Food for the Journey - an extract from Hebrews

New for this month is the 365-day devotional Food for the Journey. This volume contains the best teaching from the most-well known speakers from over the years at the Keswick Convention. These readings will teach, inspire and encourage from across the whole canon of scripture.

Throughout July and August we will be sharing inspiring quotes, Scripture passages and extracts to celebrate this new release.

Today's extract is from Hebrews

Day 35
Read Hebrews 1:1–3; 2:1–18
Key verse: Hebrews 1:3

3The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact repres- entation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

‘What is truth?’ asked Pilate, the Roman governor (John 18:38).
That is a universal question that most people ask at some point. Is there such a thing as truth?

Today it is unpopular to talk about absolute truth. Truth is whatever works for you. Your opinions and assertions are just as valid as mine. But Jesus went beyond that to claiming to be the truth. He claimed to be the truth about:

• God. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. Every- thing Jesus is, God is. Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:12, ‘I know whom I have believed’ (italics added). He does not say, ‘I know what I have believed.’ Knowing what you believe is important, but Christianity is about knowing someone, not something! We can learn facts about God, such as that he is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), omnipresent (in all places), eternal and immutable (unchanging), but these truths won’t establish a relationship and provoke us to love him. The more we know, love and trust Jesus, the more we will know, love and trust God. In fact, it is only when we know Christ that we know God.

• Humanity. Hebrews 1:3 is speaking not just about Jesus’ deity but also his humanity. Human beings were created in God’s image, to portray the truth about him (Genesis 1:27). That means that if you were to look at Adam, you would see the visible, physical portrayal of the invisible, spiritual God. Adam would be kind because God was kind. The way Adam treated Eve, the way they looked afterthe animals and tended the garden, showed what God was like. But together they sinned, and God’s image was tarnished. Their life and behaviour no longer showed what God was like. Jesus came as the ‘second man’, the ‘last Adam’ (1 Corinthians 15:45). He is the radiance of God’s glory, the truth about God that humanity was intended to express. We were created, and are now redeemed, to portray a physical and visible expression of the moral character of God, of which Jesus was the prototype.

Schools, the government, magazines and the media inform our thinking about what it means to be human. They shape our moral character by subtly, in a myriad of different ways, influencing our values, priorities and attitudes.

Select and read an account from one of the Gospels. What do you learn in the character of Jesus about the character of God? How is this to be your character too?

Today, Jesus is our life, and his character is to be expressed in every task, conversation and encounter. ask the Holy spirit to live the character of Christ in you. as King David prayed:

Show me your ways, Lord,
teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my saviour,
and my hope is in you all day long.
(Psalm 25:4–5)

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