Jesus Faced

What Did Jesus Do?

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person...
Hebrews 1.3

Although I rather doubt that the average high school graduate could identify them, I suspect that most people over fifty could easily identify the iconic images of Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington on the penny, nickel, and quarter, respectively. Talented sculptors at the U. S. mint, working from paintings and photographs (At least in the case of Lincoln), have rendered the profiles of these presidents so well that we can easily recognize who is represented on the coins. But even the best of the likenesses on these coins is hardly perfect.

Before the advent of cloning, which has yet to work out all the kinks in the process, the closest thing to perfect “likeness” in creation have been so-called identical twins. Yet, even the most “identical” of twins have differences that can be measured between them. But not so with the Father and the Son. The Son is not a likeness, not a twin, certainly not a clone of the Father. Rather, for all eternity, the exact and complete re of the Father, in every aspect of its fullness, is in the Son; the Father and Son are, as Jesus told His disciples, one. (See John 17.11, 20-26)

So it was that Jesus could answer Philip, when he asked the Lord to show the Father to the disciples, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14.9) Truly, the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6.24-26 was fulfilled in the Incarnation. All who beheld Jesus encountered the shining face of God. No icon, image, or likeness, the Son, bearing the very re of the Father, was lifted up on the cross, the countenance of the LORD giving peace to all who receive Him.

Theologians distinguish between General Revelation and Special Revelation. God is revealed, generally, throughout all of creation; the works of the Maker bear evidence of the existence and re of God. But it is in the Son alone, the very Word of God made flesh, that the Father has specially revealed all the fullness of his grace and truth, and his glory, to the end that all who see and believe on Jesus Christ know the only true God, and receive eternal life. (John 17.3)

The face of God was not revealed in any of the carved, painted, or sculpted images of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans. God’s countenance is not to be found in statues of Buddha or any of the many gods of the Hindus. Certainly, all who look anywhere but to Jesus search vainly for God.

Since our expulsion from Eden we have sought to again behold the glory of the face of God, our Maker. It was the Father’s plan for the Son, in the fullness of time, to make his face shine upon Man, that our relationship with our Creator should be restored. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4