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It is from this reality of God wanting to invite us into eternal relationships that God the Son came to be born. A pattern exists in the ministry of Christ that will eventually involve us, and it starts with Him being a Son sent by God the Father. He did not send an angel, nor volunteer an Israelite king, but He sent His own Son on a mission from heaven. Notice what Hebrews 1:1-3 says. God, after He spoke long ago by the prophets to the fathers in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us through a Son, whom He appointed heir of everything, through whom also He made the ages. And He is the outshining of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and He continually holds everything together by a short utterance from His power. When He made a cleansing of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High. This passage argues powerfully for the deity of Jesus Christ. Look at it again carefully. Jesus, the passage states, is the outshining of God's glory, and the detailed, exact representation of God's nature. When the sun shines, does any difference exist between the outshining of the sun and the sun itself? Jesus could not be called the exact representation of God’s nature without being able to match Him attribute for attribute. If one is not deity, matching deity is very hard. Omniscience, knowing everything: omnipresence, being present everywhere; and omnipotence, being infinitely powerful, are either practiced with the ease of the divine or are impossible in the attempt. Christ can match the abilities of God the Father because He too is deity. Hupastasios, the Greek word for nature, is "the sustaining structure or nature of a being." This verse says Christ is the exact representation of what sustains God. This passage also says that Jesus carries everything along by a short utterance. God the Son walked into the emptiness of space and said, "Be and go." Suddenly a universe appeared. Since the beginning of time, His few words have sustained all. How many individuals can create and sustain a universe with three words? The thought implies unusual, if not divine, ability. What a combination -- the One who bears the entire universe along by a short utterance of power died for that universe. What a God! He could create everything and then look at what He created and say, "What I have created is worth dying for." What a compliment to you! All of that creative energy proclaims, "What I made wasn't meaningless. My image marks humanity. I am the only One who knows its value." Because He knows your value, He was willing to die for you and establish your worth forever. We have seen who and what the Son is. God invested a Son in this mission of salvation. Now the next step in the pattern of His life was being sent. Philippians 2:5-8 tells us Christ's perspective regarding His mission and the perspective that we should have as well. Have this common understanding going on among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus: Though He was in the external display of God continually, He did not assume equality with God something to be firmly or desperately held onto. But He emptied Himself of that external display [just pouring it out on the ground of Golgotha], while taking the external display of a slave. Morphae, the Greek term for external display, refers to "what is visible and seen.' Jesus was visible in heaven as deity. His was the external display of deity. He displayed Himself as divine. Anything God the Father could do, He could imitate. Being the exact representation of the nature of deity, He did not desperately hold on to His equality with God. He willingly exchanged the external display of deity for the service of a slave! Other religions may claim to have wise teachers; they may posture with pride over the greatness of their deities. Christianity rises above them all. Christianity is the only movement and religion that has a noble God. Other so-called gods invest nothing in their creation. The Bible claims that at the heart of everything is God’s good heart; at the center of all is a God who died for us. The question for the non-Christian is: Does he or she want to exist in a universe with a God who already has suffered in his or her place? Jesus was a Son who was sent on a mission. This mission was one of suffering service. Mark 10:45 says: For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his soul (His life) a ransom in place of the many. Christ
invited suffering into His own soul so that He could present that
suffering as a satisfaction to God. In the context of
Isaiah 53 and
Romans 5 the suffering was for
those who would be rescued by His blood and accept His friendship.
His service led directly to the cross. As the baby Jesus laid
in the manger, the shadow of the cross was already falling across
the infant. But He emptied Himself, while taking the external display of a slave, being in the likeness of men, and as far as external characteristics are concerned being found as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, the death of the cross. Remember the image. Here is the external display of deity. He looks at YOU and says, "This glory is not as important to me as you." Then He steps out of heaven onto the earth to take on the form of a slave. He lives out the life of a man. Then he becomes obedient to death on a cross. You were more important to him than the pain. Notice the result of Jesus’ sacrifice in verse 9: Wherefore also God highly exalted and freely gave to Him the Name or reputation which is above every reputation. Since Jesus freely set aside His majesty to die on the cross, God the Father gave Him the greatest reputation in the universe. No one has ever done or will ever do the same. Since the Son has acted so nobly, the Father wants the teeming life of the universe to acknowledge who the Son is and what He has done. Philippians 2:10 reveals to us the Father's intention: In relationship to the Name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in the upper heavens, upon earth and under the earth. Sooner or later, those in Hell, those on the earth, and those who fill the heavens will have to kneel before Christ, acknowledging who He is and the beauty of what He has done. All non-Christians will have to acknowledge what they were worth to God (God gave His Son for them) before being sent into outer darkness. For if they want no part of a God who already died for them, God does them the favor of sending them where God is not present: Hell. Notice the pattern. God sent His Son, His Son served, God's Son suffered, and then after His resurrection, the Son ascended. After His ascension, He was rewarded. God established the pattern with His Son. For you and me He has chosen the same. He could not think of a greater destiny for us than to participate in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ today. No greater destiny is possible for a mature daughter or son than to participate in the life and ministry of the first-born Son. God the Son, then, is of crucial import. He defines the quality of love that God has for us: God was willing to give a Son on our behalf. He defines the kind of lifestyle that God wants for us: He wants us to pattern our lives after the Son. He defines the quality of friendship that God wants with women and men: He wants to share a Father-Son relationship with us.
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hristianity is different than Judaism
or Islam in that three persons share the nature of the one God.
This means that loving relationships existed eternally and that
believers have the joy of participating in the eternal
relationships. Our existence did not create the possibility of
relationship for God, but instead we enter into the eternally
existing love relationship between the Father and the Son. God
was not lonely before we arrived: instead, we have the
privilege of entering into the richest set of relationships ever.
