Verse 1
THE BOOK OF HEBREWS
CHRIST IS BETTER THAN ANGELS;
CHRIST IS PREFERRED ABOVE ANGELS; BOTH IN PERSON AND IN OFFICE
God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners. (Hebrews 1:1)
Like the Fourth Gospel and the Book of Genesis, this epistle begins with God. There are no apologetics, no hint of argument, no implied admission of possible error, no suggestion of any doubt, but only the dramatic presentation of the grand assumption that God is and that only a fool could deny it; and yet this opening statement goes far beyond the fact of God's existence, starkly magnificent though that fact appears, and enlightens people with some of the most significant information that it is possible to have concerning God. Thus, he is a God who speaks; and, because only a person can speak, this reveals him as a personal God.
The personality of God is a concept underlying the whole fabric of the Christian faith; and it is exactly here, in a widespread failure of people to know that God is a person, that so much current religious thought has floundered. The depersonalization of the Almighty is the mortal error that underlies the extensive confusion and impotence which are the bane of so much modern religious thought. True religion demands a personal God at the center; and anything else is fatal. If God is not a person, then all religion is a delusion, and faith is bankrupt. William F. Buckley, in NATIONAL REVIEW magazine, noted that the concept of an impersonal God robs religion of its three "R's," these being revelation, regeneration, and responsibility. If God is not personal, there can be no such thing as revelation; for, if there is no speaker, nothing has been spoken. Likewise, there could be no such thing as regeneration, because no one can be the son of some natural law, such as the law of osmosis or the law of gravitation. Responsibility also derives from the fact that God is a person; and, if God is not a person, then feeble, fallible man must be hailed as the highest thing in heaven and upon earth; and it is precisely that delusion which is the source of so much human sorrow. If God is not a person who will hold people accountable and bring them to judgment, then it is intellectually impossible to view man as responsible, ultimately, to anything except himself; and that, it should be noted, is exactly the proposition which in the form of a godless humanism, is bidding for allegiance of people's minds today. Therefore, what a refreshment of the soul flows from the opening words of Hebrews with their bold revelation of a God who speaks, and even what is more, a God who speaks to man!
God also appears in this reference as the author of the Old Testament, having spoken of old to the prophets, and thus being revealed as the author of the Hebrew institutions which he initiated and promulgated by means of divine communication through the patriarchs and prophets, through whom God spoke at various times in several ways. Thus, in the first sentence of Hebrews, the author made it clear that, far from denying the inspiration and authority of the Old Testament, he intended his message to be a bold confirmation of both, his position being the same as that of Jesus who, when quoting the Old Testament, ascribed the words, not to men, but to God, saying, "For God said ..." (Matthew 15:4).
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