Winter 1988
Reformed Quarterly Volume 7, Issue 4
Christmas is coming, and you are beginning to reflect on it. You remember family and friends, days of hectic celebration and quiet, intimate conversations, candlelight church services and Sunday School Christmas programs. As I reflect on Christmas and what it means, I'm reminded of when my wife Marilyn was bedridden with an illness and how church members helped us in a variety of ways. They brought in meals, helped clean the house, and did innumerable other jobs. But they did more than take care of household chores; they visited Marilyn regularly. She enjoyed talking with Christian friends during the weeks she spent in bed. Our Christian friends also prayed for her recovery and for our strength during this difficult time in our lives. Their acts of kindness and love were overwhelming. I couldn't think of ways to thank them, let alone repay them for all the wonderful and thoughtful deeds. Even now, eight years later, I remember how marvelous those children of God were to us. I am amazed and grateful. Although I am astonished by such benevolence, it pales in comparison to what God has done for us. No matter how many splendid things may happen to us, they cannot compare to what God has done in making Himself known. God became man for the sake of His people.
John's words are Christmas words. They tell us that when Jesus, who is the Word of God, became man He showed us something about who God is. He did not need to do this; He did it totally for our good. God's gracious character is evident in the Incarnation by His taking upon Himself human flesh. He who is the creator and giver of life took upon Himself the form of the creature. In John 1:14 we are told that those who saw Jesus found Him full of grace and truth. When we see Jesus, we see the glory of the one and only Son of God. During His life, Christ demonstrated God's grace and truth as well as many other features. John 14:9-11 tells us how Jesus, the Son, makes the Father known:
Jesus says to Philip and to all of us that by His actions, statements, and personality He is showing us who God is. Jesus is God as well as man. As we come to know more about Jesus Christ, we come to know more about God. What about those of us who have never seen Jesus? Do we have the same information as Philip? Yes, we do. Although Jesus is not here any longer, we have a trustworthy record of who Jesus is in the Bible. So the Word of God becomes important for us. It is our access to information about Jesus' identity and, hence, God's identity. God makes Himself known in numerous ways. The Incarnation is the pinnacle of His self-revelation to us. Any one of the means by which God makes Himself known would be sufficient to hold everyone accountable for knowing and acknowledging Him. God reveals Himself because He is a kind and gracious God. He even sends the Holy Spirit to work in us and confirm His disclosure of His character. The stupendous variety of ways in which God makes Himself known can be likened to our Christmas feasts. When the appetizer is over, we have all had enough to eat. By the time we finish the main course, we are completely stuffed. Then comes dessert. So it is with the ways in which God makes Himself known. He keeps adding sufficient way after sufficient way, culminating in the Incarnation.
Christmas is coming, and you are beginning to reflect on it. You remember family and friends, days of hectic celebration and quiet, intimate conversations, candlelight church services and Sunday School Christmas programs. As I reflect on Christmas and what it means, I'm reminded of when my wife Marilyn was bedridden with an illness and how church members helped us in a variety of ways. They brought in meals, helped clean the house, and did innumerable other jobs. But they did more than take care of household chores; they visited Marilyn regularly. She enjoyed talking with Christian friends during the weeks she spent in bed. Our Christian friends also prayed for her recovery and for our strength during this difficult time in our lives. Their acts of kindness and love were overwhelming. I couldn't think of ways to thank them, let alone repay them for all the wonderful and thoughtful deeds. Even now, eight years later, I remember how marvelous those children of God were to us. I am amazed and grateful. Although I am astonished by such benevolence, it pales in comparison to what God has done for us. No matter how many splendid things may happen to us, they cannot compare to what God has done in making Himself known. God became man for the sake of His people.
GOD REVEALS HIMSELF IN JESUS
The first chapter of John's gospel illustrates how God makes Himself known in the second person of the Trinity:| In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning....The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1: 1,2,14 NIV) |
| Jesus answered, "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me, has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father?' Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing His work. Believe in me when I say that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." |
