“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being…”

I’m something of a quotation junkie, a guy that likes quotes — funny quotes, profound quotes, clever quotes, you name it.  Even absurd quotes.  Here’s an example of the latter from agnostic attorney and ACLU attack dog Clarence Darrow (1857-1938): “The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.”  I don’t know anything about Darrow’s growing up years or his family life, but his quote is dripping with angry cynicism.  His philosophy showed up in the cases he took as a trial lawyer.  He defended Leopold and Loeb, two teens that killed a 14-year-old boy ‘for the fun of it’.  Darrow said they were not responsible for their crime because they only were following the existential philosophy of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, the German who said God was dead and touted his “superman” theory of self-control.  The boys got life in prison instead of the death penalty.  Interesting that Nietzsche himself couldn’t control his own sexual appetite, picked up syphilis and died a mental mute in a convalescent home.  How’s that for superman?  No kryptonite needed for him!  Getting back to Darrow, he must have experienced a less-than-desirable family life.  I don’t think he ever married or had kids.

Quotes make an impression on people.  They leave their mark. Here are a few more.  From former WorldTeam missionary Otto Derkson: “He who lives for himself runs a very small business.”  Or this one from Dr. Richard Halverson (1916-1995), former US Senate Chaplain: “The gospel started in Palestine as a relationship, went to Greece where it became an idea, went to Rome where it became an institution, and came to America where it became an enterprise.”  Or this gem from Charles Darwin, which appears over 800 times in Origin of Species (1859): “I suppose…”

The book of Hebrews is also a gem when it comes to explaining and illustrating the deity of Christ.  In fact, chapters one of John, Colossians and Hebrews all offer the clearest and most extensive explanations of Christ’s deity found anywhere in Scripture.  One of those is found in verse 3: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word”.  Although we want to focus on the middle of the three components, we’ll touch on the other two as they relate to the middle one.

“The exact representation of his being.”  Older translations have “representation” translated as “image”.  Two Greek words are translated into the English “image.”  One is eikon, from which we get our English word “icon”.  The most common ones appear on your computer screen.  We use icons to represent things.  Some churches also use icons.  Some people pray near them, and some mistakenly pray to them.  These images are completely inadequate to answer prayers.  They can only represent.

The second Greek word translated image is charakter.  Need any help figuring out what the English translation is?  Didn’t think so.  While charakter can mean something that makes an impression or mark in engraving, it also means the mark that is left behind.  Let’s take it a bit further.  Let’s ask the question, what is the difference between a person’s character and the person him/herself?  Can we separate the two?  No, not at all.  The person is the character, and the character is the person.  They are synonymous.  You can’t have one without the other.  That is exactly the meaning of this phrase, exact representation of his being.

This word “being” also means substance, nature or essence.  In other words, whereas God the Father is divine, so is the Son.  You can’t have one without the other.  Consider the first description in verse 3: “the radiance of God’s glory”.  How do we, or can we distinguish between radiance and glory?  The radiance is the glory, and vice-versa.  And it is that divine unity in the Godhead that allows Christ to sustain “all things by his powerful word”.  What mere human being was ever described as such?  None!

And that is what makes Christians hated in the world.  Although Christ was inclusive in that everyone is invited to heaven, and he made that possible, everyone who comes must come only through him.  And that smacks at man’s pride.  It takes all the wind out of his thinking that he can make his own way there.

The inimitable Christ draws and invites all to come to him.  Do those around you know that?