God's Final Word

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, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Hebrews 1:1-3a

The word which now comes to us in Jesus Christ, both by what he said and what he was, is a stronger and more inclusive word than God ever spoke through the prophets. When you read the Old Testament, you are reading the Word of God. The voice of God is heard through various forms and circumstances. All of it is of God, but all of it is incomplete. It never brings us to ultimates and absolutes. But when you open the pages of the New Testament and read the fourfold picture of Jesus Christ, you find that all the Old merges into one voice, the voice of the Son. The words by which God spoke in the Old Testament are merged into one complete discourse in Jesus Christ. Therefore, God's word to man has been fully uttered in the Son. There is nothing more to be said. Jesus Christ is God's final word to man. Therefore, the word through the Son is greater than that through the prophets because it includes and surpasses theirs. It is also greater because the Son forms the boundaries of history. The writer says Jesus has been appointed the heir of all things, and through him God made the universe.

Further, his word has greater power than the prophets' because he sustains the matter of the universe. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power. In the hills behind Stanford University there is a linear accelerator, some two miles long, a gigantic instrument. Scientists built it to be a great lever by which they can pry the lid off the secrets that lie behind matter. They are trying to find what makes the universe tick, what holds it together. And as man probes deeper into the secrets of the universe around him, he discovers more and more that he is confronting the mystery of an untouchable, unscalable force; that he stands face to face with pure force. What is that force? Scientists never name it, in fact they cannot name it, but the Scripture does. The Scripture says that force is Jesus Christ, that he holds everything in place, whether it be large or small. The reason we can sit or stand, though our earth is whirling at a furious rate, and not be hurled off into space, is simply because he sustains the universe. He is the secret behind everything that exists.

Lord Jesus, you are the One who is the secret of human life and behind all the mysteries of the universe. May you fill my life in grace and begin to reign. Amen.