In the first verses of the book of Hebrews several important details are said about Jesus. One of them is that he was appointed the heir of all things by the Father: ‘in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.’
In order to understand what this phrase means, we can ask a few simple questions.
Who is involved? God the Father and God the Son.
When did it happen? It happened before the universe was created. The verse in Hebrews follows on from its comment about him being the heir by saying that it was through Jesus as the heir that the Father made the worlds. So the all things that he is the heir of is the universe.
Why did it happen? The answer to that question is that the Father gave this great position to his Son because he wanted the best for him. It was an expression of the Father’s love that all things should belong to his Son.
What did it involve? Two roles, we might say. One is that the inheritance had to come into existence and in Genesis 1 and 2 we have the account of how God the Father and God the Son enjoyed creating the inheritance. The other role is that something went wrong with the inheritance and it became the responsibility of the Heir to redeem it. This is why Jesus went to the cross, to redeem rebels and his inheritance.
What is the future for the heir? All authority is his at the moment. One day, he will recreate his inheritance which the Bible calls the new heaven and new earth. It is important to recognise that it is primarily the inheritance of Jesus. But he desires to share all of it with all his co-heirs, those who believe in him.
No comments:
Post a Comment