The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare. In his Temple everyone shouts, “Glory!” Psalm 29:9
And the Word was made 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
A woman joined
her Navy husband on his tour of duty in Japan.
To supplement their income, she got a job as secretary for the
Commanding Officer at the base. She was
certain her office skills had gotten her the position, but a few weeks later,
her boss called her into his office and told her she was much too quiet. He said, the reason I hired you was your Texas
accent. I’m homesick for someone who can
talk right.
When God looked
at the mess which this world had made of the perfect creation, he knew our
homesickness was for Him. When He saw WHAT He saw God knew we had to be
fixed. But He also knew we could not
understand.
So God drew us a
picture with His Word, Jesus…something we could understand. God knew the only talk we would understand
would be a living, walking, loving picture – so Jesus came. John says he dwelt among us. The word means he pitched his tent here for a while. That’s the story of
Christmas – how Jesus came to stay here for a while, and be the picture of the
God we didn’t know.
But what does
that mean
to me now?
The answer is
found in the way you look at the picture.
Look at the perspectives John offers in the text…grace, truth and glory.
Some people only see Grace
The Bible says
Jesus was full of grace. By
definition, grace is the unmerited favor, or undeserved forgiveness of
God. One day many years ago I was late
to meet my wife for a luncheon date we’d planned that morning. I forgot!
When I realized how late I was I raced to the restaurant. The look on Elizabeth
I don’t know how
a person could be forgiven…and thankless!
But that is human nature. Jesus
once healed ten lepers; only one came back to say thank you.
The reality is,
grace all by itself will degenerate into thanklessness. You see it all the time. God’s hand was on Billy Graham’s crusades for
decades. People respond to the offer of
grace – to be saved. When the crusade
team leaves town, the follow-up begins by local churches. Many of those who came for the grace won’t
ever get involved in consistent worship and service in the kingdom –
thanklessness. That’s like throwing
God’s grace in the back of your closet, forgotten like an ugly Christmas
sweater. What’s wrong with that
picture? Grace received – but no
subsequent change of life.
Grace alone is
degenerative, inadequate. Jesus said it
was like a seed planted too shallow in the ground – it comes up weak, because there
is no deep root. In short order the weak
plant of grace is scorched by the hot sun and wilts away.
If you have
received grace, the forgiveness of God in Christ, that’s good – but it’s not
all there is to the Christian life….
Some people only see Truth
Truth is the
righteous side of God. Jesus said he
came to bring a sword to divide mankind.
Figuratively, that means he came to show us the truth – that we are not
basically good, with little splotches of mistakes to clean up in our
character.
Jesus came as a
picture of what good really is – so that there is no question in our
minds that we cannot attain goodness. He came to show us we are separated from the
goodness of God by our sinfulness.
To the Pharisees
(who were a very good bunch) Jesus said, the whores and thieves will get in heaven
before you! Whoa! If the most religious people can’t get in
heaven, who can? The truth is, nobody
can get in heaven on the merits of his own goodness. We get in only on the merits of Jesus’
goodness, and his forgiveness.
Now – that’s the
truth….and it is a hard thing for most of us to accept. Like the Pharisees, or the rich young ruler,
we want to know what good thing must I DO in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus said it plainly – you cannot DO
anything. All you can be is a sinner
standing before me – I’ll do what’s necessary then. That’s how grace and truth get together.
Grace without
truth is only a warm fuzzy…there’s no gratitude that makes you useful in the
kingdom. But truth without grace is hard;
there’s no joy.
Jesus was full of
grace and truth; that was His glory…some people see it…
Some people see His glory
The glory of
Jesus was the perfect tension between grace and truth.
Ø His grace is seen in innocent children gathering round him.
Ø His grace is seen in a heartbroken
Jesus, looking out over Jerusalem Jerusalem
Ø His grace is seen in laughter
and weddings
Ø His grace is seen spread-eagle, nailed to crossbeams on the
town garbage dump, as he strains to gather enough breath to cry upward, Father,
forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.
But his grace is
not alone. There is truth:
Ø There is a fiery blaze of truth from Jesus’ eyes – a laser
devastating the religious leaders of his day:
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees…hypocrites! You flim-flam the poor and then bow your head
in prayer? You are more the sons of
Satan than God.
Ø He told Nicodemus the truth – You can’t be godly unless you’re born again. You’re trying to understand the wind; I’m
telling you just feel the wind. Do it
God’s way, Nic! Nicodemus, be born
again! Let go of this life’s stuff and
let me take you back to the drawing board.
I can make you NEW!
Jesus…total
grace, total truth…that was His glory!
A Question
Have you seen
God’s glory anywhere else? Have you seen
God in any other way?
Most people try
to find God. They look for Him in a
variety of ways.
Ø They look for Him in nature.
But in nature you can only see the tracks of His glory. That is His work, not His
nature.
Ø They look for God in mankind.
But you won’t see Him there.
Certainly we were created in the image of God – but that image has been
so corrupted by sin, you can only see the imitator – the evil one. Look at the news reports of what man does and
tell me that’s God (do it with a straight face).
Ø Some look for Him in literature or art. That’s our hopes and dreams.
Beloved, the only
place you will see the glory of God is in His Son, Jesus. He was perfect grace, perfect truth, and he
came to Bethlehem
William Barclay
put it this way:
In Jesus Christ the distant, unknowable, invisible, unreachable God has come to men; and God can never be a stranger to us again.
Such is the story
of His glory. We were lost, the world
dark and empty in sin. Dead, in a
spiritual void. All we are doing is
marking time till the autopsy, when in death our bodies will slowly decay. There is no life, no real joy. There is only a coldness and fear about life.
But then there
was a manger, and a cross, and an empty tomb.
Suddenly the source of life is no longer an idea, a force, a natural
phenomena…God the PERSON broke-through….in grace and truth
…And
there is LIFE! That’s GLORY
!!!!
Have you been to
the grace? Good.
Have you
seen the truth? Very Good.
But, have you been to the glory?
It’s important
that you accept Him – in all His grace, in all His truth, so that you see His
glory. Because He is going to do it
again – he is going to pitch his tent with us again:
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. Revelation 21.3
Accept His
grace…Let go and live under it.
Accept His
truth…Live by it.
Grace and truth – Do you see
His glory?
Go to Worship VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com All Scripture from The New Living Translation (unless otherwise stated)
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