Hebrews paints a breath-taking portrait, a stunning panoramic captivating view of Jesus Christ...it will take your breath away and fill you with awe and wonder. It fills me with a sense of what I imagine the disciples felt when Jesus calmed the storm in the boat and the disciples fear turned from the storm to Jesus...“Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him? (LK 8:25)” My tendency is to view Jesus as the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God that was slain before the foundation of the world, and those are accurate and true portraits of Jesus. However, we will be guilty of an error of catastrophic proportions if we do not hold those portraits in tension with the Lion of the Tribe of Judah...there is a portrait of Jesus in Revelation that depicts Ultimate Fighting Jesus! What in the world do you do with Rev 6:16? "They *said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." Scripture reveals Jesus to be a lamb like lion and a lion like lamb!
Heb 1:1-4 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 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. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
God sent Jesus to reveal HIS nature and will to us. We see this clearly in John 1:18, "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known. Colossians 1:16 tells us that "by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. We see the same thing in John 1:3, "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." It is stated again in Romans 11:36 "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen."
God's Word leaves no question that Jesus is fully human and fully God. God's Word leaves no question concerning Jesus mission...Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
God the Father HAS SPOKEN TO US BY HIS SON, HE HAS SPOKEN TO US BY HIS SON...please listen to HIM, please listen...come to Jesus and be saved.
2 Cor 4:6 teaches us how God saves..."For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Look at HIS face, fix your eyes on Jesus, look unto Jesus revealed in HIS Word and be saved.
To those of us who are HIS children...walk in step with the Spirit, cry out for the Holy Spirit to fill you, for Christ to be incarnate in you, Christ in us the hope of glory. It is often said, there are 5 gospels...Matt, Mark, Luke and John and YOU...YOUR LIFE...people will not read the first 4 but they will read you...be Christ incarnate to a lost and dying World...Christ in us the hope of glory!
love,
m