S3 || Deity, Purity, And A Righteous Scepter || Hebrews 1:4-9 || Session 3

Start with a claim that won’t let you shrug: the Father calls the Son God. We walk through Hebrews chapter 1 line by line to see how Scripture itself lifts Jesus above every created being, from angels to kings, and then crowns him with a righteous scepter. If angels refuse worship but Jesus receives it, what does that say about who he is and what he has done?

We explore the rich language of radiance and exact representation, unpacking the ancient seal-and-wax imagery that shows the Son bears the very nature of God in human flesh. From identity flows mission: he upholds all things by his powerful word, makes purification for sins, and then sits down at the right hand of Majesty. That seated posture declares the work is finished and the King is enthroned. Along the way, we trace a web of Old Testament citations—Psalms 2, 45, and more—that anchor Trinitarian theology in the Hebrew Scriptures, not in later speculation.

This conversation is for listeners who want sturdy, text-driven clarity: Jesus is not a created being, not merely a messenger, and not a rival deity. He is the worthy one whose name is more excellent than the angels, the rightful heir of David’s throne, and the ruler with a righteous scepter who loves righteousness and hates lawlessness. For anyone under pressure or tempted to drift, Hebrews 1 offers more than comfort; it offers a captivating vision of Christ that fuels endurance, worship, and hope.

If this deep dive strengthened your faith, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves careful Bible study, and leave a rating so more people can rediscover the power and beauty of Hebrews.

Chapters

• 0:17 Hebrews Lifts Christ Above All
• 0:31 Radiance And Exact Representation
• 3:06 Purification Of Sins And Power
• 5:37 Seated At The Right Hand
• 8:59 Work Finished, Royal Authority
• 9:58 Better Than The Angels
• 11:29 A More Excellent Name
• 11:49 Scripture Proofs From The Psalms
• 18:49 Worship That Only God Can Receive
• 23:39 The Father Calls The Son God

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:17

The book of Hebrews lifts Christ up as a better sacrifice with a better covenant. In this first chapter, it's really talking about him as a person. He is a better being than anything in creation. As we saw last time, Hebrews 1:3 talks about Jesus being the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature. The radiance of his glory, it would be totally absurd to say that an archangel would be the fulfillment of something that was an attribute of God. No created being could be the fulfillment of God's wisdom or what makes God's strength really powerful. And that's what the word radiance means. It means the fulfillment. So when it says here that Jesus is what fulfills God's glory, no created being could do that. That would be blasphemous. It would say that God is insufficient. When it says that Christ is the radiance of his glory, it's a claim for deity. Then it has this phrase, the exact representation of his nature. Here with that phrase, the New Revised Standard Version has it saying the exact imprint of God's very being. The New English translation says the representation of his essence. So the language here in the Greek is very precise. It takes the terms that the same as a stamp or a seal, making an imprint. In those days, people would have a family or a royal seal if you were a lord or a king. They would put wax at the bottom of a letter and push the seal or the stamp into the wax so that the imprint of the seal goes into the wax. The exact same image is in both the seal and the wax. It was the same form for both. The king's name or the Lord's name would be on the seal, and now that same exact form or image is in the wax. The Greek here is saying that the exact same nature or being of God is imprinted into the flesh of Jesus. God's exact being or God's exact form or image is pressed into Jesus when he incarnated into flesh. This is such an amazing term, an amazing way of communicating the unique deity of Jesus Christ. So so far, we in this book, we're not even really out of the first three verses. We've already seen three or four very strong claims for the unique deity of Jesus Christ. Also in the middle of verse three, it says, when he had made purification of sins. So note the action. He made purification. Sin pollutes people. So, Steve, can we purify ourselves from sin?

SPEAKER_00: 3:21

No, we can't. And I think the author is connecting that to the sentence before it. He says, He upholds all things by the word of his power. Then the next sentence is when he made purification of sins, then the next one, which we'll get to is he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So we kind of see a little bit of a transition here that the author is making of Jesus, of his power, and that through his power and who he is, his uniqueness, he's the only one that was going to be able to make purification of our sins because Jesus came and lived a sinless life as a human being. He's fully man, fully God. He's the only one that would be able to have the power to make purification of the sins that would give us the promise of eternal life.

SPEAKER_01: 4:18

Think of it what this chapter has already told us. The infinite God has reached down into creation and many times in many ways communicated his word to us. He imprinted himself, his very image, his very form, his very nature essence. He imprinted that into the flesh of Jesus Christ and did the work of cleansing us from the pollution that is in sin. Sin pollutes us and he purifies us. This is one of the many ways that sin is described for the human state. We are dirty in need of cleansing from Ephesians 5.26. We are far away, needing to be brought near, Ephesians 2.13. We are slaves needing to be set free, Romans 6.6. We are dead in need of being made alive in Ephesians 2.5. The Bible has 17 or 18 different descriptions of the lost person, not merely deadness, but all of them. God has to reach down and cause the purification. He has to cause the regeneration. He has to free us from the bonds of slavery to sin. He is wonderful, and we are the ones in need of his purification. Then at the end of verse three, as you alluded to, Steve, it says he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Four times in Hebrews, it says that Jesus sat down at the right hand of God. So, Steve, what is the significance of the fact that Jesus sat down at the right of the throne?

SPEAKER_00: 5:59

The only one that is allowed to sit at the right hand of a king is the one that has the same sovereignty, mothority, uniqueness, the same power. That is who sits at the right hand of the king. So that's the significance here is that the author is telling us that Jesus is God. And it's the claims of his deity. He is equal with God. God in three persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, not three gods. And the author is clear trying to communicate to us that Jesus is God. And he does that here in the case of sitting at the right hand of the Father.

SPEAKER_01: 6:43

There's at least two major things to learn here with the sitting at the right hand of God. One is what you just said, Steve. The only one that can sit is especially at the right hand. That is reserved for royalty. That is reserved for the one who is on the throne, is the one who sits at the right hand of God. So the only one that sits in a throne room is royalty. Only the king, the king and the queen, or the prince, they're the only ones that can sit in a throne room. Everybody else is the subjects, they stand. The second major thing that we get from the sitting at the right hand of the throne is that the work is finished. In the book of Hebrews, we're going to see it makes Jesus to be our high priest. Well, the high priest and any of the priests really in the Jewish sacrificial system, there was not a chair in the temple because their work was never done. They were constantly relighting the lamps, rebaking the bread, putting fire in the altars, sacrificing the animals. They were constantly doing these things and their work was never finished. Here, he sits down because the work is finished. What did he say on the cross? It is finished. And once the work is finished, now he can sit. So he's sitting because his work is done. He purified us for our sins. He paid for our sins. He paid once for all. And now he can sit because the work is finished. The right hand is the right hand of strength and power. So it's putting Jesus at the highest position that can be made in the universe. This is a position of royalty. It is saying that he is equal with the Father and that he is the power of the Father. He is the radiance of his glory, the fulfillment of God's glory. Hebrews 1:3 has four references to the deity of Christ and two more references to Jesus being the high priest that completed his work of paying for sins. This is an amazing chapter. All of that packed into these wonderful, poetic, beautiful words. Then in verse 4, it says, He having become as much better than the angels. Here, better means exaltation. Because Christ lowered himself to take on human nature and die as a human, he is therefore exalted to a higher stature than the angels. Jesus is above all created beings, including angels. Jesus is not another created being, but is higher than all created things.

SPEAKER_00: 9:31

Steve, is Jesus worthy? He is the worthy one. And as revelation puts, John was in distress because of the happenings of what was going on. And he was wondering if there was somebody worthy. And stepping forth from the throne room is Jesus Christ in order to take the scroll. John put there in the revelation, worthy is the Lamb. So Jesus is, among other things, the worthy one. He is the one that could only make the purification of sins. He's the only one that can be worthy. In this part here where it says much better, the New English translation uses the word so far better. The author, as I noted in the introduction, is going to tackle the three pillars of Judaism at the time angels, Moses, and the Levitical priesthood. So here in this fourth verse, he starts to introduce that Jesus is better than the angels. He not only just says better, but he says much better than the angels. So we start to get this picture of who Jesus is, not only in his deity, but also in his preeminence over the angels.

SPEAKER_01: 10:49

Verse 4, as you pointed out, having become much better than the angels, it goes on to point out he has inherited a more excellent name. A person's name is their reputation. A person's name also indicates where they belong in society and wealth. Someone who is a descendant of a very long line of wealthy, honest, and trustworthy people will have a name that is valuable. A person who is a child of a wise and brave king will have an excellent name and a great inheritance. Jesus has a name more excellent than all the heavenly host, more than all created beings. He alone is worthy. Next, this continuation of the lofty support for the person of Jesus Christ as God Almighty just keeps going and going after wave after wave in this book. Steve, can you start at verse five and read down to verse nine?

SPEAKER_00: 11:49

For to which of the angels did he ever say, You are my son, today I have begotten you. And again, I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. And when he again brings the firstborn into the world, he says, And let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he says, Who makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire? But of the Son, he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.

SPEAKER_01: 12:39

In verse 5, and really several verses after this, it's contrasting Christ with angels, and it's trying to tell us that Christ is better than the angels. So in verse 5, if God never called an angel a son, then what does that tell us about Christ?

SPEAKER_00: 12:58

It tells us that he's not a created being, that the angels were created, mankind was created, but the son is not created, and the only person that is not created is God himself. So through this terminology, he is equating Jesus as being God Himself.

SPEAKER_01: 13:19

Exactly right. He's saying that he never called the angel son. And if the angels are the greatest of the created beings, then that means Jesus, one, is not an angel. And two, he's not a created being at all. Therefore, he is God. This is just wave after wave of these wonderful teachings about who is Jesus Christ. I remember in the Gospels, who do you say that I am? Well, here we're getting a great dose of exactly who Jesus is. Some people who try to deny the deity of Christ focus on the word begotten as if Jesus had a beginning. In relation to Christ, the word merely means to bring forth in the sense that Jesus was brought forth as a human by the Father. It would be absurd to have one verse that says Jesus had a beginning in the midst of many verses that say Jesus was God and created all things. Verse five is therefore saying that Jesus is not one of the heavenly beings. And then the last half of verse five, none of the created heavenly beings does God refer to using the father and son relationship. Once again, being the son and son of the father is a term meaning they have the same nature. John 5.18 says that Jesus, being the son of the Father, means Jesus is equal with God. Then verse 6 uses the term firstborn for Christ, which means preeminent one. Ephraim was called firstborn in Jeremiah 31:9, even though he was the second one born. Ephraim was preeminent over his older brother Manasseh. Therefore, Ephraim was the firstborn. When he says he's the firstborn over creation, that just merely means he is preeminent over everything that is created. And we alluded to many of these concepts are taught in Colossians as well. Colossians 1.18 says Jesus is firstborn from the dead, even though there were others prior to him that were raised from the dead, such as 1 Kings 17, 22, God raises the widow's son from the dead. So these are just such lofty, lofty things telling us he is the preeminent one. He is the firstborn of creation, he is the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of his nature imprinted into human flesh. The writer just keeps lifting Christ higher and higher. The end of verse six, let all the angels of God worship him. Steve, what do we know about angels and worship? Can an angel rightfully accept worship?

SPEAKER_00: 16:06

An angel himself cannot. And whenever we saw angels that had come down to visit mankind, the word angels just really means a messenger. But when they in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament would come to visit, if the person bowed down to them, we saw the angel said, No, no, you need to get up because you're not supposed to worship me. You only worship God. So that is one distinction that we see with angels versus the incarnate Christ himself in the Old Testament. Glenn, I think also in this section here, I find it a little bit fascinating that the author is using the Psalms quite a bit. He's quoting from Psalms 2, Psalm 7, Psalms 8, Psalms 110, and further Psalms as we go through this chapter. And I think it goes back to the very first verse when he says God spoke through many prophets and in many ways. I think the author is proving the case here that one of the many ways that God spoke to mankind about the Messiah was through the Psalms, because here he is using all of these different psalms to indicate and associate directly Jesus with all of these messianic parts of the psalms that were created by mostly David back in the Old Testament. So the author has started out with a premise in verse one. Now, as we're starting to march through these verses in chapter one, he is proving part of his premise out by doing all of these quotations from the Old Testament Psalms.

SPEAKER_01: 17:46

Only God can rightfully accept worship. Only God can rightfully accept worship. So in verse six, when it says, Let all the angels of God worship him, then it means he is God. In the book of Acts, Cornelius fell down and worshiped Peter in Acts 10, 26. Peter stopped him, said, Don't do that. Some men from Lystra tried to worship Paul and Barnabas, but they stopped them in Acts 14, 14. And as you pointed out, Steve, at the end of the book of Revelation, John fell down in front of an angel, and the angel stopped him, said, No, I am a fellow servant. So if Jesus accepts worship, he is either God Almighty or he's a demon from the pit of hell, because only God can rightfully accept worship. And of course, this is a strong, strong support for the deity of Jesus Christ, the full, unique deity of Jesus Christ. He is not a God, he is the God, he is God Almighty. Because Jesus accepts worship by all the angels, then he is God Almighty. Verse 7 and 8 go together. The angels are ministering spirits, but the son sits on the throne and holds a scepter forever and ever. Only a king would hold a scepter. Jesus is the rightful heir of the throne of David. God promised a descendant of David forever. See 2 Samuel 7. So what these next verses in Hebrews 1 is doing is contrasting Christ with the highest created being, which is angels. And he's saying he is better than the angels. The angels worship him. The son sits on a throne and holds a scepter forever and ever. The angels would never do that. Verse 7 is speaking about God addressing angels. And then in verse 8, speaking to the Son, God says, quote, Your throne, O God. We have God the Father addressing the Son as God. Verse 8 has the clearest statement on the deity of Christ. This verse defeats oneness theology and Unitarian theology and is a direct proof of the Trinity. There's no way around the fact that the grammar here has two persons speaking one to another, but we know there is only one God. Your throne, O God, he says to the Son. We also have a very interesting contrast. Verse 8, the Father calls the Son God. And the next verse, verse 9, says the Son refers to the Father as God. So verses such as 2 Corinthians 1.3 say, God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, which means the word for God is often used for Father. Thus, Hebrews 1.9 says to the Son of God, God, your God, has anointed you, is referring to the Father. It's not saying Jesus is a separate being from God. So, Steve, these claims for the person of Jesus to be equal with the Father, to be the being of God, is just over and over and over in this chapter. And it says it much more eloquently than I can, but it's just such a powerful, wonderful, lofty chapter that has such deep theology and great, beautiful language.

SPEAKER_00: 21:25

And let me throw this question out to the listeners here. How do you think the author is doing so far with showing that Jesus is greater than the angels? I think personally that he's doing a great job. He's making a great case by using all of these quotations from the Old Testament to show these Hebrews, this is who the book is written to, that Jesus is God Himself. And the Hebrews that he's writing to are believers in Jesus Christ. So as we get into the book itself, we're going to see that part of the reason he's writing to them is because they're under great persecution. They're tempted to go back under Judaism in order to be free from the persecution, possibly thinking that after the persecution goes away, that they can once again publicly put their faith in Jesus Christ. But the author is using all of these beginning verses to show them the Jesus Christ that you have followed and are following and have put your trust and faith in, He is God. And He's much better than the angels. He's much better than Moses and the Levitical priesthood. He's much better than anything that Judaism can provide itself. So he's making and building a very, very strong case to these Jewish believers who are under great persecution and at a point in their life where they're starting to possibly waver, stay steady, and stay faithful with Jesus Christ because he is God.

SPEAKER_01: 23:05

Again, Hebrews 1.8 says, Of the Son, he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom. And the throne is the seat of royalty. The scepter is the symbol of power. The scepter is a symbol of authority in a kingdom. Only the authority holds the scepter. Steve, who is the seal of ultimate authority in God's kingdom?

SPEAKER_00: 23:35

That's Jesus Christ. And other scriptures tell us in the Old Testament and prophets. We've gone through some of them already in our studies, that in the kingdom, we call it the messianic kingdom because the Messiah is going to be ruling from Jerusalem. Well, the Messiah is Jesus Himself. So he is the one that is the ultimate authority. And he's not only just going to be ruling Jerusalem and Israel, the restored kingdom, but he's also going to be ruling all the other nations of the world during this messianic restored kingdom of Israel at that time. It's just going to be a great time. But ultimately, it's Jesus Christ who has the authority.

SPEAKER_01: 24:17

Notice that it's not just a scepter, it is a righteous scepter. And it goes on the very next phrase: you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Our king is a king that loves righteousness. He has the power of righteousness. He hates lawlessness. We can't really say that of any earthly king or any earthly government because earthly governments all have some degree of fallibility and corruption. We never see perfect righteousness from human rulers or governments because all the subjects are always longing for a perfectly righteous ruler, the one who will rule with righteousness. Well, Jesus will rule with a righteous scepter. That will be a great day. Verses 8 and 9 speak of Jesus having a throne and a scepter. He is also anointed with the oil of gladness. A king was recognized as a king by anointing him with oil. This happens several times in the scriptures. David was recognized as king in 1 Samuel 16, 13 by anointing him with oil. David was recognized as king of Judah by anointing him with oil in 2 Samuel 2.4. David was recognized as king over the whole nation by anointing him with oil in 2 Samuel 5.3. So when it says here that the Father anoints Jesus in Hebrews 1.9, he is recognizing Jesus as king. And there's only one king in God's kingdom, and that is God Almighty. Steve, this is just so wonderful. We have here Jesus as King. He is God. Hebrews presents him as loftier than all the heavenly beings. He is the sustainer of creation. He is very God of God. He is the radiance of his glory. He is the exact form of God's nature and being. He alone makes purification for sins. Steve, is Jesus worthy?

SPEAKER_00: 26:28

He is absolutely worthy. And we're only two sessions in to our study of Hebrews. And really all I can say at this point is, wow.

SPEAKER_01: 26:37

Wow. I hope you'll be back with us next time for more wow, because this book is just full of this. We're really only halfway through the first chapter. So be back with us next time as we continue to reason through the book of Hebrews.

SPEAKER_00: 26:51

Thank you so much for watching and listening, and may God keep you and bless you.