Thursday 29 December 2016

Psalm: Psalm 96:1-6

Background

This Christmas season, we are able to take some time to realisethat, through Jesus, God has moved into the neighbourhood. Theearly Christian leaders spent a long time debating Jesus' humanityand divinity - a debate which was raging long before the4th-century councils which eventually settled on Jesus' fulldivinity and full humanity.

This prologue exemplifies this debate, and focuses on thedivinity of Jesus. The entire sermon of the book of Hebrews beginswhat is a lengthy apologetic on the nature of God, the divinity ofChrist, and the legitimacy of following Jesus over the requirementsof the law. To the original readers of this letter, the writer usesimagery and language which related to their life and experience.There is talk of angels. There are lists of genealogies. There is afocus on the transformative power of the Spirit of God, active andpresent in our midst.

The writer recognises that God has been speaking throughouthuman history, but that in Jesus we find a full revelation of God'scharacter. Significantly God not only speaks into the lives ofGod's chosen people, but also has become human. The very essence ofGod, God's exact representation, can be found in the person ofJesus. The Contemporary English Version translates this as "God'sSon has all the brightness of God's own glory and is like him inevery way".

Jesus alone is the definitive disclosure of the nature and beingof God. Jesus is higher than the angels. For a moment in ourhistory, God put skin on, lived with us and dwelt amongst us;showing us the power and cost of love. In a world of negativeheadlines, conflicts, debt, despair and feuding - it is importantfor us to remember the 'brightness of God's own glory' - which hasthe power to transform our Black Fridays and Blue Mondays into RedLetter Days.

To Ponder

• Why did Jesus' divinity matter to the writer?

• Why does Jesus' divinity matter to us today? And to you?

• Where do you need Jesus to reveal more of his power in yourlife today?

• Find out about Red Letter Christians, and find one thing to dotoday which brings the brightness of God's glory into theworld.