Filed Under : by Dakota
Wednesday, November 18, 2009"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 on the right hand of the Majesty on high;"
-Hebrews 1:3
The meaning of this verse is inexhaustible. If we are going to really grasp it, we must carefully examine the very first clause: "Who being the brightness of His ( i.e. God's) glory and the express image of His person..." The author of Hebrews did not say that Jesus is "Like unto the brightness of His glory." Rather He IS the brightness of His glory.
"I and My Father are one."
-John 10:30
"Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?"
- John 14:9
"...he that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me."-John 12:45
"...he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me."-Luke 10:16
"...he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me."-Matthew 10:40
"...whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, but Him that sent Me."-Mark 9:37
Jesus did not beat around the bush concerning His deity. He said plainly that when you look upon Him, you look upon the Father Himself. This is what the author is trying to say here. Jesus was, and is, the brightness of God's glory revealed to us.
This verse goes on to say, "...and upholding all things by the word of His power..." I believe this is in reference to Jesus not only being the creator of all things (John 1:3), but also the sustainer of all things - temporal and eternal.
"For by Him [Jesus] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him:"
-Colossians 1:16
All it took for the the entire universe to come into existence was the voice of God speaking that it should be so. Likewise, that is the same power that sustains, or upholds, creation today.
The next part of this verse says "...when he had by himself purged our sins..." While we may be tempted to simply scan over these few words, we must realize the weight that they truly carry. Our forgiveness is not the least little bit dependent on what we have done or what we could do. That is because we could never earn it. If we could, then Christ need not have died (Galatians 2:21). Christ paid the price for sin "by Himself". We should not be so prideful as to think that we could add to Christ's work on the cross by attempting to earn salvation/forgiveness. Pride is still a sin and God hates it!
This verse then goes on to say, "...[He] sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high..." To fully comprehend what is being said here, we should take a quick look at Jewish history. Once a year, on the day of atonement (now called Yom Kippur), the High Priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies where he would offer sacrifice for the people. This was the only time that anybody was allowed access to this part of the tabernacle. But now, our "High Priest" (Jesus Christ), is seated forever at the right hand of God. In other words, Christ is constantly in the presence of God and therefore is constantly able to intercede for us. This was not true for the Old Testament saints.
So what have we learned from this verse? Christ is the brightness of God's glory, He is the very image of God, He upholds all things with the word of His power, He purged our sins by Himself, and He is constantly in the presence of God and is therefore constantly able to intercede for us. Praise the Lord!
0 comments:
Post a Comment