Christ on the throne
By Michael Bell
This is Part 3, of a multi-part series looking at the deity of Christ. Here are the links to the Introduction and Table of Contents.
Have you ever considered what happens when you look at a star? We don’t actually see the star itself, but the light that in generated by that star. Not only that, but the light from the closest visible star (other than the Sun) takes over four years to reach our eyes. So, you are not actually seeing the star as it exists today, but as it existed when that light wave was sent from the star at least four years ago. And of course our eyes can only process the visible part of the entire light spectrum, infrared and ultraviolet rays are invisible to us.
Similar things can be said of God. John writes that “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” – John 1:18″ Jesus himself said, “And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form.” – John 5:37. He also stated “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” – John 14:9.
How is it that seeing Jesus is like seeing God? Colossians 1:15 says that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God”. One of my favorite passages, Hebrews 1, states:
Hebrews 1:3a (NIV) – The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being…
While the meaning doesn’t change, I like the wording of the King James Version.
Hebrews 1:3a (KJV) Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person…
Getting back to the star imagery, the light from a distant star forms an image on the retina, and helps us learn more about the star. Similarly, Christ as the brightness or radiance of God’s glory gives us an image or exact representation of an invisible God. The best way that we can understand what God is like is by looking at the Person of the Son. He is that part of God that we can see and experience directly.
I believe also that an “exact representation” goes beyond mere image but to the very essence of who God is. Philippians 2:6 stated that Jesus was “in very nature God”. He has within him the all the qualities and attributes that make God who he is. (More on this in our next post.)
Think back to our triangle diagram and imagine that the only part of the diagram that you can see is the part that says “Son”. While we no longer are able to experience Christ face to face, we have much to learn from those who were his contemporaries and wrote about their experiences with him. As a result, we are able to know much more about what the rest of the picture is like, through our learning about the Son.
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
The image of the invisible God.
The radiance of God’s glory.
The exact representation of [God's] being.
God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
In very nature God.
Very powerful words, leaving us no doubt as to the nature and character of Jesus Christ.
As always your thoughts and comments are welcome.
(Note to readers here: The star is used as an analogy here. Any analogy when taken to far will eventually break down. Here I am comparing a visible star to an invisible God so right away we see that the analogy can only be taken so far.)
Michael Bell
Joshua Hearne
Tim Melton
Joel Black
[...] The Image of God [...]
There is a reason why no one has “seen the Father”. The One True God is an Infinite, Perfect, Supreme “BEING” which means He can only be “experienced” in Spirit. God is indescribable in human terms, but we try and try, but how can true perfection be explained finite terms. It can’t. However, Christ is our connection to this Perfection of Supreme Being. As humans, we can never be perfect in being; so it is in Christ’s unconditional love that he connects all of us; even those that do not know Him, to that which is Perfection. This has been communicated, over time, to me, in ways that would be difficult to share. I understand that can be said of all of us, for even those that we may not think have any kind of connection according to our beliefs, we must assume that they could not exist unless they do so through the Will of God, and therefore must be accepted as such.
This is why I believe that to be truly Christian, we can never destroy anything that God has made with any type of negative feeling. When we decide that we must stop the life of anyone or any creature that God created, we must do so with some degree of sorrow that it had to be done for the good of the majority.
As a homeschooling mom, I know my boys are fascinated by the whole concept of light years. When we do science tomorrow I will bring them to this post so we can discuss how this imagery works for them. I think that many people err in making Jesus too human sometimes…He was an exact replica, image of God the Father…how utterly amazing that I am in relationship with such a God as that!
I like very much that idea of the image of the star as a way to help us understand the unseen God.
I like to tell my friends who wonder about God that He has to remain invisable…otherwise we would not love Him, but only fear and hate Him.
Through the gift of faith, and faith alone, we can ,love him because He first loved us. Otherwise we would remain with the lost, for as St. Paul reminds us…”…no one seeks for God.”
Just to share, I believe that many do seek God. As children, many were taught that we were created to know, love and serve God. We cannot know something, without seeking to know and even to try to understand IT. It wasn’t until I openly, without fear, asked God, “What is this all about?”, that I started really being able to receive the answer.
I believe that God communicates with anyone that seeks Him, in a way in which we are prepared to receive the information. God has always come to us in a way in which we could understand, as individuals, and as human beings. It is the fact that God is truly in us, that we seek to understand the love that is within us.
Consider how at Pentecost, everyone understood the Holy Spirit in their own language. Even now, each person understands things in a different way, according to their own personal abilities, as well as intelligence and maturity. It has always been a wonder at how different we each are, and yet, we are all joined in a way that we can exist and work together as a team, in so many ways. We often miss how much of life is truly a miracle in itself. We are conditioned to accept things so matter-of-a-factly. That is amazing in itself. ;o)
Hebrews 1. amazing! Love the star light thing. That will give me something for the Sci-fi crowd that they can understand. Thanks!
I think there is room to be theologically worried about language like “exact replica.” First, what do we mean when we say “exact” because I don’t think we can mean the strict definition unless we want to say that God the Father has a body and this body is that of a middle-eastern Jew. Plus, I fear that the language of “exact replica” suggests that Jesus is superfluous in some way–a grace note.
Exact representation is a little better but I still don’t care much for the usage of the word “exact.”
Cynthia,
I agree with Josh about the terminology “exact replica”. When we make a exact replica of something it is indistinguishable from the original. This would leave no real difference between the Father and the Son. A representation however, is more of a projection or an image. I think the star or sun analogy can be used here. If I see a picture of a sun, it might be an exact representation of the sun. It is not however a replica of the sun. Even an exact representation only gives us a sense of the scale or majesty or power of the original object. A representation typically only shows us an image of the surface, and not what the interior looks like.
Mike Bell
Josh,
I don’t have a problem with the word “exact” as long as it is qualified with a word like “representation”. As noted in post two, we need to keep away from the concept of Son=Father.
Mike Bell
KJV
Who being the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person, NLT
The Son reflects God’s own glory, and everything about him represents God exactly.
NIV
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,
ESV
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,
NASB
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature,
RSV
He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature,
YNG
who being the brightness of the glory, and the impress of His subsistence,1) the instrument used for engraving or carving
The word in Greek here is where we get our English word character check out the def.
χαρακτήρ
Transliteration
charaktēr
2) the mark stamped upon that instrument or wrought out on it
a) a mark or figure burned in (Lev. 13:28) or stamped on, an impression
b) the exact expression (the image) of any person or thing, marked likeness, precise reproduction in every respect, i.e facsimile
The language is like unto a printing press or seal/stamp hence the Young’s translation and RSV that try to show that when Jesus is pressed upon reality He leaves a God shaped impression.
I hope that helps.
The NIV can be a bit misleading on this,again. Nasb has the thought down well, but This is a fine example of how my lack of Greek makes sermon prep a real chore. Searching word by word takes time, but in some cases, and this was one, I couldn’t get it without a dip into the original. Now I am fascinated with the picture of Christ being sent to leave God’s image behind. If you see the character of Christ, you see the Character of God. wow Praise the Lord!
The printing press / seal imagery is one that I hadn’t heard before but is certainly (along with many of the other comments) a welcome addition to the discussion.
Mike Bell