Beginning a new study, Hebrews 1:1
I wish to return to a book of the Bible that, for one, was formative in my own spiritual growth, such as it is. That book is Hebrews. To me it is the third leg of the stool of Bible study for all Christians. The gospels and Romans being the other two. I choose not to believe Paul wrote it, simply because of the format being different and that he doesn't name himself. I'll get to that later. But let's dig in:
God, who [a]at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the [b]worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had [c]by Himself [d]purged [e]our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
I memorized this in the '70s but in the AV, so I learned "at sundry times and in divers[e] manners," which still sticks with me and carries a nuance the bland word "various" does not. We will be on this passage for a while. These four verses, for me, are as much a statement of the basic gospel as is I Corinthians 15:1-7. Yes, the resurrection is not mentioned directly but it's there in the sense of the results of the resurrection--sitting down at the right hand of the Majesty on high and attaining a new level of position."
God speaks. As Calvin said, He speaks in baby language so that we can comprehend, even though the truths of what He says are unfathomable mysteries that, I hope, we get to grasp in eternity. There are several even in these verses. For one, how could Jesus the Son "become." And yet, to make the incarnation and thus identification with his people complete, somehow Jesus the Son experience becoming something more, else, different. Not a contradiction that the one through whom the world was made learned obedience by the things which he suffered (5:8) and who was tempted in all points (and thus in a position of weakness) as we are (4:15). What Hebrews keeps telling us is the completeness of the incarnation/identification and yet the completeness of His excellence.
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