The Power of the Son

From A Brief Word of Exhortation, Volume 1:

Heb. 1:3

In this Lesson, we will look at what the writer of this Epistle has to say about the Son in the rest of verse 3. We already looked at what the writer means when he says that the Son is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person.” The next thing he says about the Son is that he is “upholding all things by the word of His power.”

“All things,” of course, is the entire universe. “Up­hold­ing” in the Greek is phero and it means “to bring.” Since you usually have to carry something to bring it to someone else, the word also means “to carry, to bear.” And since the object you are carrying is moving, the word also means “to move some­thing.” It is used to de­scribe the rushing of the wind. It is also used to describe the movement of a ship as the wind pushes it. Jesus, therefore, is not just upholding the universe, mak­ing sure it stays in place. He is carrying it to ensure that it arrives at its proper destination. That destination has been de­ter­mined by God’s plan, and we know from the Scriptures that at the end of time, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, in short, a new universe. In the meantime, Jesus is carrying this universe and mak­­ing sure it does not fall apart before it gets to the end.

The same idea is expressed by Paul in Col. 1:17, where he states, “And He [Jesus] is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” The Greek word for “con­sist,” synistemi, means “to put together.” The Greek word for “in” can also mean “by.” Paul is saying that not only were all things put to­geth­er by Christ but all things also hold together in Christ.

The writer of Hebrews says that the Son carries the uni­verse and keeps it together “by the word of His power.” The Greek word for “word” here is not logos, as we might expect, but rhema. I know that some Bible teachers want to say that there is a significant dif­fer­ence between these two words. Logos, they say, refers to the general word of God, the Scrip­tures, whereas rhema refers to a specific word which God might speak to you. There is some technical difference be­tween the two words. Logos, for example, does not usually mean a single word, whereas rhema can mean that. How­ever, logos, both in the singular and plural, and rhema, in the plural, both mean “words,” “speech,” or “a say­ing.” Hence, in prac­tice, the words were often used in­ter­changeably. For ex­ample, when Jewish scholars trans­­lated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek around 200 BC, they used both words to translate dabar, which is the Hebrew word for “word,” even when the text referred to the same speech or saying. Ex. 24:3 says, “So Moses came and told the people all the words (rhema) of the LORD and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All the words (logos) which the LORD has said we will do.’” The New Testament also uses the words in­ter­change­ably at times. For example, Heb. 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” Eph. 6:17 says, “And take the hel­­met of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Both verses describe the word of God as a sword, but logos is used in the first verse and rhema is used in the second. There is, therefore, no sig­nificant difference be­tween the two words.

The writer of Hebrews says that the Son carries the uni­verse “by the word of His power.” The Greek word for “power” is dynamis, from which we get our word, “dynamite.” The writer is saying that the Son’s word is so powerful, it holds the entire universe together. The writ­er’s point is that the Son is better than the angels and any other created thing or person because he is the one who has the power to hold all created things together.

The writer then states that the Son “had by Himself purged our sins.” In saying this, he makes an important point about what the Son accomplished for us on the cross. The Greek word for “purged,” katharismos, is actually a noun, so a better translation is “having made the purification of our sins.” But the verb form of the word appears in several places and it means “to purify, to clean or cleanse.” It is used of the cleans­ing of lepers (Luke 5:12-13). When the leper was cleansed of the leprosy, it left him. That means, he no longer had it. When Jesus died on the cross, he cleansed us of our sins. That means we are supposed to no longer have sin in our lives. Jesus did not just pay the penalty for our sins so that we can go to heaven, nor did he just gain forgiveness for us so that we can go on sinning, believing that God loves us so much that he will always forgive us if we just ask him to do so. Jesus ac­com­plished more than that on the cross. He eliminated sin, which means that we should live like sin has been elim­in­ated from our lives. As Paul wrote to Titus in 2:14, Je­sus “gave Him­self for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own spe­cial people, zealous for good works.” As Paul also says in 2 Cor. 7:1, “Therefore, hav­ing these promises, be­loved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” We Christians have been commanded to turn from sin and to live a different lifestyle, a lifestyle of holiness. Those who continue in sin have missed the point of what Jesus did on the cross. As Peter says in 2 Pet. 1:5-9, “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to vir­tue knowledge, to knowl­edge self-control, to self-control per­severance, to per­se­verance godliness, to godliness broth­erly kind­ness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor un­­fruit­ful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blind­­ness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.” Jesus is the only who has the power, the ability, to cleanse us from our sins. Therefore, let us live as if we have been cleansed from sin.

Finally, the writer of this Epistle declares that the Son “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” In the king­doms of those days, the person who was second in charge would sit at the right hand of the king. The Son, therefore, is second in charge over the entire universe, second only to the Father, and everything and everyone else falls under his au­thor­ity. Paul points out in Eph. 1:20-23 that the Father dem­on­strated his own power “which he worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

After he was resurrected, Jesus told the disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18). By “all authority,” Jesus, of course, did not mean that he had authority over the Father. Paul notes in 1 Cor. 15:24-28, that after the believers are resurrected, “Then comes the end, when He de­liv­ers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For ‘He has put all things under His feet.’ But when He says ‘all things are put under Him,’ it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” The purpose for giving authority to the Son is to ultimately bring all things, including us, into subjection to the Father.

The Son, therefore, upholds the universe by the word of his power, he has cleansed us from our sins, and he has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. It would do us well to obey his authority by living lives that are actually cleansed from sin, trusting that he will carry us to our proper destination, to the new heaven and the new earth, where we will live with the Son and our Father forever.