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No.10.
"He came where he was."
pp. 93 - 100
The revelation given in Heb. 1: 2, 3 is comparable with Col. 1: 15-19, Phil. 2: 5-11
and John 1: 1-18 in the majesty of its theme--the Person of "The Son", Who in the
beginning was "The Word", "The Form" and the "Image" of the Invisible God. It comes
somewhat as an anticlimax after reading that this Son of God was the Express Image of
the substance of God, and upholding all things by the word of His power, to read:
"Being made so much better than the angels" (Heb. 1: 4).
What angel is ever spoken of as "The Form or the Image of the Invisible God"? What
angel could be "The Express Image of His substance"? We have purposely omitted the
closing words, the words that form the link and contain the explanation of this strange
conclusion. After the attributes of Deity already quoted, we come to terms that refer not
to Deity, but to the mediatorial work and reward of the Son of God Who had taken upon
Himself the form or status of a slave. These links and explanatory claims are:
(1) He purged our sins; (2) As a consequence He sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high.
We have already examined the exaltation of the Lord and what is implied by this
session at the Right Hand, and can readily see that inasmuch as for our redemption the
Son of God was made a little LOWER than the angels (as we shall discover by reading
chapter 2:), so as the triumphant Conqueror of sin and death, and still in the capacity of
the One Mediator, He can be spoken of as "being made" better than angels, and
"obtaining by inheritance" a more excellent name than they.
The reader is aware of the important difference that is intended by the two words
"being" and "becoming". "Being made" is the translation of the Greek ginomai, "to
become", and the distinction is well observed in John 1: 1-3:
"Being." The verb eimi. "In the beginning WAS the Word . . . . . WAS with . . . . .
WAS God".
"Becoming." The verb ginomai. "All things WERE MADE by Him."
He "was". They "became".
Or again in John viiii. 58, "Before Abraham CAME INTO BEING, I AM". The
same sequences that are found in Heb. 1: 2-4 are found in Phil. 2: 5-11. First we have
"original being", huparchon, "Who being, existing all along, in the form of God", then
the sevenfold descent in flesh and blood to the death of the cross. This is followed by the
sevenfold exaltation, and, "The Name" that is above every name, a "more excellent
name" indeed than angels ever bore. Heb. 1: 4 is entirely concerned with the Mediatorial
work of Christ, and not with His essential Deity. The exaltation of the Saviour followed