Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. Tonight, we’re going to be continuing our look at Hebrews 1. I’d first like to thank everyone for their continued prayers. I think I’ve made some major breakthroughs in that area in my life. Let us hope that the sun is once again beginning to shine. Going back to the Trinitarian commentary, tonight we’re going to finish up our look at Jesus in the first chapter of Hebrews by reading verses 13-14:
13To which of the angels did God ever say,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet”? 14Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
As far as I know, Psalm 110:1 is the most quoted Old Testament Verse in the New Testament and it’s no shock it’s used here. None of the angels were ever promised to either sit at the right hand of God or that he would make their enemies a footstool.
The verse is so important because it captured the deity of Christ to the early church and it showed his position as Messiah. This was the Messiah in the lineage of David who has ontological equality with the Father and is the judge of all the world.
This is done in contrast to the angels. The angels are but servants sent to those who will inherit salvation. Now Jesus did wash his disciples’ feet, which was the position of a servant, but he did so in a way that he showed was unnatural to one in his position. The angels however have been placed in a position where they are servants to us. In fact, we are told in 1 Cor. 6 that we will judge the angels. If we judge the angels, then in some way we are superior to them.
Of course, this is not to lower angels. I think angels are a fascinating topic of discussion and they are great creations of God, but something that I believe distinguishes us from them is that we are never told that angels have the image of God. We are definitely never told that Christ died for the sins of angels. The emphasis in Scripture is on God restoring men to him and not angels.
However, the contrast here is not about angels and ourselves but angels and the Son. In the system that the writer was writing to, angels were seen as mediators, which is understandable seeing as in Galatians 3 Paul says that the Law was mediated to us by angels. There was always a great tendency however to look to the means of something as being an object of worship, such as the bronze snake Moses made that later became an idol. I dare say most of us would be tempted to worship an angel if we saw one, but we must not do so.
However great these beings are, the writer wants one thing to be clear to his readers. Christ is greater. This is one of the explanatory passages in the book. Tomorrow, we shall begin looking at an argument that follows from this that counts as one of the warning passages and see what more we can learn about the Trinity from there.
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