Hebrews Chapter One, Jesus: Inheritor Of All

 

Hebrews 1:2d has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things,

 

Continuing in verse 2, we learn that the Father has appointed (chosen or prearranged) Christ to be heir of all things. Hebrews delves deeply into Christology, or the study of the person of our Savior. Wasting no time, the author lets us know that God not only spoke in His Son in the last days, but that He has made Christ heir of all things. We read in Isaiah:

“By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors,” Isaiah 53:11, 12.

 

The Father appointed Jesus as heir, dividing a portion with the great to apportion the spoil (of conquest) with the strong because He poured out His soul unto death interceding for the transgressors. The righteous Servant was numbered with us and took from us our sins by virtue of His intercession. He bore (suffered or accepted) our iniquities, and was punished to death, pouring His life out on our behalf. God made Christ, the sinless One, to be sin for us, so we might receive of His innate righteousness; a righteousness that is naturally His, because Christ Jesus is God the Son, or the Word of God, John 1:1. But then the Word became flesh, or incarnated as a Man, and dwelt among us, John 1:14. Though Jesus our Lord incarnated as a Man, fully human yet fully God, we must always remember that, “God [sent] His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,” Romans 8:3. Mind the word “likeness.” Recall how it means an image that approximates something, but is not in fact identical?

 

This applies here. Jesus did not come in sinful flesh, that is, as a Man born under Adam’s curse. Rather, being born of the Holy Spirit through Mary (Luke 1:34, 35) He was not tainted by the curse, but by His birth in this way fulfilled the ancient prophecy of being the Seed of the woman who would bruise the serpent’s head, Genesis 3:15. I have been privy to blasphemous assertions that Jesus was fully capable of succumbing to sin, but these unbiblical allegations do not take into account His virgin birth and His divine nature. Though human, Jesus was (and is always) the Word of God, the second member of the Trinity and incapable of anything outside of perfection, since He is God incarnate. He isn’t some Greek demigod as their absurd mythologies went, distorting the truth of the primeval promises given in Eden. He is the sinless Lamb of God, given for the salvation of the world, John 1:29. As such, He is without spot or blemish, since only one without sin (or a sin nature) could intercede on the guilty party’s behalf to bear sin in our stead. Just as I am 100% my mother and my father’s child ere genetic inheritance, Jesus is 100% Human (through Mary) while being 100% God (being the Word of God, and being begotten of the Holy Spirit). Like begets like, Genesis 5:3, Psalm 2:7. This tragic and blasphemous misrepresentation of Christ must be confronted and clarified wherever found.

 

So, what is the portion and what are the spoils our Lord receives? A part of this fulfillment can be found in these passages:

 

“The Lord (Yahweh) said to my Lord (Adonai), sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!” Psalm 110:1, 2.

 

“I will declare the decree; the Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession,” Psalm 2:7, 8.

 

The Psalmist, looking ahead to that glorious Day, also wrote, “This was the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” Psalm 118:23, 24. The “day” the Psalmist rejoiced to see was that of Christ’s advent; both for the suffering of sin crowned with glory, and His Second Coming to reign over His enemies and bring peace and true justice with Him. One day, the day of God’s appointment, the Word of God incarnated and became a Man. God stepped forth into our time/space/matter universe (the universe He created and governs by established laws and principles) and was begotten as the Son of God. His appointment to being the heir is quite natural. He is God’s second Man, the Lord from heaven, 1 Corinthians 15:47. In short, Jesus is the second human being to have lived that can actually function in the capacity of humanness that God intended for our race. Comparing Him to our first parent, we read, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life giving spirit,” 1 Corinthians 15:45. Whereas Adam represented humanity as God’s steward to the created world he was meant to govern, Christ is the last Adam, the inheritor of Adam’s kingdom and legacy that our first parent forfeit when he chose rebellion and sin over obedience. Where Adam sinned and his lineage perished by his choice and action, Jesus’ obedience unto death redeemed the first Adam’s lost descendants. Paul clearly and explicitly teaches that this will not happen again. In Jesus we have the second Man to obey where the first failed; we also have our last Adam, the representative head of the human race who, as King, bears the sins and guilt of His lost kinsmen in our stead as only the sinless One can. For this God the Father has given Jesus a name above all names in heaven, or on earth, or beneath the earth. Our Lord receives this appointment by right of inheritance as God’s Son, and by virtue of being Adam’s rightful successor and humanity’s Savior and Redeemer from the curse His progenitor brought upon us.