Why Jesus Is Better (Hebrews 1:3-14)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

What makes Jesus better than any alternative?

Throughout history, many claimed to be God. But what makes Jesus different?

Hebrews 1:3-4 says,

^3 “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. ⁴ So he became superior to the angels, just as the name he inherited is more excellent than theirs.”

There are several critical points to note. First, the glory of God is like a great beacon of light that magnifies the character and essence of God. Jesus Christ is the radiance or brightness that comes forth from that light—meaning he is much more than just a mere reflection. Gareth Cockerill writes, “Just as the radiance of a light is one with the light and yet distinct from it, so the Son is One with the Father in essence, yet is distinct from Him. Just as the light rays reveal what the light truly is because they are part of that reality, so the Son reveals what God truly is because He is One with the Father.”[1]

Contrary to false teachers who say you and I can have the same authority and power as Christ, the author of Hebrews points out that Jesus is different. He is the “exact expression” of God the Father. N.T. Wright notes,

At the bottom of it all, in the ancient world, lies the idea of engraving, or of stamping soft or hot metal with a pattern which the metal will then continue to bear. Though the ancient world didn’t have printing presses such as we have had since William Caxton in the fifteenth century, it had early equivalents that were used, particularly, for making coins. The emperor would employ an engraver who carved the royal portrait, and suitable words or abbreviations, on a stamp, or die, made of hard metal. The engraver used the stamp to make a coin, so that the coin gave the exact impression, or indeed expression, of what was on the stamp.

The word character in ancient Greek was widely used to mean just that: the accurate impression left by the stamp on the coin. From there it came to mean both the individual letters that could be produced by this method (hence the ‘characters’ of a language) and the ‘character’, in the broader sense, of a person or thing: the sort of person, the ‘type’ if you like (think about that word, too). And this is what our writer is saying about Jesus. It is as though the exact imprint of the father’s very nature and glory has been precisely reproduced in the soft metal of the son’s human nature. Now it is there for all the world to see.^[2]

Verse 3 goes on to say that Jesus made purification for our sins. He accomplished this when he died on the cross as the substitution for our sins. When Christ died on the cross, he paid the penalty for our sins. The result is that Christ now sits where he belongs, at the right-hand side of God the Father. This is a position of honor, authority, and power. It also indicates Christ sits in subordination to the will of God the Father.