In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
Bishops of the Church of England are meeting this coming Monday to discuss the way ahead for the Church’s teaching on sexuality. They face a burning issue, and will greatly need God’s guidance.
They could not do better than to start with the Church of England’s own set reading for Christmas Day, from which I’ve quoted above. The letter to the Hebrews starts with this magnificent declaration of how God has spoken, fully and finally, in His Son, Jesus Christ, incarnate that first Christmas.
The sense of the fullness of God’s speaking in Christ is conveyed powerfully by the way the writer tells us that Jesus is the exact representation of [God’s] being. He is the One through Whom God made the universe! He sustains everything; He is the heir of everything. So then, what greater way could there possibly be for God to speak to us than by His Son?
The sense of finality of God’s speaking in Christ comes from the writer’s use of the term but in these last days. He looks back to the many ways God spoke in the past, through the prophets; but now comes the climax. So, when the writer starts to exhort his readers not to drift away, the antidote is not to listen to some new thing God is saying, but to pay the most careful attention… to what we have heard (Hebrews 2:1).
Reading through Hebrews, it’s clear that the readers were indeed being tempted to drift away, and the only way to correct that was to remind them of the all-sufficient, final revelation God has given us in Jesus, and to urge them to listen to that.
Theologians speak of the doctrine of the “sufficiency of Scripture.” It is embedded in Article 6 of the Church of England, which says, “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation.” The Bible may not tell us how to build a phone or run a car, but it does tell us all the essentials of what’s right and wrong, how to be saved – and how to be lost. That includes its teaching on sex and marriage.
What this great Christmas reading in Hebrews teaches us is that the sufficiency of Scripture rests on the sufficiency of Christ. For the Bible is a book about Him: looking forward to His coming, and then, via the Apostles, looking back on it and applying it.
So if we want guidance, “we must pay the most careful attention… to what we have heard.”
