ICS Daily Devotions
Jesus Declares the Father
John 1:14 (NKJV) And the Word became 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.
God has chosen to reveal His heart to us despite His supremacy, to humble Himself to walk among His creation because of His love for us, to reach out to us while we were still sinners, and to love even the untouchables, the wretched souls, sinners and those He should not have been associating with in view of His holiness and supremacy.
Nobody would deny that holiness, righteousness, justice are some of the attributes of God. God hates sin because of His holiness, and it was sin that separated mankind from God. In the past, God taught people what sin was through the ten commandments, the Pentateuch and how to approach Him through the sacrificial system. God must judge sin and teach man the consequences of sin. Nonetheless, the first covenant, namely the Mosaic covenant, was imperfect because it was a conditional covenant. Therefore, out of His love for us, God rolled out a new and better covenant established on better promises through the blood of Jesus Christ. Because God took no pleasure in animal sacrifices, He prepared a body for His son.
There was a veil in the Old Testament which prevented the people from seeing God clearly. Similarly, there is a veil over the eyes of unbelievers today that hinders them from understanding the wonderful news of the Bible, for sin has separated mankind from a holy God. The Bible is progressive revelation, which means everything is made clearer as we enter the New Testament with the understanding of the work of redemption. The incarnation of the second person of the Godhead, Jesus, allowed God to walk among us as 100% man and 100% God. Jesus told his disciples who asked Him to show them the Father that He and the Father are One, and so they were seeing the Father when they saw Him. The people were able to behold the glory of Jesus as He ministered among them, full of grace and truth. They were no longer in the dark as to what God was like, because as Jesus walked among them, they were able to witness His love in action, the words that were spoken to reveal the nature of God and His will. Jesus, the Son of God, came to do the will of the Father and He did and said nothing apart from what the Father wanted to be said and done.
John 1:18 (NKJV) No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Sermon Series: Extending Grace
