The Deity of Christ

Reflections on Hebrews 1:1-4

When I was in high school, I was fairly vocal about my faith, and perhaps my zeal at times exceeded my wisdom or tact. Nevertheless, I recall one of my Jewish friends marveling about how some of us Christians spoke so often about Jesus. He commented something like: “I don’t go around talking about Moses.” So, is Jesus for the Christian equivalent to Moses (or Abraham, or David) for the Jew?

The author of the Book of Hebrews, in a sense, addresses this question. Many believe that this epistle was written to a group of persecuted Jewish Christians who were being pressured to forsake their messianic faith and return to traditional Judaism. This epistle is an encouragement and warning to keep the faith, with the argument that Jesus is far superior to any preceding figure in God’s salvation history: to angels, to Moses, to the high priest, and to all the Old Testament sacrifices.

Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. ² In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe through Him. ³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. ⁴ So He became higher in rank than the angels, just as the name He inherited is superior to theirs.^[1]

Why is Jesus superior to all antecedent figures and previous history?

• He is the heir of all things (v. 2)
• God made the universe through him (v. 2)
• He is the radiance of God’s glory (v. 3)
• He is the exact expression of God’s nature (v. 3)
• He sustains all things by his powerful word (v. 3)
• He made purification for sins (v. 3)
• Afterwards, he sat down at the right hand of God (v. 3)
• He is higher in rank than the angels (v. 4; and all others, as seen throughout Hebrews)

Is this high Christology consistent with the rest of the New Testament? Consider this:

• Theos (God) is used as a Christological title in Romans 9:5, Titus, 2:13, and 1 Peter 1:1
• He is the image of the invisible God and everything was created by him (Col. 1:15-16)
• The entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ (Colossians 2:9)
• The Eternal Word (Jesus) took on flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1-14)
• He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except by him (John 14:6)
• Anyone who has seen Jesus has seen the Father (John 14:9)
• He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End (Revelation 22:12-13)
• He is the rightful object of worship throughout the New Testament (reserved only for God)
• He declared that faith in him secured eternal life (John 3:16-17), he forgave sins (Matt. 9:1-6; Mark 2:5-11) and proclaimed that he would judge the world (Matt. 25:31 ff).

A popular book in the last decade or so suggested that the deity of Christ was a much later invention of the church. The author making this claim should read his Bible a little more carefully.

^[1] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Heb 1:1–4.