Remember that the focus of seeking him must always be to get to know Him better. That the New Testament writers ascribed glory to Jesus was a clear indication of their confession of His full deity. When Jesus became flesh, he voluntarily subjected himself to its limitations Be. Towns has given theological lectures and taught intensive seminars at over 50 theological seminaries in America and abroad. But on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus’ refulgent glory and majesty were displayed in visible form in a blinding display of whiteness. So, even in the Old Testament, there were times when people "saw" God—usually in a veiled, indirect way. It was a glory He possessed before His incarnation and it is a glory that he reassumed at the ascension. Its true significance was to point beyond itself to a day when Messiah would atone for sin and the law would be written on … At present, we only have a veiled glimpse of the weight of glory. When Old Testament believers witnessed an appearance of Christ, they were often fearful for their lives. If Jesus had not veiled his preincarnate glory he could not have accomplished what he came to earth to do. In Colossians 2:6 Paul says �As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.� In other words, we received Him by believing the truth about Who He is and submitting our hearts to let Him be our Lord. Scripture says that as He died on the cross, … Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. When Jesus came to earth, we read that God's GLORY came to earth and people were in the presence of GLORY. Note also that the universe is not only created by Him but also for Him. It was necessary for Christ to hide his glory temporarily as he sought to save the souls of men. Listen to the message from Sunday evening, October 25 at www.calvarybaptistsaltillo.org. The heavens declare the glory of God and man's inner conscience enables him to know the good and to shun the evil. However, I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. NLT. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness of the truth. Instead, I share with the Father in uncaused, absolute existence.�. The glory of the light of God upon his countenance may have been the reason why he remained so hale in later years of old age. Wouldn�t I accomplish a lot more by just trying more diligently to serve the Lord? Coming to Jesus and bowing before Him as Lord is really not a mental or an intellectual act. We have to look elsewhere to answer questions about the purpose of life. 12:28). 1:14). 17:2) on the mount of transfiguration. He was body (Heb. He became tired and asked the woman at the well for water to drink (John 4:6). As you engage in this �soaking� process, you will discover that you �see� Jesus in every Old Testament book, to say nothing of the New Testament. But it is interesting that these two passages focus primarily on the creative activity and authority of the Son. This glory that belong to Jesus was veiled. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate Deity Pleased as man with man to dwell Jesus, our Emmanuel Hark! Christ displayed His divine glory only once while on earth in human flesh. Moses may have worn his veil until his death forty years later on Mt. The simple answer is pride. In the humility and simplicity of His manhood He claimed full equality with His Father. If no one knows the Son except the Father, it is quite clear that we cannot truly know the Son (that is, know Who He really is, and worship Him) unless the Father reveals Him to us. After his ambiguous comment, What is truth? But within its relative simplicity, it makes some revolutionary statements about the nature of reality. 4:15). Some feel the earthly humanity was the perfect example of what every man should become, hence as a man, Jesus glorified God. Now, stay with me a little longer as we explore how the New Testament steps beyond the Old Testament in exploring the issue of actually knowing God and perceiving His glory.. His glory is the triumph of every battle he wins over all his personal, global, and universal enemies. This revelation is referenced in a passage in the Apostle Paul's message to Phillippi. The One who arranged your genes at the moment of conception is the One who called the universe into being something like 14 billion years ago. The unbelieving scientist always provides himself with an escape hatch, even if that hatch is made of pure speculation and not even one speck of substance. Written by Michael Kelley | Friday, December 25, 2020 We do not follow a King that is far off, one who reigns from a distant palace at a great distance from the real life struggles of His subjects. Jesus said in Matthew 11:27 that �all things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. When you go to the Book of Revelation, and you get that description of Jesus, it doesn't sound like anything that you would associate with the earthly Jesus. He was pleased to lay aside His glory for the glory of God and the souls of men and women. Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15) and the radiance of the Glory of God (Heb 1:3), through whom the veil has been lifted and we look intently -- fixated (Heb:12-2) -- on the glory of God as through a mirror. They knew that sinful man could not look upon God and live. A few verses later, after noting that He has named all the stars, Almighty God gets down to business: His objective is not to impress His people with His greatness, but to persuade them to trust Him, because He is adequate to the task of watching over them. I am reminded of the words of Andrew Murray over a hundred years ago, when he wrote: I have not been afraid of continuously repeating this one thought: Our one need is, to know Jesus better; the one cure for all our feebleness, to look to Him on the throne of heaven, and really claim the heavenly life he waits to impart. But, if there are possibly billions or trillions of other universes, we can (he implies) readily dismiss the evidence for God�s design in our own universe as just a one-in-a-trillion chance! Simply put, the most important thing we can discover in the New Testament is who Jesus really is. But please bear with me and read it thoughtfully, even if it takes two sessions. He is truth. the herald angels sing, “Glory to the New-born king!” Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace, Hail, the Sun of Righteousness. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail, the incarnate deity. 1:3) upon whom we can depend. Then Jesus goes on to explicitly say that no one can know the Father, unless the Son reveals the Father. And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Jesus’s glory as God was veiled in human flesh but at times His glory, the so-called Shekinah glory, was revealed. Veiled in Flesh the Godhead See He was pleased to lay aside His glory. Later he wrote of being “caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. But He is much more than a king. Let's open our Bibles to the second chapter of Luke's gospel. He has written over 2,000 reference and/or popular articles and received six honorary doctoral degrees. It was not a mission He undertook with trepidation or doubt; He did not come to earth as a baby begrudgingly. It is only first step toward saving faith. Jesus became hungry when he did not eat (Matt. God will send an anointed One, the Messiah, who will be both God and man, and Who will in His own death provide the perfect atonement for human sin. Having received “authority over all flesh,” Jesus can offer the benefits of his ransom to all mankind. This means that Jesus, in the essence of His being as the Eternal Son, is not dependent upon the Father for existence. There are many people who believe in the doctrine of the Incarnation (that Jesus is both perfect man and Almighty God) but who have never submitted their hearts to Him. Texts: John 17: 3, 5; John 6: 62; Ephesians 1: 15-17; Colossians 1: 17, 18. Yes, Jesus is a king. Yet while Jesus veiled the light of His glory, He did exercise other divine attributes such as His sovereignty over creation when He calmed the storm (Mark 4:35–41). “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Self-emptying took place also by the voluntary choice not to use certain of his attributes. This is not to suggest that the Father and the Spirit were not vitally involved in the creation process. Several years ago I bought a book by the famous British theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking. The willingness of Jesus to limit himself to becoming a man gives us confidence that he understands the affairs of our lives. We see just a little glimpse of what He is really like. Now, having laid this foundation, in my next teaching I will move on to the topic of the Body of Christ, which is, next to the glory of Jesus (Who reveals the Godhead), the most important topic and the most wonderful truth in all the universe. We grow in him (or walk in Him, as Paul puts it) by continuing to focus our attention upon Him and the glory of Who He is, and continuing to yield our lives to His direction. He was obviously immensely impressed with this Man. Truth is not something that He brings, as it were, to the table. Questions about ultimate meaning are beyond the scope of science. Pleased as Man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel. God cares about the details of every person�s life, God provides atonement for human sin, which results in forgiveness, changed behavior, and communion with God; and. Programs are legalistic and burdensome. (1 Corinthians 2:9; 13:12). And, as you see more of Jesus, you will see more of the Father, because the Father and the Son are inseparable. Nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.� This statement of Jesus is truly radical. 5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. from Northwestern College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a M.A. The glory of God was also the judgment of God; the natural person who saw it died. We don’t fully know everything we will experience in heaven. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, �My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God?� We could summarize the essential message of the Old Testament with four statements: These statements can be supported with literally dozens of Old Testament scriptures. Because he has experientially known the frustrations of humanity, we have a “God of all comfort” (2 Cor. from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, a Th.M. No wonder there was a supernatural darkness during the last three hours Jesus hung on the cross. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. The primary avenue is to soak our hearts in the Word of God and ask the Spirit to give us more understanding of the person and glory of Jesus. Dr. Elmer Towns is a college and seminary professor, an author of popular and scholarly works (the editor of two encyclopedias), a popular seminar lecturer, and dedicated worker in Sunday school, and has developed over 20 resource packets for leadership education.His personal education includes a B.S. The One who holds the universe together was dying in terrible agony and separation from His Father. But once we believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord and that God has raised Him from the dead, what are the next steps? Jesus was born into this world as other humans (Luke 2:120), even though his conception was supernatural. It was a glory He possessed before His incarnation and it is a glory that he reassumed at the ascension. It is the glory of God that He refuses to share with any man. Jesus is God. Sadly, mental faith alone is not saving faith. The Son does not simply create the universe �on assignment� and then hand it back to the Father as a task accomplished. When John saw Jesus in the full glory that was his from the beginning, John wrote, “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead” (Rev. He is simply the Maker and Sustainer of the universe. But how comforting is the prospect that Jesus mentions —everlasting life! Regarding the greatness of God, Isaiah 40:17 states that the whole known world (all nations) are as nothing before Him, and they are counted by Him as less than nothing and worthless. When Jesus came, His glory was veiled in the flesh. 2:5-8). He sets aside His high position and waves His divine prerogatives because He loves us. John 17:3). The following study is going to be a bit demanding, because I am covering a lot of ground in five pages. His flesh veiled His deity while He was here on earth. The veil conceals the fact that the glory of the old covenant is, and always has been, fading. As Moses concealed the fading glory of his face, so even to this day Paul says in verse 14, the true significance of the old covenant is veiled. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Hark! Since we have also seen that God’s glory is in one sense the summation of His attributes, anytime Jesus exercised divine attributes, people saw something of the divine glory. 532 Christ's body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the new and supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently enjoys. The New Testament clearly teaches that Jesus is the flesh and blood manifestation of God. When He came to earth, “he gave up his divine privileges” (NLT). Jesus Himself claimed to be the �Yahweh� of the Old Testament in John 8:58, when he said, Before Abraham was, I am. Christ displayed His divine prerogatives because he has written over 2,000 reference and/or popular articles and six... So the issue of purpose is not to suggest that the focus of seeking Him must always be get! Apostle wrote His gospel so that men could not have accomplished what he is the Mathematician... 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