Featured Scripture of Inquiry
Hebrews 1:5
For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father“?
Biblical context
The author of the Letter of Hebrews reminds the second generation of faithful followers of the resurrected Christ, that the glorified Son of God is now superior to all who came before Him. The list includes Moses, the Fathers, and the prophets.
The inclusion of angels into the message has its basis in some believers falsely thinking that Jesus was a chief ruler over God’s angels. The unforeseen concern in the text is the lack of faith that the Beloved community was facing during their diaspora experience. This and other factors were very real to these believers due to their esoteric knowledge of Christ and how this distorted His divine calling in their lives.
The author throughout this Letter is attempting to encourage the Body of Christ that the superiority of the Messiah is noted in Him being the mediator of a better Covenant and promise than God’s offering to their forefathers, thus the importance of discovering and operating in this New Covenant spiritual blessing is paramount in so many important aspects of their identity and purpose.
The focus of this blog is to explore the multifaceted essence of the unique nature and identity of the only begotten Son and the renewed spiritual significance this has upon those who are united with Him.
Displaced Identity?
“Our need for worth is so powerful that whatever we base our identity and value on we essentially ‘deify.’ We will look to it with all the passion and intensity of worship and devotion even if we think of ourselves as highly irreligious.” Timothy Keller
Before we come into a personal relationship with Christ, what are the central elements that are responsible for shaping and forming our identity? How is it created? Is our identity something that is given to us by someone else, or do we get to determine who and what we are?
There is no single definition of identity, for many factors come into play that shapes our identity. Ethnicity, sex, location, culture, family, religious persuasion, occupation, and personal influence all play a role. Perhaps the chief driving factor which has the greatest influence on identity formation is the sinful disposition within each of us at physical birth.
[note: I strongly recommend this book, All Together Different: Upholding the Church’s Unity while Honoring our Individual Identities, by J. Brian Tucker and John Koessler]
Ephesians 2:1-3, You used to be dead because of your sins and acts of disobedience. You walked in the ways of the ‘olam hazeh [this world/age] and obeyed the Ruler of the Powers of the Air, who is still at work among the disobedient. Indeed, we all once lived this way-we followed the passions of our old nature and our thoughts. In our natural condition, we were headed for God’s wrath, just like everyone else. [Complete Jewish Bible]
The writer of Hebrews references Psalms 2:7-9 to communicate God’s divine and unique plan of His Son in the future prophecy of the return of Christ. What is amazing is that the writer of Hebrews used very few New Covenant writings in this letter that depicts Jesus’ specific relationship with those who He came for during His first advent. God used John as one of the disciples of the risen Savior who does disclose the very unique sonship of Jesus to the Father. [see John 1:14,18; 3:16,18; 1 John4:9].
Some of the other translations of our featured Biblical reference reads like this: For to which of angels did He ever say, you are My Son, today I have begotten you, and again, I will be a Father to Him and He shall be a son to Me. It is noted that Jesus as the begotten of the Father is how God chose to express the Son in space and time in His divine nature.
The term “monogenes” expresses Jesus as being the only one of its kind in God’s creation, with a specific relationship, class, and distinction. The writer of the Letter of Hebrews 1:6 records, and again, when God brings His Firstborn into the world, He says, “Let all God’s angels worship Him.
The Greek term: prototokus communicates that Messiah is the very first human to experience glorification at His resurrection which includes all faithful followers of the Messiah. “To a community of the firstborn whose names have been recorded in heaven: to a Judge who is God of everyone; to spirits of righteous people who have been brought to the goal, to the mediator of a New Covenant, Yeshua...” Hebrews 12:23-24
For this and countless other reasons, the Messiah is preeminent, the unequivocal sovereign over all Creation [see Col. 1:16]
He in His uniqueness is the very One who reveals the invisible God [see John1:18; 1:14] and He is the prophetic mediator of salvation [see 1 John 4:9; John 3:16,18]
Renewed Identity
God’s Divine Design
“Jesus came to announce to us that an identity based on success, popularity, and power is a false identity- an illusion! Loudly and clearly he says: ‘You are not what the world makes you, but you are children of God.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen
Ephesians 2:4 is the goodness of our spiritual reconstitution in Christ, the reformation of our initial identity. “But God” brings a change in direction that is only due to His divine will. Through Christ, God lavished upon those who put their faith in Christ. This spiritual reformation is predicated on nothing else but His love and grace.
God and not ourselves made us alive together in Christ. It is the same resurrected power that raised Jesus from death to life that all who place their faith in Him, are given the divine life of God. Our renewed identity takes on all of the life-giving spiritual properties of our Lord and Savior.
These spiritual blessings are the essence of our newly reformed identity thanks to Messiah, while we yet live in a broken, dying, and condemned world.
- Election- God’s choosing those people to be saved.
- Justification- Divine legal status of a Believer who is declared righteous by God and is reestablished in a right relationship with God.
- Purification- Being purified, cleansed, and washed by Christ our High Priest.
- Regeneration- God’s action of imparting renewed spiritual life within the child of God.
- Union- The intimate, vital, and spiritual intimacy between Christ and His Body.
- Propitiation- The substitutionary atonement in which Christ bore God’s wrath for humanity.
- Redemption- Paying a ransom to buy back a slave or captive.
- Reconciliation- The re-established peace and communion where there once was hostility between God and humanity.
- Inheritance- Save into the glorious riches of His grace
- Sanctification- An ongoing spiritual transformation of the life of the Child of God during their earthly journey.
- Glorification- The end stage of salvation, where the Children of God are given perfect renewed bodies that will never sin or die.
[The above listing was gleaned from the Biblical Counseling Coalition, article by Lee Lewis]
You are my Son
“True peace and rest in this world, is manifested within our lives by our willingness to surrender, calling an end to the struggle between our false identity forged by hurt, pain, and disappointment, and our real identity in Christ.”
Some very important additional aspects of our renewed spiritual identity that Believers are granted while in union with Christ are promised to us as noted in an examination of the term [hyios] Son.
Hebrew 1:5, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father“?
The highlighted word, Son [hyios] first, identifies Jesus as God’s Son by birth, yet sharing the same nature as His Father. The same term [hyios] communicates that any Believer who is spiritually regenerated is an adopted son/daughter of the Father through Christ.
Gal. 3:26 For in union with the Messiah, you are all children of God…, also you are the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise.
In addition, this same word [hyios] emphasizes the likeness of the believer to the heavenly Father, i.e. resembling His character more and more by living in faith.
Romans 8:10;14, ” the Spirit is giving life because God considers you righteous…, All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s Sons/Daughters“.
Lastly, [hyios] (“son”) highlights the (legal) right to the Father’s inheritance, i.e. as the believer lives in conformity with the Father’s nature (purpose). This aspect of spiritual benefits is manifested in this life and the coming literal rule of Christ upon the renewed heavens and earth as disclosed in 2 Samuel 7:12 and Revelation 22.
“When your days come to an end [King David], I will establish one of your descendants to succeed you…, I will set up His rulership, He will build a House for My Name, and I will establish His royal throne forever“.
John the revelatory confirms this prophecy of 2 Samuel 7:22 by revealing Christ Jesus as the offspring of David, as the bright Morning Star. Revelation 22:16 This time is called the Millennial Kingdom.
Briefly, three distinct groups of Believers exist in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ.
Those who occupy the millennial kingdom with glorified bodies can be divided are the Gentile Body of Messiah, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:21-23, 51-53). Next are the tribulation martyrs, who are resurrected after Christ returns to earth (Revelation 20:4-6), and the Old Testament saints, who we assume are resurrected at the same time (see Daniel 12:2).
Those who occupy the kingdom with earthly bodies have survived the tribulation and can be subdivided into two groups: believing Gentiles and believing Complete Jews.
Closing Thoughts
Human beings’ identities are shaped and formed by multiple internal and external factors. The powerful supernatural divine and human nature of Jesus Christ presently and eternally redefine who and what our identities are as sons and daughters of God.
The Believers in the Letter of Hebrews developed and maintained an obscured vision and knowledge of Christ which negatively impacted their spirituality and identity as Children of God. Their struggle is our blessing in that Christ grants His children spiritual blessedness in this life and the eternal life to come.
Today’s children of God can avoid having a distorted identity by having a healthy biblical understanding of who God is. Any distorted images of God always disappoint and often destructively so. Our distorted images of God color the way we look at God and our life and even how we interpret Scripture.
Total dependency and faith in the gospel reconstruct our motivations, self-knowledge, our identity, and our Biblical view of the world. Spiritual reformation is only possible when we take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and into our hearts.
Grace and Peace
Brother Alonzo
