Jesus Reveals God (Heb. 1:3)
With regard to the first detail, that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God, the author is using the sun and its rays as an illustration. When we look at the sun, do we see the sun? We see the rays of the sun, and the rays are connected to the sun, and the sun always has them. We might say that the sun cannot exist without the rays and the rays cannot exist without the sun. But do we see the sun or do we see its rays? We see its rays.
With regard to the second detail, the exact imprint of his nature, the author uses the image of something that was an exact copy of an original, such as when something is stamped on a parcel or a document. Someone looking at the document sees the same thing as the person who used the stamp, perhaps miles away from each other.
Jesus reveals God
Both illustrations point to the amazing fact that Jesus reveals the glory and the nature of God the Father. What is the glory of God the Father? Were we to ask this question of a human, it would be the same as asking, what is he or she good at? At the same time we would be aware that the person would have some features which he or she was not good at. But when we think about God, everything about him is perfect. The glory of God is the totality of his attributes. Jesus, as the Son of God, possesses all the attributes of God. We are familiar with lists of the divine attributes, some short, others longer, such as those mentioned in our confession and catechisms. But when we list them, we are describing who Jesus. He does not have less or more attributes than the Father.
We have already thought in this series of the greatness of Jesus when we considered his power or ability to create the universe of space and time. His possession of the divine attribute of power was seen in the original creation and in the ongoing holding together of creation. He can do what the Father does in that regard. And we could go through the list of attributes and observe how Jesus possesses them.
Second, what is the nature of God the Father? The idea behind nature is substance or, in other words, what God is. Again we can see that the idea expressed includes all his attributes because they explain who the Father is. So we should not be surprised when Jesus said, ‘He that has seen me has seen the Father.’ That really is an extraordinary statement and if an ordinary person had said it we would have questioned his sanity or his sincerity. But we do not respond in those ways when we hear Jesus making that claim.
So we can remind ourselves of the two other questions we suggested should be asked here: Has Jesus always been this? Where does Jesus do this? Everything about Jesus is different, yet perfect and amazing. He is the eternal God, so when there was no creation, and only the Trinity in existence, Jesus the Son of God was there at the beginning as God, and he was with the Father in the sense of being face to face with him (John 1:1). He remained the revealer of God after he became a man, except that now he revealed him in such a way that we can see the invisible God.
And when he became a man, he did not cease to be so. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, prophesied what the work of his son as the herald of Jesus would bring about, and among his words are these: ‘because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace’ (Luke 1:78-79). A new day had dawned with the coming of the Saviour, but it was a day full of the light of heaven, as it were, as God the Son revealed that there could be peace between the Deity and lost humanity, between the Creator and his rebellious creatures, between the Judge and the justified who had believed in the Son.
Jesus reveals God to humans
The obvious feature of these two illustrations of the rays and the stamp are that they describe how Jesus made God visible to those who saw him. No doubt, there are many ways in which Jesus did this and plenty locations and references in the Gospels that describe what happened. But in order to see something of what it means to see the rays and the stamp of visibility, we can consider what Jesus does in some incidents recorded in John chapters 2-4. I have chosen them because John comments on the first by saying that it was there that Jesus displayed his glory.
Recognising his ability (John 2:1-10)
Weddings can be costly affairs even when they only last a day, but weddings in Israel lasted a week, and it was the responsibility of the bridegroom to supply the provision for the guests. Clearly, on this occasion, the wine ran out halfway through the celebrations. The couple now faced real embarrassment in the community. Mary suspected that Jesus was able to help, so she brought his attention to the matter, and she advised the servants to follow his instructions. When they did, they discovered that he had made very pleasing wine from the water available in large jars, and ample amounts of it!
I think it is fair to say that Jesus wanted to show this couple that God could supply all their needs if they lived for him, that the heavenly Father is kind and overflows with goodness for the needy. Because here he is revealing the Father in his gracious compassion, delivering a poor couple from the trauma of embarrassment and instead making them witnesses to his grace. They could always say with thankful hearts, ‘Hear what Jesus as God did for us at the time of the celebrations connected to our wedding, and how he came to our aid.’
It is also fair to say that Jesus showed on this occasion that he can make rituals come alive. No doubt the guests were pleased that provision was made for ritualistic cleansing and that they had done things according to the letter of God’s law. But was that all that God could do for them, merely giving some laws to cover everyday situations. Obviously, divine instructions are very important, but there is more to the spiritual life than mere conformity to external rules. People could follow those external requirements without any inner experience, but they needed to see that those rituals by themselves were not enough. What they needed to experience was the satisfaction of sensing and enjoying the sweeter provision of God. Have we been able to say to God today in a spiritual manner, ‘You have kept the good wine until now?’ Here is Jesus revealing the Father and showing his desire to meet the spiritual emptiness of life.
Recognising his authority (John 2:13-22)
Jesus and his disciples went into the temple at Passover time, but instead of joining in the activities, Jesus proceeded to disrupt some of them and remove from the temple those who were misusing the requirements to increase the cash in their own pockets. The reason why Jesus did this was because he wanted the temple to be used for the purpose that his Father had designed. Indeed, John tells us that Jesus was passionate about how God was worshipped. How things were done mattered to him. He was prepared to remove any hindrances to a genuine contact with the living God.
As would be expected, the Jews were both astonished and appalled by the actions of Jesus. So they asked him for a sign, and he said that he himself would be the sign of authority for his actions, and that the authority would be clearly revealed in his resurrection from the dead. His listeners misunderstood his meaning, and it would take a while before the disciples would understand what he meant. But who would raise him from the dead? The Father. We can deduce from the context that Jesus died in order that appropriate worship would be offered to the Father. And he possessed the divine authority to do so.
Recognising his atoning work (John 3:1-16)
Nicodemus was a man with insight; after all, he was the teacher of Israel, the national theologian of his day. Moreover, he was marked by interest in Jesus because he had weighed up the evidence and concluded that God was with him in a special way. Yet despite possessing both insight and interest, he was actually ignorant of what truly mattered, which was having the life of God in his soul.
It was good for Nicodemus that he met a man with a much deeper insight than him and a much keener interest in him. Perhaps for the first time in a long time, Nicodemus found himself being taught by a teacher with clear ability. What is more, this man he had come to commend was able to assess him accurately and speak with clarity and simplicity about biblical truth that he had never been able to understand.
What did Jesus as the revealer of the Father say to the teacher of Israel? He informed him that God had an invisible kingdom and that Nicodemus at that moment was not a member of it. In order to become so, he was told that he had to be born again through the working of the Spirit. But how would he know that he had experienced this new birth? The answer may have surprised him because he was told to believe in Jesus, here called the Son of Man, the man now speaking to him. Moreover, he was to believe on Jesus in the same way as ancient Israelites had believed in an elevated image of a serpent in order to be healed of a disease. The outcome would be the possession of eternal life.
Jesus reminded Nicodemus that he had come into the world to die. His death would involve him being lifted up, which Nicodemus would have recognised as a reference to crucifixion and a description that indicated Jesus would become a curse. He would also understand that faith in Jesus, in some way, would bring about the possession of eternal life. And all this would be possible because the Father so loved the world that he gave his only Son.
Recognising his approachability (John 4:1-30)
Jesus met a woman who was the opposite of Nicodemus in several ways. Nicodemus had approached Jesus, but it was Jesus who approached the woman and engaged her in conversation. He spoke in a manner that stimulated her thinking when he said that he could give living water to her. At first, she did not understand him. Yet he claimed to be the only person who could provide it and he made clear that he was willing to give it to her. She could see that Jesus had a problem because he did not have a utensil with which to draw water. But she also could see that he was willing to cross ethnic boundaries because although a Jew he was willing to converse with her.
Jesus revealed to her that he knew all about her lifestyle. Nevertheless, despite her sinfulness, he was willing to give living water to her. She recognised that he was a prophet and tried to get him to engage in a religious discussion about the differences between Judaism and the Samaritan form of religion. In response to her question, he told her that the Father in heaven wanted her to worship him in spirit and in truth. She discovered that he was the Messiah and immediately she wanted to share her discovery with others. She even left her water jar behind, but maybe she did so because she recognised that Jesus needed to use it. Such was the change in her that her fellow villagers responded by going to meet Jesus for themselves.
Jesus revealed God to those people. Those at the wedding, those in the temple, Nicodemus and the woman of Sychar discovered truths about God that were suitable for them where they were. What they received from Jesus was underserved because all of them were sinners. Yet as John the apostle writes, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ and those who saw him and heard him realised what God was like in a most wonderful way. Those incidents, as well as others, are included in the Gospels for our benefit, so that we can see who God is.
Comments
Post a Comment