Hebrews 1:3a
5 May 2024
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3a).
Now it is quite literally the case in just this opening section in the book of Hebrews, just these opening verses, every single not simply verse but every declaration within the verse, requires some significant attention to detail. And this is why we're going at the pace in which we are doing so and this is certainly the case as we come to verse 3. Now what we've seen up until now is an opening argument that is established in verse 1 and leading into verse 2. With a contrast between when God spoke in the time of the Old Testament, long ago at many times and in many ways through the prophets, contrasting that with these last days where God has spoken to us by His Son. And we've now been unpacking the glorious doctrine in verse 2 so far about the Son and what we saw last week is that He is the one appointed heir of all things. He has an authority, a power, a dominion over everything. The one who we also noted created the world. And so as we come to verse 3 and we begin to address yet another mighty declaration of the glory of the Son of God, what we're going to consider as we begin to work through this verse is if there is a why question in relation to anything to do with even our existence, to do with our purpose, the answer is Jesus Christ. If there is a how question the answer is Jesus Christ because we are quite literally going to the One who is the Creator, the Sustainer, the All-encompassing Everything of everything. And this is Jesus Christ. This is what we are addressing as we come to these verses. The glory of the Son of God. Now I encountered a helpful quote with regards to understanding and unpacking who Jesus Christ is especially in light of a text like the beginning of Hebrews 1. It's a quote by Charles Spurgeon which is very short and brief one you could memorise. It goes like this:
“Whatever God is, Christ is!” – C. H. Spurgeon
And this is something we already began to address in verse 2 and it is certainly all the more emphatic as we come to verse 3. Now dealing with verse 3 as a whole, there are three sections to the verse and we're only going to be dealing with the first section here this afternoon. What we see in verse 3 is first of all dealing with who and what the Son is. Then secondly, which we'll come to later in the month, what the Son does. And then at the end of the verse we deal with the outcome of who the Son is and what the Son does, namely where He is seated. So that's all in the space of this one verse, Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3. And that's why we will be aiming to be ambitious and deal with this verse in just two sermons.
Let's get addressed what we're dealing with here in this afternoon's point, the first sentence of verse 3 when it says, He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. And then we go on to read, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. So we've got three sections in this one declaration of who the Son is. The declaration that He is the radiance of the glory of God, and tying in closely to this, the exact imprint of His nature. And then we go on to see that He upholds the universe, or another more accurate translation ‘all things’ by the word of His power. He upholds the universe, all things by the word of His power. So let's consider first of all, this opening declaration, this opening statement, He is the radiance of the glory of God. Now just as we begin, some verses already lean themselves for us to realise, and certainly for me as the preacher before a text like this, that we are dealing with doctrine. We are dealing with truths that are beyond what we can fully comprehend this side of eternity. We're dealing with language here, which takes us into understanding more of the depth and complexity of the triune God that we worship and the nature of who the Son is, as both the Divine Being and as the person, the man, Jesus Christ on this earth, to which verses like this can help us to explore more. But we must come with such a degree of humility in understanding how deep and complex this is. Now one thing to say about a verse like this and a declaration like He is the radiance of the glory of God, it's not something where we can find a neat breakdown where we say, well that's clearly about Jesus as a man and this part is about Jesus as God. What we see throughout this verse is Jesus as God, Jesus as man, as we see fully and clearly unpacked throughout the verse. And it's something that we're going to be dealing with as it is interchangeably considered in this verse.
So when we come to this phrase, He is the radiance of the glory of God, the first thing that we need to clarify is what do we mean, what is our understanding of the glory of God? What is the glory of God? Well this word ‘glory’ in the Greek is the word ‘doxa’, which means that it is God in description of all that He is, in His transcendent and wondrous Being. And it is something, courtesy of mainly our studies in the book of Exodus, that we have spent time unpacking with the revelation of the name of God and the majesty and beauty of who this God is. So if we consider the glory of God, this is who God is and it is who God is being displayed and wondrously proclaimed. And who is this God that we proclaim and magnify? Well we saw from the declaration in Exodus 3 that He is Yahweh, He is the one who doesn't have a beginning and He doesn't have an end. One who is above and beyond and before everything. The one who is not a mortal being, the one who is not a created being. He is not a conditioned Being; He is not a rivalled Being. And it's why on the subject of God's glory we see in Isaiah 48:9 to 11 that He will not yield His glory to another. And it's why we also saw when we unpacked Exodus 34:14 that God is a jealous God. He is jealous for His name because the very declaration of the glory of God is that His being absolutely is. And the creation of mankind, our existence, is for His glory. That is why we are here on this earth, to glorify God. And to glorify God it means that we are to make much of, lift him up, revere, and worship the name that He is. And by the glory of God it means that we have complete satisfaction, we have our deepest joy, our deepest longings found only and absolutely in who He is. So it is an all-encompassing name. And here as we come to Hebrews 1:3 we have the declaration that He, that is, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the radiance of the glory of God. He is the radiance of the glory of God.
Now when we think about this word radiance, now in relation to the glory of God we already have something that is truly splendid beyond which we can comprehend. This word radiance probably makes us think about something like the sun beaming down the radiance of the sunbeams, the sunlight on the earth. So if we consider a picture like that in our minds, we have the sun in the sky and it is shining down its sunbeams which radiate the earth on a nice sky blue clear day. Now what we have when we look at the sun is something that we cannot directly see, without damaging our eyes. But when we look at the radiance of the sun and the sunbeams as they shine on the earth, this is something that we can look at and something that we are blessed by on God's earth. And one thing that we have to understand about this picture which helps to give something of an understanding of this declaration in Hebrews 1:3 is that the sunbeams on the earth are not disconnected from the sun itself. So these sunbeams that radiate the earth are directly connected to, they are part of the sun. Now understanding this in relation to the God that we worship, the glory of God and understanding that this God is the one true living God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We see that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are not separate from each other as if we've got three gods. There is one God and this is why we see for example in John 10:30 our Lord declares I and the Father are one. And so this phrase the radiance of the glory of God, it refers to the divine dignity of the person of the Son in relation to the Father in that on one crucial foundational fundamental level the Son, the Radiance, is God. It is the glory of God. It is not saying that the radiance is separate to the glory of God or it is reflecting in some way the glory of God, no it is the glory of God. And therefore, yet again, we emphatically declare from what we see at the beginning of the book of Hebrews that the Son is God. He is the glory of God. And also what we have from this declaration is that the radiance of the glory of God is on another level distinct. In John 17:5 our Lord in praying to His Father says, “And now, Father, glorify me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.” The same excellency in the Father is in the Son in a resplendent manner. This excellency that we see in verses like John 17:5 is something that is distinctly seen in the Son. And, brothers and sisters, though we might not have grasped this already, this is so essential. If we think about what we unpacked in our time in Exodus and as we began to consider in greater detail the attributes of God, what have we seen in no uncertain terms? That Yahweh is one that cannot be looked at and you will survive. Think about in Exodus 33:20 when He said “you cannot see My face, for man shall not see me and live.” Now what is the issue? The issue is that God, His glory, is so splendid, so wonderful, so radiant, so majestic, and so perfect, that sinful man cannot look at the glory of this great God and live. And this is why when Moses has been in the presence of God and the glory of God is radiating on the face of Moses, what is the response of the people of Israel? Well they have to turn their faces because they cannot look directly at the face of Moses. What is the issue that sinful man faces with the dwelling of God in the tabernacle? Well even the high priest who can on one appointed day, the day of atonement, when he goes in through this inner curtain into the inner dwelling place, he has a bell just so that the people can hear that he is still alive. Why? Because this is where God dwells seated on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant where the cherubim are guarding the holiness of the living God where nothing unholy can get in. This is the perfect mighty wondrous God and we are so far separated from this God there is an eternal chasm from this God and what are we seeing here in Hebrews 1:3? The radiance of the glory of God that is the son of God and what has He done? He has come to this earth and we can now look at the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Now the more we understand the richness and the splendour and the majesty and the beauty and the wonder of Yahweh. To think that we can see God in the person of Jesus Christ is a humbling thing to behold here today. And that is exactly what this verse in the beginning is declaring when it says that Jesus Christ, He, is the radiance of the glory of God. And it goes on to say that He is the exact imprint of his nature.
Now what this means is that Jesus Christ is identical in substance to God, whilst being God Himself. So this means that all of the glorious perfections of the nature of God belong to and dwell in the Son. This phrase ‘exact imprint’ is like a sort of engraving. So in the person of the Son, He is truly God. And everything that is God is in the Son. It's not like for example when you look in a mirror and you see a reflection of yourself but it's not actually you. No this is saying He is the exact imprint. Think back to what we saw in Colossians 1 last week in verses 15 to 17 on the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ. It goes on in verse 19 to say “for in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” Now this is why on the subject of the Incarnation and why the birth of Jesus Christ by the Virgin Mary is so significant, because He is not only absolutely the sinless one, He is God becoming a man. This is what we declare, and as we're going to unpack all the more when we get to the latter stages of verse 3, by becoming a man and being truly God, He and He alone would then be the one who would take away the sins of His people. Because He and He alone is God. And this is something that we see glimpses of throughout His earthly life. Again and again in this section we will refer to, for example, the transfiguration of Christ. When we see at that moment the veil of Christ's humanity being pulled back and the glory of the Lord shining forth for all on that mountain to see something so dazzling, something so spectacular. This is the radiance of the glory of God; this is the exact imprint of his nature which is displayed. And this, brothers and sisters, is what we see wondrously at the resurrection. After we see Jesus has dealt with sin which is something we come to later on in verse 3, what then happens to the crucified Messiah who is buried in a tomb? He rises victorious. He is the glory and He is the majesty which is now displayed. In Romans 1:4, it says, He “was declared to be the Son of God in power…by His resurrection.” Because He has conquered sin and death, He is risen victorious; He is triumphant; He is the splendid, wondrous, beautiful, majestic, risen Lord. And in the Lord's providence, last Wednesday evening in our study in the book of Isaiah we also saw the resplendent glory of our Lord in heaven. In this picture in Revelation 21 verse 23, it says, “And the city,” which is the new Jerusalem, “has no need of sun or moon to shine on it.” Why? “For the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is…” what? What is its lamp? It is “the Lamb.” We have no need of sun and moon which is in our sky right now, to give us light because our God in His glory is that light, and who is that lamp? It is the Lamb, our Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain for sinners, now risen victorious and He is seated on the throne. The one who is absolutely triumphant victorious over all. And this is why at the end of verse 3, we see that He is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. Jesus Christ who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.
Now if we think back to that quote at the start, “whatever God is, Christ is!” This is a glorious declaration of what we are seeing in these verses, because Jesus Christ is the one who is the radiance of this glory. He is the exact imprint of his nature. And if at any point in our study of Hebrews 1 so far we might be wondering, well is this emphatic enough a declaration? Well we go on to the next part of the sentence when it says, “and He upholds the universe by the word of his power.” Now when we look at a declaration like this, this gives meaning and purpose to everything that we're doing and it gives hope and security in every moment of our waking breath. Because just as we saw Jesus being the heir of all things, now we are seeing how we are being sustained. How is it that you are alive here on this earth today? How is it that you and all the complexity of your human being are able to breathe in and out, to eat, to sleep, to function in the way that you do, and the answer is Jesus Christ, because as we see He is upholding. So that is not a past tense thing as if to say well Jesus once upon a time had some degree of authority, now it's over to us. No, this is a present-tense declaration. He upholds us now, this very moment, the reason we're doing what we are doing is because Jesus Christ, the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of His nature, He is upholding us, all things, everything is being upheld by the Son. Now just think how such a declaration just this one half a sentence strikes right at the heart of the prevailing worldview of the culture in which we are in. If we think about how reliant we are in our culture, of the science of our day. So people might say, well, religion might give you a few of the why question answers, but science will tell you how. So what has science had to offer? Well, in relation to this subject, science has encouraged us to start looking up for the answers. Search the stars, look to the universe, and you will get the answers that you are looking for. And what are these answers? That we have come into being from a big bang and we have evolved from apes and it's all random chance that is the best that science has to offer and the means by which a six-day creation by Yahweh is ridiculed - what utter folly! But this is where we are, this very day, in our outright deliberate rebellion and denial of the existence of God as the Creator and the Sustainer of everything. And here we have that power attributed entirely to the Son. He is our Creator, as we saw in verse two. He is the one with all authority, again as we saw in verse two. And He is the one who has the power to hold everything, absolutely everything; He upholds it. What a declaration this is that we behold, and it says how He does it at the end of this sentence. He upholds the universe by the word of his power. Now that is a wonderful and beautiful declaration: by His word, which is the power to uphold everything. If we look to the person of Jesus Christ here on this earth we see glimpses of this, don't we? We see glimpses of the word of the power of Jesus Christ. Because in Jesus’ earthly ministry, by His word the demons fled; by His word, our Lord had the power to raise people from the dead; by His word the sea would be calmed; by his word the sick would be healed. This is the word of his power. Jesus Christ's word is an incomparable, everlasting power and it is an unlimited power. And it is why the stars do not fall from the sky; it is why the body, so complex and profound, functions in the manner in which it does. And it is why our Lord is not like a watchmaker who designs it and then leaves it. No, He is the one who designed it; He is the one who decrees it; He is the one who upholds it; He is the one who sustains it. There is an efficacy of His divine providence by the word of His power. That is what we see in the declaration of who Jesus Christ is. And this is why in the very existence of our being, our very thoughts and attitudes, we do not think and therefore we are, we think and we know that Christ is. That is what we have in this declaration. Jesus Christ is a real person. Jesus Christ is really God. We see God in the person of Jesus Christ It's not a vague reflection. It isn't a human equivalent. This isn't, in any way shape or form, a disconnect from the Godhead. This is Yahweh, who radiates the glory of God. This is Yahweh, who is the identical substance of God in all attributes and abilities. And in our intimate acquaintance, we have a union with the Son. Where we can seek Him; we can abide in Him; we can obey Him and we can live for Him, because the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of His nature, the one who upholds all things, why, by the word of His power, He’s your Lord and your Savior. Think about every sentence in this opening in the book of Hebrews, and how majestic and awe-inspiring and wondrous this is, and to know this is my God. This is my God who I can call Lord. This is my God who I can call King. This is my God who I have the sacred blessing and privilege, even in studying the book of Hebrews, to explore more of the depth, the complexity, and the weight of who He is. This is my Lord, the radiance of the glory of God. This is my Lord, the exact imprint of His nature. This is my Lord, who is upholding me this very moment. Brothers and sisters, as we continue to unpack the book of Hebrews, as we continue to unpack the doctrine of the glory of the Son, the glory of the Messiah, praise be to God, that we can do so in the strength, knowledge, and wisdom that we have by the Spirit of God revealing such weighty truths, and in knowing that He is the authority, He is the power of all things, Jesus Christ.