The Image of God - Part 2
The first time I remember reading the book of Hebrews was the summer before my senior year of high school. A fellow student at a summer program I attended had asked some challenging questions about my faith. At the time, I could not satisfactorily answer many of her challenges and found myself spiraling with doubt. I wound up in the book of Hebrews, and after reading it and studying it, I came away strengthened and encouraged.
I love the book of Hebrews. It is quite possibly my favorite in all of Scripture, well, one of them at least. I love how Hebrews connects the Old and New Testaments and lays out a solid argument for who Jesus is and the effectiveness of His saving grace. Hebrews simultaneously comforts with the truths of Christ and warns of the folly of false faith and falling away. It is not an easy book to read. You may very well feel unsettled after reading it but paradoxically come away strengthened and encouraged, as I did.
Today we will be looking at just a few verses from the beginning of the book, but I encourage you to read and study Hebrews if you are looking for encouragement in your faith or even a kick in the pants to get back on track.
This post connects to the final post in the Marcan Series but does not need to be read in order. You can find the previous post here.
…
Hebrews 1:2-3
In these last days, he [God] has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
…
In my previous post, we explored God's authority over our lives as our Creator and our responsibility to worship Him. Today, we will focus on Hebrews 1 and examine how Jesus is not just an image but the exact expression of God and what that reveals about who He is.
God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him. (Heb. 1:2)
John 1 opens by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created” (1:1-3). Both the book of John and Hebrews step right up and say that Jesus is our Creator God. Jesus is not just a human being constrained by human limitations; He is the eternal, living God who created us and has been with us since the beginning.
However, these passages also reveal dual aspects of God's nature – God the Father and God the Son. God the Son is the "heir of all things." This idea of an heir or inheritance takes me to Ephesians 1, where we see God’s plan to “bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him” (1:10). Here on earth, we are part of Jesus’s inheritance, and we share in His inheritance as the body of Christ. Ephesians 1:18b specifically tells us that Christ’s inheritance “is the wealth of [the] glorious inheritance in the saints." When Christ returns and heralds the new heaven and the new earth, He will bring all things together and receive His inheritance.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (Heb. 1:3a)
God the Son is “the exact expression” of God’s nature. Jesus perfectly reflects God’s majesty and perfectly represents who God is because He is God. Strong’s dictionary defines the phrase “exact expression” or “express image” as a “precise reproduction in every respect.” The proof that Jesus is God comes in the phrase, “sustaining all things by his powerful word.” Only the Creator God would be able to sustain all things, and we know from Hebrews 1:2 that Jesus is the same as God the Father and Creator. Genesis 1 tells us God spoke, and it was so. Hebrews 1 tells us the Son commands, and it is so.
Colossians 1 adds to our understanding of what Hebrews is telling us about Jesus:
"He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
For everything was created by him…
all things have been created
through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and by him, all things hold together." (1:15-17)
Jesus is the human image of our invisible God. He is God, and everything was created through Him. All things hold together, are sustained, because of Him.
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Heb. 1:3b)
Jesus satisfies the requirement of the law that “almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22). He is our atonement sacrifice for our sins; "But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself" (9:26b). The sacrifice for atonement is a completed work. We no longer need a continual sacrifice for the atonement of our sins because the perfect sacrifice fulfilled the law for us. Jesus tells us,"'It is finished'" (John 19:30).
Since Jesus’s work is complete, He sits down “at the right hand of the Majesty on high. This is a place of honor, of shared authority and glory. God pointedly tells us in Isaiah, "'I am the LORD. That is my name, and I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols'" (42:8). For Jesus to sit down at the right hand of God is a declaration that Jesus the Son and God the Father are one.
To end this post, I ask you, do you believe that Jesus the Son and God the Father are one? Do you believe in Christ's work on the cross? The book of Hebrews can help you understand the necessity of what Christ did for our salvation and encourage you to draw closer to Him. If you need that today, consider spending some quality time with God and His Word, drawing ever closer to Him through the book of Hebrews.
