Hebrews 1:2b-3 contains seven statements about Christ, the Son of God. This post examines the fourth of those seven statements: [The Son] is … the exact imprint of his nature. As I did in the first post in this series, I’ll start with the ending phrase and then move forward to the first phrase.
- His Nature
The his, of course, refers to God the Father. It’s God’s nature our text is referring to.
The word nature means substance, essence or being. It’s the essential nature of something. God’s nature, then, is what God really is, and this statement tells us that Christ is the “exact imprint ” of what God really is.
- The Exact Imprint
The word translated exact imprint is the word used for an impression made on metal by a die or by a stamp on hot wax. The word was also used more generally for anything that was a copy of an original, or for something that is just like the thing it comes from.
The point of saying that Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature is to tell us that the Son shows us exactly what God is. Christ is exactly like God, not just like him in a few ways, but of exactly the same essence or being. Christ is essentially identical to God. Paul says something very similar in Colossians 1:15 when he says that Christ is “is the image of the invisible God.”It’d be possible, I suppose, for the word “imprint” to lead us in the wrong direction were it not for the rest of the phrase. An imprint is often something less than the original, like the imprint of a stamp is less than the whole stamp; but in this case, we know that Christ is the imprint of what God really is—the whole of God’s essence or being— so he can’t be anything less than what God is.However, while an exact imprint is just like the original, it is also distinct from it, and this may well be another of the truths that our author is expressing by the word “exact imprint.” Christ is exactly like the Father; he shows us the Father perfectly; he is of the same nature or being as the Father; yet he is distinct from the Father..
Can you see how closely related this statement is to the previous one, which said that Christ is the radiance of God’s glory? That Christ is the radiance of God’s glory means that he show us all of what God is. So, also, with this statement. Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature, which means that he shows us exactly what God is. These are, I think, parallel statements. I bet you’re not surprised that the church fathers used this statement latest in their arguments against the Arians, too.
What does the statement that Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature mean for us?
- It is another affirmation of Christ’s deity: that he is equal with God, and of the same nature as God. It is also an affirmation of Christ’s distinction from the Father.
- It teaches us that we can know the invisible God only through Christ, since Christ is God’s perfect representation, and he came to earth to show us God
- It should cause us to worship Christ as God..