Christ’s Superior Nature

December 14, 2022 / Sandra Bivens Smith

“Of the angels He says, ‘Who makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire.’ But of the Son He says, ‘Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever'” (Heb. 1:7-8).

Jesus Christ is God, and He created the angels.

People today who claim that Jesus was just a man, an angel, a prophet, or some inferior god are in error and bring upon themselves the curse of God. The Bible, and especially the writer of Hebrews, are clear about who Christ is.

First, the writer deals with the nature of angels when he says, “Who makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire.” “Makes” simply means “to create.” The antecedent of “who” is Christ. Therefore it is obvious that Christ created the angels.

They are also His possession: “His angels.” They are His created servants, who do not operate on their own initiative, but on the direction of Christ.

But the greatest difference between the nature of angels and Christ is that He is the eternal God. The Father says to the Son, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.” That is one of the most powerful, clear, emphatic, and irrefutable proofs of the deity of Christ in Scripture.

Jesus throughout His ministry claimed equality with God. He said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). The apostle John closed his first epistle by saying, “We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

God the Son came to help us understand that God is truth and that Christ Himself is the true God. Our faith is based on the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Suggestion for Prayer
Ask God to give you a greater understanding of the reality that Jesus is in fact God.

For Further Study
Read John 1:1-18 and mark the verses that define Christ’s relationship to God. If an unbeliever were to ask you what that passage means, how would you answer him or her?

Worship of Distinction

December 13, 2022 / Sandra Bivens Smith

“When He again brings the first-born into the world, He says, ‘And let all the angels of God worship Him'” (Heb. 1:6).

Jesus Christ is greater than angels because He is worshiped.
Even though Jesus Christ humbled Himself and was made lower than the angels for a time, angels are still to worship Him. Since angels are to worship Him, then Christ must be greater than them.

Angels have always worshiped Christ, only they worshiped Him as God. It wasn’t until His incarnation that angels were commanded to worship Him as God’s Son. It is a sin to worship anyone or anything but God—in fact, note how sternly the apostle John was rebuked for worshiping angels (Rev. 19:10; 22:8-9). So the very fact that angels are to worship Christ verifies that Christ is indeed God.

At present, the angels don’t fully understand the entire picture of God’s redemptive plan. Peter tells us that the prophets didn’t understand all that they wrote, “seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow” (1 Pet. 1:11). Then he added, “Things into which angels long to look” (v. 12). They are still trying to figure out things they don’t understand.

But that won’t always be the case. Notice that Hebrews 1:6 says, “When He again brings the first-born into the world” (emphasis added). God already brought Christ into the world once—at the second coming He will bring Him into the world in blazing glory. Then the fullness of the prophecy of Psalm 97:7 quoted in Hebrews 1:6 will come to pass: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.”

In His second coming Christ is revealed in full glory as the Son. More than ever we have reason to join the heavenly chorus in declaring, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing” (Rev. 5:12).

Suggestion for Prayer
Thank God for His wonderful plan of salvation. Ask Him to make it more real to you every day.

For Further Study
Read Revelation 5:1-11 and note the reactions of the angels to the Lamb of God. What specific event motivated their response?

A More Excellent Name

December 12, 2022 / Sandra Bivens Smith

“He has inherited a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did [God] ever say, ‘Thou are My Son, today I have begotten Thee’? And again, ‘I will be a Father to Him and He shall be a Son to Me’?” (Heb. 1:4-5).

Jesus is better than the angels because He is more than a created messenger—He is God’s eternal Son.

Angels are “ministering spirits, sent out to render service” (v. 14). A son, of course, is superior to a servant (cf. Luke 15:19). In the ancient near east, a son was deemed fully equal to his father in privilege and equally worthy of honor. When Jesus called God His own Father, people correctly understood that He was “making Himself equal with God” (John 5:18).

Of course, no mere angel (or any other created being) could ever make such a claim.

Do the words “today” and “begotten” in Psalm 2:7 imply that this happened at some point in time? No. The context makes that impossible. Hebrews 1 is about the singularity and superiority of Christ as God. The writer declares repeatedly that Jesus is God—the One who “upholds all things by the word of His power” (v. 2). Even the Father addresses Him as “God” and says the Son is eternal (v. 8).

“Begotten” therefore cannot mean that the Son was brought into existence. “He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:2). He is the Alpha and Omega (Revelation 1:8).

Moreover, “the decree” mentioned in Psalm 2:7 can only be the eternal decree of God (His ageless, immutable plan and purpose)—and “today” must refer to the timeless era of eternity past.

For the next several days, we’ll see in what ways Christ is superior to angels and how He could mediate a better covenant for us.

That means in some ineffable way, Jesus is eternally begotten by the Father and is therefore of the same essence. “Son” is not a title He took on or a role He assumed; it is who He is: “the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18)—namely, “the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father” (1:18).

Suggestion for Prayer
Thank God for His amazing plan to redeem man through the incarnation of His only begotten Son.

For Further Study
The apostle John refers to Christ as the Father’s “only begotten” (Greek: monogenes) in John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9. Note how his very first use of the expression makes clear that it applies to Christ’s deity, not his humanity.

Christ is Superior to Angels

December 11, 2022 / Sandra Bivens Smith

“Having become . . . much better than the angels” (Heb. 1:4).

Through a deft use of the Old Testament, the writer proves that Christ is the mediator of a greater covenant.

Man is a wonderful and amazing creation—higher than plants, animals, and any other material creation in this world. But there are created beings even higher than man—angels.

Hebrews 2:9 shows this to be the case because when Jesus became a man, He was “made for a little while lower than the angels.” After the fall of the rebellious angels under Lucifer, the angels in heaven were no longer subject to sin. These angels are holy, powerful, and wise. They are special beings created by God before He created man.

The Jewish people understood the exalted position of angels because they knew that the Old Covenant was brought to men and maintained by angelic mediation. Galatians 3:19 says, “Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.”

Because of this high regard for angels by his readers, the writer of Hebrews was faced with a problem. If he was to show that Christ was the mediator of a better covenant, he would have to prove that Christ is better than angels. To do so, he used seven Old Testament passages to verify his claim.

If he had tried to prove from Christian writings that Christ is a better mediator, his unbelieving Jewish readers would have said, “We don’t accept these writings as being from God.” So in effect he wisely replies, “Open up your own Scriptures and I’ll prove my claim from them.” It results in a powerful and irresistible argument.
For the next several days, we’ll see in what ways Christ is superior to angels and how He could mediate a better covenant for us.

Suggestion for Prayer
Because much of our understanding of the New Testament is based on the writings of the Old Testament, thank God for how He has brought His complete Word to us intact throughout the centuries.

For Further Study
Read Galatians 3:8, Romans 9:15, and Matthew 4:4.
• What Old Testament verses do those passages quote?
• What truth does each of them verify?

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Christ’s Superior Nature

Worship of Distinction

A More Excellent Name

Christ is Superior to Angels