Big Buts of the Bible

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…”
—Hebrews 1:1–2

Sometimes the first few words tell you almost everything you need to know.

Hebrews begins with two: “God spoke.”

No lengthy argument for His existence. No philosophical warm-up. The writer simply begins with God—and with the remarkable assertion that the God who made us has chosen to communicate with us.

And apparently, God has never been particularly limited in His choice of communication methods.

He spoke to Moses from a burning bush. He spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper. Isaiah received a breathtaking vision of heaven. Hosea’s painful family life became part of his prophetic message. Amos was once shown a basket of ripe fruit.

Seriously. A basket of fruit.

God spoke through prophets, poetry, history, visions, dreams, proverbs, confrontations, object lessons and ordinary human lives. The Old Testament is filled with the voices of people through whom God revealed something of Himself.

Hebrews honors all of that. And then comes the but.

But Now…

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”

There’s the pivot. Something changed.

It isn’t that everything God had said before was somehow wrong or inadequate. Quite the opposite. Hebrews is saturated with the Old Testament—the writer continually reaches backward to show how everything was pointing forward.

But now the One to whom it was all pointing has arrived.

Jesus didn’t simply bring another message from God. Jesus is God’s message to us.

The prophets could tell us what God had revealed to them. Jesus could show us what God is like.

Want to know how God responds to hurting people? Watch Jesus.

Want to know whether God notices people everybody else overlooks? Watch Jesus.

Want to know what God thinks about hypocrisy, injustice, mercy, forgiveness, sin, grace, brokenness, compassion? Watch Jesus.

Want to know how far God’s love is willing to go to bring His wandering children home? Watch Jesus walk toward the cross.

God has spoken.

Look at the Son

And just in case we are tempted to think of Jesus as merely another prophet—perhaps the greatest in a long line of impressive spiritual teachers—the writer of Hebrews gives us an astonishing description of exactly who this Son is.

He is heir of all things.
Through Him, God made the universe.
He is “the radiance of God's glory.”
He is “the exact representation of his being.”
He sustains all things by His powerful word.
He provided purification for our sins.
And having accomplished that work, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

That’s quite an introduction.

The language of radiance is particularly beautiful. Think of light streaming from its source. You know the light because its radiance reaches you.

Hebrews says: Look at Jesus and you are seeing the radiance of God’s glory.

Or consider the phrase “exact representation.” The ancient image is something like the impression left by a stamp or seal. Jesus doesn’t provide us with a rough sketch of God or a blurry approximation. He shows us what God is like.

Which means the Jesus we encounter in the Gospels—the Jesus who touched lepers, welcomed children, ate with sinners, confronted religious hypocrisy, wept beside a tomb, restored failures and noticed forgotten people—is not somehow the kinder, gentler member of the Trinity.

He is revealing the Father.

And He Holds It All Together

There’s another phrase in these opening verses that I find especially comforting: “sustaining all things by his powerful word.”

Not sustained. Sustaining.

The idea isn’t of Jesus passively propping up creation like some cosmic version of Atlas carrying the world on His shoulders. It describes His continuing activity. Elsewhere Paul says of Christ, “in him all things hold together.”

All things.

That includes galaxies we cannot comprehend and particles too small for us to see. History itself unfolds beneath His sovereign care.

I don’t know about you, but some days my little corner of “all things” doesn’t feel particularly held together. Our lives can unravel surprisingly quickly.

Relationships fracture. Bodies fail. Plans collapse. People disappoint us. We disappoint ourselves. Something we thought certain suddenly isn’t. Sometimes we’re simply exhausted from trying to keep everything from coming apart.

Hebrews quietly points us toward Jesus and says:

He’s still sustaining. The One holding creation together is the same One who knows your name.

God has spoken. And His clearest Word isn’t a bush, a vision, a booming voice from heaven, or even a basket of fruit.

It’s Jesus.

When we’re unsure what God is like, we can look at Jesus. When shame tells us to hide, we can look at Jesus. When life feels as though it’s coming apart, we can look at the One who sustains all things.

When we wonder whether our sin has put us beyond God’s reach, we can look at the One who provided purification for it Himself.

God has spoken.

And what He has said to us in Jesus sounds remarkably like hope.