This week, some of us may have attended services of nine lessons and carols
and, if they have followed the traditional format, we will have heard the prologue to John’s Gospel as the final reading.
It’s a wonderful passage that refers to Jesus as ‘the Word’ and encourages us to worship Him as God. For that is who John tells us He is when he explains how, in the beginning, as the creator of the world, Jesus was not only with God, but God Himself as well. [John 1:1-3]
That God is both one and, at the same time, made up of three distinct persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – is, of course, a great mystery – one that reaches far beyond what our finite minds can comprehend. But what is stunningly clear is that, by stating how ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us’ [John 1:14], John is revealing something every bit as unfathomable – that Jesus was God in human form – simultaneously both fully God and fully man.
John then goes on to say that, along with many others, he has seen Christ’s glory. [John 1:14] But what exactly is God’s glory, why might we want to see it, and what is John referring to when he says he has seen Christ’s glory?
Well, it has been said that God’s glory is His holiness on display. Just as the glory of a beautiful sunset is measured by how much it causes us to hold our breath in wonder, so too might the glory of God be considered to be what causes us to stand in awe before Him.
As John himself did, by witnessing both the things Jesus did and the way in which He did them.
And not just when He was transfigured [Matthew 17:2] or when he performed many of His miraculous signs [John 2:11]. For His glory would also have been seen in the authoritative way He spoke, the love He showed to those who met Him, and the gracious way He treated even the most undeserving.
But paradoxically perhaps, His glory was most on display when He was crucified. [John 12:23-24]
For it was then, as the skies darkened and the Lord of life gave His own life up [John 19:30], that God’s great mercy for sinners was seen alongside His wholly appropriate anger at their sin.
Through Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross, God showed His righteousness by fully paying the penalty for our sin. In so doing, the perfect judge paradoxically declares sinners righteous in Christ, making them innocent in His sight. And so He becomes both ‘just and the justifier’ of those who put their faith in Jesus. [Romans 3:26]
All of which should give us pause for thought. At the start of His ‘Sermon on the Mount’, Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ [Matthew 5:8]. But beautiful though this expression of divine truth is, scripture also reminds us that our hearts ‘are deceitful above all things and desperately sick’ [Jeremiah 17:9].
What hope, then, do we have of ever seeing God?
Well the answer lies in the fact that having been declared ‘not guilty’ by God He then begins, by His Holy Spirit, to sanctify us. That is to say, He goes about the slow, and not infrequently painful process of making us more and more like Jesus.
And in so doing, He fulfils His promise to create in us a new heart [Ezekiel 36:26] – one that loves Him in the way it ought, desires only what is right, and, being perfectly in tune with God’s will, leads us to act as we should.
That transformation is, however, one that takes a lifetime – and, for me at least, there is still a very long way to go. Even so we who put our trust in Jesus are promised that He who began a good work in us will complete it on the day of Christ. [Philippians 1:6]
Which means that when Christ returns, as He surely will, we will be changed. And when we see Him we will be like Him. [1 John 3:2] For then, just as John did, we too, really will see His glory – and find that we are glorified ourselves. [2 Corinthians 3:18]
And what a truly wonderful hope that is!
To read Day 23 from 2023, click here
To read Day 23 from 2024, click here
Some musings 