Greetings all,
I pray all is well with you and yours.
Today I will continue with our look at the book The Chemistry of the Blood by Dr. M.R. DeHaan. I pray that you are getting something from this book. I love this book. Today we will talk about the power of revelation from God. How God reveals himself to us.
Let us go back in time. If you can, visualize with me the time when there was no time. Before time began God was complete and all-sufficient in his eternal pre-existence. He was perfect in himself--perfect in all His attributes, virtues and graces.
When He created the universe by the word of His power, He added nothing to His being or to His glory, or to His Majesty. God’s glory is no greater since the creation than before. His great creation only serves as an exhibition of His infinite majesty, power, glory, wisdom, and providence.
We know that God created all things for His own glory. In order that he may be appreciated in His infinite personality, He has revealed His majesty and glory to His creatures in various ways. Please understand as I said earlier, creation added nothing to the glory of God. To glorify God does not mean to add anything to His glory, but rather to reflect, show forth and disseminate the glory which he has always had. In fact we are called to do this--each one of us. We are called to reflect, show forth and disseminate His glory, as it is revealed to us to do so in our lives.
There are three avenues of revelation for God to reveal himself to us.. Methodists, do not confuse these with means of grace.
1) Through Nature. From creation man is able to learn a great deal about God. David tells us in Psalm 19:1-4,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world.”
From this passage it is clear about the glory and wisdom of God available to us from nature. In Romans 1:18-23, Paul tells us,
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men and women who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that these men and women are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal men and women and birds and animals and reptiles.”
2) Through the printed word of God. In the Bible we have a progression in revelation. In addition to the revelation of nature, we learn to know God from the Word as a God of love, a God of grace, a God of mercy, justice, and truth. In it we have the plan of salvation. In this book we not only have the revelation of our lost condition and the fact of sin and distress in the world but also the great truth of redemption through blood and the sacrifice of Another. Let us go to the words of the One who made that sacrifice, Jesus Christ, speaking in John 16: 13-15,
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”
3) In the Person of Christ. The highest revelation we have is in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Persons of the Trinity. In Colossians 1:15-20 we read,
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
In Colossians 2:9 we read,
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity (Trinity) lives in bodily form, and you have been given the fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.”
In fact, Jesus himself said, Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9). Then in Hebrews 1:1-4 we read,
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.”
God is invisible as a Spirit. He cannot be seen. Only in Christ do we see God.
My father died in 1991. If you had known him, to see me now would remind you of him. I look very much like my father did when he was in his early 60s. To look at me now you would be seeing him. It is this way with many of us in our families, both men and women.
This is just what Jesus is telling us. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. But to see God you must see Jesus!
Have you seen this God? As revealed by nature, the word, or Christ himself? Get your nose out of your phone, go for a walk. Look around.
Read your Bible. Look for Jesus. Do you look for Jesus? Can I convince you to look for Jesus? Experience all three of these avenues of revelation. You will be enlightened more than you ever imagined.
Do no harm, Do good, stay in love with God.
Thad Brown
Opportunity House
and Harmony UMC