No.9. The more excellent name (Heb. i. 4).
It is a part of the argument of the epistle to the Hebrews, that the Apostle shall establish a series of ‘better’ things, for he is exhorting his readers ‘to go on unto perfection’, and having been a Pharisee by conviction and a Hebrew by birth, he knew how strong was the hold upon the Jewish believer of the things that belonged to the past.
In the above outline, the thirteen occurrences of the word ‘better’ are grouped together, and their study is of course a theme in itself. We are concerned at the moment with the opening ‘better’ thing, but it will be impossible for us to forget that such a word is a key thought of the epistle, and that this must have a bearing upon its interpretation.
The first ‘better’ thing of the epistle is the exaltation of Christ (“having become by so much better than angels, by how much having inherited a more excellent name than they”). This sentence has an un-English sound, and yet it brings out the comparison that is intended. The becoming better than the angels is not by virtue of the Lord’s deity. Looked at from the divine standpoint, He Who is addressed as God (verse 8), must of necessity be better than angels; but looked at from the human standpoint, He was made for a little while lower than the angels, and in that capacity as Son He could be and has been highly exalted. The measure of His excellence above angels is His inherited name: by how much He has inherited, by so much He is greater.
In the above outline, the thirteen occurrences of the word ‘better’ are grouped together, and their study is of course a theme in itself. We are concerned at the moment with the opening ‘better’ thing, but it will be impossible for us to forget that such a word is a key thought of the epistle, and that this must have a bearing upon its interpretation.
The first ‘better’ thing of the epistle is the exaltation of Christ (“having become by so much better than angels, by how much having inherited a more excellent name than they”). This sentence has an un-English sound, and yet it brings out the comparison that is intended. The becoming better than the angels is not by virtue of the Lord’s deity. Looked at from the divine standpoint, He Who is addressed as God (verse 8), must of necessity be better than angels; but looked at from the human standpoint, He was made for a little while lower than the angels, and in that capacity as Son He could be and has been highly exalted. The measure of His excellence above angels is His inherited name: by how much He has inherited, by so much He is greater.
The question then has to do with the inherited name. But first, we might pause to ask: Why should such an argument be necessary, and in what way does it contribute to the theme of the epistle?
Writing as he was to Hebrews, the Apostle had in mind their veneration of angels. Stephen alludes to the place that angels hold in Israel, in Acts vii. 53, “who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it”. The epistle to the Galatians says of the law, “it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator” (Gal. iii. 19). Some of the Jews went so far as to contend that Malachi, the last of the prophets was an angel, his name meaning ‘My messenger’ or ‘My angel’. It is part of the purpose of this epistle to place the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Son, far above every other name and dignity. To have commenced with Moses as the law-giver would not have gone back far enough; Moses the mediator received the law by the disposition of angels. It must therefore be shown that Christ is much better than they, to establish His complete superiority. The exaltation of the Lord to the right hand of the Majesty on high marks the time when the Son was given the name that is above every name. It was at the resurrection that He was declared ‘Son of God with power’; it was as the risen One that He claimed ‘all power’ in heaven and in earth; the superiority of the Son above angels is one of degree, ‘by so much’, and is to be understood in the light of His inherited name. The Lord Jesus by His birth at Bethlehem became ‘the Son of God’, for said the angel to Mary, “the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke i. 35). When the Word became flesh, then was seen the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. All through the spotless years of His life up to that dread crisis of the cross, the Father’s testimony remained true and unchanged, ‘This is My beloved Son’. He vindicated His claim to the name He bore, and the name becomes His by inheritance.
In order to appreciate the emphasis that should be placed upon the ‘inherited’ name, we take this study a little further in the epistle, and not that in Heb. i. 14 the believer is spoken of as an ‘heir of salvation’. All who believe are saved, saved by grace through faith, but some (and this is one of the great themes of Hebrews), will receive salvation as an inheritance also. Christ died for the ungodly, He also learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and though from His birth, ‘Holy, harmless and undefiled’, He nevertheless was perfected through these sufferings, and became the Author of aionian salvation, not simply to those who believe, but to those who ‘obey’ Him (Heb. v. 7-9). Not only did He become the ‘Author’ but He became the ‘Finisher’ or ‘Perfecter’ of faith. “Who for the joy set before Him endured a cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God” (Heb. xii. 2). There is a ‘race’ to be run, not only a gospel to be believed.
Those who thus inherit salvation, not only believe, but suffer, endure, run the race set before them, and ‘have respect unto the recompense of the reward’. It is useless to speak of glory where there is not life. It is equally useless to speak of an inheritance unless one is already a child “If children, then heirs” is the order of Scripture, and the epistle to the Hebrews does not teach the way of salvation for the ungodly sinner, but deals rather with the pilgrim journey of the saint, with the evil heart of unbelief that can possess a believer at times, of things that accompany salvation, of a salvation that may be inherited.
Soteria “salvation” occurs in Hebrews seven times, and the occurrences are as follows:
Heirs salvation (i. 14).
Neglecting so great salvation (ii. 3).
The Captain of salvation (ii. 10).
The Author of aionian salvation (v. 9).
Things that accompany salvation (vi. 9).
Without sin unto salvation (ix. 28).
Unto the salvation of his house (xi. 7).
Salvation in its primary aspect is so removed from anything that the sinner can do, and is so infinitely beyond the touch of any failure on his part, that to speak of ‘neglecting’ is to misapply the word. Timothy could be urged not to neglect a gift which he already possessed (I Tim. iv. 14), and these Hebrews could be warned by the example of their fathers in the wilderness of the possibility of failing to reach salvation in its fullest meaning, and that is in view in Heb. ii. 3.
No sinner is saved from the guilt of sin by Christ as a ‘Captain’. The figure that sets forth initial salvation is the Passover. Joshua is the type of the Captain of salvation, but he leads a redeemed people on to the promised possession, so the Captain of salvation in Heb. ii. 10 is seen ‘bringing many sons (not to life), but to glory’. So with the rest of the occurrences of ‘salvation’ in Hebrews. This is true even with the last which deals with Noah and the Flood. The ungodly were not saved in the Ark. Noah was a saved and justified believer, only eight souls were saved, and the rest of the world destroyed. One can no more use the Ark as a type of initial salvation than one can use the type of the ‘Captain’ of the salvation that will be manifested at His Second Coming (Heb. ix. 28).
While salvation is found 7 times in Hebrews, the title “Saviour” does not occur. Acts v. 31 speaks of Him as ‘A Prince and a Saviour’. Hebrews retains the word ‘Prince’ (ii. 10; xii. 2, same Greek word) but omits the title ‘Saviour’. In the epistle He is Captain, Leader, High Priest and Perfecter, titles that deal with the land of promise rather than with the exodus from Egypt.
Let us now turn our attention to Heb. i. 4:
“Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”
Let us first of all note the terms of comparison ‘by so much’, ‘by how much’, represented in the A.V. of Heb. i. 4 by the words ‘so much’ and ‘as’.
The Apostle employs ‘by so much’ again in Heb. vii. 22 where we read in connection with the Melchisedec priesthood ‘By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament’. The two words tosoutos and hosos came together in Heb. x. 25 “Exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching”. We do not need an inspired revelation to assure us that He Who is set forth as ‘Son’ and ‘Brightness of His glory’, ‘Express image of His person’, ‘Upholder of all things’, heir of all things and maker of the worlds, must of necessity be ‘better than angels’, and the epistle does not say any such unnecessary thing. What Hebrews is concerned to enforce is that he Who was so high, stooped so low, and as Man He became ‘lower than the angels’, but by virtue of His triumph over sin and death, that is by ‘inheritance’ and not by absolute inherent right, this same Redeemer has now been raised so much above angels as the inherited Name excels every name that is named in this world and that which is to come. For at the Name of Jesus every knee shall one day bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord.
While the bulk of the references to angels occur in Heb. i. and ii., there are two other occurrences that must be included to complete the tale, namely Heb. xii. 22 and xiii. 2. Heb. xii. 5-24 is occupied with a twofold theme: “sons” 5-14, “firstborn sons” 15-24. The first section speaks of that in which all partake if they be true children; the second speaks of that which relates only to the firstborn.
The structure of this second section is as follows:
The section opens with a warning: “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God”. It does not say ‘fall from the grace of God’, but ‘fail of the grace of God’. Hustereo ‘to come short’ occurs in Heb. iv. 1, and that passage partially explains what we are considering here: “Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” The context speaks of Israel’s forty years’ wandering in the wilderness, and their failure, though redeemed, to ‘go on unto perfection’. We are not dealing with sonship, but with birthright; not salvation, but possession, not deliverance from Egypt, but entry into Canaan. The warning is for the Hebrews who, like their fathers and like Esau, were in danger of drawing back, turning aside, losing the heavenly for the sake of the earthly. Heb. viii. 7 continues, ‘Then should no place have been sought for the second’, showing that the two covenants are here in view. The Apostle now brings before the mind the two mountains, Sinai and Sion, which are explained in Gal. iv. as representing the two covenants, Sinai standing for ‘Jerusalem that now is, and is in bond age with her children’, and Sion for ‘Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother’ (Gal. iv. 21-23 R.V.).
We have in Heb. xii. 18-21 Moses, the mediator of the old covenant, and in Heb. xii. 22-24 Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and it is under the new covenant, and not under the old, that the birthright can be enjoyed.
The figure called Polysyndeton (or ‘many ands’), is employed in the description of both covenants. Let us notice it:
“For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, AND that burned with fire, AND unto blackness, AND darkness, AND tempest, AND the sound of a trumpet, AND the voice of words.”
“But ye are come unto Mount Sion, AND unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, AND to myriads of angels, a full assembly, AND to a church of firstborn ones having been enrolled in heaven, AND to God the Judge of all, AND to the spirits of righteous ones having been perfected, AND to the Mediator of the new covenant—Jesus, AND to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.”
It will be seen that a due observation of these ‘ands’ will help us to keep each feature in its place.
The A.V. leads one to read “To the general assembly and church of the firstborn”, as tough it were one company. Paneguris, the word translated ‘general assembly’, means an assembly met together for some festal or joyful occasion, and the construction of the passage necessitates the translation: “And to myriads, a festal assembly of angels.”
We learn that myriads of angels were associated with Sinai and the giving of the law: “The chariots of the Lord are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place” (Psa. lxviii. 17; see also Deut. xxxiii. 2). If these angels were at mount Sinai, they will also be at mount Sion, and there they will be a ‘festal assembly’, for ‘the marriage of the Lamb’ will have come.
This church is the church of the firstborn, a special company, those who did not despise their birthright, nor barter it away for a morsel of meat. This same company is referred to as ‘The spirits of just men made perfect’, each expression having been used in the context of chapters xi. or xii. In xii. 9 we read of “The Father of spirits”; in x. and xi. ‘the righteous’ are in view (x. 38; xi. 4, 7, 8), and in xi. 40 it is their perfecting: “God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should be perfected.”
The close association of the ‘better thing’, the ‘better country’, and the ‘better resurrection’, with this perfecting shows that here in Heb. xii. we are taken to that time when the church of the firstborn shall be completed and enter into its inheritance. Here Abraham will set foot in that city for which he looked; Moses will receive that reward unto which he had respect; all who believed, yet died, not having received the promise, will enter into their birthright. The Mediator is not Moses, neither is the blood the blood of bulls and goats; Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant, and this blood of sprinkling speaks better things than that of Abel.
The heavenly Sion is before the Apostle right through the epistle. The ‘so great salvation’ of ii. 3 is connected with the ‘world to come’ of which the Apostle spoke in ii. 5, and the ‘glory’ unto which the Captain of salvation was leading (ii. 10). The words: “He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (ii. 11), the thought of the Captain being ‘perfected’ through sufferings (ii. 10), find their echo in the words: “God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city”, and the ‘perfecting’ of the spirits of just men in xi. 16; xii. 23.
It was toward this goal that the Apostle urged the Hebrew believers to ‘go on unto perfection’. The ‘weight’ which they were counseled to ‘lay aside’ would include those things mentioned in vi. 2, a passage we have already seen in close connection with Esau and his vain seeking for repentance (vi. 4-6; xii.16, 17).
By assembling the different passages together in the epistle to the Hebrews where an inheritance is in view, we realize something of the purport of chapter i. 4. He, the Lord, is the great Inheritor, and all who follow in His steps, who run with patience the race set before them, will not only be saved by grace, but ‘inherit’ salvation, ‘inherit’ promises, and ‘reign’ as well as live with Him in glory.
What the glory of the world was over which the angels had authority we can only guess; we know however, that as surely as Christ has by His finished Work obtained a more excellent name than they, so surely will the inheritance that is His excel in glory. This is once again the outworking of that principle which we have seen all along, the principle of the Pleroma.
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(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 42, page 222).
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