Hebrews 1:3 (revised)

Hi Folks. We’re continuing on in the New Testament letter to the Hebrews today so let’s read verse 3 of chapter 1:

Hebrews 1:3 (NIV)

‌The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

We recently talked about how the Son is of the same substance as His Father. He is the one and only Son and because God is the one and only God, the Son must be just like the Father. That’s why the Jewish religious leaders were so angry when Yeshua called Himself the Son of God.

Let’s look at John 5:18 NIV:

‌For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Yeshua is calling God His own Father or if I can take the liberty, His very own Father.  In the Greek His own is idios. By using this word, idios, Yeshua is saying that God was His own private, personal, unique Father. This contrasts with just plain his for which the Greek word is autos. To make that contrast, the contrast between His own and just his, let’s look at a couple of verses in the gospel of Luke:

Luke 15:27–28 (NIV)

‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his (autos) father went out and pleaded with him.

So the father of the prodigal son goes out to talk with his older son and his father is autos, a different word than His own Father which is idios.  By using the word idios Jesus made it clear that God is His own unique Father.  This fits perfectly with the Son and the Father being of the same substance.  They are both deity, and along with the Holy Spirit these three persons are one perfect God.

Let’s go on now to talk about Jesus being the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being. How can we understand that better?

Let’s see if we can we get an idea of the glory of God from the Old Testament because those were the Scriptures that the writers of the New Testament had. Let’s look at Psalm 97:1-6 NIV:

The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice. [2] Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. [3] Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side. [4] His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles. [5] The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. [6] The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all peoples see his glory.

This is God’s glory folks!  Now let’s look at something else:

‌Exodus 24:9–10 (NASB95)

Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.

Now this was a glorious sight! They saw the God of Israel. But wait a minute! How could that be? Because if you see God you die, right?  Now how do we know that?

Leviticus 16:2 (NIV) The LORD said to Moses: "Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.

AND:

Exodus 33:19-23 (NIV) And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. [20] But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live." [21] Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. [22] When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. [23] Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen."

Now let’s read the passage again from Exodus 24:

Exodus 24:9–10 (NASB95)

Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.

So, they saw God here. Why didn’t they die?  Is it because they didn’t see His face?  We’re not told that they didn’t see His face.  I think the reason that they did not die is because Who they saw was the pre-incarnate Christ, the Messiah, the Word of God, the Memra!  And when you see the Messiah, you don’t die.  That’s why He came.

Now let’s take a look at a New Testament passage which can help us to at least get a faint hint of God’s glory:

Matthew 16:27-28 CSB

For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each according to what he has done. [28] Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

Yeshua is telling us that we’re about to get a preview of His glory.

Matthew 17:1-4 (NKJV) Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; [2] and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. [3] And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. [4] Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

Jesus was transfigured, His appearance changed. “Jesus’ face shone like the sun and His clothes became as white as the light” - This sounds like the Shekinah glory such as the pillar of fire in the desert during the Exodus, or like God in the burning bush.  We’re seeing the same thing here. And we’re also seeing Jesus here very clearly as God’s special Son. Let’s continue on:

Matthew 17:5–8 NIV

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

‌‌So here is Jesus, transfigured, as bright as the sun, with God the Father speaking so that the three disciples could even hear Him and they became terrified, and Elijah and Moses were there. I don’t think this was a vision because they all saw it. This was real, in real time.  This is glory, folks!

By the way, why is Peter is offering to put up three tabernacles here - one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah?  Some students of this passage believe that Peter may have thought that the Messianic or Millennial Kingdom was about to come in, since tabernacles are a symbol of that to observant Jews. I’m talking about the Feast of Tabernacles which in the Hebrew language is called Sukkot and it is associated with the Messianic Kingdom of 1,000 years as exemplified in these verses from Zechariah:

Zechariah 14:16–17 NIV

Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain.‌

‌This Feast of Tabernacles is very important to the LORD. Peoples of the earth are commanded to go up annually to worship the King, the Lord Almighty. That King is Yeshua, folks, Jesus. Yes, folks, Jesus is indeed the exact representation of the Father. Jesus is God. He is God incarnate, God in the flesh, Perfect God and Perfect man. Not two separate beings inside one person. No, Jesus’ nature and character embody perfect God and perfect man in one person. He was and still is today the God-Man. He had to be in order to be our Savior - the Savior of mankind. We’ll hear more about that as we go on further in this epistle.

Continuing on in Hebrews 1:3:

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”

Jesus sustains all things by His powerful word. What does that mean? Word in Hebrews 1:3 is not the Logos. Word here in the Greek is rhema and it means spoken word. So just as God spoke the universe into existence with incomprehensible power in Genesis, Jesus upholds or sustains all things by His spoken word, or we could phrase it like this: Jesus upholds all things by the power of His word. Let’s look at just one example of the power of God’s spoken word in the Hebrew Scriptures, in Genesis:

Genesis 1:14–15 (NIV)And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so.

God said. The word for said in Hebrew is amar. You could translate it as declared. God declared that the sun and the moon and the stars and the planets come into existence out of nothing and that’s exactly what happened. And we know that all things were made through Yeshua. We read that earlier in John 1:3; let’s read it again:

John 1:3 NIV

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

That includes the sun and the moon and the stars and the planets!  And in like manner, Yeshua/Jesus sustains or upholds all things by the power of His word.

Moving on in Hebrews 1:3 “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”

‌How did Yeshua provide purification for sins?

Before we try to answer that question, let me pose another question: Could God have merely declared all our sins forgiven without the cross? Would that have taken care of everything?  WAS THE CROSS REALLY NECESSARY?  I’m going to ask you to keep that question in mind for a minute or two.  We’ll come back to it.

Now let’s look at something that might seem slightly off the topic, but it isn’t. Let’s talk about justification. Justification is when God as judge makes a judicial decision, and He states it as a judge in a courtroom would do. He declares it. He declares that our sins are forgiven, and our unrighteous nature is exchanged for the perfectly righteous nature of Christ. God pours out our sins on the Messiah – He takes our sins and His perfect righteousness is imputed or credited to us. An exchange occurs.  God declares us justified. That’s exactly what He did for Abraham. By the way, I believe that this is comparable to God’s declaring that the sun, moon, and stars come into existence. He declares you and me righteous when we are saved. He gives us the status of righteousness.  The power of God’s word is beyond what we can comprehend. It created the universe, and it accomplishes our justification. Let’s look at the very first clear cut example of this, i.e., of justification, in the Bible:

Genesis 15:6 (NASB95):

Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

This verse is about Abram, before he was Abraham.  Abram was justified. Righteousness was reckoned or credited to his account. God declared him righteous. Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote about this in the New Testament:

Romans 4:20–24 (NIV):

‌Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

Now while we are on the topic of justification - having our sins forgiven - our slate completely cleared - and the righteousness of our Messiah imputed or credited to us - and please remember that justification includes both of those things, was the Cross necessary?

So, back to the question I asked you to keep in mind a minute ago. Could God have just declared that all our sins are forgiven and have done nothing more? No.  Why not?  There are several reasons.  For one, the wrath of God must be turned away from us. Something called propitiation is necessary.  There must be a sacrifice made, a blood sacrifice of infinite value, to appease a wrathful God, and Jesus Christ is the only One who can do that. Please know, folks, that if a preacher denies the wrath of God and says that a declaration of forgiveness from God with nothing else behind it is enough, that preacher is going to give his congregation a very watered down gospel. No, folks, an incalculable price was paid for you and me to be justified.  The Son of God gave His life in payment for our justification.  Should this be of particular interest to Jewish people?  I believe so. I have a question for my Jewish listeners:

What if the temple and the Jewish priesthood and all the accoutrements of the temple service were recreated tomorrow and the blood sacrifices of animals without defect was resumed?  Would that accomplish what the cross accomplished?  No.  Why?

Let’s take a look at Romans chapter 6:

Romans 6:4-7 (NIV) We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. [5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. [6] For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— [7] because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

The things described in these verses – being buried with Christ, being united with Christ, our old self, our old man or old woman dying in Him on the cross, and then being resurrected, raised to newness of life, in Him – all these things require Yeshua’s substitutionary death on the cross.  Because He did not come only to forgive our sins but to make us new men and women.  We are born again.  No animal sacrifice can ever do that.

That is why Christ had to die.  Nothing short of that would do.

‌In closing, let’s read Hebrews 1:3 once more and make a final comment or two:

Hebrews 1:3 :

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”

Jesus sits down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.  He died for us, He was buried, He was raised from the grave by the power of God, proving that He was the Son of God, and 40 days later He ascended to heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven, in victory.  He finished it all and took a seat.

Thanks for sticking with me through all this Folks. What God has done is beyond my comprehension. Before we close, let’s not forget that He did this so that each one of us could spend eternity in heaven with Him. If you don’t know Him, if you are not saved, if you are not born again, please call upon Him today and say “Lord, I know that I’m a sinner. I don’t want to pay the price of eternal separation from you - eternal death – because of my sins. Please pay the debt that I owe and cleanse me so I can spend eternity with you. Thank you, Lord Yeshua.”

Folks, please, if you don’t know Him, ask Him to do this for you today.

‌This is Art Wolinsky. God bless you, folks.