JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

211
Jesus is the radiance or reflection of God's glory. This means that Jesus is the radiance
which streams from God or that Jesus is the reflection of God in whom infinity and eternity are
made visible to humanity in time and space. God sent His light in the Person of Jesus Christ that
we might see, accept, and radiate that light.
● He is the "exact representation" of God (Heb 1:3). The word "representation"
(charakter) means "the impress" or "stamp" of whatever it represents. It means an exact replica,
copy or reproduction. The point of the author is that Jesus bears the very stamp of God, the
impress of His being. Just as the image and superscription on a coin exactly and perfectly
correspond to the device on the die, so the Son of God "bears the very stamp of God's nature"
(Revised Standard Version). He is the exact reproduction of God. In Jesus there is a clear and
accurate picture of what God is.
The New International Version translation adds the word "exact" to give the full sense of
the meaning of this word. Therefore Christ is the exact representation—the perfect copy and
embodiment of God. What God essentially is, is made manifest in Christ. To see Christ is to see
what the Father is like.
Charakter also came to mean "a distinguishing mark," a mark by which a person or thing
could be clearly distinguished from other persons or things. The mark of the seal brings about
such a distinction and identification. This meaning is very close to the English word "character"
or "characteristic." This is the distinguishing mark which makes a person the person he is.
Therefore, to call Jesus the charakter of God is to see in His person the character of God
reproduced. As the charakter of God, Jesus is the one in whom the essential character of God is
accurately and completely displayed and reproduced. In Jesus God makes Himself uniquely
known to people in a form (physical) which all people can see and thus somewhat understand.
● He is very the "form God" and "equal with God" (Php 2:3).
A key passage in which Paul reveals his understanding of Jesus is Philippians 2:5-11.
Here Paul traces Christ's life from eternity past, when He was in the form of God and equal to
God, through the events of His earthly life to eternity future, where He once again is glorified
with the Father.
"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very form God, did not consider equality with God something to
be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very form of a servant, being
made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God
exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and
under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Christ the Lord, to the
glory of God the Father."