Christ – the maker of worlds
For the Lord’s Day:  the 6^th of October. 2002

Hebrews: 1: 2c

“In these last days, he has spoken to us by his son … through whom also he created the world.”

Introduction:  I have always read and understood the plurality of Genesis 1: 26 “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” within the implicit common sense understanding and application of the Trinitarian doctrine.  Therefore I patently ignored the liberality of the wisdom which was espoused in my Seminary years.  Somehow or another the “plurality of majesty” found in the old King James Version as merely a sample of the plurality of the expressions of Queen Victoria and others, just never seemed to ring true to the form and intent of the scriptural revelations.

Now there is a specific plurality here in our text which has nothing to do with the Trinitarian nature of our God.  In the New King James Version, as well as others – the word for world is plural:  “through whom also He made the worlds.”

John Brown explains this plurality as recognizing the peculiarity of “the Jewish Doctors [who] were accustomed to divide the universe of created things into so many worlds: - the world of angels and spirits – the world of sun, moon, and stars – the world of our earth and sea.”  We may more simply translate it as does the English Standard Version to indicate a “phrase just equivalent to, to create the universe.”

There should be no problem here in our understanding, since the writer appeals to the Jewish Church in language they can better understand from their own discussions.  In his footnote explaining this idea he elaborates: “The LXX and the New Testament writers generally use the word in the plural, as more suitable to such a prodigious and complicated system as the universe.”

We, as part of the Triune Creator God’s New Covenant Church – should not be disquieted by such a minimal digression on the part of the sacred texts – since it is in the whole accord of scripture that we find and define essential truths.  As we well know, just as there is within our experience of understanding only one universe, so too in the fuller revelation of our Father God – we may consider the plurality of the Trinity.  In deed our text here simply in its own way defines and elaborates on the presence of Christ in the plurality of the verse in Genesis.

Further, we do not have to depend upon this one text alone to assert the role of Christ in working with the Father at the beginning.  Just as the Apostle Peter describes it:  Christ “was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake.” (1 Peter 1: 20)  So too, Paul also speaks about the preeminence of Christ in his letter to the Colossians:  “He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation.  For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in all things hold together.” (Colossians 1: 15-16)  Finally in this regard, we dare not neglect the great poetic description of the Apostle John:  “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 tings were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”  (John 1: 1-3)

Were that not enough, our own Confession summarizes eleven different scriptural citations to define Creation in these words: “It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom and goodness, in the beginning to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things there in whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days; and all very good.” (Westminster 4.1)

One final comment on this before we move on.  John Owen reports: “The Jews have a saying that ‘the world was made for the Messiah’, which is thus far true, that both it and all things in it were made, disposed of, and ordered in their creation, so that God might be everlastingly glorified in the work which Christ was designed for, and which through him he had to accomplish.”

Development:  As a second thought this morning, let us reconsider the Greek word “aions” in another light – that of its primary usage “ages”.  Certainly as commentator F.F. Bruce allows “The whole created universe of space and time is meant, and the affirmation that God brought this universe into being by the agency of His Son is in line with the statements of other New Testament writers” whom we have already quoted.

I mention this secondary meaning here to highlight the phrase “in these last days”.  Thus, we may understand that not only is the material universe the created property of the Father through the Son, but also the time frame of creation as well.  One reason I am most comfortable with the description of creation within the space of six days, is because Francis Schaeffer made a point of the fact that “morning and evening” are repeated again and again throughout the creation account.  To him, and thus also to me – something more than just the material list mentioned throughout the first week is being created.  It is the time/space relationship that was being firmly established.

And more importantly, through the use of that framework the gospel revelation is sown and applied according to the providential plan of God the Father.  Into the time frame, apart from which -our Creator God exists, Jesus stepped into the pages of history, fulfilling every prophecy and personality type which preceded Him in the perfect ordering of God’s revelation.  If you think about that for a while, you realize the majestic implications of the whole of history being harnessed to prove the glories of our God and King!

To make a lump of clay and breathe life into it is certainly one thing, but to give that creature freedom to fall from grace and generation to generation to be found again – that is more profound that simple cell multiplication, because it implies manipulation and management of every aspect of the ongoing reality of the material universe.

Now, we have to be careful with our usage of the “aions” in this usage.  There are some, who John Brown describes: as those who would insist our passage today should read to describe Christ as One who “arranged the various dispensations of religion, - or, that if rendered as they are, they are to be considered as referring to the new creation – that new order of things which He has introduced.”

As if, the Triune Lord God of heaven and earth, having started creation in its evolutionary manner – simply turned the whole mess over to Christ once things had gotten out of hand?  Two further corruptions of the textual concept would allow the worlds to be created for the purpose of serving the Son, or that Christ was merely the agent or instrument of God in doing the work of creation.

These deviancies are all subtle in their pointing away from Christ as a real personal participant not only in the Godhead but also in the creation process.  You see, if by shenanigans of textual shifting, Christ may be seen as anything less than God incarnate, then He can safely be ignored, thus manmade religions can flourish all the more if it can be presumed God has not spoken!

There is a newer heresy being spread abroad to this selfsame purpose – that the God of the Old Covenant is not necessarily the Christ of the New Covenant, or that somehow the One who speaks in the Old Covenant is not the same identical personality represented by Christ in the New Testament.  The inflammatory phrase that I heard when I was in Seminary: was that the Old Testament God had simply grown up to some form of maturity at the time of Christ.  The danger therein is that one or the other of the Old or New Covenant gods or personalities could be safely ignored!  There are many New Testament only Churches that give out only a disjointed, incomplete gospel which has no foundation in the Old Covenant Canon.

The other failure in misunderstanding in this regard is that the Jewish community can continue to worship the Old Testament version of God and still receive salvation apart from our Lord Jesus Christ.  This will not do, despite the fact that any number of American denominations have come to agree that the Jewish “Church” is just as legitimate today as it was prior to the time of Christ.

Application:  This heretical position flies in the face of the context of the word before us!  The author of the Hebrews is specifically defining the participatory personality of Christ in the all powerful triune nature of God the Father, Son and Spirit.  Only if Christ is not the maker of worlds, can He be considered anything less than One with the Father and the Spirit!

Therefore, it is all the more important that we who claim the Name of Christ – do recognize Him as God Incarnate.  This is the whole reason for the sevenfold argument of the apostolic writer in this wonderful letter to the Hebrews. 

This then brings us to our last thought this morning.  The incomparable John Owen tells us “God, in his infinite wisdom, ordered all things in the first creation, so that the whole of that work might be subservient to the glory of his grace in the new creation of all by Jesus Christ.”

Certainly, we have much to look forward to in that third thought of the final coming in glory at the end of the age.  All of this wide and wonderful creation, the grace of Christ in this life and something beyond imagination and expectation in the life to come, are ours.  Also we may know that all things truly are under the feet of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ until He comes.

How should we react to the revelation of the apostle to the Hebrews?  “In these last days, he has spoken to us by his son … through whom also he created the world.”  Owen would send us to the eighth Psalm to consider the profundity of our standing before the Creator Savior! 

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”  It is a Name from who preceded the heavens and earth.  Therefore we know in the words of the psalmist “You have set your glory above the heavens.”  And then in the full light of God’s providential work we realize the personal implications of verse four:  “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”

Verses five and six are poetically prophetic in its implications toward our text for this morning:  “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.  You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.”

Isn’t it fascinating how the pithy phrase which is our text for today, is so rich and bounteous in all the providential and prophetic works and words of the whole of Scripture – leading the whole of the Old Covenant economy towards the  final administration of Christ our Lord?  The apostle to the Hebrews could afford to be poetically stingy with his words – because of this rich heritage already recorded to affirm even the simplest declaration regarding our Christ:  “In these last days, he has spoken to us by his son ... through whom also he created the world.”

The apostle to the Hebrews very probably hoped and prayed that the Jews of his day would listen to his appeal to every tradition under the sun already recorded in the Old Covenant record.  Sadly, as a people they did not.  Nothing new under the sun has changed the present world in this regard either.  It is almost impossible to get a fair hearing in our state to note outrageous problems with the secular world view regarding evolution.  How much harder it is to get the majority of people to even listen to our text for today!

My last quotation this morning is from John Owen:  “Moreover, if all things were made by him, all disobedience to him is certainly most unreasonable, and will be met with inevitable ruin.”  May we in humble reliance upon the Holy Spirit recognize the essential truths in this great letter to people who ought to know better than they did and still do?  “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.”  Amen!

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PREACHING RESOURCES

Brown, John.  A Geneva Series Commentary: Hebrews.
Brown, Raymond.  The Bible Speaks Today: The Message of Hebrews.
Bruce, F.F. The Epistle to the Hebrews.
Owen, John:  Commentary on Book of Hebrews.
The Westminster Confession of Faith
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version

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