GOD’S GLORY REVEALED IN CHRIST JESUS
T.R. Dohling
Consider the following conversation between God and
Moses:
God : "My
presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
Moses : "If
your presence doesn't go with me, don't carry us up from here. For how would people know that I have found
favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn't it in that you go with us, so
that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the
surface of the earth?"
God : "I
will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in my
sight, and I know you by name."
Moses :
"Please show me your glory."
God : "I
will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of Yahweh
before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy
on whom I will show mercy."
"You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and
live." "Behold, there is a
place by me, and you shall stand on the rock.
It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft
of the rock, and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take
away my hand, and you will see my back; but my face shall not be
seen." [Exodus 33:14-23.]
God promises Moses that His
Presence would go with him and He would give Moses and the Israelites
rest. Moses asks for a sign of God’s
favour and boldly asks God to show him His glory. God replies that He would make “all my
goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you…be
gracious…and show mercy on whom I will show
mercy.” However, God told Moses, “You
cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.” God then proceeded to hide Moses “in a cleft
of the rock” and covered him with His hand until He passed by. The fearful thing was seeing God’s face! Moses saw God’s back.
Since man could not see God’s
face and live, the Compassionate Sovereign Lord made it possible for man to see
His face and live! Yes, looking to Jesus
a man may see God’s face and live. In
Jesus Christ, God has made all His goodness pass before the world and whoever
would look to Jesus may have life and have it more abundantly. Paul says,
“…if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to
those who are perishing. In their case
the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them
from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of
God. For what we proclaim is not
ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who said, "Let
light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay,
to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. [2 Cor. 4:3-7.]
Paul also desired that the Christian’s “hearts may be encouraged, being knit
together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding
and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with
plausible arguments. For in him [Jesus]
the whole fullness of Godhead [deity] dwells bodily, and you have been filled
in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a
circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the
circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you
were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who
raised him from the dead. And you, who
were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our
trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its
legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. [Col.2:2-4, 9-14]
Our response to God’s goodness as revealed in Jesus is to die to self so
that we may be “buried with Him in baptism…raised with Him through faith in the
powerful working of God.” In Jesus
Christ, God revealed His goodness by canceling the record of debt that stood
against us because of our trespasses. He
paid the debt we owed Him, “set is aside, nailing it to the cross.”
May we
realize these things as set forth in God’s word and continually thank and
praise our gracious and merciful God as we live unto Him!
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