Seeking God
A New Commentary on Hebrews 1:1-2a
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…. -Hebrews 1:1-2a
Who is God?
Some turn to scholarly authors for answers. Many of these writers try to answer the question of God by synthesizing opinions of various religions. This is a real challenge given the incredible variety of responses given by the world’s religions. For example:
Muslims refer to God by the name Allah when asserting that God is tawhid, or radically one and cannot be divided.
For Hindus, the ultimate reality is an impersonal force underlying all things. The gods, like Vishnu, Parvati, and Shiva, are a pantheon representing ultimate reality, which they call Brahman.
Buddhism shifts the question completely as the search for a creator God becomes a search for personal enlightenment and the escape from human suffering.
Pulling such disparate ideas together into one definition of God seems insurmountable. Indeed, every writer I have heard of fails. Rather than offering their reader a helpful answer to the question, they provide a retelling of the story of God which promotes their own modern, secular opinion on the matter. It is far better to seek our answer by diving deeper into one of the many answers.
Christianity offers an answer to the question is different from all of the options above.
Christianity acknowledges the challenge of understanding the true nature of God. Unlike Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or secular opinion, however, Christianity tells us to turn to Jesus if we want to know more about God.
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. -John 1:18
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. -Hebrews 1:3a
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. -1 John 1:3
For Christians, then, the question of God is most clearly answered by a deepened knowledge of Jesus.
Richard Bauckham, senior scholar of theology and New Testament at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, argues that the four gospels of the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are “substantially reliable sources for knowing quite a lot about Jesus.”1 The four gospels give us “…more than one angle on a complex figure.”2 Despite being thousands of years old, these ancient texts give insight into the way that Jesus’ contemporaries experienced him. They also illustrate how knowing him affected their lives. Dr. Bauckham’s book “Jesus: A Very Short Introduction” 3 is not a story of Bauckham’s view of God. It is an overview of the meaning and interpretation of the people who knew Jesus in the first century. His approach is so helpful to a deepened understanding of Jesus that I am preparing a summary of the book in next week’s Substack post.
Here are some introductory statements from Bauckham’s book to get us started:
Jesus is “…undoubtedly the best known and most influential human person in world history.”4
Jesus is unique in his crossing of countries and cultures. “…no other figure has so extensively crossed the cultural divisions of humanity and found a place in so many diverse cultural contexts.”5
Jesus has crossed the boundaries of religion. He is found in the Quran and is interpreted favorably in Hinduism and Buddhism.
Jesus crosses the genres of media: “No other figure has inspired so much art, literature, music and even film.” 6
Jesus is the focus of two billion of our contemporaries’ relationship with God and an essential guide to their way of life.
Given such facts then, says Dr. Bauckham, learning about Jesus from the four gospels of the Bible “…seems to me a kind of knowledge of Jesus that is well worth having, whatever we choose to do with it.”7
More next week!
Bauckham, p. 6.
Ibid, p. ix.
Among Dr. Bauckham’s numerous books is a more detailed analysis of the historical reliability of the gospels entitled, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.
Op.Cit., p. 1.
Ibid, p. 1-2.
Ibid, p. 2.
ibid, p. xii.