The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. —Hebrews 1:3
Something has always fascinated me about medicine. In fact, for a few years in college, I was on a track preparing for medical school. My favorite of the courses I took before I changed my major was genetics.
If you’ve taken this course, you know it’s the study of dominant and recessive traits that are either passed on to offspring or wait in the wings for another recessive partner. It’s also the study of probabilities. For me it was the blending of two of my favorite subjects: science and math.
We learned that certain traits were dominant over recessive, like brown eyes over blue eyes. We studied fruit flies in the class because, under a microscope, they have many unique and distinguishing characteristics. Those little virile dudes also prolifer- ate faster than rabbits, so it’s easy to trace their genetic makeup from generation to generation in a matter of days. Each day in genetics was like a great adventure for me.
Every time a baby is born, its parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts become accomplished geneticists. “Oh, look, she has her daddy’s nose.” “If that isn’t his mother’s chin, I don’t know what is.” This is what happens with every newborn baby. We love to see who gave the child her distinguishing characteristics.
Did you know that when we believed in Christ, when we came to faith in Him, when we experienced His grace through the forgiveness of our sins, we become newborns? We took on our ancestors’ characteristics, just like through the miracle of genetics.
The writer to the Hebrews explains it this way. “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him” (vv. 1–2). God’s gift of wholeness and grace came cascading down through the patriarchs and the prophets to the incarnation of His only begotten Son, and then to us, His own adopted sons and daughters. \
Every person God’s saving gift touched was changed. Once you and I submitted to the sovereign Creator of the universe, it was as though we were born again, complete with people standing and gawking over us and commenting on our characteristics. “He has his mother’s faith.” “Oh, can’t you see how she teaches just like her dad?”
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sus- taining all things by his powerful word,” the text tells us (v. 3). My pastor/farmer uncle Allon, who could hock a loogie with the best of them, would have said that Jesus was the “spittin’ image of His daddy”—where that expression came from, I have no idea.
As Christians, we have a spectacular heritage. Our family tree is full of branches that ought to swell our hearts with gratitude and confidence. You and I may have Abraham’s daring, Isaac’s faith, Jacob’s tenacity, Joseph’s moral courage, Daniel’s faithfulness, Jeremiah’s transparency, Jonah’s contrition, or Hosea’s obedience, but we all have Jesus’s righteousness. His holiness.
Through the salvation that is ours in Christ, God’s Son, we have some awesome genes. We come from the best pool around.
And given God’s power to help us face each day with the assurance of who we are, God gives us gifts that have the potential of overcoming evil. My genetics professor, Dr. Elizabeth Poe, would have correctly called these “our Father’s dominant genes.”