“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.”‘) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
John 1:14–18
To bring the sun down to earth—to place light that intense into our hands—would be unbearable. Forget the heat and magnitude for a moment and imagine simply the light of the sun. It is too bright to look at directly even when hanging distant in the heavens. In your hand, that concentrated light would destroy you in an instant of searing glory.
There is a greater Light than the sun, and he came to earth. That is where we see his glory. The glory of the Son of God, the eternal Word of the Father, is not seen in the heavens, nor even in the totality of his creation. It is not seen in the Law given at Sinai, nor in the great works of salvation in the exodus from Egypt. The glory of God is most clearly seen in a rough, wooden cattle shed in Bethlehem. And on a far rougher wooden cross outside Jerusalem.
The Light of the world was held in the work-hardened hands of Joseph the carpenter from Nazareth as he delivered his wife’s son. The Word of the Father heard the soft, sweet words of welcome as Mary held him in her arms. The eternal God was gently lifted into the hastily wiped hands of shepherds.
The glory of Jesus Christ is that he came from heaven for us. The radiance of God’s love is seen in the selfless rescue that it provoked. Seeing us squirming in the darkness, running scared and lost with blood on our hands, the Lord did not send the angels to scour his earth of such wickedness. No, he sent his great war-host to sing! To sing to the shepherds on the hills around Bethlehem that their God had come that very night.
No one has ever seen God, our Father, but in his Son those men and women saw him truly and fully. And from that fullness we have all received grace upon grace. Even if we live by sin upon sin, there is more grace than we have sin. There is more love, more life, more light in our God than there is hate, death, and darkness in us. Jesus is full of grace and truth, and he is everything we need.
I guess you are like me. I am sick of the darkness I see on my newsfeed. I am sick of the darkness I see in my family and church. It seems to break in with tragedy, chronic pain, and besetting sin. I am sick of the darkness I see in my soul. Such coldness, indifference, callous cruelty to those who love me most. One day the Light will banish all darkness. But for now, he came for us. He came to us. The glory of his light shines even in our souls, even among our friends, even in our war-ravaged world.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it! Glory! We have seen his glory!
Part 1: The Brilliance of the Light
Part 2: The Witness to the Light
Part 3: The People of the Light
Part 4: The Glory of the Light
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