| Subject: Unwrapping Jesus |
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Hillbilly
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Date Posted: 21:55:47 04/10/15 Fri
Hebrews 1:3-4 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; 4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
In this passage in Hebrews we get a glimpse of the "unveiled" Saviour. While on earth in mortal flesh the real Saviour was cloaked in that flesh. The unveiling of Jesus in these passages is astounding. "The brightness of His glory": Every vision of the resurrected Jesus is one of immense brightness. Paul testified that He was brighter than the sun in Acts 26:13. John wrote in the Revelation that "his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." (Rev. 1:16) Jesus not only is the glory of God but is the "express image of His person". John 14:9 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?
In the Book of Colossians Paul said about Jesus: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: " (Colossians 1:15) We, from this, can get a glimpse of Adam before he sinned. Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Ephesians 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. That it is imperative for man to be "re-created" shows that we are no longer in the image Adam was created in. Man has fallen and must be "born again" to once again have that perfect image. .(John 3:3)
Some might think the image of God that Jesus was made in is speaking of the image in Genesis 1:26 where "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:". The only way this can work is if the original image of man was like the "express image" of God's person which might be possible but if this is the case then that image was lost when man sinned. In Genesis 5:3 we read; "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:" Seth is said to be in the image of Adam and not of God. In the Book of Romans Paul tells us that Jesus was not in the "express image" of God. Romans 8:3 "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:" "The likeness of sinful flesh" cannot be the image of a righteous and holy God. How then, we might ask, could a sinless God come from sinful man.? How could Jesus escape the curse of inherited sin? The answer lies in the nature of His birth: Galatians 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. The inheritance of the sin nature is passed through the man's seed. Sin cannot be inherited through the woman. The life is in the seed of a man and not in the passive egg of a woman. The Father of Jesus was God in the form of the Holy Ghost. Jesus was fully God and fully man. Fully man through His mother but sinless and the Son of God through the Holy Ghost. We also read in Hebrews 2:9 that Jesus was "made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death".so it would be a great stretch of the imagination to suppose the express image of God is lower than created angels.
"Upholding all things by the word of his power": The verse speaks of the word of God's power and it points to another attribute given to Jesus: John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The "word of His power" then is Jesus. It is through this power that all things created are held together. God is the "cohesion" if you will that holds everything together. If Jesus ceased to exist then everything made would cease to exist also: Colossians 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
"When he had by himself purged our sins". This was a work that Jesus and only Jesus could do. This was the work He came to do: 1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. This is something that neither God the Father nor God the Holy Spirit could do. Man had sinned and man must pay for the sin. Jesus, as "God manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16) could accomplish that task and through faith in His work we can be purged from our sins and be made perfect in the sight of God.
"Sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high": Jesus having completed His redemptive work sat down in His throne in Heaven at the right hand of the Father. (Mark 16:19, Lk. 22:69, Acts 2:33, Acts 7:55-56, Rom. 8:34, Col. 3:1, Heb. 10:12, Heb. 12:2, 1 Pet. 3:22)
"Being made so much better than the angels": In Hebrews 2:9 there seems to be a contradiction to verse 1:4 cited here. Jesus created the angels as He did all things and it was the incarnation of God in created sinless flesh that made Jesus so much better than the angels. The flesh itself is lower than the angels as we see in Heb. 2:9 where it is written that He was "made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death." As angels are immortal we can see Heb. 2:9 addresses His flesh alone while Heb. 1:4 addresses the manifestation of God in mortal flesh.
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