When someone wants to look for a new job or when he wants to communicate to a group his personal accomplishments, he’ll put together a resume. This document includes a brief summary of his life — birth, education, and family — as well as his professional progress and achievements. It’s a means of saying, “this is who I am and how I can serve you or your company.”
When Christ came to earth, born in a first century Bethlehem barn, He didn’t come bearing a resume — “this is what I will do for the world.” But His entire life and ministry served as something of a resume, boldly declaring His unique God-manhood and His power and authority. Much of the book of Hebrews serves as a written resume of Christ, declaring that “Christ is better than…” And as the author of Hebrews begins his letter, He identifies some of the summary points of Christ’s greatness. Who is Jesus? Who is this Christ? Look at what Hebrews 1 says.
He is the supreme Word of God (vv. 1-2). God spoke to ancient Israel through the voices of the prophets and the Old Testament. It was an adequate message. In many portions(39 books), spoken over the course of 1800 years, and in many various ways (symbols, parables, visions, history, poetry, and prose), God revealed Himself to His people. This was a sufficient Word, fully able to accomplish the revelation of God and the redemption of His people. But Christ was the supreme Word of God.
Christ is superior to the Old Testament because He is:
- the heir of all things (v. 2)
- the creator of the world (v. 2)
- the radiance and outshining of God’s glory (v. 3)
- the exact representation of God (v. 3)
- the sustainer of all things (v. 3)
- the purifier and redeemer of sin (v. 3)
- the exalted Lord — reigning with the Father over all things (v. 3)
When God wanted a full demonstration of Himself, He communicated through His Son, Jesus Christ. As John also said, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:18). No one had seen God or understood the extent of His greatness and glory, even through the revealed and written Scriptures, yet Christ gave as complete an explanation of the Father as man can understand.
He is supreme over all created beings — including the angels. The Jews believed in an exalted position for the angels, that they were next to God in authority and the highest beings apart from God. One sect even affirmed that the authority of Michael the archangel was equal to or surpassed the authority of the Messiah. But the writer of Hebrews affirms the greatness of Christ over the greatest of all created beings. Christ is greater than the angels because He:
- has a more excellent name than the angels (v. 4)
- has a more excellent position than the angels — He is the Son of God (v. 5)
- is the preeminent (firstborn) end of all creation (v. 6)
- is worshipped by the angels (v. 6)
- is served by the angels (v. 7)
- is enthroned with God and anointed by God (vv. 8-9, 13)
- is the creator of all things (v. 10)
- is enduring (eternally existent) beyond all created things (vv. 11-12)
This is Christ. He is our Savior. And He is better than all things. If you find delight and joy in anything today, find your supreme joy in Him. God gave Him to us as our friend, groom, brother, and Redeemer and Savior. He is the great communication of God and the supreme person of all history. Nothing and no one is equal to or better than Christ.
Words of Grace 