"Jesus is God" Sermon: Hebrews 1:3

“Jesus is God”

[Hebrews 1:3]
      

January 15, 2012 Second Reformed Church

            A few weeks ago we began looking at the letter to the Hebrews, and we saw that the author of Hebrews begins by telling his readers that God spoke.  Over history, God spoke in many ways and at varying times, and God spoke through the prophets – the authors of the Old Testament. 

The Word that we have written down for us from Genesis to Malachi is not merely human writing but it is the Word of God.  God did not merely dictate what He wanted to say to humanity, but God inspired human authors who would write in their own styles – but write without error – everything we need to know.  It is the history of God’s interaction with humanity.  God explains that He created us, but we turned away and sinned against Him, yet He kept His Covenant – His Promises, because He is God and He cannot lie and He cannot sin.

            But, now, the author of Hebrews explains, God has not merely inerrantly and infallibly inspired the prophets to write His Word, but in these last days – beginning with Jesus – we are in the last days – God spoke by His Son.  And, again, God mercifully inspired the Gospel writers and the other writers of the New Testament, so they would write down – infallibly and inerrantly – the life and history and salvation that God promised and gives to everyone who will believe through His Son, Jesus Alone.

            We saw that since He is the Same One God Whose Word comes to us through the Old and the New Testaments – the Old and the New Testament tell us the same thing – there is no contradiction between them.  Humans sinned, and the only way for humans to be right with God was for God to come to earth as a real human being, live, die for our sins, and physically rise from the dead, and ascend back to His Throne.  That is the Gospel from Genesis to Revelation.

            So this book – this Bible – is the Whole Word of God – everything God has mercifully revealed to us.  Everything we need to know to live and be made right with God.  All of it God gave us to know.  All of it God gave us to follow and to hold on to and to rejoice in – because there is no other hope for humans.  And we should read it.

            We cannot be healthy, faithful, obedient Christians if we don’t know what God has said.  Yes, there are difficult parts.  Yes, there are parts that are less interesting.  But God has given us His Word to know Him and to know how to live as His people – and most of the Bible is straightforward.  I am using the yearly Bible reading schedule I keep putting in our bulletin.  This morning I read about Joseph interpreting dreams and being given a powerful job because of it.  I read about Jesus telling the Pharisees that for the sake of mercy and necessity, there are exceptions to the Law.  Pretty clear passages.  Did you read your Bible today?

            If you have questions about what the Bible says, ask me.  If you don’t have a Bible, ask me for one.  If you don’t understand the translation you have, we’ll find a better one for you.  Just don’t not read!

            We saw that Jesus is the Word of God Incarnate.  He is the Answer to humanity’s sin.  He is the Creator, Heir, and Owner of all things.  But we said that strange ideas had come into the Church, and people doubted the importance and the necessity of Jesus.  So, the author of Hebrews explained that Jesus is greater than the angels, Jesus is greater than Moses and the Law, and Jesus is greater than the priests and the sacrificial system.

            We continue our look at the introduction to this letter, as the author explains with five points that Jesus is God:

            First, “[Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God.”

            When we look at Jesus, we see the Glory of God.  The Glory of God the Father and the Glory of God the Son is the same Glory, because They are the Same One God.  Humans can see the Glory of God mediated through Jesus in His Humanity, but humans cannot look directly at the Glory of God the Father – or God the Holy Spirit.  God said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20b, ESV).

            The Father is God and the Son is God.  God is All-Glorious.  The Glory of God shines from God outward – drawing attention to Him.  But we cannot look at the unmediated Glory of God or we will die.  However, since Jesus is God, He is All-Glorious, but since He is also Human, we can look upon Him and see God’s Glory and live.

            For example:  we are told not to look directly at the sun because it can hurt our eyes.  However, if we wear sunglasses, we can look at the sun.  In a similar way that sunglasses mediate the rays of the sun, so Jesus’ Human Body mediates the Glory of God.  Just as putting on sunglasses does not make you less than who you are, God becoming human did not make God less than God.  God is still completely God in the Incarnation of Jesus.  Jesus is completely God and completely human at the same time in One Person.

            John wrote, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known” (John 1:14-18, ESV).

            John explains that God came to earth in the Person of Jesus.  Jesus has the Same Glory as God the Father.  No one can look at God the Father and live.  But we can look at God, the Only God; the God Who is at the Father’s Side, Jesus, because Jesus makes the Glory of God visible to us through becoming human – through His Humanity.  In the Incarnation, God makes us able to look upon His Face and see His Glory and live.  No one has ever seen God the Father and no one ever will.  We see God in His Glory in the Person of Jesus.

            Paul explains, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4, ESV).  Since Jesus is God and bears God’s Glory, and we can look at Jesus and live – God’s Glory is visible to humans.  However, God has allowed the devil to blind humans so they can’t see God’s Glory in Jesus – unless and until God gives them sight.

The author of Hebrews continues, secondly, “and [Jesus is] the exact imprint of [God’s] nature,”

When the author of Hebrews tell us that Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s Nature, he is telling us that Jesus has the same nature, the same essence, the same being, the same substance as God.  Jesus has exactly the same everything in Him that makes the Father God.  Everything that is necessary for God the Father to be the One God is present in Jesus – as well as in the Holy Spirit.

What is it that makes God God?  God’s Divinity.  God is Divine, and Jesus is Divine.  Only God is Divine, so Jesus is God.

For example:  Carol and I are both human beings – just take my word for it for the sake of the example.  Now, Carol and I don’t look the same.  Carol and I are different genders.  Carol and I have lived different lives and have different experiences and memories.  But there is still something about both of us – something necessary about both of us – that makes both of us humans.  We both have the essence of humanness.  We both have that without which we would not be humans.  (A mouthful, I know.)  Whatever it is that makes a human a human – Carol and I both have it.  And most of you do, too.

Jesus and the Father – though the Father remains Spirit and the Son took on the human person of Jesus – Jesus and the Father both have everything that is necessary for them to be the Same One God.  They both have Godness.  They both have Divinity.  Jesus and the Father both have exactly the same everything that makes Them the One God.

And it is only in Jesus that we understand the Form of God.  We do not see God the Father or God the Holy Spirit.  Each of those Two Persons is Spirit.  The Son, Who was only Spirit until the Incarnation, took on the Person of the human Jesus.  So we can see God’s Nature as it is seen in and through the Person Jesus. 

As we read the accounts of the Gospels and even the letters, we can see Jesus – we can see that there is something in Him beyond mere humanity.  We read that the crowds listened to Jesus teach:  “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matthew 7:28-29, ESV).  The people heard Jesus speak and they knew that He was greater than the greatest of their religious leaders; He had an authority that far exceeded the religious leaders.  They were seeing the Nature of God in Him – just as we see the Nature of God in Him through reading His Word.

Third, “and [Jesus] upholds the universe by the word of his power.”

Jesus, by His Word – by His Power, holds the Creation together.  Jesus sustains the Creation.  If Jesus did not uphold the universe, everything would fall apart.  Gravity would fail.  The stars would crash into the earth.  The earth would fly into the sun.  Our bodies would melt or, perhaps, turn to stone.  Nothing would work; nothing would survive, if Jesus did not uphold the universe.

Paul explained:  “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-17, ESV).

Jesus created everything that is for Himself, by Himself, for His Reasons, and nothing can remain without His Influence.  If Jesus we not immediately involved in every moment of history, we would be lost – we would collapse into Hell.

Who but God has the power to hold all things together?  Who but God can cause all life to proceed as it always has?  Who but God could cause the seasons to come, the plants to grow and mature and bear fruit, to form humans in the womb and bring them forth into the world?  If Jesus – God – did not hold the universe together, everything would be chaos.

Fourth, “[Jesus] ma[de] purification for sins,”

The author of Hebrews explains later, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4, ESV), and “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6, ESV).

Humans are born sinners.  We are born with a sin nature – inclined towards doing sin.  Although the Law provides the sacrifice of animals for the forgiveness of sins, this was merely a temporary measure to expose us to the fact that we could never offer enough to cover all of our sins, because we sin day after day, hour after hour, minutes after minute.  We are idol-makers.  We seek at every turn to not do what God has said.  And even in offering up the sacrifice of animals, God exposes that the sacrifice was given with mixed – not holy – motivation.  Humans have no hope in-and-of themselves. 

My friend, Stan, who claims to be an atheist, understands this.  We were talking one day and he said to me, “Hope is unrealistic.”  And he’s right – humanly speaking.  We look at what God has said, and we see that no matter how much we do, no matter how much we sacrifice, it will never be enough, we will never be forgiven, we will never earn our peace with God.

In order for a human to be forgiven, two things have to happen:  Someone has to take the eternal punishment for his debt – and survive.  And Someone has to credit him with a perfect keeping of God’s Law, so He will be seen as righteous by God.

What did Jesus do?  Jesus paid the debt for every sin every person who will ever believe will commit.  If you believe savingly in Jesus Alone, Jesus paid the debt for your sins from your past, from your present, and from your future.  Jesus paid your debt by suffering an eternity in Hell in a moment on the cross on Good Friday.

But that would not be enough.  God requires that His Law be kept perfectly to receive the Kingdom.  We have to have Jesus’ Perfect keeping of the Law credited to our account, so that when God looks at us He sees Jesus’ Work.

Paul wrote:  “And [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death [that’s the paying our debt part], in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him [that’s the crediting us with His perfect keeping of God’s Law], if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister” (Colossians 1:18-23, ESV).

Here again we see what God had to come down in the Person of Jesus – a real human being:  if Jesus were not fully human, He could not take our place and pay the debt for our sin, but, if Jesus were not God, He could not survive an eternity in Hell for one person, much less for everyone who will every believe.  If Jesus were not fully God, He would be a sinner and unable to keep God’s Law, but since He is the One God, Himself, He was able to keep His Law and choose to credit that perfect keeping of the Law – His righteousness – to our accounts. 

Jesus, being both completely God and completely Man, did what centuries of priests could never do, in making us right with God, not just temporarily, but eternally.

Finally, “[Jesus is seated] at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Luke also writes, “But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God” (Luke 22:69, ESV).

Being seated at the right hand means that He has all the authority of the Sovereign.  Jesus has Supreme Authority.  He governs all things.  The fact that He is seated, indicates that His Work is finished – just as He said on the cross, “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30, ESV) .  Our Salvation has been accomplished.  God has made His people right with Himself, by Himself, for Himself, and to His Glory.

The author of Hebrews opens his letter by telling us that God has spoken, first through the prophets and now through His Son.  We have the record of God’s “speaking” in the Bible, and in it we find the only hope for humanity through Jesus.

And to all those who claim to have faith in the Law or in angels or in sacrifices, the author of Hebrews states that Jesus is greater.  And the first reason Jesus is greater is because Jesus is God, Himself, and there is no one greater than God.

Jesus is God because His Glory if the same as the Father’s. 

Jesus is God because the Father and the Son have the same Nature – the have the same Divinity. 

Jesus is God because the universe exists or collapses by his Word – His Power.

Jesus is God because He paid the debt for our sins and credited us with His perfect keeping of God’s Law – something only God could do.

And Jesus is God because He reigns Sovereign over all form His Throne in Heaven.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we are so easily distracted by other things that are offered up to take your place.  We have angels on our lapels to protect us.  We think magic handkerchiefs can save us.  We pray to saints.  We have chain letters from miraculous missionaries.  We think we’re good enough.  We even think that You will wink at our sin – as if it was anything less than rebellion against You when we sin.  Lord, help us to know You are God.  Help us to know and live with You Greater and always before us.  Thank You for letting us see God and for saving us for Yourself when all hope was lost.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.