Skip to main content

Meditations on the Glory of Christ: He is the Radiance of the Glory of God

Image
By
In Hebrews 1:2-4, the author makes seven claims about Jesus that when taken together greatly exalt his glory. The third claim the author makes is that he is the radiance of the glory of God. There is so much to say about the meaning of the phrase “the glory of God,” but in the interest of time let me just define it this way: the glory of God is the sum total of the excellencies of God. God is holy, just, right, true, wise, good, gracious, faithful, patient, kind, unchanging, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present. God is, and everything God is he is to utter perfection, and when we think of all of his perfections together we rightly call this the glory of God. There is a sense in which the glory of God refers to the beauty and brightness of his being, but more profoundly it refers to all God is, thinks, feels, wills, says, and does. The glory of God is the totality of the being of God, and Jesus Christ, the Son, is the radiance of that glory.

Now, the word “radiance” gets used in two ways, and it’s important that we understand the way it’s being used here. First, it is used to mean “reflection.” For example, the moon does not produce any light of its own, rather, the moon receives the light of the sun and bounces some of that light back into the universe. The moon reflects the glory of the sun.

Second, the words “radiance” is used to mean “radiate” or “shine forth.” The sun, unlike the moon, does produce its own light and looks to nothing outside of itself to produce that light, except of course God. It borrows light from none, and gives light to all.

Jesus is most certainly like the sun, and not like the moon, for he radiates the glory of God from the inside out. He is not some object outside of God that receives and reflects the glory of God, rather he is one with the Father and he shines with the brightness of his being. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” That is, we come to know and experience the Father as he reveals himself to us by his Son. As it is with creation so it is with the glory of God: the Father is the ultimate source of his own glory and the Son is the mediating force that manifests his glory.

Beloved, this is no theoretical claim: Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God! Think about how great he must be in light of this truth. Think about how exalted a position he must hold in light of this truth. Indeed, Jesus is highly exalted and he alone is worthy of our praise, our allegiance, our souls, our lives, our all!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflective Glory: How the Moon Displays the Mercy of God

By
Our sun is a fitting metaphor for the glory of God. In the context of our solar system, it is massive, bright, beautiful, powerful, self-sufficient, heat-producing, life-giving, and dangerous. It is, by far, the dominant feature of our solar system and without it the system would fling apart and all living things therein would die.  On the other hand, our moon is a fitting metaphor for human beings, especially for those who believe in Jesus Christ. First, compared to the sun, the moon is tiny and dim. The sun is 400 times larger than the moon, its mass is 27 million times greater than the mass of the moon, and from our perspective its light shines 450,000 times brighter than that of the moon. The sun is so much greater than the moon that it’s difficult to quantify and express the difference. Likewise, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is so much great than each and all of us that it’s impossible to quantify or express the difference. Indeed, the Lord is very great and greatly...
Post a Comment
Read more

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord, by George Muller

By Anonymous
To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord By George Muller “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. “I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God—not prayer, but the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through my mind just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, and applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Catechisms: Building a Heritage of Sound Faith - By Pastor Kevin Feder

By
This is an article I (Pastor Kevin) wrote in 2005 and updated in 2017. It is featured in a new resource available through Children’s Desiring God called Discipleship through Doctrinal Teaching and Catechism by Sally Michael.  It is our desire to encourage parents to use a children’s catechism as a tool in building and strengthening faith in children. A simple definition of a catechism is “organized teaching.” Catechisms are not the only things that can or should be used to instruct the next generation, yet they have useful purposes. Listed here are ten specific benefits a catechism can uniquely offer. Hopefully these ten points will help parents understand how a catechism can be effectively used in their families. 1.  A catechism is a very clear and complete gospel message. A catechism is, among other things, a very clear and concise gospel message to children. Everything a child needs to know for salvation is embodied within a catechism. The gospel is truly ama...
Post a Comment
Read more