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Our apostle here proceeds in describing the Divinity of Christ's person, by whom the Father has made known his will to us under the gospel. He declares, 1. What he is. 2. What he does, or did. 3. The consequent of both, or what he now enjoyeth.
Observe, 1. Our apostle declares who, and what Christ was, and is, namely, The brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person. As the brightness of the sun is of the same nature with the sun, and of as long continuance as the sun and cannot be separated from the sun and yet the sun, and the brightness of the sun, are really distinct from each other.
In like manner the Father and the Son are of one and the same essence, co-eternal and inseparable, yet the person of the one is distinct from the other. And as the sun communicates its light and influence to us by its beams, so doth God communicate his goodness, and manifest himself to us by Jesus Christ.
Learn hence, That the Son is of the same essence with the Farther, yet a person really distinct from the Father brightly shines forth in Christ his Son.
That is, the express character of God the Father's person, his natural image, and essential likeness; all the perfections shining forth in God the Father, are substantially in Christ the Son: Is the Father eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent? so is the Son, whose Character he is, whose resemblance and imager he bears; Joh_10:38
The father is in me and I in him; the same essential properties and nature being in each person, by virtue thereof their persons are said to be in each other. All the glorious perfections of the nature of God do belong unto, and dwell in the person of the Son of God.
Observe 2. Our apostle having declared what Christ is, next declares what he does; namely, that he up holdeth all things by the word of his power; that is, he exerts and puts forth the some omnipotent power in the work of preservation, which he did in the work of creation, keeping it from sinking into its original chaos of confusion. This work of conservation, say some, is a greater act of omnipotency than that of creation; by the former, all things were brought out of nothing, by the latter, they are preserved from returning into nothing, which their own nature, and their perpetual conflict, by contrariety of qualities, would necessarily precipitate them into.
Learn hence, 1. That such is the nature and condition of the universe, that it cannot subsist one moment without continual support; such is the dependent condition of the whole creation.
Learn, 2. That our Lord Jesus Christ has the weight of the whole creation on his hand, he upholdeth what himself created: and as well as creation of all things by the word of his power, do prove him truly and really God.
Observe, 3. A further evidence and proof of the Divinity of Christ, produced here by our apostle; as he made the world by his omnipotent power, and upholds it by his wonderful providence, so he redeemed it by his blood, He by himself purged our sins. He that made the heavens, bowed the heavens, and came down from heaven, and became a sacrifice for sin on earth, and by himself alone, by himself without a partner, by himself without a comforter, expiated the guilt of sin, and satisfied the justice of God for sin, suffering as he was man, and satisfying as he was God, who by himself purged our sins.
Learn hence, That so great was the work of expiation of sin, that it could no otherwise by really effected and accomplished, than by the sacrifice and satisfaction of Christ, who was truly and really God.
Observe, 4. THe consequent of all that Christ did or his glorious condition after his humiliation, having purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:
That is, God the Father clothed him with the highest honour, and endowed him with the greatest power that heaven itself could afford; the right hand is the place both of dignity and honour, and also of superiority and power: Christ's sitting at God's right hand imports his exaltation to the highest authority and most supreme dominion.
Learn hence, That when our Lord Jesus Christ had finished his sufferings upon earth, he was placed in the seat of the highest honour and authority at the right hand of God his Father in heaven, even to be the object of adoration both to angels and men, as the following verses declare in which our apostle thus speaks: