The Son Is Superior to the Angels

Don't Stop Now!

A study of the NT book of Hebrews

by Pastor Frank Rice

Hebrews 1:5-14

 

Our culture seems infatuated with “spirituality!” If you visit your local bookstore, you will no doubt find these titles on the shelves; Angels A to Z, Know Your Angels, Ask Your Angels, Angel Magi, Angelic Healing, Angelic Voices, Angels: An Endangered Species, Meditating with the Angels, Angels and Aliens, and Big George: The Autobiography of an Angel! Quite a selection! Why the obsession with angels?! People want a message (something) on which they can hang their hopes and dreams. The OT is replete with messengers who have delivered such messages. A superior messenger, the Son, has come!

I     The Son Has a Unique Relationship to the Father (V. 5)!

• The OT refers at times to angels collectively as “sons of God.”

1. They provided the heavenly choir at the creation (Job 38:7).

2. They reported for duty to their creator (Job 1:6, 2:1).

3. Some were present at the giving of the law (Gal 3:19).

4. Some were tempted and defected to the enemy (Gen 6:2, 4).

• The OT never addresses an angel individually as “son of God!”

1. Both of these rhetorical questions expect a mental response from the listeners; “none of them!”

2. God never expressed this kind of unique relationship with any OT messenger / angel. But He did with His Son!

3. The OT texts refer to the enthronement of Christ the Son following His resurrection and ascension (Ps 2:7; 2 Sam 7:14). “The early church understood these passages to refer to Jesus’ induction into His royal position as King of the universe at the resurrection and exaltation.” (Guthrie)

4. The subject of this entire passage is, “The magnitude of Christ’s filial relationship and its superiority to the angels’ relationship with God!”

 

II.   The Son Has a Superior Position and Ministry (Vv. 6-7)!

• God the Father calls the angelic realm to worship His Son (v. 6)!

1. The only true God forbids the worship of non-gods (Ex 20), yet He clearly commands all the angels to worship the Son, an obvious indication of the Son’s deity!

2. The term “firstborn” does not stress birth order, but priority of position, authority, honor, and filial love.

3. “In the scriptures angels are created, heavenly beings, who primarily function as messengers for God, revealing His will or announcing key events. In contexts accentuating God’s power and majesty, angels worship Him or attend His throne. It is therefore of no small significance that they here are said to worship the Son, an implicit acclamation of His deity.” (Guthrie)

• God the Father speaks of the nature of His angels (v. 7).

1. They are created, finite, temporal, compliant beings whom God makes and adapts for their assignments.

2. By inference, the Son is not a created being!

 

III.  The Son Has an Eternal and Unchanging Nature (Vv. 8-12)!

• God addresses the Son as God (vv. 8-9)!

1. God the Son has an eternal throne, upon which He exercises judgment (v. 8a). (Contrast Him w/ earthly kings!)

2. God the Son is enthroned over a kingdom which He rules in absolute righteousness (v. 8b).

3. God the Son has a flawless record of loving what is righteous or upright and rejecting lawlessness (v. 9a).

4. God the Son has been appointed and anointed because of His incomparable, impeccable, and unchanging nature (v. 9b)! “The transitory creatureliness of the angels, mighty as they are, is overshadowed by the Son’s deity and eternal sovereignty…” (Cockerill)

• God addresses the Son as LORD (vv. 10-12)!

1. God attributes to the Son the work of creation, from start to finish, or from bottom to top, calling Him LORD (v. 10)!

2. God the Son, unlike His temporal creation (perish, grow old, fold up, change), is eternal and unchanging (vv. 11-12). He was before creation and will be after the creation is changed!

• The author of Hebrews holds some basic assumptions regarding the OT: (From Guthrie)

1. The OT consists of God’s words. He understands God as the speaker of these passages.

2. The OT presents truth. He feels no compulsion to explain the texts. He simply states them as facts concerning the Son and the angels.

3. The OT presents a unified revelation. God speaks consistently and systematically through Scripture.

4. The OT bears witness to Christ.

• The author of Hebrews holds some basic theological assumptions: (From Guthrie)

1. He understands the Son to be equal with God.

2. He believes the Son to be Lord over the cosmos.

3. He believes in a spiritual realm inhabited by spiritual beings called angels.

4. He assumes that Christ has His enemies and that all these enemies have yet to be placed under His feet.

 

IV.  The Son Has an Exalted and Glorious Future (Vv. 13-14)!

• The author closes his exposition with another rhetorical question for which there is only one acceptable answer (v. 13).

1. He concludes his case for the superiority of the Son over angels. (He’s done more quoting than explaining. He speaks to those for whom the scriptures are the final authority for faith and practice.)

2. He has said nothing negative regarding angels; it is only that they are categorically subordinate to the Son. He alone is promised ultimate honor and triumph!

• The author assures us angels have a continuing ministry (v. 14).

1. They are ministering spirits sent from God to protect those who are His. (It seems they normally appear in groups and are unseen by those to whom they are sent.) There are credible accounts of such!

2. The Son is still superior and is worshiped & served by them. They are magnificent messengers, but they are not the Son!

“If you believe that Jesus is not God, and I believe that Jesus is God, one of us is wrong. There are only so many options!”

“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” (1 Jn 5:11-13)