Glory of Christ Fellowship

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 ...

In Hebrews 1:2-4, the author makes seven claims about Jesus that when taken together greatly exalt his glory. The second claim the author makes is that the Father created the world through Jesus. The simple word “through” implies that the Father is ultimately responsible for creation but that he created all things by means of the Son. As the Apostle John said in John 1:3, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” So we see that the Father is the visionary, the architect, the provider, the supervisor, and the one who is ultimately responsible for the finished product of creation, while the Son is the implementer, the builder, the one through whom all things actually come into being. For example, the Father envisioned a galaxy and laid out its seemingly endless specifications, and the Son actually formed the galaxy. The Father pictured so many varieties of trees, and the Son actually fashioned each tree. This means that when we behold ...

In Hebrews 1:2-4, the author makes seven claims about Jesus that when taken together greatly exalt his glory. The first claim is that Jesus was appointed by God the Father to be heir of all things. The word “appointed” here literally means “to put or place” and it was sometimes used in royal circles to refer to the installation of a king or to another person who was being granted a position of authority. So the point of this first claim is that God the Father has exalted the Son to an utterly exclusive, unique, and permanent place to which no other will attain, specifically, the Father has made him the sole heir of all things. The word “heir,” as we would expect, refers to “one appointed to receive an inheritance” but the emphasis is not so much on what the Son has inherited as it is on the high position he has inherited. In other words, since Jesus has come into the possession of “all things,” he has come into the position of God. Let’s think this through for a minute: normal...

Over the next several weeks, I want to draw our minds to the Letter of Hebrews and meditate with you on several aspects of the glory of Christ. The author begins his letter with these words: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son...” (1:1-2a). Here the author draws a comparison between two things that begin to establish the superiority of Jesus over all things. One the one hand, God spoke and spoke and spoke over a period of about ten centuries, through a number of people, and in a variety of ways. He spoke to Adam and Noah and Abraham and Moses and many others by means of commandments, exhortations, oracles, stories, miracles, visions and dreams, theophanies, natural and supernatural events, pillars of fire and smoke, the Urim and Thummim, a still small voice, and so on. God issued an extensive amount of speech, over an extensive period of time, through a number of people, and in a...

John Chrysostom (ca. 347-407) was a fourth- and early fifth-century pastor and bishop who sought God with all of his heart for over forty years, and who exercised great influence over the church for many centuries. He was an extremist who was tempered by God and mightily used of him to exalt the glory of Christ and preserve the church, so as we look at his life, what lessons can we learn? I see at least three. First, Christians must learn to rest in the finished work of Christ. As we have seen, John was an extremist who even lived in a cave for two years because he thought excessive self-denial was the highest way of seeking God. But God, in his grace, redeemed this time of John’s life by teaching him that Christ was punished for us so that we have no need to punish ourselves. As Paul has taught us, self-discipline is an important part of life in Christ (see 1 Corinthians 9:27), but this must be distinguished from self-punishment. The first is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22...