Jesus answered: ' Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.'
— John 14:9
The word person in this context is difficult of comprehension. Church history testifies to the difficulties theologians have had with it. Sometimes the person of God has been called substance. Sometimes it has been called essence. The Godhead cannot be comprehended by the human mind. But the eternal God sustains, upholds, stands beneath all that composes the vast created universe. And Jesus Christ has been presented to us as the exact representation of God's person—all that God is. The words exact representation, of course, have their origin in the pressed-upon-wax seal that authenticated a dignitary's document or letter.
The incarnate Jesus Christ gives visible shape and authenticity to deity. When the invisible God became visible, He was Jesus Christ. When the God who could not be seen nor touched came to dwell among us, He was Jesus Christ. I have not suggested this picture of our Lord Jesus Christ as a kind of theological argument. I am simply trying to state, in the best way I can, what the Holy Spirit has spoken through the consecrated writer of the letter to the Hebrews.
thought
What is God the Father like? Gaze upon Christ. He is the exact representation of God because he is God. See how Chist related to people, circumstances, suffering. You are seeing the invisible God revealed.
prayer
You, O Lord, have revealed God to me. Humbly but confidently, I can come to the Father in Your name.
You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.
— Revelation 4:11:
I have a difficult time excusing our careless and irreverent attitudes concerning our Lord and Savior. I feel strongly that worshipping Christians should never be guilty of using a theological word or expression in a popular or careless sense unless we explain what we are doing. It is only proper when we speak of the glory of God the Son to actually refer to that uniqueness of His person and character that excites our admiration and wonder. To those who love this One and serve Him, His glory does not mean yellow light or neon hoops. His true glory is that which causes the heavenly beings to cover their faces in His presence. It brings forth their worshipful praise: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts!" The glory of the Lord is that forth-shining that gives Him universal praise.
It demands love and worship from His created beings. It makes Him known throughout His creation. It is the character of God that is the glory of God. God is not glorified until men and women think gloriously of Him. Yet it is not what people think of God that matters. God once dwelt in light which no one could approach. But He desired to speak, to express Himself. So He created the heavens and the earth, filling earth with His creatures, including mankind. He expected man to respond to that in Him which is glorious, admirable and excellent. That response from His creation in love and worship is His glory. When we say that Christ is the radiance of God's glory, we are saying that Christ is the shining forth of all that God is. Yes, He is the shining forth, the effulgence. When God expressed Himself, it was in Christ Jesus. Christ was all and in all. He is the exact representation of God's person.
thought
Why is our worship so thin and lacking in God consciousness? Or is our "worship" less than worship? The twenty-four elders perceived God's glory. May we so worship.
prayer
O Lord, my worship is so superficial. As I look up to You, show me Your glory!
Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."
— Exodus 33:18
We know what we believe. Let no one with soft words and charming persuasion argue us into admission that Jesus Christ is any less than very God of very God. The writer of Hebrews was informing the persecuted, discouraged Jewish Christians concerning God's final and complete revelation in Jesus Christ. He spoke of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then he declared that Another had come. Although made flesh, He was none other than this same God.
Not the Father, for God the Father was never incarnated and never will be. Rather, He is God the eternal Son, the radiance of the Father's glory and the exact representation of His being. Something has happened to the word glory, especially as it relates to the description of deity. Glory is one of those beautiful, awesome words that have been dragged down until they have lost much of their meaning. The old artists may have had something to do with it, depicting the glory of Jesus Christ as a luminous halo—a shining neon hoop around His head. But the glory of Jesus Christ was never a luminous ring around the head. It was never a misty yellow light.
thought
"Show me Your glory," Moses asked of the LORD. Glory revelation is given to us in finite measure. God's glory includes His attributes, the essense of His being and much more. Christ reveals God's glory attuned to our level of perception. Do you long to see His glory?
prayer
O Lord, reveal to me more and more of Your glory as the radiance of the Father and the exact representation of His being.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, . . .
— Colossians 2:9
We live in a society where we cannot always be sure that traditional definitions still hold. But I stand where I always have stood. And the genuine believer, no matter where he may be found in the world, humbly but surely is convinced about the person and position of Jesus Christ. Such a believer lives with calm and confident assurance that Jesus Christ is truly God and that He is everything the inspired writer said He is. He is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." This view of Christ in Hebrews harmonizes with and supports what Paul said of Jesus when he described Him as "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation" (Colossians 1:15), in whom "all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (2:9).
Bible-believing Christians stand together on this. They may have differing opinions about the mode of baptism, church polity or the return of the Lord. But they agree on the deity of the eternal Son. Jesus Christ is of one substance with the Father—begotten, not created (Nicene Creed). In our defense of this truth we must be very careful and very bold ? belligerent, if need be. The more we study the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when He lived on earth among us, the more certain we are about who He is. Some critics have protested, "Jesus did not claim to be God, you know. He only said He was the Son of Man."
It is true that Jesus used the term Son of Man frequently. If I can say it reverently, He seemed proud or at least delighted that He was a man, the Son of man. But He testified boldly, even among those who were His sworn enemies, that He was God. He said with great forcefulness that He had come from the Father in heaven and that He was equal with the Father.
thought
Christ, very God of very God. In Him, the God-Man, resides the essence of God in totality. While on earth, Christ voluntarily laid aside the exercise of His divine prerogatives to fully identify with us and pay our sin-debt. But in His resurrection He took up once again the use of all divine powers.
prayer
Lord, in my limited perception Your humanity somehow clouds your deity and Your deity Your humanity. But You are very God of very God and I worship You.
No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.
— John 1:18
I wish I could comprehend everything that the inspired Word is trying to reveal in the statement that Jesus, the eternal Son, is the "radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being" (Hebrews 1:3). This much I do know and understand: Jesus Christ is Himself God. As a believer and a disciple, I rejoice that the risen, ascended Christ is now my High Priest and intercessor at the heavenly throne. The writer to the Hebrews commands our attention with this descriptive, striking language: In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, . . . [who is] the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word (Hebrews 1:2–3). We trust the Scriptures because we believe they are inspired—God-breathed.
Because we believe them, we believe and confess that Jesus was very God of very God. Nothing anywhere in this vast, complex world is as beautiful and as compelling as the record of the Incarnation, the act by which God was made flesh to dwell among us in our own human history. This Jesus, the Christ of God, who made the universe and who sustains all things by his powerful word, was a tiny babe among us. He was comforted to sleep when He whimpered in His mother?s arms. Great, indeed, is the mystery of godliness. Yet, in this context, some things strange and tragic have been happening in recent years within Christianity. For one, some ministers have advised their congregations not to be greatly concerned if theologians dispute the virgin birth of Jesus. The issue, they say, is not important. For another thing, some professing Christians are saying they do not want to be pinned down as to what they really believe about the uniqueness and reality of the deity of Jesus, the Christ.
thought
Jesus Christ is Himself God. He is the One and Only at the Father's side; the radiance of His glory; the exact representation of God being. He has made God known. Christ is the exegesis of God.
prayer
Miracle of miracles! You, O Christ, that baby in Mary's arms are both God and human being. You make God accessible to me.
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
— John 16:13-14
The unity of all things in Christ is a concept every believer should lay hold of. When we witness the future day of Christ?s triumph, when He returns and we reach the consummation of all things, then we will fully comprehend the necessity for the ?all things? in God?s eternal plan. Many people are having their greatest battles over their deepening sense of futility and uselessness. It is important that we grasp God?s revelation that every one of us is essential to His great plan for the ages. You will seek answers in vain from fellow men and women. Seek your answers rather from God and His Word. He is sovereign; He is still running His world. God wants us to know that He must have all the parts in order to compose His great eternal symphony. He would have us assured that each one of us is indispensable to His grand theme!
thought
It is the Holy Spirit who is the ultimate revealer of Christ and His Word. God speaks and ministers to us through other members of Christ's body, just as He seeks to reach out through you and me to others. But the Spirit is the one who authenticates and applies truth. Let's be in tune with Him!
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for the Church through whom You minister to me. And thank You for the Holy Spirit who is the ultimate revealer of You and Your Word.
'My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.'
— John 17:20–21
Allow me one more point. I want to say something about the body of Christian believers and this universal unity that one day will be established in the person of Jesus Christ. If I could ask, "Do you believe in the communion of saints?" what would be your reply? Would the question make you uncomfortable? I suspect many Protestants would chide me right here, feeling I was getting too close to doctrinal beliefs held by ecumenists or perhaps by Catholics. I am not referring to ecumenicity and dreams of organizational church union. I am gazing ahead in faith to God's great day of victory, harmony and unity, when sin is no longer present in the creation. In that great coming day of consummation, the children of God—the believing family of God—will experience a blessed harmony and communion of the Spirit.
I surely agree with the foresight of the English poet, John Brighton, who caught a glimpse of a coming day of fellowship among the people of God. He wrote: In one eternal bond of love, One fellowship of mind, The saints below and saints above Their bliss and glory find. I believe that is scriptural. I do not think anyone should throw out the great doctrine of the communion of saints just because the ecumenists embrace it.
thought
Jesus prayed for the unity of believers. Church labels may differ; faith expression vary; biblical interpretation be less than harmonious. But those born of God's Spirit are one in Christ and that oneness we are to recognize.
prayer
Father, thank You for my brothers and sisters around the world. May we be one just as You are in Christ and Christ in You. In Jesus' name.
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
— Romans 8:20–21
These basic concepts ? the mysteries of creation and God's unity forever displayed in His works—are not new. They were believed by the great Christian souls and minds of the earlier centuries. One of the notable Scottish Moravian authors was James Montgomery. Out of his writing comes this beautiful poem expressing the unity he sensed in God?s creation: The glorious universe around, The heavens with all their train, Sun, moon and stars are firmly bound In one mysterious chain. The earth, the ocean and the sky To form one world agree; Where all that walk or swim or fly Compose one family. God in creation must display His wisdom and His might; Where all His works with all His ways Harmoniously unite. Montgomery's use of the word harmoniously is impressive.
It affirms that finally, when sin has been purged from God's universe, everything in creation will be consummate with everything else. There will be universal cosmic harmony. We are only too aware that the universe as we know it is in discord. On every side sounds the raucous rattle of sin. But in that coming day sin will be purged away and all things that walk, creep, crawl, swim or fly will be found to comprise one family indeed.
thought
That day is coming when all God's works with all God's ways will harmoniously unite. Discord will be eliminated and sin forever purged away. All creation will be as one ? creative unity. And we will be one godly family!
prayer
O God, haste the day when Your objective of universal harmony in all creation will be realized.
. . . one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
— Ephesians 4:6
"Heir of all things." What does that phrase really include? It includes angels, seraphim, cherubim, ransomed men and women of all ages, matter, mind, law, spirit, value, meaning. It includes life and events on the varied levels of being. It includes all of these and more ? and God's great interest embraces them all! Are you beginning to gain a new appreciation of God's great universal purpose? I am not simply assuming the role of philosopher. The purpose of God is to bring together—to acquaint all rational beings with all other segments within His complex creation. I repeat that I believe in the essential unity of all God's creation. Thus, I believe a day is coming when each part of God's creation will recognize its own essential oneness with very other part. Toward that day the whole creation is moving.
When I wrote about this concept in an editorial in Alliance Life, a reader hastened to accuse me of being pantheistic. I am not pantheistic. And the essential unity of God's creation is not pantheism. Pantheism teaches that God is all things and that all things are God. According to pantheism, if you want to know what God is you must come to know all things. Then, if you could put all things in your arms, you would have God. Pantheism is ridiculous—claiming and teaching that all things are God. God is immanent in His universe. That I believe. But beyond that, He is transcendent above His universe and infinitely separated from it, for He is the Creator God.
thought
God is transcendent, that is, far above and independent of His creation. He is also immanent ? very much involved in that creation. He is over all, through all and in all. What a mighty God we serve!
prayer
Your transcendence and immanence join together in the consummation of Your creative purpose. You, O Lord, will bring together all elements of Your creation. Hallelujah!