(3) The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (4) So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
This could be my favorite passage in the Bible. Here we find some of the richest Christology in the Scriptures. In two verses, we encounter six facets of Jesus' identity that invite our attention and reflection:
1. Jesus is the radiance of God's glory
In Exodus 33, Moses asked God, "Show me your glory." Moses desired the impossible. He wanted to see that legendary brightness, the white-light emanation of God's perfect being that constitutes his "glory." God doesn't oblige Moses (at least not in the way Moses expects, but that's a blog post for another day). God doesn't allow Moses to see him. God actually shields Moses from the brunt of his glory as he passes by, for surely it would have killed him.
What God refused to Moses, he now makes available to all through Christ. Jesus said, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." If we wish to see God in all of his luminescence, we must adjust our eyes to the light of the world, Jesus. But here's the rub: The glory of God that Christ reveals is the glory... of the cross. The Gospel of John frequently refers to Jesus' crucifixion as his glorification. Jesus prays on the Mount of Olives, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your son, that your son may glorify you." The glory of God, and the glory of Jesus, is revealed at the cross.
How? What happens there that is so glorious? At the cross, Jesus Christ reveals just how deep and wide and long and high the love of God is for humanity. Love and glory are inextricable, for they are forever sealed together at the cross. Jesus is the radiance of God's glory - he makes God's glory visible to all of us - because he has made God's infinite love visible, accessible, knowable, and receivable. God's glory is found in the fantastic reality that he loves his creation enough to die for it. In this way, Jesus is the radiance of God's glory.
2. Jesus is the exact representation of God's being
The Greek word for "exact representation" is charakter, from which English derives character. The character of God - his attributes, his tendencies, his emotions, his intentions - is embodied in Jesus and displayed by Jesus. If we want to know who God is as a personal being, a being with whom we can relate and converse, we must fix our eyes upon Christ.
**For my theologically-minded friends, the Greek word for God's "being" in this verse is hypostasis - the word used by the Church Fathers to describe the 3 persons of the Trinity: God is one essence and three persons (hypostases). Thus, this is one of the foundational passages for our Trinitarian doctrine.**
3. Jesus sustains all things by his powerful word
In verses 1-2, Jesus is revealed to us as the prophetic word of God, the incarnation of God's speech. In verse 3, now Jesus speaks. His ability to speak and sustain all things reveals that he is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, God. Only God can speak and sustain. Only God gives life via words. A professor friend of mine calls this God's ontological speech. He speaks, and it is. The same is true of Christ, who speaks, "Peace, be still!" to the storm, and it obeys his command. Not only is Christ the exact representation - the character - of God, but he is God himself. Not only do we see God in Christ, but we meet God in Christ.
4. Jesus provides purification for sins
This is a massive theme in Hebrews, particularly in chapters 5-10, so I'll leave the nuances for later. However, I can't resist making one observation now: The entire Old Testament system of priests and sacrifices points directly to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the High Priest who offers purification for our sins, and he is also the sacrifice offered for that purification. Jesus does it all. We kid ourselves if we think that our purification before God, our holiness and righteousness, has anything to do with us. Jesus makes the sacrifice. Jesus is the sacrifice. The only way we can be in the presence of a holy God is through Christ.
5. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God
The Old Testament figure who sits at God's right hand is named the Son of Man. He is given all authority and power by the Ancient of Days to bring about the purposes of God in the world (Daniel 7). If Jesus is seated at God's right hand, which is repeated several times in the book of Hebrews, then he is this Son of Man. This gives us two comforts:
First, the fact that Jesus is seated in heaven is proof that the work he needed to do on earth to bring about God's purposes is completed. His death and resurrection are indeed effective in bringing redemption to the world.
The Greek word for "exact representation" is charakter, from which English derives character. The character of God - his attributes, his tendencies, his emotions, his intentions - is embodied in Jesus and displayed by Jesus. If we want to know who God is as a personal being, a being with whom we can relate and converse, we must fix our eyes upon Christ.
**For my theologically-minded friends, the Greek word for God's "being" in this verse is hypostasis - the word used by the Church Fathers to describe the 3 persons of the Trinity: God is one essence and three persons (hypostases). Thus, this is one of the foundational passages for our Trinitarian doctrine.**
3. Jesus sustains all things by his powerful word
In verses 1-2, Jesus is revealed to us as the prophetic word of God, the incarnation of God's speech. In verse 3, now Jesus speaks. His ability to speak and sustain all things reveals that he is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, God. Only God can speak and sustain. Only God gives life via words. A professor friend of mine calls this God's ontological speech. He speaks, and it is. The same is true of Christ, who speaks, "Peace, be still!" to the storm, and it obeys his command. Not only is Christ the exact representation - the character - of God, but he is God himself. Not only do we see God in Christ, but we meet God in Christ.
4. Jesus provides purification for sins
This is a massive theme in Hebrews, particularly in chapters 5-10, so I'll leave the nuances for later. However, I can't resist making one observation now: The entire Old Testament system of priests and sacrifices points directly to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the High Priest who offers purification for our sins, and he is also the sacrifice offered for that purification. Jesus does it all. We kid ourselves if we think that our purification before God, our holiness and righteousness, has anything to do with us. Jesus makes the sacrifice. Jesus is the sacrifice. The only way we can be in the presence of a holy God is through Christ.
5. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God
The Old Testament figure who sits at God's right hand is named the Son of Man. He is given all authority and power by the Ancient of Days to bring about the purposes of God in the world (Daniel 7). If Jesus is seated at God's right hand, which is repeated several times in the book of Hebrews, then he is this Son of Man. This gives us two comforts:
First, the fact that Jesus is seated in heaven is proof that the work he needed to do on earth to bring about God's purposes is completed. His death and resurrection are indeed effective in bringing redemption to the world.
Second, Ephesians 1 tells us that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is now being employed by Christ on behalf of the church, and also through the church. We are empowered by Christ to carry out the redemptive mission of God that was inaugurated at the cross, and we know that this mission will triumph, because all authority and power belongs to Christ.
6. Jesus is superior to the angels
6. Jesus is superior to the angels
The superiority of Christ over all things is a major theme, perhaps the major theme, of Hebrews. In my next post, I'll look at the rest of chapter 1, where this claim of superiority over angels is founded upon a variety of fascinating OT citations. Two observations will suffice for now: 1) Christ is superior to angels because he is God, and 2) Christ is superior to angels because he is human.
Concluding Thoughts
Read these two verses again. And again. And again. Allow these many statements about Christ to sink into your mind, your heart, and your soul. Jesus is beautiful, powerful, triumphant, and divine. He is God's glory displayed, God's love enacted, God's character revealed, and God's being embodied. The Unknowable has made himself knowable in Jesus. This is an amazing thing.
4 comments:
Sweet. This reminds me of some of my favorite verses Colossians 1:15-20. Paul was a decent writer.
We'll really miss you two this week in Chicago. I know you didn't really know Lauterpooch so well, but it seems like you should be there anyway.
2 thoughts from these verses: 1) "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." Maybe the Greek disallows this, but I think it would be cool if the "sustaining" referred to God the Father who is sustaining all things by his powerful Word, who is Jesus. So rather than Jesus' words sustaining the world, God is sustaining the world through Christ. Something about that seems stronger to me, probably because of your last post. It isn't Jesus' words so much as it's the fact that Jesus IS the Word of God. 2) "He became as much superior to the angels." This is a little weird to me, and maybe you're planning on expounding on this anyway, but why did Christ have to BECOME superior to the angels? Wasn't He always superior to them?
The Greek actually suggests that Jesus' sustaining of all things is an elaboration upon how Jesus is the exact representation of God's being. The Greek literally reads, "He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his nature (or being), bearing all things by the word of his power."
The force of "bearing," which is a more literal translation than "sustaining," is that everything is upheld by Christ. Atlas carried the world on his shoulders in Greek Mythology; Christ carries the universe on his shoulders in reality. If Christ lets go, everything falls apart. This is stated well in Teetsel's favorite passage:"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Col 1:17).
Certainly, God the Father sustains the world through Christ. Father, Son, and Spirit work cooperatively to sustain and redeem the life of the world. However, the Father's sustaining work through the Son doesn't detract from what the Son does; neither does the Son's sustaining work detract from what the Father or the Spirit are doing. They are three persons of the One God. God is the quintessential proof that "both/and" is the way of the universe.
Dude, I think you just made my head explode.
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