The Glory of Christ (Hebrews 1:1-3)

Today I want to talk about the glory of Christ. My whole sermon can be summed up in this way: Christ is the reflection of glory, the expression of glory and the restoration of glory. Reflection, expression and restoration – those three words encompass everything I want to say about the glory of Christ. Let's read Hebrews, chapter one, the first three verses (read Hebrew 1:1-3, but only half of verse three). This passage speaks about the unique status of the Son. This isn't simply a man, or a prophet, or even a very holy person – though being a holy person is good! But this person, Jesus of Nazareth, is something more. He's God's Son, the Heir of all things, the effulgence of God's glory, and the exact image of God's being. Once I had a conversation with two sisters about the Holy Trinity, and I said something to them that might surprise you. I said, "If there were no Holy Trinity, God would be an egotist." Why? The answer is paradoxical. Why would God be an egotist? Because God is love. Of course, we don't usually associate love with egotism. But think about it: if there were no eternal Holy Trinity within God Himself, then whom did God love for all eternity? Before the creation, when there was no one but God alone, whom did the loving God love? After all, love can't be love if love doesn't love! I'll say it again: love can't be love if love doesn't love. Or to put it in grammatical terms: the noun "love" without the verb "to love" is nonsense – at best! At worst it's a fraud. If love isn't transmitted from one being to another, it turns into egotism. That's why I said that, if there were no Holy Trinity, God would turn out to be an egotist. Because there would be no one to love but Himself. But He is not an egotist, because even within the one God there is a plurality of Persons, and love has eternally been transmitted between them, in pure self-giving. This is the central truth of all that exists; this is the core of reality. That's why God's revelation of the Holy Trinity is one of the deepest, most precious and vital revelations, because in it the whole sense of love and life is accessible to us. God has loved eternally, and not merely on the level of theoretical principle but in actuality: the love that is partaken of within the Holy Trinity, without beginning and without end, is the origin of all love in all creation. There is no other source. Only God's love was first. Only God's love will be last. What does this tell us about Jesus and his glory? Think about it: Jesus is God's Son. God is love. That means, Jesus is the eternally beloved Son of the Father, the one whose face reflects the pure delight of the Father. There is no greater glory. The fullness of love consists in this delight. Sometimes at the Bible college we like to debate abstract concepts. But what knocks me out is that at the very center of all that exists there is an utterly un-abstract love. There has never been such a principle or concept as "love" in isolation from the eternal bonds of genuine, perpetually "moving" love between the Father and the Son. In the Holy Trinity there was never a theory or idea about love which was not at the same time a manifestation of love. God never had to strive to achieve an ideal of love, because He is love. In that light, imagine what Jesus' words really meant when he prayed: (read John 17:5). Imagine how Jesus' soul yearned for return to the Father, whatever the cost, even through the cross. And also in this light, it's clear why Jesus said to Philip: (read John 14:9-10). The Son abides in the Father's perpetual love, and this love happens to be the sole access to the Father. So it's not surprising that God's Son says: (read John 14:6-7). How could it be otherwise? It couldn't! If the sole access to the eternally loving God is love, and if Jesus Christ is the very center of the Father's love, then logic itself dictates there can't be any other access to the Father but through Jesus Christ. To circumvent Jesus would be to circumvent love itself! And how can you come to God if not by the way of love? Everything God desires is seen in the Son. Everything God offers is seen in the Son. All of God's love is seen in the Son. Who God is, is seen in the Son. That's why God declared before all the people: (Matt. 3:17) "This is My Son in Whom all My pleasure rests." The apostle Paul also speaks about this truth: (read 2 Cor. 4:6). And the first chapter of Hebrews, too: (read Heb. 1:3a). But before reading the second part of this verse, we'll go on to the second part of my sermon, which is: Christ is not only the reflection of glory but the expression of God's glory. What do I mean? Love must act, for the sake of the beloved. Real love is ready to risk everything, to go to the uttermost extreme for the beloved's sake. There's a certain word that describes such a manifestation of love. It's "grace". Grace is love in action, giving itself totally, risking everything. Jesus is the perfect expression of God's grace; He is God's love in action. This is precisely what the second half of verse three talks about! (read Heb. 1:3b). By giving up his very self, Jesus accomplished the cleansing of our sins. This is the expression of God's glory. For it is God's glory to forgive and to save. That's the meaning of Psalm 78: 9 (read). To forgive sins is God's glory, a direct manifestation of His love, and this was perfectly accomplished in Christ. Romans 9: 22-23 speaks of the same truth (read). On whom does God make known His glory? On vessels of mercy. God's glory is revealed in mercy and forgiveness. This mercy was consummated and this glory perfectly expressed in the Son, who said, in the house of Zaccheus (Luke 19:9-10): "Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." "To save that which was lost." This brings us to the last part of my sermon, i.e., that Christ is the restoration of glory. In his love towards the Father, the Son wants nothing other that the glorification of the Father. But to leave a fallen creation in a fallen, unredeemed state – that doesn't glorify the Creator; it doesn't reflect His goodness; it doesn't express His desire. To leave creation in such a state is inactive love – it's not love! The Son in his accomplishment of salvation is the restoration of everything to the Father's glory. As Jesus prayed in John 17:1-5 (read)…. "That they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." Jesus returns us to the knowledge of His beloved Father. The apostle Paul speaks of this restoration to glory in Romans 5: 1-2 (read)…. We have been restored to peace with God; once again we have access to God through Jesus Christ, and consequently a perfect hope of the glory of God. There is a restored relationship, a restored intimacy between God and His children. Paul speaks further about this in Romans 8:16-17 (read)…. The Son, who is heir of all things, has made us co-heirs with himself, having restored us to the full delight of God's inheritance. Jesus is the reflection of glory, the expression of glory and the restoration of glory. It sounds as if everything is in Him? Yes, it is. As Paul writes in Colossians 1:19-20 (read). Jesus Christ is the reflection of glory in the eternal love of the Holy Trinity. He is the expression of glory in his saving mission to the earth, and he is the restoration of everything, including you and me, to the glorification of his beloved Father forever.