Christ – the Wisdom of God

For the Lord’s Day:  the 20th of October 2002

Hebrews 1: 3a 

In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son …
He is the radiance of the glory of God.

 

Introduction:  John Owen speaks of the glories described in the whole of verse three in these magnificent words:  “This description of the person in whom God spoke in the revelation of the Gospel has three parts: first, declaring what he is; second, what he does, or did; and , third, the consequence of the first two.” 

Raymond Brown waxes just as eloquently in his description of the more limited intent of our short text for today:  “For the Hebrew people, the glory of God was a visible and outward expression of the majestic presence of God.”  John Brown further intones: “When Jesus Christ is termed “the brightness of God’s glory,” the idea intended to be conveyed seems to be this, the true and proper representation of the infinite perfection of the Deity. … The glory of God is the supreme beauty of His perfections, His holy, wise, and benignant excellency – that moral goodness, without which omnipotence, eternity, and immensity, would be awful, but not lovely.  This perfect glory, this complete divine majesty, resides in Christ, and shines forth from Him, so that He is the communicator of its knowledge and enjoyment of mankind.”

Both Brown and Bruce allude to a firmer translation of the complexity inherent in the thought and words written here to describe Christ as “the glorious effulgence.”  F.F. Bruce gives us an exposition of the term derived from an Alexandrian Book of Wisdom, where “Wisdom is said to be:

… a breath of the power of God,
And a clear effluence of the glory of the Almighty;
… an effulgence from everlasting light,
And an unspotted mirror of the working of God,
And an image of His goodness.” 

Further, he explains that “the word ‘effulgence’ used both there and [in our text] denotes the radiance shining from the source of light; and Philo similarly uses it of the Logos in relation to God.”

Paul in 2 Corinthians 4: 2b-6 lifts the personification of such a divine attribute to the higher level evident also in the mind of the author before us today.  “We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.  And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.  In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Morris and Burdick summarize our grasping at the meaning of the text in these simple words:  “’Glory’ can be used of literal brightness.  However, it is more commonly used in the New Testament of the radiance associated with God and with heavenly beings in general. ‘Glory’ sometimes indicates the presence of God and, to the extent that man is able to apprehend it, the revelation of God’s majesty.” As we have already read, both the radiance and the apprehension are mentioned in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.

Development:  To further comprehend the glories intended by the apostolic authors, we have to go back to the Old Covenant record.  In the book of Exodus 34: 5- 7 “The Lord passed before [Moses] and proclaimed ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

At the time this event occurred, the massive cloud overwhelmed the holy mountain where God had descended in all His glory.  A similar pillar led the people of Israel from Sinai towards the Promised Land.  But not all of the people sensed the nature of the glorious presence.  They died in their thousands there in the desert.  Some heard not the voice of the Almighty but only associated thundering related to the clouded top of the mountain.  These were the ones who worshipped the golden calf and tempted the God of Israel there in the desert.

1. John Brown describes this “visible glory which was an emblem of the presence of God with His ancient people.  This visible glory was seen by Moses in the bush, - it resided in the miraculous cloud which conducted Israel out of Egypt, - it appeared on Mount Sinai, at the giving of the law, - took possession of the tabernacle, where it sometimes appeared to all the people, but more ordinarily in the Holy of Holies within the vail, hovered over the mercy-seat between the cherubim.”

But, all of this is God’s work in establishing the “type” of One who would come in His own very person and Son!  What I mean is this; we cannot understand “the valley of the shadow of death” in the beloved Twenty-third Psalm unless we realize that some great and glorious light beyond the power of death reduces it to being merely a shadow!  And when we speak of the shadow of Christ being revealed in the Old Covenant texts, we are onto the same context of understanding the shadowy glory experienced in the history of Israel. 

Symbolically the great curtain that separated the holy of holies within the Temple was ripped asunder when Jesus died on the cross.  The true Glory of Israel had died for the sins of His own people and little did many realize what had truly happened.  From that time on, no longer was the shadow of His presence within the Temple a valid concept – since the Glory of God had appeared in person and accomplished all that the Old Covenant records had pointed towards.

The Apostle John affirms the theme which we are getting at today in the very first chapter of his Gospel of Glory:  John 1: 9 & 14 “The true light which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

2. But, of course there is in the grandness of this glory another theme, just as rich in tradition and utility to the church of Jesus Christ.  And this parallel theme is more widely found in the wisdom literature of the Old Covenant.  And for this reason have I titled the message for today as:  “Christ – the Wisdom of God”!  You see, just as we understand the whole of the Old Covenant economy to point towards the picture of Christ in the various types of characters representing His promise, priesthood, kingship and prophetic influence and glory, so too must we realize the ulterior wisdom of the Creator God in providing the person of Christ to achieve the salvation of His people who by the power of the Holy Spirit could and would understand just Who Jesus was and what He accomplished.

To illustrate this wisdom of God being revealed in the Old Testament, may I urge you to turn with me to the book of Proverbs 8: 22-31 where the Wisdom of God is speaking boldly of His work and witness.

“²² The Lord possessed [fathered] me at the beginning of his work,
 the first of his acts of old.
²³ Ages ago I was set up, at the first,
 before the beginning of the earth.
²⁴ When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
²⁵ Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth,
²⁶ before he had made the earth with its fields,
or the first of the dust of the world.
²⁷ When he established the heavens, I was there;
 when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
²⁸ when he made firm the skies above,
 when he established the fountains of the deep,
²⁹ when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
³⁰                    Then I was beside him, like a master workman,
And I was daily his delight,
Rejoicing before him always,
³¹ Rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man. 

Do you sense in that passage, the presence of Christ?  I am sure that many of my Seminary professors would be disappointed in my scholarship here which was suggested by John Owen?  But, as you read through the passage in Proverbs, how much of the context of these opening verses of Hebrews is already in place, almost a thousand years before the apostle penned the glorious summary epistle to the doctrines listed! 

Application:  One final point before we close.  Fifteen years ago, when I was writing a paper for my ordination trials I took up this theme from the Gospel of John.  “You shall know the correct doctrine and that truth will make you free,” was how I translated John 8:32 and which verse was the focus of the chapter of text that I translated and explained from the Greek.  The correct doctrine in that chapter was the fact that Jesus and the Father were one and the same.  And when we realize that essential truth we are not far from the gospel of grace. 

Raymond Brown tells us that the “early Christians knew only too well that their non-Christian Jewish neighbours refused to acknowledge the deity of Christ, [and] in Christ all the majesty of God’s splendour is fully revealed.”

Just as the realtor trade can be summed up in the words: “location, location, location”; so too can the purpose of the scriptural text be summed up in a similar focus: “content, content, content”!  Knowing what the scriptures say and mean is the whole responsibility of the Bride of Christ, the Church – in all ages!  Not only that essential content is to be shared, but also the ancient injunction from the voice of Wisdom Himself, which we may find at the end of Proverbs 8: 32-36:

³² “And now, O sons, listen to me:
blessed are those who keep my ways.
³³ Hear instruction and be wise,
                and do not neglect it.
³⁴ Blessed is the one who listens to me,
                watching daily at my gates,
                waiting beside my doors.
³⁵ For whoever finds me finds life
                and obtains favor from the Lord,
³⁶  But he who fails to find me injures himself;
                all who hate me love death.”

 It is only one small step from that text to the glorious gospel of grace in its full revelation in the very person of “Christ – the Wisdom of God.!”
May we be granted the knowledge described therein and know the Wisdom of God in the revealed Person of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

 

Brown, John.  A Geneva Series Commentary: Hebrews.

Brown, Raymond.  The Bible Speaks Today: The Message of Hebrews.

Bruce, F.F. The Epistle to the Hebrews.

Owen, John:  Commentary on Book of Hebrews.

Morris & Burdick.  The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews & James.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version

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