Beholding God’s Glory in Jesus
Dr. John Snyder is the pastor of Christ Church New Albany, director of Media Gratiae, host of The Whole Counsel podcast, and author of multiple multimedia Bible studies including the Behold Your God series, Living with the True God: Lessons from Judges, and Behold Your God: Seeking Him Early.
If we want to know the God of the Bible, where do we look? God is a person, that's a great help to us. We've been created in His image. We're not trying to discover what this blob of energy or this impersonal force is like. We're wanting to know him as a person, and though he transcends the small abilities of our mind, he transcends the ability of the minds of the angels, of the archangel, yet God has stooped down to reveal himself to us. We find this in nature: we can look out the window and see certain evidences—certain things to be true about the Creator, even in creation today with the effects of sin, are still visible. We see this in Scripture: The Bible says that in the Old Testament God spoke in various ways and in varying degrees; sometimes things were very mysterious, sometimes they're laid out clearly through the prophets and through his activities, but in the New Testament, God has spoken to us through the Son.
Paul says that Jesus of Nazareth is the image of the invisible God. God has stamped upon the human soul and life of Jesus of Nazareth His image, His character. He is the exact representation of the character of God. When John writes about him, he says this:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
That's written decades after he last saw Christ in the flesh. As he goes on down that chapter John writes,
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. John 1:18
That's a really wonderful word that John chose there, the word, declared. In John's day, that word was commonly used in 4 different ways that bring out a richness:
1. A poet who was explaining a confusing line in his poetry.
2. A lawyer who was clearing up a legal case.
3. An artist who would, after long months of work, unveil his work and make it known.
4. A person who went to a well to draw water, and it was so deep they had to get a long rope and a bucket and they dropped it down and drew the water out.
Christ is all of that to any person who wants to know God. He reveals him. He explains him. He draws from that infinitely deep well and gives it to us. So the question for us, really, is "Do I want to know that God? And if I do, am I going to go to Him and see him in his Son?