When we see a child who looks exactly like his parent, we call him, “the spitting image.” No son has looked more like his father than Jesus. He is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,” the creed says. As Hebrews 1:3 puts it, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” The writer uses the image of the impression used to create a coin. In Colossians, Paul wrote, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (1:15). When Christ came to earth, He came to show us a living, breathing embodiment of God.
I Believe in Jesus, from God the Father
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Watch Week Three Day Two
Jesus, God’s Only Son
Jesus, Fully God
Jesus is God the Son, but He is just as fully God as God the Father and God the Spirit. Each member of the Trinity equally possesses all the attributes of God, like love, justice, and holiness. When the creed describes Jesus as “eternally begotten of the Father,” it is not saying that the Father created the Son. While there is great mystery within the Trinity, the term begotten helps describe the relationship between the Father and Son. The Father planned that the Son would come to earth and become man. Jesus willingly obeyed and was “begotten” because of the Father’s will. While He obeys the Father, Jesus is and has always been equally divine with the Father and Spirit.
Jesus, One with the Father
We believe in one God, eternally existent as three distinct persons. Jesus and the Father are one. They are in unity in being, in character, in purpose. Jesus told His disciples, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). He didn’t say “someone very similar to the Father.” Earlier in the gospel of John, Jesus explained, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me” (John 12:44–45). The Father and Son are of one purpose, so that all Jesus’ words and teachings came from the Father. He told His followers, “For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me” (John 12:49–50). God is infinitely more than we can comprehend. While respecting the mystery of the Trinity, we can be assured that Jesus is God’s only Son, He is fully God, and He is one with the Father.
Daily Question
How does the assurance that Jesus came from God deepen your understanding of Christ?
Comments (2)
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God spoke and he created the heavens and the earth and all things seen and unseen. God was disappointed with humanity and all they did without thought of him but chose to save 8 people and I am so glad for second third even fourth chances by a God who loves us so that his word us tells that the angle told Mary she would have a son and she shall name him Jesus and he who would save his people. I can’t fully comprehend Jesus being fully God and fully man at the same time but I can choose to believe that he is the indescribable gift too wonderful for words who knew what was before him endured the cross for us all sinners so we might one day ask for forgiveness and spend eternity with him forever. It’s like I said before in choosing to believe in Jesus I have nothing to lose and everything to gain one day.
Truthfully it confuses me BUT that does not diminish my belief! I do not need to understand everything in order to believe or have faith in something. I don’t understand how an engine works, but I have confidence that when I put it in drive it will take me to where I steer it to. I don’t understand electronics or the vast internet yet somehow I can be sitting here and send a picture or make a phone call and have either connect automatically to the person I am reaching out to immediately ….. even if they are many, many, many hours away.