GOD’S RESUME: HE SPEAKS
Hebrews 1:1-2 (NIV 1984) 1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…
Imagine you were a repentant atheist who had decided to believe in a god, yet uncertain about which one to choose. Would you not begin an in-depth search, looking at the many different religions in order to examine the god(s) they worship. Here in our short passage the writer gives us a resume of the Christian god, a Jewish man who, from our perspective, lived over two-thousand years ago and died in his early thirties at the hands of politicians who didn’t like him. The resume is quite stunning! It’s short, but power-packed, having only two sentences, but containing an eternity of information. Imagine getting a resume from a potential employee that only had two sentences. You would throw it in the trash, or would you? What if you were able to tell in two sentences that the candidate was so much more qualified than all the others’? Would you not then toss the others out and pursue this one with everything you are? No salary, no demands the candidate would make would be unreasonable. Our little resume lists eight attributes of this Jewish man they called Jesus, covering the distant past, present and the not so distant future. It says all you need to know, if you were a repentant atheist looking for a god to believe in, that is. Let’s see if it meets your expectations. We’ll start with the first one.
“In the past, God spoke ... through prophets at many times and in various ways. We have a record of that past interaction in what is called the Old Testament, and if you were a repentant atheist you could read the Old Testament and find many of the attributes of the Christian God, but they are in bits and pieces, sort of a puzzle, scattered throughout 39 books within a Book. “In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” We have that record in what is called the New Testament. Jesus is God’s message to us. The late David Pawson helps us here by explaining that in the New Testament the bits and pieces of the Old are put together like a box cover showing us what the puzzle looks like when put together. On the cover of the box is Jesus, the Son of God, the Father. Jesus is the message of the Father, bits and pieces united. He is God’s Word to us in human form (Jn 1:1.14). “Word” is from the Greek word “logos” where we get our suffix “ology”, which is the study of certain things; therefore, Jesus is the perfect study of … wait for it … God. Jesus, Himself, even says, if we have seen Him we have seen the Father, God (Jn 14:9). They are the same! If you were a repentant atheist you would probably not want a god who is distant and does not communicate with people, you would want one who speaks. Well, point one on the resume: here is a god who speaks, going even to the extremes of putting His word in human form to communicate it visually, audibly, and clearly. All of What God has said, is saying, and will say is found in one man, in a Jewish man, named Jesus.
