When you think of God, do you picture him sitting on a cloud with a lightning bolt in hand ready to strike? Many people do. Many are waiting for the day that God will punish them for their mistakes, sins and messes. Thinking it is just a matter of time before it all catches up with them.
Perhaps this imagery is propelled by the notion that God is angry with mankind because of their sins. We look at them, see our failures, where we struggle and assume that God feels the same way. However, these ideas are not the picture of God which is painted in the Bible. We can understand God by looking at Jesus.
Jesus Has Revealed God to Us
"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" ( Hebrews 1:3 )
A few days before His death, Jesus was giving last minute instructions to his disciples. He told them, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." ( John 14:6-7 ).
Throughout his ministry Jesus said these types of things. He told people that He was God's son, He only did what he saw God doing and that they've seen God by seeing him. These statements fuel hatred toward him on many occasions, but He was clear in communicating that He came to reveal God to mankind in a way that we had not understood Him in the past. "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known" ( John 1:18 ).
Jesus is the perfect imprint of God's nature manifest in the flesh. "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being" ( Hebrews 1:3a ). Jesus is the visible demonstration of the divine. He is the outpouring of God's radiance and glory. To understand God's full nature, we must look at, understand and know who Jesus is and know what part He had to play in history.
Over the next three days we will look at Hebrews 1:3; understanding that it is Jesus who shows us the Father by both creation and purification for sins. Both of these things were implemented by Jesus and give us a picture of God’s love and nature. Jesus shows us the exact image of God by the work He has done.
Tomorrow we look at Part 2: Mankind Grew out of God’s Desire for a Family
