Well, who is Jesus? It is a perennial question, and there must be as many diverse answers to that question as there are about any other person who ever walked on this planet. Even during his life on earth, Christ's very presence was a point of remarkable debate and contention. Some said Jesus was God, and others said he was demon-possessed.

Some said Jesus was a good teacher, and others called him a liar. Some said he was brilliant, and others labeled him insane. Jesus was applauded as a prophet, and he was dismissed as a babbling blasphemer. So who is this Jesus? In the words of Hebrews 1, verse 3, we are told that Jesus is "the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of his nature." In a 1996 sermon, John Piper answered this age-old question, "Who is Jesus?" Who is it that sat down at the right hand?

Who is it that went to the cross? Who is it that was buried and rose again? Who is it that upholds all things by the word of his power? Who is Jesus Christ? He is the exact representation of the divine nature, or of God's nature. What does that mean?

Jesus said, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." Paul said, "He is the image of the invisible God." But you know what? You could say that sentence, "He is the exact representation of the nature of God," and be absolutely wrong in the way you think about it. For example, you could say, "Jesus is the representation of God the Father, the way a painting represents a person." And you'd be wrong.

You could say, "Jesus represents the nature of God the way an authorized letter from a king represents the king." And you'd be wrong. Or you could say, "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the exact representation of God the Father in that a wax mold has an impress, and it perfectly represents the ring." And you'd be wrong.

And the reason we know that would be utterly inadequate to talk that way is because the first phrase tells us how he is a representation, and it isn't any of those. He is an exact representation of the Father in that he is the radiance of his glory. He represents the glory of God the way radiance represents glory.

That's very different than a painting representing a person, a letter, a king, a wax mold, and a ring. Radiance coming out from a light, streaming down from the sun, is not another thing. It's not a different essence than the thing. The radiance of glory is the glory radiating. That's the profound thing to get a handle on here.

Christ is not other than God, representing God. He is God representing God. He is the Father streaming out in glory, standing forth in another person whose essence is the same divine essence. We're talking mystery here, I realize. We won't begin to exhaust this or end it, but we can see a little bit.

The window can be cracked enough so that we can worship aright and not make heretical statements about the sun being a creature or a mere prophet. There is no time, let's compare him with the sun, the sun radiating out its beams. There is no time when the sun exists that its radiant light does not exist.

They are so much a part of each other that when the sun exists, the radiance of the sun exists. When God the Father exists, the sun exists. They are co-eternal. The Father did not exist and they say, "I think I shall bring into being a sun." That is not the way it happened.

He is eternally begotten, eternally streaming out. Where there is light, there are rays. Where there is God, there is the Son of God. This radiance is the glory radiating out. It is not essentially different. The Son of God is God. He is not by nature another being. He is not created or made.

Compare this with a solar calculator. I think of this because I was using one the other night getting my tech stuff ready. I asked Barnabas, "Where is the off switch here?" I was pushing the on switch. He said, "It is a solar calculator." I said, "Oh, just put it back in the cover.

It goes off." What that means is that when the sun or the light in my dining room shines on this little window, a little black number appears. It would be fair to say that the light created that or made it, produced it in some way. And that number is not the light.

So don't ever think of the Son of God like the numbers on a solar calculator. That God made the sun. He brought the sun into being like that. The sun is the light shining on the world and making the world. He is begotten, not made, the old creeds say.

The point being that you beget light. Humans beget humans, dogs beget puppies, cats beget kittens, and God begets God. Lastly, it is by means of the rays of the light that we see light. In the first service at this point, the sun came out and a big beam just landed on about 40 people right there.

It was unbelievable. It was great. I said, "Now, you know what? If you try to look up through that window in the sun, first of all, it will blind you. Don't do that." And that's just a little reflection of God. God would blind you too. You have to have a means to see God.

You have to have a mediator. The mediator is the Son of God and the Son of God is the radiance of the glory of God. And I said, "You know what? The light that is on your face right now arrived there eight minutes after it left the sun. About eight minutes ago while I was preaching, it left the sun.

These beams went out and they landed right on our face. Now, if you look at those rays, you can actually see, if you put on the right glasses, you see a ball. Or at sunrise and sundown when it's safe, you can see a ball. Are you seeing the sun?

Yeah, you're seeing the sun. But actually you're seeing eight minutes later what the means of the sun's rays give to you to see. Right? We're together. This is the 20th century. What we're seeing is a ball that's eight minutes old being mediated to us by light streaming over 93 million miles from the sun.

But we're seeing the sun, folks. That's the sun. And when you look at Jesus Christ, you are seeing God. That is so good. This clip was pulled from John Piper's sermon preached on April 7th, 1996, entitled "He Sat Down at the Right Hand of Majesty." This clip was sent in by Jacob Hall.

Thank you, Jacob, for this clip. The entire sermon can be found at DesiringGod.org. And if you have a great sermon clip, send it in to us via e-mail. Send us clips, even your own personal questions. We want those. Go to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn and there you will find a little button to e-mail your question or your clip to us.

So, Jesus is the radiance of God. You can't ignore him. And he is still dividing opinions and dividing people to this day. So how do we as Christians humbly wield the offense of the cross among multi-religious and pluralistic societies like those that we live in today? It's a question from a listener in Singapore, and I will pose it to John Piper tomorrow.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.