A picture of God...

  

"And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature..."--Hebrews 1:3.  The Hebrew writer making a description of Christ not in the physical but in the attitude and nature of Christ.  The Hebrew writer describes Jesus as the EXACT representation of God's nature.  The Hebrew writer essentially says that Jesus Christ is a picture of God. 

A picture of God.  What comes to your mind when you think of God?  Is it something like the image shown above which is a portion from Michaelangelo's painting on the Sistine chapel roof? Or is it something like the other image, some mighty being coming out of the sky?  Well the above images are mere portraits of what people think God might look like.  It is the same with pictures of Jesus of what man thinks Christ looked like. They are simply a picture of God. 

A picture of God.  There is no way to determine what God physically is like.  Scripture does not tell us who He is physically but Scripture is crystal clear about who He is as a person and that's what matters to you and to me. Scripture might not paint a physical picture but regardless Scripture still paints a picture of God. 

A picture of God.  My initial suggestion based on this passage is that if you want a picture of God, look at Jesus. Jesus is an EXACT representation of God and that is simply because Jesus IS God! (Hebrews 1:8 and John 1:1, 14)  

A picture of God.  Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the exact representation of God's nature.  If you want a picture of God, look at Jesus. 

A picture of God.  So now what comes to your mind when you think of Jesus? His crucifixion? An empty tomb following His resurrection? His love? His compassion? The list goes on and on.

A picture of God.  If you want a picture of God look at Jesus.  

A picture of God.  So how can we look upon Jesus and get a picture of God? Well my encouragement to you is to go through the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and make a list of the characteristics of Christ you see in the gospels.  Paint your own picture of God using Christ's attributes. 

A picture of God.  Christ was loving.  Christ was compassionate.  Christ offered people salvation from their sins to everyone regardless of gender, age, social or economic status.  He offered people salvation from their sins no matter how long their list of past sins was.  This is just a small glimpse at a picture of God. 

A picture of God.  Unlike photographs that we take today, the picture of God we see in the Scriptures does not fade over time.  

A picture of God.  The picture of God we see in the Scriptures is as clear today as it was the day it was "taken" and the message is still the same.  Through Christ we see that God is loving, God is compassionate and He still offers salvation to all regardless of background, past sins, age, social or economic status and even regardless of their religious background.  The question is will we accept that salvation and obey the commands we find written in the pages of Scripture? 

A picture of God.  Maybe you have obeyed the gospel and somewhere you have allowed the picture of God to fade in your own life.  It is not too late to "Photoshop" that picture of God in your life and bring it back to it's original condition and re-commit your life to the Lord so that the world sees in you and in me also a picture of God. 

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!