There are two messages about Jesus in the opening verses above. Many Christians, however, only hear the first message—about Jesus' divine origin. He is the Word of God through whom all things were made; and he is the ‘image of the invisible God’ who sustains all things and who is eternal. Yet the writer's second and main message is about how Jesus came to usher in a new Time in the Creator's plan for us. In stage-one of his plan, God mainly related to us through prophets and angels. He sent his divine Law through the mediation of angels (Act.7:38), and spoke through prophets. But in the new Time God speaks to us in the Son he has placed as heir of all things’.

God's message by this ‘Son’, however, is not about a better and more powerful super-hero swooping down to save the day. Rather, Jesus reveals our destiny as human beings, and he brings us into it. Our created destiny is to become sons and daughters of the Father—sharing his glory as his ‘heirs’ and ruling over ‘all things’ with him. We learn this by looking at Jesus—at the stages of sonship that he went through. Doing so, we also gain a whole new picture of him as our Redeemer.

Stage-one in the human life of Jesus begins when God ‘brings’ him into ‘this world’. Angels serve and worship him at his conception and birth, yet the writer's emphasis is on how God’s Word becomes a human being—like us ‘in every way’. Just as we had to grow up as ‘children’, under the authority of our parents, so Jesus grew up as a ‘flesh and blood’ child—obeying his parents even when they didn't understand him (Med.#25). Like us, he lived ‘for a little while…lower than the angels’—for about thirty years! He did so not merely so he could die for us, but also to show us that our being made ‘for a little while lower than the angels’—only represents the first stage in the Father's timetable for us too.

We see the second stage in the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus—when the Father publicly declares him to be ‘Son’ and ‘places’ him as heir of all things’. Two Scriptures that foretold this event are cited in the above text: the second (2 Sam.7:12-14) points to a ‘son’ of David who is given authority as God’s Son to rule Israel forever; the first (Ps.2:7-8) speaks of how this rule will be extended over all nations as an ‘inheritance’ (Med.#D). By the Holy Spirit, Jesus ‘inherits’ a ‘name’—the Father's authority (Med.#38)—that is ‘better’ than the angels; and he enters a new season of partnering with his Father as an adult Son (Med.#26). And the words he learns from his Father (Jn.8:28) are supported by many ‘signs and wonders’ and ‘miracles’. He is ‘tempted in every way just like we are—yet without sin’. Just as angels are ‘sent out into service for’ us, so angels came to serve and strengthen him (Mk.1:13; Lk.22:43). In a body like ours, Jesus was ‘made fully mature’ [Grk. teleiotheis] by 'learning obedience' through suffering.

By meeting us in our stage-one position in life he is able to set in motion stage-two in our destiny: of being ‘brought’ as adult sons (and daughters) ‘to glory’. And by his life—as well as by his death—he destroys the devil’s power over us (Med.#48). Through repentance and baptism we die and rise with him, so like him we too can receive from the Father  ‘shares of the Holy Spirit’—and so be ‘placed as sons’ [Grk. huio-thesia], as adult ‘co-heirs’ with him [Med.#5]—the One who was first ‘placed’ [Grk. e-theken] as ‘heir of all things’. These two Greek words have the same root. This is why Paul takes the promise made to David about the Messiah (Med.#D) and applies it to us too: ‘I will be a Father to YOU, and YOU will be my sons and daughters’ (2 Cor.6:18, Med.#32). On earth Jesus went through the process of becoming ‘fully mature’ in the Spirit so that we, empowered by the Spirit, could ‘be brought further in this maturity’ as well (Heb.6:1). By focusing on the full process of what Jesus went through, from conception to being ‘crowned with glory and honor’, we gain confidence in our Father’s destiny for us.

Yet we also gain a new perspective on Jesus as our Redeemer. In most English Bibles, the Hebrew word for 'redeemer' gets lost in translation. When Job uses it in the midst of his pain, he is not expressing faith that he has a personal, live super-hero somewhere! Rather, he knows that ‘my kinsman-redeemer [Hbr. goël] lives’ (Jb.19:25). This ‘family’ meaning of the Hebrew word, goël, can be clearly seen in the biblical story of Ruth (2:20 NIV). The whole reason the goël can redeem is because he is kin to those being redeemed [Med.#E]. Today, in many cultures, the family-redeemer is the eldest brother. Even so, Jesus is for us, as ‘Firstborn’/‘High Priest’ over the Father's household, our Eldest Brother. And when he thinks of you as his brother or sister, he is not ashamed!

How about you? Are you able to think of him in the same intimate kinship terms? And are you able to look at him and, in faith, see your destiny in him as an adult son or daughter to the Father?