what He says to this Son? Seven times he reaches into the scrolls, and seven times an old, familiar text suddenly sounds like a portrait of Christ.
You are My Son, today I have begotten You, it rings out from the Psalms — the coronation psalm, now the enthronement of the eternal Son. I will be a Father to Him, and He will be a Son to Me, it rings out from the promise to David — the oath Ethan sang about and that seemed to have fallen into the rubble, here fulfilled. Let all the angels of God worship Him, it rings out from the Song of Moses itself — the angels, whom no human being may worship, kneel before Him. He makes His angels winds, His servants a flame of fire — the angels are servants, fleeting as a gust of wind; the Son is the Lord they serve. And then the heaviest of all: Your throne, O God, is forever and ever — a psalm that addresses the Son, without hedging, as God, with a throne that never wavers. And further: You, Lord, laid the foundations of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain — a hymn that in the Old Testament was sung to YHWH the Creator, and that the writer, without hesitation, places in the mouth of the Father, addressed to the Son. The psalm about the unchanging Creator is about Him. And finally, as capstone: sit at My right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet — and then the question that admits no answer: to which of the angels has He ever said that? To none of them. They stand and serve; He sits and reigns.
And this is the real flesh of it, the core toward which this whole book has been crawling. The Law — the song of Moses. The Prophets — the promise to David. The Writings — psalm after psalm after psalm. The entire threefold Scripture, everything Israel preserved and sang and learned by heart for centuries, turns out to have been one great portrait of a Face it did not yet know — and now that the Face has arrived, every brushstroke falls into place. Here is Jesus out of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings; here the whole Old Testament comes together in one Person, and it fits. This is not a random proof text here and a nice application there; this is the discovery that the whole library of God, cover to cover, was about Him — and the heart catches fire the moment you see it.
Who is a God like You? The question has sounded from the sea to the mountain, from the psalms to the prophets, and here, on the first page of this letter, stands the answer in full armor: no one — not even the highest angel around the throne. The burning seraphim who cover the face of God with their wings bow before Him. He is the exact imprint of God's being; whoever has seen Him has seen the Father. And He, who carries the worlds, took the trouble to wash away your guilt, and then sat down, because nothing more needed to be added. For the frightened believers who were considering slipping back to the old, this was the argument, and it still is: why go back to the shadow, when the One who cast every shadow is standing right in front of you?
ExpertThe chain of quotations
Hebrews 1:5-14 strings together seven quotations, each one showing that the Son stands infinitely above the angels, and they are drawn from all three parts of the Hebrew Bible. From the Law: "let all God's angels worship Him" (Deuteronomy 32:43, in the Greek text; cf. Psalm 97:7). From the Prophets: "I will be a Father to Him" (2 Samuel 7:14, the promise to David). From the Writings: "You are My Son" (Psalm 2:7); the angels as wind and fire (Psalm 104:4); "Your throne, O God" (Psalm 45:7); "You, Lord, laid the foundations of the earth … You remain" (Psalm 102:26-28); and "sit at My right hand" (Psalm 110:1).
Two of these quotations are the sharpest. Psalm 45 addresses the Son directly as God ("Your throne, O God"). And Psalm 102, a hymn to YHWH the unchanging Creator, is placed by the writer in the mouth of the Father, addressed to the Son — so that everything that psalm says about the eternal Creator is spoken over Christ. The question "to which of the angels has He ever said: sit at My right hand?" (1:13) can be answered only one way: to none of them. The highest created beings serve; the Son shares the throne.
ExcursusRadiance and imprint
Two Greek words in Hebrews 1:3 carry the entire christology of this chapter. The first is apaugasma, "radiance, outshining." The Son is not a second lamp burning next to God; He is the glow that streams out of the light itself — just as you cannot separate the sun from its rays, so you cannot separate the Father from the Son. The second is charaktēr, "imprint, impressed image" — the word for the stamp a signet ring leaves in wax, or the image struck into a coin. The Son is the exact, complete imprint of God's being: not a resembling sketch, but the precise contour, so that whoever sees Him sees God as He is.
And there is a third word the reader must not miss, tucked into a small phrase: after making purification for sins, He "sat down" (1:3). In the temple the priests never sat; there was no chair, because their work was never finished — always another sacrifice, always more blood, day after day. That the Son, after His offering, sits down, at the right hand, is a quiet but deafening proclamation: the work is complete. Nothing more needs to be added. The great High Priest has sat down, because the purification is done, once for all.
HeartGod's last Word has a face
Many people struggle with the question of what God is really like. They piece together stray impressions — something of the thunder on Sinai, something of a judgment they fear, something of an old image of God a parent or a church handed them — and the result is often a God they don't dare trust. Hebrews cuts off that piecing-together at the root. God, the letter says, has spoken His last and complete Word, and that Word is not a system of doctrine but a Person: the Son, the exact imprint of His being.
That means you no longer have to guess at God's character. You don't have to timidly stack up your own guesses. You may look at Jesus — at how He treated the broken, the afraid, the ashamed; at whom He touched and whom He brought home; at the hands that let themselves be pierced — and know: this is what God is like, exactly like this, down to the smallest detail. Whoever carries a damaged image of God may set it next to the Son and discover how far off it was. And through it all sounds that one quiet sentence: He sat down. The work on your guilt is finished. You don't have to add anything to it; you may go and rest where He has gone to rest.
*A note on the source text. The opening of the letter to the Hebrews — 1:1-4: God who formerly spoke through the prophets and now in a Son (1:1-2); heir and Creator of the worlds, "radiance of the glory" (apaugasma) and "imprint of His being" (charaktēr), "carries all things by the word of His power," and "sat down" after making purification for sins (1:3). The chain of seven quotations — 1:5-14: Psalm 2:7; 2 Samuel 7:14; Deuteronomy 32:43 (Greek text; cf. Psalm 97:7); Psalm 104:4; Psalm 45:7-8 (the Son addressed as God); Psalm 102:26-28 (the Creator-hymn to YHWH, addressed to the Son); Psalm 110:1 ("sit at My right hand"). The divine Name as YHWH.*