This is the eighty-sixth lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.
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“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 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.” Hebrews 1:1-3
The Scriptures say that God has been speaking throughout human history. Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many others delivered diverse messages of God. God spoke through the poetry of the psalms and the oracles of the prophets, on Mount Sinai, and even in historical events themselves. But in these last days, something different has happened. The Son of God has spoken—and so God has spoken. God’s speech through the prophets is an amazing thing. The fact that God spoke at many times and in many different ways is all the more amazing. But when the very Son of God came, God’s revelation became personal and direct.
Jesus is the Son of God in a unique sense and we are invited by God to be his children by faith, to view him as a loving and powerful Father and to address him as such.
Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus “is the radiance of God’s glory.” That means that the very essence of God’s being shines through Jesus, because he belongs to that being. As surely as you cannot separate the sun from its rays, we cannot separate God the Father from the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the “exact representation of [God’s] being” (Heb. 1:3). The Greek word used in this phrase means character or stamp, and it suggests the impression made by a die. A stamp leaves in what is stamped an exact duplicate of the stamp itself. That is why Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) and “Believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1 NRSV). It is the very reason why we can have confidence that we can know God. In the past, God used prophets, but now God has spoken to us in the person of his Son.
Hebrews 1:3 goes on to say that Jesus “provided purification for sins.” Chapter 2 verse 10 tells us that Jesus is the author of our salvation because of his suffering, and chapter 2 verse 14 says that Jesus destroyed the power of death and the devil, and freed “those who . . . were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
Hebrews 1:8-13 clearly describes Jesus as the Lord of Heaven and Earth. The Lord Jesus was there when the foundations of the earth were laid. He rules over his enemies, and his throne lasts forever and ever.
Jesus is the Creator and Lord of a people who are gathered together at the foot of the cross in thanksgiving for forgiveness and cleansing. Jesus knows how far short we have all fallen, yet loved us enough to give his life for us, paying a price we couldn’t pay ourselves. He points to life, not death and conquest.
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Mel Lawrenz (@MelLawrenz) trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought-leaders. He served as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, for ten years and now serves as Elmbrook’s teaching pastor. He has a PhD in the history of Christian thought and is on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University. Mel is the author of 18 books, including How to Understand the Bible—A Simple Guide and Spiritual Influence: the Hidden Power Behind Leadership (Zondervan, 2012). See more of Mel’s writing at WordWay.