Hebrews 1:3
To understand what this verse is saying will require that we also
understand what the glory of God implies. To get this understanding will
require that we go to Isaiah 6. In this passage, the prophet saw in a
vision, angels worshipping God and saying, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord
of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory." If when the angels
looked at God, and what they saw was His holiness, it would have been
logical for them, when they looked at the earth, to also see His
holiness. But what we have is that though they saw His holiness when
they beheld His face, yet when they looked at the earth, what they saw
was the glory of God. In other words, what was seen in heaven as the
holiness of God translated into His glory on earth.
When the author of the book of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews 1:3 that
Christ is the brightness of the glory of God, what he meant is that the
holiness that the angels beheld in Isaiah's vision has become
personified in the person of Jesus Christ. In Him exudes the very
holiness of the Godhead. So when John wrote in John 1:14 that they
beheld the glory of the only begotten of the Father, what he meant is
that in Christ, the fullness of all that can be seen in the Godhead, was
complete, it was a glory that was full of grace and truth. All the
graces in God, His holiness, wisdom, eternal power, love, kindness, etc,
were complete in Christ. He was the personification of everything that
the grace of God implied.
Toni
