Hebrews 1:1-14

The Book of Hebrews does not reveal its author's name to us, but it does tell us something about him. Based on the grammar of 11:32, we know that he was a male, and based on some statements in the letter (e.g. 2:3) we infer that he was not one of the Twelve Apostles, nor did he hear Jesus during his earthly ministry. One likely candidate is Barnabas (the letter even makes a play on Barnabas' name "Son of Encouragement" or "...of exhortation" when it states "my word of exhortation" in one of the final verses (13:22). Another possible author is Apollos, whose name was first suggested by Martin Luther and who is favored by many scholars today. Much of the language is similar to Clement of Rome, the author of the letter we call 1 Clement, written about the same time John was writing his gospel (90-95 AD). But Clement might be disqualified as author since he actually quotes several sections of Hebrews as Scripture (but Clement's letter permits us to assign a very early date to the writing of Hebrews, along with the rest of the New Testament). Finally, I will not rule out Paul, whose authorship was favored by the ancient church.

The theme of the book is "Christ is Superior" -- superior to the angels, to the priests, to Moses, and to every hero of the faith in history.

A simple outline of the book might be:

I. Christ is superior to the leaders of the Old Covenant (chapters 1-7)
II. The superior sacrifice of Christ, once for all (chapters 8-10)
III. Our response to Christ's sacrifice: Christian living (chapters 11-13)

HEBREWS 1:1-2

1 Πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως πάλαι ὁ ϑεὸς λαλήσας τοῖς πατράσιν ἐν τοῖς προϕήταις 2 ἐπ' ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων ἐλάλησεν ἡμῖν ἐν υἱῷ, ὃν ἔϑηκεν κληρονόμον πάντων, δι' οὗ καὶ ἐποίησεν τοὺς αἰῶνας·

1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. (NIV)

The word variegated means "of many colors" or very diverse. That's the idea behind "at many times and in various ways." Like a coat of many colors, the Lord gave his message to his people with great variety. The Old Testament has something for everyone: poetry and prose, history and prophecy, long books and short, difficult messages sheathed in mysterious language and simple statements of facts that hit you like a snowball. How many different ways did God give his Old Testament message? He spoke directly to Adam and Eve; he spoke through ancient prophets before the flood like Enoch and Noah. He spoke to Moses "face to face, as a man speaks with his friend" (Exodus 33:11). A burning bush. A column of fire. A pillar of cloud. The documents written by Moses and the prophets; the Psalms and other poems written by David and Solomon. For a thousand years, from Moses to Malachi, God spoke and his people listened. And we still have their writings to this day.

That's the idea of verse 1. Then verse two hits us with "But...." There was something different, something new, and something altogether better about the way God has spoken now through a Son. A son is an heir; the son has what the father has. And what a Son! This was the Son of God, through whom God made the universe.

This is the Son, the child we worship at Christmas time. Here in the opening verses of the letter to the Hebrews--a letter written to you as well--we pause to contemplate the mystery and the miracle of the birth, death and resurrection of God's own Son, Jesus Christ.

God's Triune Self always existed in eternity, before the creation of the world. He was always there, one God, three persons, contemplating your existence and your salvation. And then the Father's love burst forth, the Son's mouth spoke, and Let there be (or, It is!), the universe was made. But when mankind fell into sin once again, the Son's love burst forth, and I am!, he became one of us, emptying himself of his divine power as he lived, but becoming a man to place himself under God's law and mankind's curse. This is what he came to do:

To live the life we cannot.
To die the death we have earned.
To communicate the gospel to us.

In ancient times, he said It is! Now he has said I Am! In these last days God has spoken to us by his Son. He is the perfect communication (Greek logos) from God. He is our Savior. He is our Peace.

HEBREWS 1:3a

3 ὃς ὢν ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης

3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory... (NIV)

The Greek word for "radiance" is apaugasma, which comes from a root word meaning "dawn" (Acts 20:11). One Greek lexicon defines it as "the source of the radiance: effulgence... as distinguished from refulgence" (Thayer). I don't think that "effulgence" and "refulgence" are in common usage these days, but think of it this way: The flaming ball of the sun is the shining object, but the reflection we see in the moon, on the surface of the earth, and everywhere else is simply the reflection of the shining object. Christ is the one who shines on us all, we merely reflect his light.

This is the way that Clement, pastor of Rome, described the radiance of Christ in about 95 AD:

This is the way we find our Savior Jesus Christ, the High Priest of all our offerings, the defender and helper of our weakness. Through him we look up to the heights of heaven. Through him we see the reflection of his faultless and lofty face. Through him the eyes of our hearts are opened. Through him our foolish and darkened understanding blossoms toward the light. Through him the Master willed that we should taste the immortal knowledge... (1 Clement 36:1-2).

The glory of God shines throughout the world in his creation, but what we see when we look at the wide world is nothing more than the reflection of God's glory. That's why the source of our faith and the direction of our religion does not come from within us. We only reflect the glory of God, shown to us in his gospel. But Christ is the radiance of God's glory, and so we look outside ourselves; away from ourselves to Christ. He is the bright shining source of the Glory of the Lord. He is the source of everything we have from God: Life, faith, forgiveness, and peace.

He became a human being, taking human flesh up into the divinity of God. He didn't lessen himself as God with that flesh, but he sanctified the flesh, and Christ the man was every bit as holy as God the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is the perfect and eternal Son of God, now a man for our sakes; eternal and everlasting God. This is the God we worship. This is the God who came into the world to save us from our sins.

Now this is the true Christian faith: We believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is both God and man. (Athanasian Creed)

HEBREWS 1:3b

ὃς ὢν ...καὶ χαρακτὴρ

3b The Son is...the exact representation.... (NIV)

The term "exact representation" is the Greek word character (χαρακτήρ). This scratchy-sounding word was originally the name of the sharp engraving tool that was used to scratch writing into stone or bronze. Later it became the word for the impression left by a signet ring in clay or wax. A remarkable example of this kind of impression is this one which reads "(Belonging) to Baruch son of Neriah, the Scribe," whose appears about twenty-five times in the Bible: "Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do..." Jeremiah 36:8.

Here the writer to the Hebrews describes Christ as the imprint, or exact representation of God the Father. He is not saying that Christ (merely) has the Father's approval, which was given by a signet ring (Gen 41:42; Esther 3:10; Dan 6:17). Christ is much more than this. Christ is the signet ring of the Father, and the exact stamp left by the Father among us, the human race. This statement is bound together with what will come next in the verse and which we will explore in tomorrow's devotion.

What this term tells us is that Christ is the very being, the very essence of God among mankind. Jesus is, in the words that infuriated the Pharisees, the Son of God. And he became human for us. For you.

He is God, eternally begotten from the nature of the Father, and he is man, born in time from the nature of his mother (Athanasian Creed).

HEBREWS 1:3c

ὃς ὢν...καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ, ϕέρων τε τὰ πάντα τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ,

3c The Son is...(the exact representation) of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (NIV)

It is worth looking at a single word here: being. In Greek this is the word hypostasis. One Greek lexicon defines this word as "the objective aspect and underlying reality behind anything." If that sounds like philosophical nonsense to you, I will only shrug and nod in agreement. But don't let a gobbledygook definition keep you away from understanding a beautiful truth. When you write a check, you're writing that against actual money that you have in the bank. The paper of the check has value because the money in the bank has value. The paper is real; when you trade it, it's money. If the person you give it to loses it, they've lost money. Christ is God. When he was born, God was born. His mother Mary gave birth to God himself.

The underlying reality behind Christ is that he was sent into the world by God the Father. What Christ did, he did because the Father wanted him to do it. Jesus is no maverick prophet; he is the one sent out by the Father on a mission to save mankind--that's why later in this letter Jesus himself is called "the apostle and high priest whom we confess." Jesus is an apostle--a special envoy--of God the Father. His is the exact stamp of God's existence.

The writer to the Hebrews splashes us with this incredibly deep truth, and doesn't stop to explain it to us. But perhaps it is significant that this letter was written to Hebrews--Hellenized Jewish believers who were well-versed in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, who spoke Greek and who understood Greek culture.

Jesus came into the world for us. For you. If the rest of this kind of theology is too deep on a day like today, then hang on to this truth most of all: Jesus came into the world to rescue sinners, including me and you.

(Jesus is) fully God, fully man, with rational soul and human flesh, equal to the Father as to his deity, less than the Father as to his humanity; and though he is both God and man, Christ is not two persons but one, one, not by changing the deity into flesh, but by taking the humanity into God; one, indeed, not by mixture of the natures, but by unity in one person; for just as the rational soul and flesh are one human being, so God and man are one Christ. (Athanasian Creed)

HEBREWS 1:3d

καϑαρισμὸν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ποιησάμενος ἐκάϑισεν ἐν δεξιᾷ τῆς μεγαλωσύνης ἐν ὑψηλοῖς,

3d After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (NIV)

"Purification" (Greek katharismos) is the complete purging of something. We still use the word cathartic in psychiatry and medicine to talk cleansing and purging the body or the mind. Aristotle described catharsis as the effect that tragic drama has on an audience, bringing many emotions (especially pity and fear) to the surface and channeling them out of people by seeing moving and gut-wrenching things take place on stage.

Here at the end of this remarkable verse, Hebrews 1:3, we see that Jesus provided a complete and perfect catharsis or purification of our sins. Jesus didn't whitewash our sins. He didn't put a bandage on them. He didn't mask them and hide them away. He purged them. He drove them out of us; off our record. Through Jesus and because of his work of purification on the cross, our sins are atoned for.

This is in direct contrast to what happened in the Old Testament sacrifices. When a person brought a beast to the priest, the slaughter took place to remind the one making the sacrifice that sin means death. On that day, it was the death of an animal, but in eternity, it means the eternal suffering of the sinner. The animal's blood didn't actually pay for anything. It only pointed ahead to the Lamb of God on the cross, purging the blood from his own veins and from each wound with every passionate heartbeat. Drip. Drip. Drip. He bled for my sins.

But the verse goes on. He "sat down" at the right hand of God in heaven. To sit down in this context means to have completed his task. He said that when he gasped "It is finished" on the rough altar at Calvary. The task of the payment for our sins is finished. There is nothing left to be done. We are forgiven.

WHAT ABOUT PURGATORY?

Unfortunately, there are still those who proclaim boldly that Christ's work is unfinished and unsatisfactory. They teach that believers die "still imperfectly purified...after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven" (Catechism of the Catholic Church page 268 paragraph 1031). This doctrine would like to lift its support partly from 1 Cor. 3:15 ("he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames") and 1 Peter 1:7 ("so that your faith-- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-- may be proved genuine"). But neither of these passages in context are talking about a place of purification after death. In fact, the 1 Corinthians passage is a warning about those who teach false doctrine!

But the real seat of the doctrine of Purgatory is 2 Maccabees 12:45, "Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin." Pope Gregory the Great had said "As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire." (Cath. Catechism p. 269 para. 1031). Although they are not mentioned officially in the Catholic Catechism, other passages in 2 Maccabees would appear to touch on the same subject (6:12-17; 6:26; 7:36; and also 12:43-45 which describes prayer for the dead).

Since we take the meaning of the words of the Bible to be the original meaning meant by the author--that it to say, we accept the words as they appear in their context--then there is nothing at all in the 66 books of the Bible to support the doctrine of Purgatory.

Recently the Catholic church confessed that there is no basis in Scripture for the teaching of a limbo, a place of "holding" for unbaptized Old Testament believers and for infants who died before baptism. If the doctrine of limbo can be rejected as false and a mistake, we can only pray that the Catholic church will also admit after prayerful study that the doctrine of Purgatory is without basis in God's Word, and a mistake as well.

And even if we accepted 2 Maccabees and the other apocryphal books as part of the Bible's canon (which we do not), we would be forced to point out that just because Judas Maccabeus acted and apparently believed that prayer for the dead was of some benefit and that there might be a place for the purging of sin after death, we would not need to accept that as a definitive teaching of Scripture, since it is not presented as a truth such as the way Paul proclaims doctrine in his epistles or Jesus proclaims the truth with every word. Other men in the Bible acted from ignorance. Simon Magus thought he could buy the Holy Spirit's power with money (Acts 8:18-24). The sons of Sceva thought they could dabble in the occult by invoking the name of Christ without putting their faith in him in order to expel demons (Acts 19:13-16). And even Peter himself fell into a foolish and sinful error when he withdrew his fellowship from the Gentiles because he was influenced by strong-willed from James' congregation in Jerusalem (Galatians 2:11-21). Their errors are not presented in the Bible as things we ought to do any more than the murders presented as part of the narrative of the Bible or the error-filled opinions of Job's friends.

Our righteousness can't be obtained through the law. It can't be won for us by beatings and purgings in our body. It just can't be done by us at all. That's exactly what Paul meant when he said, "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:21). The completeness of Jesus' work for us is described by these words:

He suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose the third day from the dead. He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty, and from there will come to judge the living and the dead. (Athanasian Creed)

Christ has won the victory for us completely in our place. Our task today and always is to worship and thank him for what he has done. Hold onto Christ. He is forgiveness. He is the resurrection. He is life.

For the rest of this first chapter, the writer begins to describe the ways in which Christ is superior. The word "superior" means the better of two when you compare two things--it's correct grammar as opposed to the way we usually talk. When we compare Christ to anyone, anyone at all, he is the one who is superior. To begin with, imagine how magnificent the angels are. But Christ is superior.

HEBREWS 1:4-5

4 τοσούτῳ κρείττων γενόμενος τῶν ἀγγέλων ὅσῳ διαϕορώτερον παρ' αὐτοὺς κεκληρονόμηκεν ὄνομα. 5 Τίνι γὰρ εἶπέν ποτε τῶν ἀγγέλων, Υἱός μου εἶ σύ, ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέννηκά σε;καὶ πάλιν, ᾽Εγὼ ἔσομαι αὐτῷ εἰς πατέρα, καὶ αὐτὸς ἔσται μοι εἰς υἱόν;

4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father”? ¹ Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”? ² (NIV)

¹ Psalm 2:7.  ² 2 Samuel 7:14; 1 Chronicles 17:13.


My great-grandfather's name was Tollefson. In some Scandinavian and Baltic countries, it is still commonplace for a child to carry his or her father's name as part of their last name, so that Eric's little boy might be Sven, but he is called Sven Ericson. Sven's little boy is Snurl Svenson, and his son would be Snorri Snurlson, and so on. The Father places his name on his children, and there is no question about family relationships.

When God the Father placed his name on God the Son, there was no question about their relationship. There is no angel, no power, no authority in the universe God calls "my Son" except Jesus Christ. 

Now, anyone who has read Romans 11 knows that "you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree" (Romans 11:24). In other words, we have become God's children, his sons and daughters, by adoption. We are grafted into his family the way one plant can be grafted onto another plant, or the way a piece of flesh can be grafted into a body when damage has been done.

But we grafts, we heirs, are not able to do what Christ did. He is the one and only Son of God, who accomplished our salvation. In fact, Christ's sacrifice for us is precisely how we came to be grafted into the family of God in the first place. This was the work of no angel. This was the work of the Son of God. And it was done for you.

HEBREWS 1:6-7

6 ὅταν δὲ πάλιν εἰσαγάγῃ τὸν πρωτότοκον εἰς τὴν οἰκουμένην, λέγει, Καὶ προσκυνησάτωσαν αὐτῷ πάντες ἄγγελοι ϑεοῦ. 7 καὶ πρὸς μὲν τοὺς ἀγγέλους λέγει, ῾Ο ποιῶν τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ πνεύματα, καὶ τοὺς λειτουργοὺς αὐτοῦ πυρὸς ϕλόγα·

6 And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” ¹ 7 In speaking of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire.” ²

¹ Deuteronomy 32:43 (see Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint: καὶ προσκυνησάτωσαν αὐτῷ πάντες υἱοὶ θεοῦ). ² Psalm 104:4.

When God brought his Son into the world, the angels did indeed worship him, singing Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests (Luke 2:14). Examples of angels serving Christ also appear in the Gospels, such as after he was tempted by the devil and "angels attended him" (Mark 1:13). Jesus also shows his authority over them when he says "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:53).

The word for "servants" in Hebrew is mesharatav, a word sometimes used on royal attendants in the Bible (2 Chronicles 9:4; Esther 2:2), but also of angels serving God (Psalm 103:21).

The angels serve Christ by doing his bidding and by watching over us. But Christ is superior; he also watched over us, and is the one who has commanded the angels. And his victory over the devil gives us eternal protection; Jesus became our servant when he took the guilt and blame for our sins on himself, and died for us. For you.

Note: The expression flames of fire in verse 7, quoting Psalm 104:4, is esh loheth in Hebrew; not seraphim as you might expect. But the two expressions are similar, referring to the bright light given off by the angels when seen by us.

HEBREWS 1:8-9

8 πρὸς δὲ τὸν υἱόν, ῾Ο ϑρόνος σου, ὁ ϑεός, εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος, καὶ ἡ ῥάβδος τῆς εὐϑύτητος ῥάβδος τῆς βασιλείας σου. 9 ἠγάπησας δικαιοσύνην καὶ ἐμίσησας ἀνομίαν· διὰ τοῦτο ἔχρισέν σε ὁ ϑεός, ὁ ϑεός σου, ἔλαιον ἀγαλλιάσεως παρὰ τοὺς μετόχους σου·

8 But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.” ¹ (NIV)

¹ Psalm 45:6,7.

This quotation is from the Bible's great Wedding Song, Psalm 45. In this Psalms, the groom is God himself, Christ, whose throne "will last for ever and ever," and who has been set by "God, your God" (the Father), who "has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy." Christ was anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism, and for that reason we might even use this passage to describe the Holy Trinity, although there are clearer passages in both Old and New Testaments.

This groom, our King, loves righteousness and he hates wickedness. He hasn't overlooked our sin. The whole point of this elaborate description of Christ is to remind us that he committed himself totally to his bride, the church. To us. To you and me. He sacrificed his own life, poured out his own blood, gave up his entire future on earth, to die in our place. That's why we join ourselves to him. Christ wasn't doing it for his bride -- he was doing it for sinners. Now we forgiven sinners have become his bride because we love him, we trust him, and we worship him.

Remember that in this chapter, the writer is showing us how Christ is superior to the angels. No angel has done the things mentioned in this Psalm. No angel has ever committed himself completely to mankind, let alone a single human being, as a groom joins himself totally to his bride.

Jesus changed the direction of his existence to make us his own. He loved us more than himself. He loved us more than life. He leads us only with love, and he inspires us to follow with his example, and his mercy, and his patience, and his love. He is our king, our partner, our friend, our companion, and our rescuer -- for life. That's what a husband does. And that's what Christ has done for the whole world.

HEBREWS 1:10-12

10 καί, Σὺ κατ' ἀρχάς, κύριε, τὴν γῆν ἐϑεμελίωσας, καὶ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν σού εἰσιν οἱ οὐρανοί· 11 αὐτοὶ ἀπολοῦνται, σὺ δὲ διαμένεις· καὶ πάντες ὡς ἱμάτιον παλαιωϑήσονται, 12 καὶ ὡσεὶ περιβόλαιον ἑλίξεις αὐτούς,ὡς ἱμάτιον καὶ ἀλλαγήσονται· σὺ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς εἶ καὶ τὰ ἔτη σου οὐκ ἐκλείψουσιν.

10 And, "In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands;  11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like clothing;  12 like a cloak you will roll them up, and like clothing they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will never end." (NRSV) ¹

¹ Psalm 102:25-27.

In these verses, the writer to the Hebrews reminds us that God is the one who created the world. Although Job 38:4-7 ("when I laid the earth's foundation...the angels shouted for joy") indicates that the angels responded to God's act of creation with praise, nothing in Scripture tells us without a doubt when the angels were created. We know only that prior to the creation, the angels didn't exist. Psalm 148 tells us that God "commanded and they (the angels) were created" (148:5). And Paul tells us that through Christ "all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible" (Colossians 1:16).

Everything and everyone was created by God. But God himself? "You remain the same, and your years will never end." Christ is superior to the angels because he created them; they serve him and they love him.

13 πρὸς τίνα δὲ τῶν ἀγγέλων εἴρηκέν ποτε, Κάϑου ἐκ δεξιῶν μου ἕως ἂν ϑῶ τοὺς ἐχϑρούς σου ὑποπόδιον τῶν ποδῶν σου;

13 But to which of the angels has he ever said, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"? ² (NRSV)

² Psalm 110:1.


It's a rhetorical question, and of course we would say, "To none of them." This Psalm verse begins "The LORD says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand...'" (Psalm 110:1).

Quoting this same Psalm, Jesus points out that the Christ is superior to David: "If then David calls him 'Lord,' how can he (the Messiah) be his (David's) son?" (Matthew 22:44-45). Jesus was being tested by the Sadducees and Pharisees, who rarely agreed on anything except their distaste for Jesus. After answering their questions, he asked them to answer the paradox: In Jewish culture, a son is not superior to his father. But if the Christ is "the son of David," then why would David, writing Psalm 110, call the Christ "my Lord"?

The answer to Jesus' question is simple for the believer to answer: Christ is superior to David because he is God himself, even though David is his ancestor. To the unbeliever, this is an enigma that can't be solved, as Clement of Rome said about this passage: But who are his enemies? Those who are wicked and oppose his will. (1 Clement 36:6). They cannot see because they don't have faith. They oppose God in every way.

But faith lets us see the point with the eyes, heart and faith of a child. What a blessing our faith is! What a miracle belief is. That God that he has made us his heirs through Christ. We are rescued from the darkness and hatred of unbelief. We have the forgiveness of our sins, and we have a place forever in heaven with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

HEBREWS 1:14

14 οὐχὶ πάντες εἰσὶν λειτουργικὰ πνεύματα εἰς διακονίαν ἀποστελλόμενα διὰ τοὺς μέλλοντας κληρονομεῖν σωτηρίαν;

14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? (NASB)

A "minister" is a servant whose "ministrations" benefit others. The angels exist to serve and praise God. In that service, they are sometimes called upon to watch over mankind, as this passage teaches us. Examples of this kind of help for people include an angel shutting the mouths of the lions to protect Daniel (Daniel 6:22), the angels who urged Lot to flee from Sodom before it was destroyed (Genesis 19:15) and the angel who released Peter from prison (Acts 12:8-9).

One of our Seminary professors, John Schuetze, wrote this important statement about our relationship with the angels:

“Even though angels are worthy of our attention, they are not worthy of our worship. Even though they pray for us, they are not to be addressed in prayer. They are only creatures of God and fellow servants of the Savior. To worship, trust in, and pray for them rather than God is to practice idolatry. Instead, we are to join the angels in singing that hymn of praise: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!’” ¹ (Angels and Demons, p. 34).

The answer to the rhetorical question in our verse is Yes. The angels serve, but Christ reigns. He reigns because he is the Son of God, as far above angels and men as the universe is above the depths of the sea. It is Christ who won our salvation for us; the salvation we inherit.

Lord God, make us all your willing servants to do your will in the world. Make us tools you can use to carry out your plan for mankind.

¹ Revelation 19:6,7