Jesus 101
This week is on Hebrews 1:1-4:
This week is a short bit of awesomeness that summarizes the gospel in one paragraph. It's kind of a "Jesus 101" summary. If you already know everything there is to know about Jesus, you can probably skip this Bible study and go read Cosmo to find out if your man is cheating on you, or something. For the rest of us, this is good stuff:
Before Jesus, God mostly communicated only with specially chosen people, and usually to deliver a message on his behalf. You could go your whole life without hearing God's voice. Religion was something that you did as a group, and which was mostly handed down to you one way. You had the prophets and priests on top, and you had the sheep on the bottom. And if you did something you were ashamed of, you killed livestock to make up for it.
Jesus is God's exact perfect representation of himself. He is God. He was born into the world as a perfect example of what God's creation could be, and he died in place of his previous creation: us. Everything we would have had to strive to make up for, every shortcoming and mistake we've made as human beings, was paid for by Jesus. He takes our shame. I'm not a professional theologian who can explain to you in hours of meticulously latintastic greek detail on how that all mechanically works out, but I'm still thankful for Jesus' sacrifice.
So Jesus came alongside us, as our adopted brother, created by God while also being God, and invited us into his family. After he canceled our debts with his life, he invited us to share his inheritance. What's his inheritance? Everything! And we can approach him directly now, as an invited member of his household, not as a sheep talking to a shepherd who then talks to his master and owner.
God's name is superior to all of the angels. We don't put much stock in family names these days, but in days past, what family you were part said a lot about what resources you had access to. If your name was Plantagenet or Tudor or Hohenzollern or Rockefeller or Kennedy or Vanderbilt or some other rich and powerful family, chances are you also had money and power. We remember names of angels, but those are ordinary names compared to the name of God. The name of Jesus is more powerful than other names. It is richer.
If you don't understand any of this stuff, take some time this week and read through some of the new testament. Jesus Christ is the basis of our faith as Christians. In worshiping him, it's important to go beyond just being thankful because he gave us chocolate cake and healed our sickness, and see that he is God, and how great that is.
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
This week is a short bit of awesomeness that summarizes the gospel in one paragraph. It's kind of a "Jesus 101" summary. If you already know everything there is to know about Jesus, you can probably skip this Bible study and go read Cosmo to find out if your man is cheating on you, or something. For the rest of us, this is good stuff:
Before Jesus, God mostly communicated only with specially chosen people, and usually to deliver a message on his behalf. You could go your whole life without hearing God's voice. Religion was something that you did as a group, and which was mostly handed down to you one way. You had the prophets and priests on top, and you had the sheep on the bottom. And if you did something you were ashamed of, you killed livestock to make up for it.
Jesus is God's exact perfect representation of himself. He is God. He was born into the world as a perfect example of what God's creation could be, and he died in place of his previous creation: us. Everything we would have had to strive to make up for, every shortcoming and mistake we've made as human beings, was paid for by Jesus. He takes our shame. I'm not a professional theologian who can explain to you in hours of meticulously latintastic greek detail on how that all mechanically works out, but I'm still thankful for Jesus' sacrifice.
So Jesus came alongside us, as our adopted brother, created by God while also being God, and invited us into his family. After he canceled our debts with his life, he invited us to share his inheritance. What's his inheritance? Everything! And we can approach him directly now, as an invited member of his household, not as a sheep talking to a shepherd who then talks to his master and owner.
God's name is superior to all of the angels. We don't put much stock in family names these days, but in days past, what family you were part said a lot about what resources you had access to. If your name was Plantagenet or Tudor or Hohenzollern or Rockefeller or Kennedy or Vanderbilt or some other rich and powerful family, chances are you also had money and power. We remember names of angels, but those are ordinary names compared to the name of God. The name of Jesus is more powerful than other names. It is richer.
If you don't understand any of this stuff, take some time this week and read through some of the new testament. Jesus Christ is the basis of our faith as Christians. In worshiping him, it's important to go beyond just being thankful because he gave us chocolate cake and healed our sickness, and see that he is God, and how great that is.
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