Hebrews 1:1

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed the heir of all things and through whom he also made the worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

When God speaks, can His revelation be lost in translation—and how has He spoken in a way that cannot be misunderstood?

Things Lost in Translation

Have you ever spoken through a translator? It can be challenging, and even more so when you're teaching through one. Back in 2004 and 2005 I had the privilege of moving to northwest Germany to teach for a year at a small international Bible school, where I taught classes—including the book of Romans—through translation to German and American students. It's hard enough to comprehend Romans, let alone teach it so that a translator can carry your meaning. Sometimes you'd say something and the translator would just give you a blank stare: "That's not going to work, you'll have to fix that."

While I was there, several of us traveled four hours to hear a brother from China named Brother Yun, author of The Heavenly Man. He spoke loudly and rapidly in Mandarin, giving his translator no time, who then translated into German—while my friend Jeremy Kirby, now with the Lord, relayed it to me in English. There are things that simply don't translate well.

I'll never forget a Sunday night in Siegen when my friend Pastor Nick Long was sharing his testimony in English, being translated into German. Excited and animated, he said, "I'm just thankful the Lord has forgiven me for all the crap that I did." The translator, in translator mode, simply spoke what she heard—and there's just not a great German translation for that word. The whole room leaned forward, the translator turned red, and there was quite a laugh.

When Translation Fails

Companies have learned this the hard way. Pepsi's slogan "Come alive with Pepsi" came out in Chinese as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back to life." McDonald's "Big Mac" came out in France as "Big Pimp." KFC's "Finger lickin' good" became "Eat your fingers off" in Chinese, and "Got Milk?" became "Are you lactating?" in Mexico. Things don't always translate well.

If you ever travel to Rome, you'll see Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses at the Church of St. Peter in Chains—and Moses has horns on his head. Why? In the fourth century, when Jerome translated the Bible into the Latin Vulgate, he came to the passage in Exodus where Moses descended Mount Sinai and his face shone with radiance. The Hebrew word for radiant is very close to the word for horns, and Jerome translated it "horns." For centuries afterward, Moses was depicted with horns. There are things that get lost, misunderstood, or misinterpreted in translation—and that can be a problem.

How God Has Spoken

This matters because Hebrews 1:1 says God "spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets." One of the wonderful truths of Scripture is that God the Creator has spoken and revealed Himself to us, in various ways and at various times.

One way is general revelation. The heavens declare the glory of God; the earth shows forth His handiwork; day unto day they speak (Psalm 19). Romans 1 likewise speaks of creation as a way God reveals Himself. Beyond creation, God also speaks through the conscience He has given to every one of us. And God speaks through special revelation—the law and the prophets.

Yet even through these means, things are misunderstood. You've likely had the conversation: "I don't know about this God thing. If there is a God, He's not very good, or not very powerful—look at all the death, suffering, and wickedness in the world." Or: "I thought God is love. If God is loving, He'd never send anyone to hell." Through creation, conscience, the law, and the prophets, people misinterpret the things of God. Are these conclusions correct, or has something been lost in translation, misunderstood, or even misused?

A Conscience That Can Be Seared

We all have the same data—creation, conscience, the law, the prophets—yet these things are often misinterpreted and sometimes misused. Some object, "I've seen people with no conscience." It's not that they lack a conscience; it's that their conscience has been seared and made calloused. Calluses form when you walk repeatedly over hot pavement until you sense a deadness—not because the ground is no longer hot, but because you've overcome the feeling. Some people have gone against their conscience so much that it has become dead. That is a frightening thing.

George MacDonald, the nineteenth-century minister and novelist, wrote, "To give truth to him that does not love it is to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation." Richard Weaver, a twentieth-century professor at the University of Chicago, said, "Nothing good can come when the will is wrong." If your motivation is wrong, you'll see the data in a wrong way. This is the very thing behind our cultural debates over "alternative facts" and "fake news"—different people with different motivations draw different conclusions from the same data.

Jesus Is the Ultimate Revelation of God

So what do we do? The author of Hebrews says God "has in these last days spoken to us by his Son" (Hebrews 1:2). That is point number one: Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God.

Creation reveals God's existence, power, and intelligence, so that man is without excuse. The conscience reveals God's morality, convicting us of wrong thoughts, words, actions, and motives. The law and the prophets reveal God's nature and will. Yet people misuse and misunderstand these. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son to reveal God's character, nature, and will perfectly. Jesus is the ultimate revelation.

In Hebrews 1 and in Galatians 4, Jesus is revealed as God's Son—which can confuse people. Was Jesus descended from God, created by God, less than God, or the same as God?

The Owner and Sustainer of All Things

Hebrews 1:2 says God appointed His Son "heir of all things" and through Him made the worlds. Point number two: Jesus is the owner and sustainer of all things.

Consider John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men."

This passage tells us several things about the One revealed in Hebrews as the Son. He bears the title "the Word." He existed before creation—"In the beginning was the Word"—pre-existing everything that began when God said, "Let there be light." He is God, yet distinct and separate from the Father. This gets into the doctrine of the Trinity: one God existing in three persons—the Father, the Son (the Word), and the Holy Spirit. It is hard to wrap our brains around, yet here it is revealed in Scripture.

He is also Creator: "all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made." John says it positively and negatively—nothing falls outside the category of His creation. He is the source and sustainer of everything, the One in whom all things have life.

The Word Became Flesh

Hebrews 1:3 adds more: "who being the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power." John and the author of Hebrews—whom I believe is very likely Timothy—say the same thing about this individual: He existed before creation, was active in creation, and sustains all things.

But John 1:14 says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Verses 16-18 continue: "Of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him."

His name is Jesus—meaning "Jehovah brings salvation"—but He has many titles. He is the Christ (the Anointed One), the Lord (Master), the Word, the Son. Just as each of you has a name but also titles—architect, engineer, mother, father, husband, wife—Jesus is the same person under many titles. He came to reveal the glory of heaven.

The Manifestation of Glory, Grace, and Truth

Point number three: Jesus is the manifestation of all of God's glory, grace, and truth. This is why He is given the title "the Word." A person's word is the fullest, clearest, and most complete revelation of who they are.

I might observe your life and deduce things about you—he drives a truck, he likes coffee, she rises at four in the morning. But until you communicate with me, I don't really know you. So how will we know what God is like unless He communicates? Jesus is the clearest and most complete revelation of God; that is why He is called the Word.

He is also called the Son—which some take to mean He is lower than or descended from the Father. Not so. The concept of "son" tells us He shares the nature of His Father. The son of a horse is a horse; the son of a dog is a dog. We're told by evolutionary biologists that, given enough time and mutation, one species can become another—but we've never observed it, there's no evidence in the fossil record, and the Bible says everything reproduces after its kind. Jesus bears the same nature as God in human flesh, so He is called the Son of God.

This is why Jesus could answer Philip, who said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it will be sufficient" (John 14:8). No one has seen God at any time, yet Jesus replied, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Why? Because Jesus is the clearest and most complete revelation of God in human bodily form.

Jesus Fully Dealt With Sin

Is revealing God's glory the only reason He came? Hebrews 1:3 says, "when he had by himself purged our sins." Creation, conscience, the law, and the prophets make something clear: we live in a broken, fallen world. We experience its brokenness every moment—suffering, sickness, sorrow, pain, and death. Our conscience convicts us constantly of wrong motives, thoughts, words, and actions—often before the fact, that little voice saying, "Don't say that." The law exposes our sin, and the prophets foretell the judgment to come.

General and special revelation show us we are flawed, broken people living in a broken world, and that judgment is coming because of our sin—and we find ourselves completely unable to fix it. We keep hoping the UN, a new president, debt relief, medical science, a trip to Mars, or virtual reality will fix it, but we are impotent. Then we read in Galatians 4 that "when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son," and in Romans 5 that "when we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time" and died for sinners.

Point number four: Jesus fully dealt with the penalty, power, persistence, and presence of sin. His death dealt with the penalty—the righteous requirements of the law. His resurrection deals with the power of sin, for sin's power is death, and He rose declaring victory. By His grace He is now working in us to deal with the persistent problem of sin through sanctification. And one day He will deal with the very presence of sin, glorifying us—this corruption putting on incorruption, this mortality putting on immortality—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

Enthroned in Glory

How do we know He fully dealt with it? Hebrews 1:3 continues: "when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they."

Point number five: Jesus sits enthroned in glory above all powers—all earthly powers and all angelic powers. He sits on a throne in heaven in a position of rest, no longer working, because on the cross His last words were "It is finished." Unlike the Old Testament priests who labored daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly for centuries to deal with sin, He did it once for all and is now seated at the right hand of God.

So What About Your Problems?

In light of all five points—that Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God, the owner and sustainer of everything, the perfect manifestation of God's glory, grace, and truth, the One who completely deals with sin, and the One enthroned in glory above all powers—how does that affect the problems you're facing this week?

There are things weighing on you, problems you woke up with this morning, problems you'll face Monday and Tuesday. Are you still trying to deal with your flaws and failures on your own? Let me clue you into what you already know at a deep level: you have no power in yourself to fix it. But Jesus came at just the right time to die for the ungodly. There is none righteous, no not one—that's me, and that's you. We need His power, His authority, His goodness in our lives, because there is nothing we can do apart from the grace of Jesus Christ. So, God, fill us with Your grace.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, we need Your grace. I'm so grateful that this very book we're studying says You sit on a throne of grace, and that access to that throne is always open—that we can come boldly at any time to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need. I am certain there are many in this room who need Your grace and mercy. We thank You that through You, Jesus, we have access to come before that throne. We stand and say, Jesus, we need Your grace—to face the problems of this week, to address our failures and our sins.

It may be that you realize for the first time your need for the grace and forgiveness of Jesus. If you want to receive the forgiving grace and salvation Jesus freely gives because of what He did on the cross, just lift up your hand—we want to pray with you. If that's you, pray this with me: Dear Jesus, I recognize my failures. I know that I am a sinner; everything I see reminds me of it every day. Would You come into my life, forgive me of my sin, help me to follow You by faith and to serve You with my life. In Jesus' name, amen.