{"id":1026,"date":"2002-12-26T21:47:56","date_gmt":"2002-12-26T21:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/december-qwe-beheld-his-gloryq\/"},"modified":"2014-02-02T02:06:14","modified_gmt":"2014-02-02T02:06:14","slug":"december-qwe-beheld-his-gloryq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/december-qwe-beheld-his-gloryq\/","title":{"rendered":"We Beheld His Glory"},"content":{"rendered":"

John the Apostle always brings us close to heaven, especially as he reveals to us the glory that was in the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Both in his gospel and his first epistle he graphical portrays what it was like to behold the Son of God in the flesh.\u00a0 In two short parentheses, he lets us behold Him:\u00a0 <\/span>(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) <\/em>John 1:14; and <\/span>(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us)<\/em>, 1 John 1:2.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Christ, by highest heav\u2019n adored<\/em><\/p>\n

Christ, the everlasting Lord:<\/em><\/p>\n

Late in time behold Him come,<\/em><\/p>\n

Offspring of a virgin\u2019s womb.<\/em><\/p>\n

Veiled in flesh the God-head see,<\/em><\/p>\n

Hail th\u2019 incarnate Deity!<\/em><\/p>\n

Pleased as man with men to dwell,<\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus our Emmanuel.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hark the herald angels sing,<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGlory to the new-born King!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

John boldly tells us that when he looked at Christ, he was seeing the Father\u2019s glory.\u00a0 A.T. Robertson, in commenting on Colossians 1:15, Who is the image of the invisible God,<\/em> wrote, \u201cGod is invisible to man, as even Moses learned when he asked to see the glory of God pass by.\u00a0 God dwells in light unapproachable, whom no one has seen or can see (1 Tim 6:16).\u00a0 But we see God in Christ. \u2018He that has seen me has seen the Father\u2019 (Jn 14:9).\u00a0 God is like Christ.\u00a0 In the face of Jesus Christ God has given the light of the knowledge of his glory (2 Cor 4:6).\u00a0 Jesus is the Shekinah glory of God for those who have eyes to see.\u201d1<\/sup><\/p>\n

We should not be surprised at the absence of holy things in the Christmas of the commercial world.\u00a0 The real glory of the Son of God always causes the darkness to flee.\u00a0 People would rather spend their time and thoughts on the temporal glories of Christmas tree lights, silver tinsel and brightly decorated packages than on even the veiled glory of the God of heaven.<\/p>\n

I have wondered when our culture might do away with the word \u201cChristmas\u201d altogether.\u00a0 After all, it is a constant reminder of the Person who brings the real meaning to this season.\u00a0 Even the word \u201choliday\u201d reminds us that the day of our Savior\u2019s birth is \u201choly\u201d and that our commercialization of God\u2019s incarnation is a desecration to His personification.\u00a0 Christian hymn writers help us see this better.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a tumult of joy<\/em><\/p>\n

O\u2019er the wonderful birth,<\/em><\/p>\n

For the Virgin\u2019s sweet Boy<\/em><\/p>\n

Is the Lord of the earth!<\/em><\/p>\n

Ay! The star rains its fire while the beautiful sing, For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a King!<\/em><\/p>\n

We rejoice in the light,<\/em><\/p>\n

And we echo the song<\/em><\/p>\n

That comes down thru the night<\/em><\/p>\n

From the heavenly throng.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ay! We shout to the lovely evangel they bring, And we greet in His \u00a0cradle our Savior and King!<\/em><\/p>\n

Wise men, whether pious or mildly religious, have recognized the awesome truth of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth.\u00a0 C.S. Lewis, in a famous statement, says:<\/p>\n

\n

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.\u00a0 He would either be a lunatic\u2014on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg\u2014or else he would be the Devil of Hell.\u00a0 You must make your choice.\u00a0 Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.\u00a0 You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.\u00a0 But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.\u00a0 He has not left that open to us.\u00a0 He did not intend to.2<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Similarly, and a half century earlier, G.K. Chesterton wrote concerning the identity of the Jesus Christ:<\/p>\n

\n

It can be found, not among prophets and sages and founders of religions, but only among a low set of lunatics.\u00a0 But this is exactly where the argument becomes intensely interesting;\u00a0 because the argument proves too much.\u00a0 For nobody supposes that Jesus of Nazareth was that sort of person.\u00a0 No modern critic in his five wits thinks that the preacher of the Sermon on the Mount was a horrible half-witted imbecile that might be scrawling stars on the walls of a cell.\u00a0 No atheist or blasphemer believes that the author of the Parable of the Prodigal Son was a monster with one mad idea like a cyclops with one eye.\u00a0 Upon any possible historical criticism, he must be put higher in the scale of human beings than that.\u00a0 Yet by all analogy we have really to put him there or else in the highest place of all.2<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

John says he beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.<\/em> He says he saw that glory in Jesus.\u00a0 His eyes looked upon it, his hands handled it, his ears heard it.\u00a0 He beheld <\/em>His glory!<\/p>\n

Come to Bethlehem and see, Him whose birth the angels sing;<\/em><\/p>\n

Come, adore on bended knee, Christ the Lord, the new-born King.<\/em><\/p>\n

See Him in a manger laid, Jesus, Lord of heav\u2019n and earth;<\/em><\/p>\n

Mary, Joseph, lend your aid, With us sing our Savior\u2019s birth.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gloria, in excelsis Deo!\u00a0 Gloria, in excelsis Deo!<\/em><\/p>\n

At this season of our Lord\u2019s birth, let us also behold Him who is the glory of God and of Heaven!\u00a0 For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased<\/em> (2 Peter 1:17).<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/address>\n
1. A.T. Robertson, Paul and the Intellectuals <\/em>(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1959) 41.<\/address>\n
2. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity <\/em>(New York: Collier Books, 1984) 56.<\/address>\n
3. G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man <\/em>(San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993) 203.<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John the Apostle always brings us close to heaven, especially as he reveals to us the glory that was in the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Both in his gospel and his first epistle he graphical portrays what it was like to behold the Son of God in the flesh.\u00a0 In two short parentheses, he lets us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[146],"class_list":["post-1026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-incarnation"],"yoast_head":"\nWe Beheld His Glory - Aletheia Baptist Ministries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/december-qwe-beheld-his-gloryq\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Beheld His Glory - 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