[God]… in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high … (Hebrews 1:2–3)

Unique word that it is, “radiance,” found only here in the NT, is an apt description of the unique Son of God. The NKJV renders the word here in Hebrews 1:3 as “brightness” of His glory. In Mark 9:30, Jesus’ garments on the Mount of Transfiguration are described as “radiant” in English (NASB), but that translates a different Greek word. There, radiance seems to be symbolic of the glory of the person so clothed.

Artists often depict the glory of God as a bright radiance emanating out from God, like sun rays in the sky, possibly drawing from this very passage. Michelangelo, the Italian Renaissance artist, in his celebrated fresco, “The Last Judgment,” depicted the second coming of Christ as the central figure with an illuminated halo around His body. The empty tomb is often pictured with rays of light coming from the opening.

But Christ’s radiance must be more than a physical, optical manifestation. The writer of Hebrews himself had never seen the physical Christ (inferred from Hebrews 2-4), nor had his readers. Yet he portrays Christ as the continual radiance of God’s glory. Clearly this speaks of spiritual radiance. In Christ, we spiritually see the manifestation of God in all His glory. He does not show us just part of God’s glory as a little bit of radiance. He is the radiance. There is no part of the radiance of God’s glory that we do not see in Christ. That is why Jesus said to the apostle Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Earlier Jesus had told the disciples that He Himself was the only source of direct, firsthand information about God: “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father” (John 6:46).

Further, as John the apostle wrote, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:18). The word “explained” comes from a Greek word that means to exegete, or to draw out the full meaning and understanding.

So in order to know God in all His glory, we must know Christ (see John 17:3). Jesus is like a prism, through whom we see God in all His many facets. He is like a magnifying glass so we see the magnitude of God’s character. And no place do we see God’s glory more clearly than when we contemplate Jesus on the cross, where God and every aspect of His character is on full display!

Lord, as the visitors to Jerusalem said, “We wish to see Jesus.” (John 12:21)