Thus the wonderful epistle opens; and then that Son is presented first
as one who expresses the very image of the substance of God. He is
compared with angels, and shown to be infinitely above them. God the
Father speaks of his angels as messengers; he addresses the Son: “thy
throne, _O God_.” In the second chapter again are angels compared, this
time with man. The same Son is shown to be made for a little while
lower than the angels, taking the form of man.
In this first chapter of Hebrews the Holy Spirit, when he seeks to
attest the truth that Jesus is God, calls the Old Testament to witness,
and two groups of three quotations each are made, each time the words
being put in the mouth of God the Father. In the second chapter when
the Spirit seeks to press home the parallel truth that Jesus is a
man, one with us, he uses a group of three quotations from the Old
Testament. In these quotations we shall discover something of the
preciousness for us of the truth that the Lord Jesus was a man, one
with his brethren. “For both he that sanctifieth and they that are
sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call
them brethren, saying ...” (Heb. 2:11).
Then there follow in the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the second
chapter of Hebrews the three quotations from the Old Testament.
This is the first:
“I will declare thy name unto my brethren,
In the midst of the congregation will I sing thy praise.”
One With Our Lord in Resurrection
This is the twenty-second verse of the twenty-second Psalm, the
Crucifixion Psalm. But the twenty-second Psalm is more than a
crucifixion Psalm; it is a resurrection Psalm as well. This
twenty-second verse that the Spirit uses to prove that Jesus is one
with us is the first verse of the resurrection half of the Psalm. When
our Lord rose from the dead he said, “Go unto my brethren, and say to
them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God”
(John 20:17). This was the first time that our Lord linked those words
“my Father and your Father.” For in his resurrection he was in a new
way “the firstborn of many brethren.” “Thou art my Son, this day have
I begotten thee,” was not spoken of the eternal generation of the Son
of God, the living Word who was not begotten on a day but was before
all time. Neither do the words refer to the glad day when the babe was
born of the Virgin. They refer to that glad resurrection day when in a
new way he declared God’s name unto his brethren. This is made clear
in Acts 13:32, 33: “And we bring you good tidings of the promise made
unto the fathers, that God hath fulfilled the same unto our children,
in that he raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm,
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account