God Has Spoken Through His Son

Transcript

GRM 1063
12/18/2011
God Has Spoken through His Son
Hebrews 1:1-3
Gil Rugh


We like to direct out attention at this time of year specifically on Jesus Christ and what He has done by His coming to earth, why He came to earth and who He is. And we often go back to familiar passages of Scripture. In our studies here at church, at classes and our services we'll be looking at some familiar portions. And I want to draw your attention to one of those passages in Hebrews 1, the person and work of Jesus Christ, who He is, what He has done, why He is so significant.

One thing we want to be careful to always keep in mind regarding who we are as Christians, what makes Christianity unique and special. It focuses in the person of Jesus Christ and the truth concerning Him. Sometimes we can take a subjective turn in expressing our faith, sometimes we use the song that says, you ask me how I know He lives. He lives within my heart. There is an element of truth in that, the reality of the indwelling Spirit and His confirmation with our spirit that we are the children of God. But Christianity stands or falls on objective truths and facts, historical truths, revealed truths. And it's not comparing my experience to someone else's experience, my trying to prove that my experience validates Christianity, but their experience does not validate their particular religious beliefs. Christianity stands or falls on objective truth, who Jesus Christ is, why He came to earth, what He did, His resurrection from the dead. All historic facts. He was born at a point in time in history in an actual earthly city, Bethlehem. There are events surrounding His birth. He suffered and died on the cross at a point in time in history. Historical fact and reality. He was raised from the dead in time and history. It was through believing the truth that God has revealed that brings us salvation.

The book of Hebrews unfolds the greatness of Jesus Christ. The book of Hebrews is about the superiority of Christ. The title to the Hebrews give you what the content of the book is about. It is written to Jews who professed faith in Jesus Christ. It is demonstrating the superiority of Jesus Christ to everything that was associated with the old covenants, the Mosaic Law, its system, its manner of revelation, its priesthood. And in doing so, of course, it demonstrates the superiority of Jesus Christ to any and all systems and religious beliefs and activities.

The book is sort of startling the way it opens up. You'll note in Hebrews 1:1, God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days has spoken to us in His Son. No greeting. Like some of the letters that Paul and he says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, writing to the saints of God in this city. Introductions like that. We don't have any introduction, any identification of who the writer of the book is. No words of greeting or address to those that he is writing to. He launches right into the letter, and it is a long letter, and it is detailed as he unfolds the superiority of Christ, showing He is superior as he starts out to the Old Testament prophets. He'll move from there showing He is superior to angels who were used of God to convey the truth concerning the Mosaic Law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The heart of the book will show He is superior as high priest to the priestly ministry carried out under the Mosaic Law. He is superior in every way.

So the opening verses of the book establish, if you will, the truth that will pervade the book. One statement summarizes it all. You could say that becomes the statement that governs the whole book of Hebrews. Starts out with the word God and then in verse 2 it says, has spoken to us in His Son. If you want to make a statement what God is saying in this book, it is summarized in that statement—God has spoken to us in His Son. Everything else will be elaborating, these opening verses, on that. Then the book of Hebrews will be a revelation from God showing the impact of that, what it means to be the Son of God, what He has done that only this totally unique Son of the living God could accomplish.

We're going to focus our attention on just these opening three verses and we'll show the superiority of Christ as the Son, as the vehicle of revelation. The emphasis here is not on the fact that God has spoken. The Jews accepted that, that's taken as a given, that God has spoken, revealing Himself and His will. And the Old Testament is such a revelation. What is being emphasized here is the manner that the revelation is given. God has spoken in prior times but He has spoken in these last days in a way that is superior to any other time that He communicated. He has spoken in One who is a Son.

Then he is going to develop what God has done. Remember it's built around the statement, God has spoken to us in His Son. But this happened after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways. So long ago He spoke to the fathers. Long ago would carry us back through Old Testament history, right up to the closing prophet of the Old Testament, Malachi. God spoke long ago to the fathers. The fathers would be the ancestors of these Jewish people that the writer to the Hebrews is writing to—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and then the 12 patriarchs, the 12 sons of Jacob, and then down through Old Testament history. Spoke to their fathers, summarize it, the grandfathers, the great grandfathers and on. The previous history of Israel recorded in the Old Testament. He spoke to the fathers in the prophets. Peter wrote a letter and he said that holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. It was God speaking in the prophets and thus the message comes out from the prophets to the fathers. It is God's Word. Now God was speaking, using human instruments, the prophets. They conveyed the message to the people. That happened long ago, over a period of a thousand years. God spoke and revealed Himself and we have the record of it given in the Old Testament, starting with Moses who was used of God to author the first five books of our Scripture and of course there is record in there of Him speaking before that. But the written record that we have written down by Moses 1500 years, 1400 years before Christ and then down to less than 500 years before Christ. We have the record contained of God speaking.

In many portions in many ways. As you work through the Old Testament and many of you have numbers of times, God used a variety of means to communicate in the prophets—dreams, visions, and so on. So there were a variety of ways He chose to communicate, first revealing Himself to the prophets and then through the prophets to the people. And sometimes there would be object lessons and picture representations by them going through certain activities that would reveal the message of God. So He spoke in the prophets, plural, in many portions in many ways.

In these last days God has spoken to us in His Son. Contrasts are drawn here—long ago, the first time He spoke, and now in these last days. These are the days that began with the coming of the Messiah. The Old Testament prophets prophesied regarding the coming of the Messiah. They anticipated the coming of the Messiah. When Zechariah spoke following the birth of his son, John the Baptist, he said that it was the fulfillment, the realization of what the Old Testament prophets had anticipated. When the Old Testament wrote about the coming of the Messiah of Israel, they saw His first coming to suffer and die and be raised from the dead and His Second Coming when He would rule and reign together. They didn't see a separation from when He would come and suffer and die and when He would rule and reign in glory. So in the Old Testament prophets' message the last days are the days of Messiah. That includes the first coming of the Messiah when He suffered and died and was raised, and the Second Coming of Christ not yet having occurred when He rule and reign on the earth. So the last days as the Jews understand this would be the days of the Messiah.

In these last days, the days anticipated by the prophets when they spoke, God has spoken to us in His Son. Spoken to us. So you see the contrast going on. He spoke long ago and now spoken again in these last days, long ago in these last days. He spoke in the past to the fathers, in these last days He has spoken to us. He spoke in the prophets, He has spoken in His Son. So those comparisons coming down—long ago, in these last days; to the fathers, to us; in the prophets, in the Son. And what he is building here is the overwhelming importance and significance of this climactic revelation of God—far superior and surpassing all that has preceded and it is the culmination toward which all has been looking. The last days, the days of the Messiah, the days of the Son. And there is a reminder here. Just as God spoke through the prophets to the fathers long ago, in these last days He is speaking to us in His Son. And much of Israel missed the message and rejected the message when it came through the prophets. He is going to warn them of the danger through the book of Hebrews that faces the us that are addressed here, of missing the message that is of far greater importance because of the person that is used to give it than anything that had happened before.

He has spoken to us in one who is a Son. There is no definite article with the word Son. It doesn't say in the Son. Not identifying particularly a specific individual, but there is a quality that is being emphasized here—sonship. You might translate it, He has spoken to us in One who is a Son. What is emphasized here is He spoke in prophets in a variety of ways, but in these last days He has spoken in One who is Son, His sonship, the uniqueness of this One. We have verses that cause some confusion and misunderstanding. Like John 3:16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. His only begotten Son. Some get confused on that, our translation doesn't help. It literally is the only kin, the only one of His kind. The only begotten doesn't come from the Greek word to beget, it comes from the word that would mean the only one of this family. It would be used of an only child. So He is the only one of His kind. Isaac was the unique son of Abraham and Sarah, God says. He's the only one of his kind So if you go to some dictionaries they call it the only kin. So He is unique in that sense. That is what is emphasized here, this One is a Son and He is the only one of His kind. There is a total uniqueness here. He is a Son in the way that no one else ever has been or ever will be. And that will be brought out in some descriptive phrases in a moment.

This is what it is all about, God has spoken in His Son. You'll note, He didn't speak in a variety of ways and in different portions. Here is the fullness and completion of revelation in that sense. In the Son. And even the subsequent revelation as we have recorded in our New Testament like the book of Hebrews is about the Son and what we have come to know through Him and what He has accomplished. Everything before looked to Him and even after looked backed to Him. This is the focal point, the Son, the Son and the revelation given concerning Him.

This unique Son now is going to be described in the rest of verse 2 and verse 3. You're going to find that we're going to compare some passages and there will be overlap. And some of you are covering this in classes and so on in these days. And it's interesting to me how at different places in Scripture—John 1, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1—we see a very similar emphasis on Jesus Christ, His uniqueness regarding His person and the work that flows out of His person, the finished work of redemption. And the ultimate realization of some of the songs we song—the one who is born is King. He is not reigning over all creation, He's not reigning in Jerusalem today. But as the song said, there is not peace on the earth. But some day there will be when the Prince of Peace rules over creation.

So in these last days God has spoken in His Son. Seven things regarding the Son that we're going to remind ourselves of that make Jesus Christ unique and show that His relationship to God the Father as Son is something that no one else has or could have. First thing that is said about the Son, God has appointed Him heir of all things. He is the One whom God appointed heir of all things. This is different than a prophet. A prophet had the Word of God but now you are hearing the message from God from the One who is appointed by God to inherit everything. Now to the Jewish mind saturated with the Old Testament, some of you have studied Hebrews. One of the challenges of studying the book of Hebrews is to go back and familiarize yourself with the Old Testament. It presupposes a thorough understanding of the Old Testament. Here is a statement, He has spoken to us in One who is a Son. This is the One whom He appointed heir of all things. Where does our mind go in our Jewish thinking? We go to Psalm 2.

Turn back to Psalm 2. This is just not a statement drawn out of the air, it is drawn from what the Old Testament anticipated. Psalm 2, a great psalm anticipating the reign of Jesus Christ, God's Son. And it starts out, why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, the rulers counsel together. All the earth marshaled and anticipating and opposing the reign of God's appointed ruler. And God is intimidated? Fearful? Confused? He who sits in the heavens laughs, verse 4. The Lord scoffs at them. Verse 6, as for me I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain.

Then note verse 7, I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. And we pick up and refer to that only begotten in the New Testament, the uniqueness of the relationship, talking about causing a birth as we sometimes use the word, to beget. You are my son. Then note verse 8, ask of me and I will surely give you the nations as your inheritance, the very ends of the earth as your possession. You see God has appointed Him heir of all things, this One through whom in these last days He has spoken, who is a Son. This is the One that is appointed as heir of all things. You understand when we say God in these last days has spoken through One who is a Son, we're talking about that very unique Son of Psalm 2, the One whom He has appointed heir of all things, the One who will rule and reign over all creation, all the nations. All the earth will belong to Him and be under His rule.

Come back to Hebrews 1. Part of being a son is being an heir. There are passages like Galatians 4:7, Romans 8:17 that say that we are heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ because being a son involves being an heir. But we are sons of God and heirs of God by virtue of our relationship with the One who is a Son in the way that no one else is. He is God's only One of that kind. So we sometimes say the unique Son of God, the only one of His kind. And He is the One appointed heir of all things. We are fellow heirs with Christ because in His death, which we'll talk about in a little bit, He has made provision for us to born into God's family. And so God through Christ is pleased to bestow upon us an inheritance, and Christ will share with us. When He rules and reigns, we'll rule and reign with Him, as we are told in the book of Revelation as well as other places. So of tremendous importance. But this Son is unique, He's the One who is appointed heir of all things.

Secondly, He is the One through whom God made the ages or the world, as we have it translated. The ages would be all the periods of time and everything in them. He made the ages, everything and all that is in it God made through Christ. The Bible is consistent, it begins in Genesis 1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. That is consistent, He is the sovereign creator all the way through the book of Revelation. But we are told God the Father created the ages through God the Son.

Come back to John 1. We find this overlap. Some of you studied John 1 in one of your classes. In these weeks you'll be going to Hebrews as a comparison and then to Colossians and we see God's continual emphasis on these truths that He puts right out to the fore. The gospel of John starts in the same way as the book of Hebrews—not any introduction, not any greeting, let's just go right to the point and the serious theological truth. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. We say that through Him God made the ages, that is all of time and everything in it. There is nothing in existence outside of God Himself that was not created by the Son. Period. We see what it means when we say God has spoken in these last days in One who is a Son. We're talking about the One who is heir of all things, we're talking about the One through whom God the Father created all things. There is no greater person through whom God could reveal Himself. He has spoken through One who is a Son.

Come to I Corinthians 8. Paul is talking here, there are many people who talk about gods and different gods. Verse 6, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him. And one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things. And we exist through Him. By whom are all things, and we exist through Him. He created everything and apart from Him nothing has been created.

Colossians 1:16, similar emphasis. For by Him all things were created. All things have been created through Him and for Him. You see the exalted position of this unique Son of God. He is the heir of all things, He is the creator of all things because there is nothing that is in existence that has been created that the Son didn't create. Naturally then, He is prior to creation because He created everything. There is a uniqueness about Him. Some people think He is the first of God's creation. No, He is the creator of everything.

Come back to Hebrews 1. The Son, what does that mean? That means He is the One who is the heir of everything, He's the One who has created everything. The third thing said about the Son in Hebrews 1:3, He is the radiance of His glory. The radiance of His glory, He is the display, the manifestation, the revealer of the glory of God. Again we are Jews saturated with the Old Testament. What are we thinking about?

Come back to Exodus 24. On Mt. Sinai God revealed His glory to Moses and to Israel. Then with the pattern given through angels the tabernacle would be constructed and in the tabernacle there would be a Holy of Holies where God would reveal His glory. Then that would be replaced by the temple built by Solomon. And in the temple there was the Holy of Holies, and there God would reveal His glory. Note Exodus 24:16, the glory of the Lord rested on Mt. Sinai. Then verse 17, and to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. You see God manifesting the magnificence, the glory of His presence. And then that would take place in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, then in the temple. What are we saying in Hebrews? Jesus Christ is the radiance of His glory. Here in the Son you have the fullness of the manifestation of the presence of God. How awesome is this.

We were in John 1 that started out in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God. He was with the Father but He is distinct from the Father. Then you come down to verse 14, and the Word became flesh. That's a remarkable thing. The Word that was in the beginning with God, the Word that was God, that Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. We see in the One who is the Son, He is the presence of Almighty God, the display of the glory of God. And we don't want to miss the communication given as God the Father has spoken through His Son, the One who is a Son, the One who is the radiance of His glory.

Colossians 1 and 2, 2:9 say, in Him dwells all the fullness of deity in bodily form. All the fullness of deity dwells in Him. That unique only Son who walked this earth, through whom God has communicated and revealed Himself with a fullness and clarity not revealed before. He is the radiance of God's glory. That's why He could say to the disciples, particularly Thomas, he who has seen Me has seen the Father. Not that they are not distinct as persons, but the glory of the one is the glory of the other. John 17:5 in His high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed to the Father, restore to Me the glory which I had with you before the world was because He is God, as the Father is God, as the Spirit is God in that awesome triune God—three persons, one God.

Come back to Hebrews 1. The fourth thing said about the Son that marks out His uniqueness as a vehicle of revelation, the One who can reveal in a way and a fullness that could not be experienced before, He is the exact representation of His nature. He is the exact representation of His nature. He is the radiance of His glory. He is the exact representation of His nature. Exact representation, charakter, we get character from this word. It was the impression made with a seal or a stamp, and when you had a seal and you pressed it into that wax you had the exact representation of what the seal is. That's what we have here. The very nature of God. This word translated nature, if you go to a lexicon it says, the substantial nature, the essence, the actual being. He is the perfect presentation of the very nature and essence, being of God. That's why he who has seen Me has seen the Father—we are of the same nature, the same being, the same essence. All that the Father is the Son is in His essential being as deity. It's an awesome statement. The exact representation of His nature. He is God and there is nothing else that can be said.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 4. John's gospel would talk about this, in John 14:9 where I have referred several times, he who has seen Me has seen the Father. Colossians 1 talks about it. But come to 2 Corinthians 4:3, if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, referring to Satan, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. When you see Christ, you see the Father. He is the image of God, He is the exact representation of His very being. Remarkable, awesome. And God has spoken to us through this One who is a Son, who was God in the flesh, that baby born at Bethlehem, He is the One in whom all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.

Come back to Hebrews 1. The fifth point is brought out here in verse 3. He is the One who is upholding all things by the word of His power. The English translation says, and upholds. But my version here has a note and if you look in the margin by that number 2 in front of upholds, it says, literally upholding. Because the verb here is a participle, present participle. And usually in English often our participles have “ing” on the end. Literally what he said is present tense—He is upholding all things by the word of His power. Not only has He created everything, but He is upholding everything. Bearing it, carrying it. Not just sustaining it. But in the bearing or carrying it, He is moving it towards its intended culmination. All the chaos, all the confusion, all the turmoil that seems to envelop the world, everything is under control. He is upholding all things by the word of His power. He is sovereign, He controls everything. Colossians 1:17 emphasizes that again, we've been back there. John 1:3, Hebrews 11:3 have similar emphases. Think about that, the power not only to bring everything into existence, but to bear everything along to its appointed conclusion. We can be confident everything is under control. We look at parts of the world that dissolve into chaos. I was watching something this week, they were doing a history thing, it was during a period of time when a country evolved into total anarchy and chaos and the result was devastating. But the world is not out of control. How can He not only create everything, but bear it up and move it along to its appointed conclusion. I can't even keep my day in order. Things come up and there goes the day. You look back over the week and say, what happened to the week? I had it all planned out and none of my plans came about. But here we have the One who is upholding all things. He is holding it together, He is carrying it along by the word of His power. I mean, that's power. He is not struggling there, He is not having conferences with angels, trying to make adjustments and figuring out we have to make an adjustment here, we have to make a change here. Things have come up in this part of the world and things are happening here, and now we have a comet on its way to earth and if that hits the earth, how am I going to have a kingdom. We have to turn it off. Everything under control. My puny mind, I mean, what do I do? I say, what are you going to do today, Gil? Well here is my plan. You know what? I'll tell you at the end of the day what the day was like. I am better at telling you afterwards than before. We are all like that. But He is upholding all things by the word of His power. The next time it seems like your world is unraveling, stop, go in and close the door and read Hebrews 1. Take a deep breath and go back out into a world that is totally under control. I forget. What are we going to do? How are we going to handle this? What will we do if this takes place? How am I going to . . .

You know what? He's has everything under control and I belong to Him. I mean, He has the world under control and then I belong to Him, so I have the added assurance that He is working all things out for my good. Does it get any better than this? The One who is my Lord, my Savior upholds everything by the word of His power. And He says I am the special object of His love and affection and care. And He watches everything in my life so that it is for my good. I can have peace, the peace of God which passes all understanding. You know we forget these truths that we hear so many times. He upholds all things, He is upholding them, present tense, as we are here today, by the word of His power.

This is just the introduction to a book, a letter. The theology that God pours out, the truths that God pours out. These are factual realities that my walk, my experience is controlled by. I get it turned around—my experience begins to shape my whole world. That's why I started out by saying we need to get back and say, God's revelation, the truth He has made known, objective reality regarding Jesus Christ, that's foundational to everything. My experience is not. I'm not saying there is not an experiential side in our walk with the Lord and what He produces in our life, but I'm glad it is not dependent on that because I have up days and I have down days. I have what I view as negative experiences and positive experiences. There are times when you feel overwhelmed. I have to come back and remind myself—God, you say you won't allow me to be overwhelmed. I don't understand this, I feel it is going to crush me, but my confidence in the objective revelation you have given in the One who is a Son, and you say in Him I belong to you. And I don't have to know how this is going to come out, I don't have to know why this has come into my life. I just have to remember and live in light of the fact that He is upholding all things by the word of His power. And I belong to you, I belong to Him.

The sixth thing said here, when He had made purification of sins. He made purification of sins, He made purification of sins. It's done. Past tense. He is upholding all things by the word of His power, present tense; He has, past tense, made purification of sins. That was done and settled at Calvary, at the cross. The purification of sins and all that is necessary for me to be clean and pure in the sight of a holy God has been done. When I placed my faith in Him, the cleansing washes over me. He has made purification of sins.

Most Protestants don't understand this. They are trying to do good works, go to church, do this or that to help make themselves more acceptable to God. The Roman Catholics don't understand it, they have to go to mass and think He is being resacrificed, then go to confession, then do penance, and then hope purgatory will be short. They don't understand it. He made purification for sins, it is done. There is no longer any sacrifice for sins. The only sacrifice has been made, made by the One who is a Son.

I mean, think of all that has been stated in these statements. The One who is a Son, through whom God has spoken, He's the One who made purification for sins. That's what the book of Hebrews is basically about—Jesus Christ is the high priest after the order of Melchizedek that supersedes any previous high priestly ministry. The One who made a sacrifice which was the sacrifice of Himself. There is nothing else, there is nothing additional. He made purification of sins.

We could go to some other scriptures but lets go to the last statement here, the seventh. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. That shows the purification He made was done. We have referred to the tabernacle in the Old Testament, and in the inner part of that tabernacle there was the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies divided by the curtain. And then in the temple that picture was continued. You know what? There were no seats in the Holy Place or the Holy of Holies for the high priest. Do you know why? His work was never done. The book of Hebrews will go on to explain, every year he had to come in and make another sacrifice, offer the blood, entering into the Holy of Holies on that one time a year to make atonement. He was never done. But our high priest, which he will develop in the book a little further in the letter, sat down after he made purification of sins. Why? It's done, there is nothing else, there is nothing more. We're not going through the book of Hebrews but that's the point.

Come over to Hebrews 9:12, when He made His sacrifice, comparing it to the Old Testament high priest who entered into the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood _______, verse 12, He entered not through the blood of goats and calves but through His own blood. He entered the Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Eternal redemption. Come over to Hebrews 10:4, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore when He comes into the world He says, sacrifice and offering you have not desired but a body you have prepared for me. That's what we are celebrating in a special way when we celebrate the birth of Christ. The Son of God has stepped from the glory of heaven with the glory He had with the Father before the world was to become a man without ceasing to be God. He cannot cease to be God, that's one of the attributes of God—His eternality. But He took to Himself humanity. Why? So He would have a body that was prepared for Him for sacrifice.

Verse 10, by this will we have been sanctified through the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. What do you think when you see that priest going up and supposedly going through offering the sacrifice. Think of this verse, they are going through it and they can never take away sins. The Old Testament high priest could never take away sin, but He, verse 12, the One we are talking about in Hebrews 1 who is a Son, who is God's high priest, He having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time. One sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God. Why not? He has offered the one sacrifice for sin for all time, there is no other work to accomplish redemption to be done. So He sat down at the right hand of God awaiting until His enemies will be made a footstool for His feet. That's the finished work. He made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Why?

Verse 14, for by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. So when you come to believe in Jesus Christ you are sanctified, set apart by God. It's the same basic word for holy, for saint. To be set apart. You were set apart by God from sin for Himself. So verse 18, where there is forgiveness of these things, their sins of lawless deed from verse 17, there is no longer any offering for sin. And this enables us, as he goes on in the rest of the chapter, to come with confidence before the throne of God. We are received, we have forgiveness. God spoke and the Old Testament is His Word, but the climax of revelation has come with the coming of the Son of God to be born as a baby at Bethlehem, the One in whom all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. Why? So that in that body He could hang on the tree, bearing our sins in His body, so that through faith in Him we might die to sin and live to righteousness. When we believe in Him, His death is applied to our account. He is accounted as our substitute. We are cleansed. He becomes our Lord, our Savior. His Father becomes our Father, we become sons of God, co-heirs with Christ. He will forever be the only one of His kind, but we become sons through faith in Him.

The tragedy that the fathers of these Jews had the word of God given to them through the prophets and for many of them, they did not heed it. How much greater the tragedy if we have the Word of God and the revelation of God through His Son who is a far superior manner of revelation, the fullness, the glory of God manifested, and we don't heed it. Hebrews 2:1, for this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels, that was the Old Testament Law, he has talked about this at the end of Hebrews 1. If the word spoken through angels proved unalterable and every transgression and disobedience received the just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation after it was first spoken through the Lord? There is no escape. God in mercy has provided salvation. He has spoken down through history, climaxing in the revelation of His Son and the record of the revelation as we have what is called the New Testament in our Bible. But there is no escaping the judgment of God if we do not heed what He has said through the Son. He is the Savior and the event we are celebrating is an event of salvation. He has taken Himself a body, in that body He will die on the cross, He will be raised from the dead and seated at the Father because He has provided redemption, purification. If you believe in Him, you experience that cleansing for time and eternity.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful, awesome revelation of your Son, given in the One who is a Son. Lord, so much of what goes on in this time of year, so much of the message as it is sung, as it is proclaimed is ignored. It falls on the unhearing ears and hardened hearts. Lord, we would give you praise for your Son. We would celebrate and rejoice that He was born some 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem. Lord, thank you for the grace that has come to our lives, that has brought light and salvation, that we know that the One born there is indeed your Son. We know that He is the Savior and by faith we receive the gift that He came to provide—forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation. We give you praise. In Christ's name, amen.