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Hebrews 1:3a
God speaks through His Son Jesus (Hebrews 1:2), and He (Jesus) is, “the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person (Hebrews 1:3). The author of Hebrews teaches us in Hebrews 1:3a that Jesus is the incarnate God. Jesus proclaims in John 14:9 (ESV), “…Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”
This is the divine majesty of Jesus.
Jesus is the brightness of God’s glory. We often talk of bringing glory to God through our lives, but Jesus is the brightness/essence of the glory of God. We cannot or could not bring glory to God without Jesus being within us. It is only through Jesus in our lives that we can be pleasing to God as Jesus is, “the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3a). The (NIV) states this same verse as, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being…” God did the work of salvation for us through His Son Jesus, as a person in this human world, on the cross in dying a sinless death and then being raised from the dead because of His sinlessness. It is so important that we understand this as death is the penalty for sin – Jesus was sinless and yet He died. But He died only the physical death, as sin has no hold on Him, but was required to live a physical life and then die a physical death to re-enter into the spiritual world of physical death to defeat Satan on his own ground – in death. Jesus went there for us to defeat Satan once for all that by believing in Him, He grants us through His mercy (in not punishing us as we rightfully deserve for our sins) and grace (giving us the gift of life eternal even though we don’t deserve it) because of His great love for us. Romans 6:23 (NKJV) states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Dear LORD,
Please help us to see that Jesus is You come to this minute and finite world of humanity to save us from sin, that we may be freed from it and live in Your glory for all eternity. As we respond to Your call to believe in Jesus and submit our lives to You through Him, we become able to reflect Your glory back to You as You rightfully deserve, and are rewarded by spiritual life for all eternity living in Your glory – in Christ. In Jesus name I pray, amen.