God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Hebrew 1:1-3 — New King James Version)
As the author of Hebrews begins this book he wants to lay the groundwork for the reader’s understanding of who Jesus really is. He doesn’t want us to mistake Him for a prophet or a man, or even an inferior form of God the Father. For thousands of years before Jesus, various men and women were used by God to communicate His will to the world: Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel, Rahab, Ruth, Deborah, Gideon, Job and many, many more. But even then, God’s focus was on Jesus’ future visit to earth. These men and women did great things and taught the world about the greatness of God, but Jesus was the climax, the real thing, the main event.
Who is God? Is the Father truly God, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit only inferior versions of Him? This passage makes it very clear that Jesus is “the brightness of His glory” and the “express image of His person”. He does not reflect God’s glory, like the moon with the sun. He is brightness and glory. He is the image of God, not a cheap or inferior version. All three — Father, Son, and Spirit — are equally God. One is not greater than the other, they just have different functions.
If the Lord Jesus lives inside of you, if you’ve accepted Him, and invited Him into your heart and mind… then almighty God in all His greatness and power is alive inside of you. He upholds all things by His power; He sits at the right hand of the Father, on a throne in heaven. This same Jesus knows our every move and thought and wants to share our lives with us. These truths should make us want to do much more for God in this world; if we have such power through Him, we need to us it.
We are living in the afterglow of the greatest events in all of history, when Jesus finally appeared after a series of men and women of faith had prepared the way for Him. Their power, messages, and miracles were growing until finally Jesus appeared to reveal God in a new and powerful way. We can’t be content to stay the same, not when we know who Jesus is and what He’s promised to us. Once Jesus explained that people should not put new wine into old wine skins because the wineskins would burst and the wine ruined. New wine — with it’s fermentation and gasses — needs new, elastic wine skins. Obviously He was not giving us a lesson in wine-making, He was speaking about the new vision and spirit that He had brought into the world, and was challenging us to throw away religion, old habits, old mindsets, and the old way of living, and to accept His new, radical ways.
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