Hebrews I: The Jaw-Dropping Beauty of Jesus | The Whole Counsel

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder, and for the next few episodes, we have a special guest,

Jordan Thomas. And Jordan and I have been friends in Christ and in the ministry for, actually, we were just talking about it, a couple of decades.

So, Jordan, why don't you give us a quick bio introduction, and then we'll get to our topic today.

Okay, so quick bio. Married to Tracy, six kids, came to Christ as a freshman in college, pastor of Grace Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

Thank you. We're going to be looking a number of times at the book of Hebrews, so we'll take three looks at Hebrews.

And this time, we're going to be looking at what Jordan has called the jaw -dropping beauty of Jesus in Hebrews chapter one, which is certainly a chapter that we could spend many months on, but we just want to whet your appetite.

So, Jordan, why don't you get us started by giving us kind of the backdrop of Hebrews? Yeah, so Hebrews is, you know, sometimes an intimidating book.

There's some challenging themes, but it's really got one main aim. And before I even say the aim, let me say,

I personally take it as one sermon. The end of the letter says, Hebrews 13, 25,

I urge you to bear with this brief word, so he calls it brief after 13 chapters, but brief word, singular of exhortation, sermon.

So I take Hebrews to be representative of what a New Testament church sermon would sound like.

Well, that alone should lead us to ask some really important questions.

Well, if a New Testament average sermon was, it takes me about an hour to read

Hebrews aloud, was about an hour and had this much

Christocentric density, then, you know, I would like for a few hundred of my sermons to vanish forever and never be remembered again.

So first off, it's one sermon, but the theme is, as you said, the beauty of Christ, really

His all superiority. He's better than anything and everything. So that's a simple kind of overview.

Yeah, and really in Hebrews is so practical, particularly for the modern evangelical church, because it gives us some very concrete ways to take the superiority of Christ and to apply it in all areas of the

Christian life. So if you have the question on your heart, well, as I'm getting to know

Christ better through the scriptures and He's ever expanding before my heart, well, how do

I, what do I do with that? And it's so practical. Yeah, yeah, it is. I mean, just speaking of practical, it's written to converted

Jews. So, so completed Jews, Jews who found Christ to be the Messiah, hence Hebrews. And once they came to Christ the

Messiah, they started to realize that there's some cost. And so chapter 10 talks about some of the physical challenges, your property's plundered, your friends are put in prison, you go identify with them.

So there's cost. So Hebrews is written because I think the letter is pretty clear. People were being tempted to trade on Jesus, like embrace all

His saving benefits, eschew some of the fidelity and faithfulness.

So if I can get Jesus minus the persecution, what compromises do I need to make to retain

Christ and not have so much cost involved? So this letter is, let me show you the superiority of Christ over anything and everything in order to enhance your fidelity to Him, no matter what.

And you're going to meet the King of the Ages one day really soon. So to trade on Christ is a really foolish compromise at the end of the day.

Yeah. And all that we've said hinges on a man or a woman's understanding of what gets packed into the word

Christ, which is what chapter one's all about. So what is it about chapter one that you find so enticing?

Yeah, yeah. You know, I've often wondered why start the letter this way, because it's really a litany of descriptions of Jesus.

I didn't see it that way initially. I just saw it as a bunch of Old Testament quotations that I couldn't understand. How does a

New Testament author take that Old Testament passage and make it somehow Christocentric? Because I never would have seen those things myself just reading the

Old Testament. But to answer your question, he opens the letter enumerating particular aspects of the beauty and greatness of Jesus, I believe so as to help people see who

He truly is. So then in the remainder of the letter, these themes that come out, He's superior to the angels in the early chapters.

He's superior to Moses, chapter three and following. He's superior to Aaron, the whole Levitical priesthood.

He's the superior sacrifice. Those are the things he's going to detail. And I think it's, you know, it's been pointed out by a lot of people, one of the main themes is the high priesthood of Jesus.

He is the superior high priest. I'd say that gets the most attention in chapter five to 10.

But in chapter one, he just begins with this onslaught.

I mean, it's an avalanche. So I would say there are 34, at least, unique descriptions of God, the

Son. 10 of those from the pin or vantage point of the human author, verses one to four.

24 of those from the vantage point of God, the Father. But both the human author and the

Father saying, look at Him, look at Him. So back to your question, Hebrews opens, it's only 14 verses.

You know, I say 34 descriptions, but really there's two or three of the verses that don't have any.

So in about 10 verses, you get what I would say are, you know, 30 plus particular looks at the radiant beauty of the

Son of God. So I think he starts there. So people will say, here's why you should never defect from Jesus, no matter the cost.

Yeah. Let me just read Hebrews chapter one. It's only 14 verses long, and I'll be reading from the

New American Standard. It begins, God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets, in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom

He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory.

And the exact representation or representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power.

When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

Let me just pause for a moment and say, all of that came from the vantage point of the human author. Now listen to verse five, for to which of the angels did

He, that's God the Father, ever say, and now listen to these 24, you are my son, today

I have begotten you. And again, I will be a father to Him and He will be a son to me.

And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He, that's the Father, says, and let all the angels of God worship

Him. And of the angels, He says, who makes His angels winds and His ministers a flame of fire.

But of the Son, He, the Father, says, your throne,

O God, is forever and ever. And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your

God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. And you,

Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of your hands.

They will perish, but you remain. They will all become old like a garment and like a mantle, you will roll them up.

Like a garment, they will also be changed, but you are the same. And your years will not come to an end.

But to which of the angels has He, the Father, ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

And then speaking of the angels, the chapter concludes, are they, not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

I just want to keep reading. So, hearing that chapter, it's hard to isolate in one brief reading, each of these descriptions.

And I don't want to do that for this podcast. I do want to encourage prayer -filled meditation on the words of the

Word and these particular descriptions of the Son. As I mentioned in the first four verses, the human author,

I believe, gives at least 10 particular looks at the Son. The Father gives, you know, 20 plus looks at particular aspects of the beauty of the

Son. So, let me just isolate a few in the first four verses. So, after the author says, this person is the definitive voice of God.

If you want to hear from God, listen to His Son. He spoke a lot in a lot of people in times past.

He spoke to our fathers through the prophets. He wasn't trying to hide many portions, many ways. He's putting

Himself out to be known. But now, it's as if He picked up the megaphone of the universe and shouted to the far -reaching galaxies in His Son, the definitive voice of the

Father. So, after He says all that, and that the Son is going to inherit everything, He's the heir of all, He's the agent through whom the

Father made everything. You know, Genesis 1 -1 is true. In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth.

It's just not everything the Bible has to say about creation. We find in the pages of the New Testament, and right here in Hebrews 1, the

Son is the one through whom creation came to be. So, it's just breathtaking.

Each of these aspects of the beauty of the Son should be prayerfully meditated upon for the purpose of personal and corporate obedience.

As I said, this is written, I believe, to a local church. It's a sermon to a church. But as He moves on,

He talks about the Son's radiant beauty and His divine nature. He talks about how the

Son is presently—I mean, even as we sit here with all these gadgets—upholding the universe by the word of His power.

Okay, so if we can see these aspects of God the Son, the Lord Jesus, let this one land on you.

I'll isolate one. He made purification for John Snyder's sins.

That's flabbergasting. It's almost too good to be true. It would be too good to be true if it weren't written in the

Bible, if God didn't say it. Wait, so you mean the person who perfectly reflects

God because—verse 3—He possesses God's nature. He catheterized—that's the word—He didn't do it from outside like a catheter.

He came inside. He climbed into our sins—2 Corinthians 5—He who knew no sin became sin for us and from the inside out killed it, cleansed it, purified it.

He made purification of our sins, and we know that He accomplished the work because of the very next phrase.

This is another description from the human author, and I'll stop with this one. When He made purification—so that's a definitive act—He did something, and the human author wants you to see the

Son in this posture. He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So as I said, one of the main themes of the book of Hebrews is His high priesthood. Well, guess what? No priest ever did sit down, but the human author, right out of the gate, wants you to see

He did the work, and He finished it. Redemption accomplished.

And now he's going to talk about redemption applied, you know, through the rest of the letter, but to see these aspects of Him—who is

Jesus? You know, do we think generically? You know, sentimentally? No, we think biblically, precisely, about Him.

So He purified our sins, and then He sat down—and this is another description of the

Son, actually. He sat down at the right hand—not of God. Author could have said that.

Not of the Father. He could have said that. He sat down in regal splendor, kingly—at the right hand, that's co -equality, that's parallel dignity, with the majesty on high, like the king of the universe.

So the person who paid for my sins is right now sitting at the right hand of the

Father. So I could put it the other way. The man at God's right hand is the one who took my sin and completely dealt with it.

Yeah. If you think about the many temptations that come to the genuine believer, when we can see sin in our lives post -conversion, and now what used to be our pet that we protected has become our greatest grief.

And the only way for the conscience of the true believer not to be paralyzed with the sense of the ingratitude and shame of that, is not to say, well, sin's not that big a deal, but is to get the right measures of the one who has purchased our freedom.

Without that, I mean, I find, without that, I am just completely paralyzed.

If I try to answer my conscience with any other argument than the majesty of the one that purchased my freedom.

Yeah. I mean, it both qualifies the severity of our sin that somebody of such dignity...

He didn't send Gabriel the archangel to die for your sin and mine. He sent someone of such dignity, heaven's favorite, the highest possible, the highest possible one to represent both

God and man. So it elevates the severity of our sin, but it also elevates what you're just saying.

How could I hang on to that for which such a one died? How could

I continue to live in the sin that such a one died to remove from my life?

Yeah, brother, I'm with you. So it's one thing to hear what God directs a man to write about the

Son, and that's wonderful, and it's infallible, but it is even sweeter to be allowed to hear what the uncreated

God, the Father, says about His Son. What does He think about the Son?

And what a measure of Christian sanctification. Am I thinking more like the Father about the

Son than I was last year? Yeah. Yeah. It's so hard to quantify questions like that.

How do you measure it? What metric do you use to try to get your mind and your heart around quantifying greater appreciation for God, the

Son? But I think that's a really good question. Do my thoughts and does my appreciation and value honoring,

I think treasuring, loving, embracing, does my heart latch on to the

Son in a consistent way that the Father speaks about Him? Is that how I admire and value

Him? So I don't think that the Father's descriptions in Scripture of the Son are more weighty than a

So we're not weighting, you know, red verses are for black verses or whatever, you know, it's more inspired.

But there is something, Lord help me with a word, there is something so mesmerizing about the inter -Trinitarian conversations that to meditate on those descriptions, the

Son to the Father, the Father to the Son, does catalyze a

Christian's heart to both know and love this Savior. So before I even mention some of the

Father's particular descriptions of the Son, I'll try to limit myself to a few. They're all so incredibly amazing.

I'll pick out three or four. Let me just say that Jesus said, if you love and obey me, this is

John 14, here's a reward I'll give you, I will reveal myself to you.

Wait, that's all you got? You know, we gave up fishing boats and houses and aspirations in this life.

And so if I love and obey you, the sum total reward is more accurate embrace of who you are.

Yes. And guess what the disciples didn't do? Throw a pity party and walk away and say, I'm done.

You know, that was the great attraction. So I just want to say Jesus Christ is the great attraction to Christianity.

He is the sum total, David Dixon said, of saving knowledge. And Dixon was one of Spurgeon's favorite commentators.

So he said, Jesus Christ is the sum total of saving knowledge. Well, this is what we get in Hebrews one, descriptions like relationship.

So leaning into the Old Testament, verse 5 to 14, really 5 to 13, is just one rapid fire citation of the

Old Testament after another. But they're all coming, verse 5 says, of the son, he says, and then you get

Old Testament quote, Old Testament quote, Old Testament quote. All right, from verse 5 to 13. He, the father, says,

Old Testament, things like this about his son. Psalm 2, 2 Samuel 7.

That's verse 5. You are my son. Psalm 2. I will be your father.

Well, didn't Jesus know that? Of course he did. From eternity, he knew that. But in his incarnation, learning, growing, maturing, that's the precipice of mystery, right?

How do we understand omniscience? Not abdicated.

So Jesus didn't give up his all knowingness. And Luke one is true. He increased in wisdom, favor, stature with God, and man all the days of his life.

Well, part of the way he grew in his understanding of his relatedness to God is through reading the

Bible. So as the incarnate son read Psalm 2,

I believe Hebrews one is letting us know, he's saying, that's me.

I have this unique relationship with the father, namely son.

He relates to me that way. And then he wants me to know, 2 Samuel 7, that he also relates to me as father.

He will always and forever fulfill the responsibility of father to me.

I believe that's why Jesus was untouchable. He didn't need man's applause. He wasn't debilitated by man's criticism.

He needed nothing from any other person because he knew he had the full approval of the father.

Nothing could touch him. Nothing could divert him from the father's mission that was assigned to him.

So just to meditate on the dual aspects of the son's relationship to the father,

I think is what the author of Hebrews is wanting us to do. He's the father's son, and the father promises to familially relate to him in that kind of relationship.

If we could understand that Jesus purchased for us, not divinity, we don't become

God, but that he brought us in as sons and daughters,

I think it would transform a lot about our fight against sin. Yeah, if you look at the father's delight in the son, not just the theological descriptions, but you know, like the atmosphere in which these are given is infinite delight that we could not begin to imagine what it would be like to have infinite delight without any mixture of, you know, our greatest loves in this life are always mixed.

We say, well, oh, I love this. It's not perfect. Right. So infinite delight in the unalloyed perfections of the son from eternity past, then unites him to our humanity, and that delight does not dim, even though he's now connected to carbon molecules and clay.

And when we think of that, and then like you said, John tells us that Christ turns to his disciples before he leaves them and tells them, you know, in those wonderful chapters in John, explaining to them before he leaves, the same love with which the fathers loved me,

I've loved you, you know, and then he explains how to live in the constant enjoyment of that infinite delight.

That, if we start that verse with us, it's heresy. But if we start with Christ, it's life shattering and giving truth, you know, like you said, that would make a man unmovable.

Yeah. Yeah. I believe Jesus was unmovable, untouchable by the things of this world because of his confident awareness of the father's love for him.

That's what I think Hebrews 1 is wanting us to see and to know and to call us into that same privileged relationship of love.

So let me just mention a few other descriptions of the son. One, it's actually, it's a description of the son, but it's spoken concerning the angels.

And the father says, precisely during the incarnation, when he brings the firstborn into the world.

So during the incarnation, there's another description, firstborn, privileges, inheritance, right, everything belongs to him.

But he says to the angels during the incarnation, all of you point your gaze that way.

For the first time since their inception, angels aren't eternal, they're created.

But from the moment of their inception, the nanosecond any angelic being was created, minus those who rebelled, demonic,

Satan, all of the angels from the moment of inception had the focus of all of their energy and holy affection heavenward.

But when the son comes into the world, the father says to all of them, turn the locus of your focus to that incarnate son of mine.

That says something to us staggering about the son. And if the angels who've never tasted redemption,

Jesus didn't die to atone for them. They don't know what it's like to have the regenerating power of the blood of Jesus forgive you.

They don't know sonship, no angels are sons. We are invited into sonship.

If they cumulatively, incessantly gaze upon, and God said worship, that's what he said, admire him.

Shouldn't that in some way inform the way we relate to him? Because he's not only admirable, he's our redeemer.

We should therefore praise him in light of the fact that all the angels are called to do so.

You want to say anything about that before I click on another one? No, Jim Paul. Okay. So I'll just mention two others.

There's a twofold in verse nine. It comes from Psalm 45, description of the son from the father. The father says from Psalm 45, seven, you love righteousness and you hate lawlessness.

Well, think about that just for a moment. I mean, we could spend eternities meditating just on this aspect.

It's worthy of a lot of sermons and meditations, but what does the father mean?

He's not telling us that we should see this, that we should.

He's saying to the son, he sees this in the son. You love righteousness.

The entire torrent of the rush of love, the total power of all of agape, all love of the son flows toward righteousness.

That's a beautiful description of the son. Equal tantamount to that torrent of love is a hatred, a vehement antagonism toward what he says is lawlessness.

You read first John three, John defines lawlessness, sin as lawlessness.

So you can say the son, according to the father, loves all that is pure and holy.

He loves righteousness. He loves God. Equal to his love of righteousness is his vehement hatred for sin.

Well, that informs the believer's life. The closer you walk in intimate fellowship with him, you'll love what he loves and hate what he hates.

You can't walk in intimate fellowship with him and hate what he loves and love what he hates.

So I think the father wants us to see this is who he is. This does give us, as you mentioned, it gives us an honest assessment of our walk with the

Lord, because it is very easy to feel that when we emotionally and intellectually approve of truths in scripture, and I don't just mean intellectually.

I mean, you know, so even hearing you talk about these things again. So I wasn't able to be at Grace Church and hear them in the sermons, but the heart rises up and says, it's true, it's true.

Sometimes I think that in good biblical teaching or preaching, it's like self jumps out at me and turns and points at me and says, why haven't you been doing...

It's true, man. Grab it. And you feel like there's a net of truth wrapping itself around you.

But if it stops there with like, wow, that was really stirring. And it does not produce in me some coinciding response of alteration.

If I'm not being changed into that image, then I'm not walking with him, no matter what I claim.

And if my Lord only talks to me about grace, and grace doesn't include that wonderful freedom from the love of sin and the freedom to hate what's ugly, then

I've got a wrong view of grace. So, you know, it's not legalism, it's love to Christ.

But it is much, I think, you know, if you think about legalism, it's like a peace shooter against a fortress of selfishness in my heart.

But the love of God is like a wrecking ball that destroys everything I throw up against him. Yeah, we say often around our church, obedience is not legalism, it's obedience.

So the initial call of Christ unto salvation is prepackaged with the ongoing call of Christ to sanctification.

And you could say it the other way, another way, the seed of justifying faith has in it this tree of sanctifying fruit.

And over time, imperceptibly to us, we're all embarrassed and ashamed about how slow growing our sanctification is.

And personally, I don't think we can see it accurately ourselves. Like you said earlier, how do you quantify, you know, more love to Christ and less love to sin, or it's hard to quantify these sanctifying graces.

But I'll tell you how it can be seen through the eyes of people who know you well.

They can tell if you're more Christ -like in graciousness and gentleness and tolerance and humility, if they know you well, than you were this time last year.

And there has to be transformation. I mean, what you said a minute ago about, we can't just know these fascinating truths and be awe -inspired by them and have no corresponding effect in our life.

I mean, this may expose my biblical ignorance, but as far as I'm aware, there's only one verse in the

Bible that explicitly tells us how to be changed into Christ -likeness.

The verse I'll mention in just a moment is really what Hebrews 1 is doing. The verse is in 2

Corinthians 3, right? How will I be transformed? How will metamorphosis, new creature work, happen to me?

It's passive. I don't do it. I receive it. But how does it happen? Gazing as in a mirror at the glory of the

Lord. And in that passage, it's Jesus. Just go back two verses. Verse 16, it's Christ.

So as you look upon, to quote God, the glory of Christ, we are being transformed.

So as far as I'm aware, that's the explicit verse of the Bible that says how to be changed.

So if somebody looked at Hebrews 1 and said, okay, there's 34 descriptions of Jesus, wonderful. What does that do to my life?

I would just say, you haven't looked long enough. Because if you look upon glory, He doesn't change, you do.

And I think there's an incontrovertible rule of God. He's just applied it to the whole universe.

You will become like what you behold. Yeah, we talked about this not long ago in a series of podcasts on the servant songs.

In chapter 40, behold your God. It's not the Father we're about to see.

It's God come in the flesh. It's the Son. But before you're... That's chapter 40. 42, look at the

Son. But right before, in between is a strange command. Look at idols and idol makers and idol worshipers.

Look at the emptiness of them before you look at my Son. But the description of the idol and the description of the idol making and worshiping man are almost identical.

You become what you love. Tozer said we are formative creatures. It's the shutter of the soul is open.

And the longer it's open, the more the transformation takes root. Which is really for us, noticing who it is, really for the

Christian, given who we are to focus upon, can we think of a more delightful way to be transformed?

What if God would have said, Jordan and John, based on the scripture, you have 325 rules you need to explain to people.

I mean, well, okay, God, you deserve that. But how delightful to say, I want you to give the rest of your life's focus to the one thing that can deeply satisfy you and the most beautiful thing.

And while doing that, and you're not even noticing it, you are being transformed. Yeah. Well, you said, how delightful.

That's actually the next description I want to pull out. Yeah, go ahead. It is actually delightful.

So when God woos us to look upon His Son, He's actually inviting us into the happiest privilege in the universe.

So for example, it's right here in the passage, it's verse nine. It's a citation from Isaiah 61.

And the Father's speaking of the Son this way, you are anointed by me.

I'm anointing you, I want to come back to that in just a moment, with the oil of gladness above your companions.

Well, anointing in the Old Testament was for a particular function, priesthood.

So the flask would be broken. It's really a messy picture. If you look at it, you know, these guys had long hair and long beards, and they're fully clothed.

And they have all this, you know, drapery and tassels and everything. And they're just getting drenched. They're getting saturated, so much so that we're told in some passages that the oil drips off the hem of the garments.

You know, they're just totally soaked. I mean, how would you like that if I just came and, you know, doused you? It's pretty hard to clean up.

You know, you can't just get wet and make it go away. But here the Father says of the

Son, He did not anoint him with oil, but the oil of joy, the oil of gladness.

It's as if the Father reaches His unlimited arms to all the resources

He can find that would make somebody glad. He gathers them all up.

He puts them in one container, and He pours all of that on the head of His Son.

I have anointed you with the oil of joy. How much? More than everybody else combined.

So you said, how delightful. I can just ask a really practical question. Would you like to spend time with the happiest person in the universe?

Yes. That would not discourage you. Some people say, well, you know, I don't like to be around them because they're always so happy.

You know, it makes me sad that they're so happy. But that's not what's going on here. His anointing is of such a fragrance.

It's just like if you spent time around somebody with, too much perfume or cologne, you leave and smell like them.

My wife can tell where I had breakfast with somebody based on how I smell when I come home. And that's

God's point. I have doused you with all joy.

You are my Son. It drips off of you. So to be around Him necessarily contaminates us with the gift of delightedness and joy.

That reminds me of Paul's words from a prison to the Colossians chapter two. All the fullness of the deity is in Him.

And you are made, and it's the same Greek word, full from that fullness, all the completeness in Him.

So if we take that one thing, that infinite delight, like you said, it's as if being united to Him, it just continues to just flow over us.

And of course, our joy is limited. We're little containers, and we get clogged with other things.

But that does make the duty of delighting in Christ in a way that transforms us the sweetest task that He could ever have given us.

Yeah, completely. He spoke that way to His closest friends. He says in John 15,

I'm saying these things to you so that my joy may be in you. And then He qualifies that, and your joy be pleroma, full, to the top.

And they didn't say, your joy? Right. Commercial, melancholy, kind of straight faced person.

Yeah, headed to the cross. Yeah. Yeah. You're like... Stressed out. You want me to have your joy? They knew

Him better than anybody. And when He said, here's really why

I'm talking to you. I speak these words to you, because I want you to have the joy I have.

Not like my joy, my joy. I want you to have that, because if you have it, your joy will be full.

That's the way He lived. And it's because the Father anointed Him to be such.

And I believe the Father's saying to Him here, I have anointed you with this oil of gladness above all your companions, again, so that He has the security of knowing

He has. It's not... I pictured it earlier as the Father trying to reach out into this span of infinite expanse and get all the joy.

It's really the Father saying, I'm giving you all of the pleasure of my heart. I'm giving you all of my love.

I'm giving you all of myself. And I believe that's what Jesus is saying to His disciples in John 15.

Well, Jordan, there are a couple of really simple applications we can give immediately, but we're going to be talking about this theme further in our next episode together when we look at chapter 12 and the command to look unto

Jesus as we run the race, which we know is a word packed with quite a lot.

So, we'll talk more about that dynamic of looking at Christ there. But one thing, one application obviously is, it's what

Rutherford said from prison. We want to omnify Him. And he totally made up that word.

So, if you go to type it into your computer, it just keeps correcting it. So, you just have to override it.

And I'm glad because even the choice of a word that's not an English word, fine, because we're speaking of Him, and we run out of words.

And we're like little children trying to throw together some syllables that would in some measure be in harmony with what the

Father just said to us. So, we omnify. We don't just exalt or magnify.

We don't just want to clarify. All that's true. But we kind of jump off into the mystery of Christ and say, omnify, make

Him to be what He really is, see Him to be what He really is, all in all. Another good application is to take

William Ames, the Puritan, and his definition of theology, and apply it to this chapter one by one through all those descriptions to slowly walk through them.

And Isaac Ambrose, one of our favorite writers, when he described what we're reading about God in the person and work of Christ, he said, it's noonday divinity.

It's the sun at its peak. It's the clearest, most blindingly brilliant picture of God we'll ever have.

Okay. Then Ames said this. So, that's the clearest theology, Ames says, theology is the science or the study of living unto

God. So, to take time, the 32 descriptions, why not devote a month?

I think of December coming up. Why not devote the month of December in light of the incarnation celebration?

So, every day, I just take one, and I live the entire day talking with the

Father about this one thing and asking Him, how does this change? And if I have to take a pickaxe to my life, and it's crammed full schedule, and a heart that's already filled with too much, if I have to take a pickaxe to make room for it, then by the grace of God, do that.

Last thing I'd want to say is this. The most thrilling thing that comes to my mind in Hebrews 1 is not just that this is the

Redeemer that benefited us, but it's that He is. There is one man who has given to the

Father every ounce of love that He deserved. And if we never had existed, and if we had never been offered redemption, the

Father is satisfied with the infinite beauty of His Son. And so, who cares about us, in a sense?

Who cares if we even exist? But that the Father is offering us that same

Son so that we also can be fully satisfied in Him is amazing.

You mentioned, I preach seven years on Hebrews, and some people are like, seven years? William Gouge, 17th century

British fellow, 30 years. It's because of stuff like chapter one.

Yeah, yeah, wonderful. Well, thanks for joining us for the whole council podcast, and the list of 32 descriptions of Christ, both from the human author and from the mouth of the