In the 13^th century, a Dominican friar, priest, philosopher, and theologian named Thomas Aquinas wrote a book called the "Five Ways" or the "Five Proofs" of the existence of God. In this book he sought, through the use of reason and human wisdom alone, he sought to prove that there is a God.

And among his arguments were the observations that because everything in the universe "moves", then each thing must have been put in motion by something. And, because everything was put in motion by "something", there must have been a "first mover", God, who made the initial movement of creation.

Aquinas also said that because it is impossible for a creature to come into existence all by itself, there must have been a "First Cause", that is, a greater someone must have "caused" creation. That is, "God".

He also said that because there is "good" in the world, then there must be a "supreme good" who first made "goodness". And that "supreme good" is God.

Aquinas also argued that, because the universe is so neatly ordered, there must be a supreme being who established order in the Universe. And that supreme being is God.

And throughout the last seven centuries, these, and other arguments, have been used in an attempt to prove the existence of God, or to try and figure out what God is like.

Some have used the argument from design which says, "If you have a watch, you have to have a watchmaker". And so, if you have creation, you have to have a creator.

Or, as one Christian writer put it:

All the evidence points to the conclusive fact that this universal faith in the existence of God is innate in man and comes from rational intuition.

Or, to put it simply, "because I have concluded that there is a God, then there must be a God".

However, as any fan of Star Trek will tell you, simply because the TV show says that there is a race called Klingons, doesn't mean that there really are Klingons.

Rational thought, as good as it is, rational thought does not, it cannot, give us an understanding of God. It does not give us an understanding of who he is, or what he is like. In fact, "rational thought" has led many people to deny the existence of God.

And the real problem with all of these arguments for the existence of God or the nature of God, or the actions of God, is that none of these are adequate to help us to understand or to get to know what God is like for one, very important, reason.

And that reason is that all of these philosophical arguments, or logical arguments, they all depend upon us. They depend upon us having the ability, the skill, and the wisdom to figure out what God is like. They all depend upon us, by our own wisdom and intellect, thinking that we, by ourselves, can sort it all out. That by ourselves we can come to an understanding of who God is, and what God is like.

However, in trying to figure out what God is like, we so often run into the same trap that the ancient Greeks, Babylonians, Persians, Assyrians, and Egyptians did when they ended up making God, or the gods, in their own image. By their own wisdom, they made the gods just bigger, stronger, and often nastier, versions of themselves.

And this is why the manner in which the writer of Hebrews starts off his letter is so important. Hebrews 1:1-2 says:

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.

What the writer of Hebrews starts his letter off with is the understanding that we, all by ourselves, we did not "discover" who and what God is. Instead, God "revealed" who he is. God “spoke,” and because God spoke, we can know God.

That is, we only know who God is, or what God is like, because God told us. If God had not spoken, then we would never know God, and if God had not spoken, we would never know what God is like.

Think for a minute: how did Moses come to know God? Did Moses get to know God through the great education he received because he was the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter? Did Moses get to know who God was simply by looking after sheep in the desert for forty years? No. Moses only got to know who God is, and what God is like, because one day God revealed himself to Moses through a burning bush. God spoke to Moses, and if God had not stooped down to reveal himself to Moses, then Moses would never have known God.

Or what about Job? What we read in Job is that for some thirty-five chapters Job and his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, go back and forth, back and forth, arguing about who God is, what God is like, and how God acts in this world. And, for the most part, they get it all wrong.

Now in themselves they thought that they were right. Job included. In themselves they each were convinced that not only did they know what God was like, but they were convinced that they knew exactly how God operated. And because they were convinced that they were right, they each claimed to know exactly what God was doing at that point in time and what Job needed to do in response.

Finally, when they each shut up long enough for Job's fourth friend, Elihu, to speak, we find that Elihu, basically, rehashes everything else that the other four had already said. They each, all five of them, followed the path of human wisdom. The same "wisdom" that Solomon used. The same tradition of wisdom that we see in the writings of Egypt and Babylon. The same tradition of wisdom that had guided Middle Eastern cultures for centuries.

But when God finally speaks, they each discover that, for all of their arguments, speculations, and claims to have "God all sorted out", each of them were wrong. At the end, after God finally speaks to Job and his friends, Job says in Job 42:5-6:

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.

therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

Job effectively says:

I thought that I knew what God was like, but now that God has spoken to me, now that God has revealed himself to me, now, and only now, do I truly know God.

What about the Apostle Paul?

• Did Paul, when he was still known as Saul, did Paul know God while he studied the Law?
• Did Paul know God while he looked on while Stephen was killed?
• Did Paul really know God when he went from house to house arresting Christians and putting them in jail?

No! Paul only got to know who God is, and what God is like, when one day on the road to Damascus Jesus appeared to him and said, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me".[1] And when Paul asked, "Lord, who are you", Jesus made himself known by saying:

I am Jesus, who you are persecuting.[2]

And it was only when Jesus revealed himself to Paul, that is when Paul came to know who God was, and what God is like. All of his study, all of his zeal, all of his effort, all of his works did not equip Paul with the true knowledge of God.

It was only through the revelation of God, only when God spoke to Paul through Jesus, then, and only then, did Paul come to know God.

• In the same way, it was only when God spoke to Job that Job come to know God.
• And in the same way, it was only when God spoke to Moses through the burning bush that Moses came to know God.

It is only as God spoke to the people, at various times and in different manners, either through the prophets or through the Son, but it was only when God spoke, only when God revealed himself to humanity, only then did we come to know God, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:21:

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.

And again in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10:

No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him — these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

By its own wisdom humanity could not discover God. Nor, by its own wisdom could humanity find God. Instead, humanity comes to know God only through the revealed, saving message of Jesus Christ.

Now someone might object and say, "but creation reveals God to us. Through creation we can see what God is like", after all, Paul says in Romans 1:20:

Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse.

Or Psalm 19:1-4a:

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard.

yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

That is true! God does speak through what he has made. God does reveal something of himself through the beauty and greatness of the world around us. But what does Paul go on to say in Romans 1:21-23:

For though they knew God,

that is through the revelation of God in creation,

Though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

Humanity, having received the revelation of God in nature, humanity supressed the truth about God that God has revealed, and humanity worshiped the creation, with the result that the revelation of God in nature is hidden. Because of our sin, humanity – left to itself – is no longer capable of seeing God clearly through what he has made.

Someone else might object and say that God has revealed himself through our human consciences, that God has built within human beings that innate sense of "right and wrong". Paul talks about this in Romans 2:14-15:

When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them.

What Paul talks about here is the fact that, "Yes, God speaks to us, he makes his will and his nature known to us through our conscience", however:

• Liars are very good at ignoring the promptings of their consciences which tells them, “Do not bear false witness.”
• Thieves are very good at ignoring the guidance of their conscience which tells them, “It’s wrong to steal."
• Adulterers are very good at excusing their behaviour, and in so doing they "kill" their conscience.

Letting our "conscience be our guide" is sometimes a very poor way to live, and it is often a very good way to get ourselves into trouble, for, as Paul mentions while discussing false teachers:

through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.[3]

That is, they have so warped the revelation of God's law that exists in their conscience, that they are quite capable of saying that "wrong is right" and "right is wrong", without any pangs of "conscience", as Isaiah said in Isaiah 5:20:

Ah, you who call evil good and good evil,

who put darkness for light and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Through sin, humanity crushes, distorts, and hides the clear revelation of God through conscience.

On that last night of his life on earth, while Jesus had all of his disciples with him, the Apostle Philip said in John 14:8:

Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.

"Let us see God, like Moses saw God, and like Job saw God, and then we will really know what God is like".

But how did Jesus respond?

Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?[4]

Jesus says to Philip and all of the others:

• Do you think that I am simply a teacher and a miracle worker?
• Do you think that that was all I was doing during these past three years?

"No", said Jesus. "Because in all that I said, and all that I did, I was revealing God to you. In all that I said, and in all that I did, I was helping you to know who God is, and what God is really like."

Jesus told them, "God, was speaking to you, and revealing himself to you, through me."

"And so", said Jesus, "if you have seen me, if you have observed my life, my love, my compassion, and my mercy; if you have observed my actions, my miracles, my healings, my exorcisms, and the times when I have raised people from the dead; if you have seen all of that, you didn't just see me, you have also seen God, and you have come to know exactly what God is like."

And as a result, through the life and ministry of Jesus, God is revealed to us.

And if God had not spoken through the prophets, if God had not spoken through Jesus, then we could never know God.

We do not "find" God. We do not "discover" God. God reveals himself to us. God makes himself known to us, and only in that way do we come to know God.

Do you remember what Jesus said in Matthew 11:27:

All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

We cannot come to know the Father, we cannot come to know God, unless the Son reveals him to us.

And what does Hebrews say?

He has spoken to us through a Son.

And this revelation of God, this "revealing" who God is and what God is like, was part of the entire ministry of Jesus. The revelation of God to us was part of the entire purpose for Jesus coming into the world, for we read in John 1:18 that:

No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son,

that is "the Word" who was made flesh in Jesus Christ,

It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

We cannot know God unless God reveals himself. No one can know the Father, unless Jesus makes the Father known to that person, but the entire reason that Jesus came into the world, was born, lived, taught, died, and rose again, was to make the Father known.

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son.[5]

And this revelation of God in the Son is the beginning of that great theme of the writer of Hebrews as he seeks to convince this group of Jewish believers not to abandon faith in Jesus and return to Judaism. The revelation of God in the Son is the first point of the "better" that we now have in Christ.

God revealed himself through creation. God revealed himself through conscience. And in the past, God revealed himself through the prophets at various times and in various ways"; through dreams, visions, burning bushes, and acts of power, as in the Exodus.

But now God has revealed himself through one who is "better", through a Son.

• Through a Son, God has made himself known.
• Through a Son, God has chosen to show us who and what he is really like.

As Jesus said:

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.[6]

Why? Because only in Jesus is the revelation of God complete. Only in Jesus do we have that "better" revelation that surpasses that of Law and prophets. That better revelation that surpasses creation and conscience. Because in the revelation of Jesus, we have a Son.

What the writer says here at the very beginning of Hebrews is foreshadowed for us in Jesus' parable in Matthew 21:33-37 where Jesus said:

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

This is how Mark starts his Gospel:

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

This is how John starts his Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.[7]

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.[8]

The sonship of Jesus was the proclamation of God at Jesus’ baptism and transfiguration:

And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”[9]

While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”[10]

In the parable in Matthew 21 the landowner first made his will and his ways known to the people through "messengers", but finally, to make himself, his will, and his ways perfectly known, he sent a son. He sent that which was "better". And beginning next week we will look at the "betterness" of Jesus. The "betterness" of his revelation of God.

But I want to make absolutely clear what Hebrews 1:1-2 is saying:

• If you want to know God, you have to look at Jesus.
• If you want to know what God wants for you and from you, you have to listen to Jesus.
• If you want to approach God, you have to follow Jesus.

Jesus is the revelation of God the Father. Jesus is the "better" that surpasses everything else. And having Jesus, the one who is "better", why would we want to go anywhere else?

Yes, there is nature. Yes, there is conscience. Yes, there are the prophets. These are all good, but these are all limited. But in Jesus, the Son of God, we have a revelation of God that is perfect, complete, and lasting.

If you want to know God, then come to Jesus.

 

 

[1] Acts 9:4; 22:7; 26:14

[2] Acts 9:5b

[3] 1 Timothy 4:2

[4] John 14:9

[5] Hebrews 1:1

[6] John 14:6

[7] John 1:1

[8] John 1:14

[9] Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22

[10] Matthew 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35