I recently heard a missionary story of a boy who got
malaria. The widowed mother had already lost her husband to the same
terrible fever. She was given instructions by the witch doctor, of how
to get her son well. The prescriptions included building a fire on the
boy's chest, beating him, forcing him to swallow terrible mixtures, and
finally required knocking out all of the boy's teeth. For all of this
the witch doctor was paid richly. The widow's water buffalo, her only
means of plowing and earning a living; her last bit of rice, even a beam
holding up her house had to be removed to pay the “doctor’s” bill.
Perhaps we don't do the things mentioned above, but still our lives are
shaped by our beliefs about God. Who is God? What is He like? How can we
know Him?
Christ Revealed the Personality and Character of the Father
Moses “spoke face to face” with God, yet even he was not allowed to
see the glory of the face of the divine person, but only the “back
parts.” Others have seen His hair, hands, feet, and form, but since sin
entered the world and brought about a separation between man and his
Creator, no man has ever been able to penetrate the surpassing glory of
the face of God. (John 1:18) For this reason Christ, the Light of the
world, veiled the dazzling splendor of His divinity and came to live as
a man among men. He did so that men might become acquainted with their
Creator. He who is in the “express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3) is
our “one mediator between God and man.” (1 Timothy 2:5)
“I and My Father are one,” Christ declared. “No man knoweth the Son,
but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he
to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” (John 10:30; Matthew 11:27)
Christ came to teach human beings what God desires them to know about
Himself. In the heavens above, in the earth, in the broad waters of the
ocean, we see the handiwork of God. All created things testify to His
power, His wisdom and His love. But God saw that a clearer revelation
was needed to portray both His personality and His character. He sent
His Son into the world to reveal, so far as could be endured by human
sight, the nature and the attributes of the invisible God. “That they
might know thee.” (John 17:3)
Christ’s identity was preserved in His humanity. In the gift
of Christ, a channel of communication was opened, between God and us.
When Christ laid down His divine form, His power and His glory and
became a helpless babe in Bethlehem, did He lose His identity? Did He
cease being the divine Son of God? No! He was “Immanuel,” God with us.
He said, “if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.” He was still the
divine Son of God, bearing the express image of His Father's character,
even though He had divested Himself of His divine form, which was in the
express image of His Father's person. |
