Seeing God
He is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Colossians 1:15
Until recently, I had been going
through a bit of a dry season when it came to my relationship with God. Though
in my head I knew that God never has and never will abandon me, my flawed and
corrupted emotions often try to tell me otherwise- that when I sin, God turns
His face away or that when I make a wrong decision God is shaking His head at
me in disappointment. Often my instinct is to therefore turn away from God and
give us both some time to “cool off”, as I would with a friend or a family
member with whom I had argued or had conflict with.
Though I could not see this at the
time, looking back, I can see that my biggest problem was really that unlike
with a family member or a friend, I cannot physically come to God in order to
“make things right”. I cannot look Him in the face and see how He feels about
me in the moment; I cannot see if I am coming at a “good time” for Him. Of
course, looking back on this now it seems rather silly, to think that there is
a bad time for God or that because I cannot physically see Him I cannot know
how He feels about me. But issues that are daunting at the time always seem
rather silly when you are on the other side of them, don’t they?
One night, as I was laying in bed
and praying while I waited for sleep to come, I was reflecting on 1 Corinthians
13:9-10, which reads as follows, “For we know in part and we prophecy in part;
but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.” (NASB) As of late,
Satan had managed to convince me that God’s feelings and love towards me fell
under the “seeing in part” that is discussed in the letters to the Corinthians.
I had become (wrongly) convinced that because I can’t see God, I can’t connect
with God. I was thinking of how true this seemed to be, especially considering
the season I was in, when a phrase hit me- look
to Jesus. I have said this countless times to so many others, and even many
times to myself over the past year or so, as God has done a great work in my
heart of turning me more towards Christ. However, I had become distracted. I
had began to decide for myself how I ought to relate to God and how He feels
about me, forgetting (or perhaps being blinded to) the fact that God has fully
expressed Himself in Christ Jesus. Paul writes beautifully in his letter to the
Colossians…
He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were
created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for
him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is
the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of
God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Colossians 1:15-20
(ESV)
The fullness of God has been
revealed to us in Jesus Christ, who is the center of all things! Okay- but what
does that actually mean? And what does that mean for our lives?
It means that if you want to see
God’s sovereignty, look to Jesus.
Nothing about Jesus’ life was accidental or incidental. From the very timing of
His birth (Gal. 4:4) to His death (1 Peter 1:18-20, Revelation 13:8) God had
not only foreseen but had ordained Jesus’ life and even revealed it to His
people beforehand.
Even the darkest day in human history- the day Jesus died- was planned by
the Father. Though God is without sin and darkness Himself, He will use the sin
and darkness of this earth to accomplish His purposes. As I reflect on this, I
think of Joseph, his multi-colored coat, and his jealous brothers who sold him
into slavery because of his position as their father’s favorite child. As his
brothers later came to him and recanted of their actions, Joseph makes a
statement that is so fitting also for the torture and death of Christ. He says,
“What you intended for evil, God intended for good.” (Genesis 50:20). And so it
is with Jesus- what Satan and the Sanhedrin and the Romans intended for evil,
God intended for good. He intended to send Jesus to live the life we could
never live and die the death that we deserved before we even existed.
It means that if you want to see
God’s holiness, look to Jesus. God is
perfect and holy and without any sin. He will not allow sin in His presence and
He will not allow sin to go unpunished, because for Him to allow sin to go
unpunished would make him less than good. However, God is not less than good
and therefore will not allow sin to go unpunished (Numbers 14:18, Proverbs
11:21, Job 10:14). That is why God sent Jesus to take our punishment upon
Himself- He loved us and so desired for us to know Him, but the fact is that we
are sinners and for God to allow us as we are into His presence would be an
offence to Him. Therefore, our sin had to be punished, and the wages of sin is
death (Romans 6:23) and God is not one to wink at sin. But God loved us so much
that He sent Jesus to pay the full penalty of our crimes, enabling us to be
cleansed and therefore to be given full access to His presence.
It means that if you want to see
God’s love, look to Jesus! Again, the
price needed to be paid for our sin and God in His holiness and goodness could
not merely overlook it. It had to be paid for. However, Jesus coming and paying
for it was not coercion on either part. God did not have to convince Jesus to
do it and Jesus did not have to force God to accept His sacrifice. All three members of the Godhead were in full
agreement about Jesus’ life and mission (see Luke 3:21-22 and John 5:19). And
they did it because they loved us and
want to know us intimately. Even while we still rebelled against Him and
hated Him, even before we were born, He loved us and was already beginning to
draw us to Himself (Romans 5:8).
The list goes on and on. I was
trying to “find God” using a map of my own making- namely, my feelings- when
God had already revealed Himself fully to me in Jesus, who is the Word become
flesh and all the fullness of God revealed to us. Of course there is no “good
time” for a sinner to come to God- there is no time when a sinner will be ready
to face God on His own. That is why God came to us. And it is why He continues
to be there for us. On our own before we were redeemed by Christ, we were dead
in sin and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1) and if we rely on ourselves or on our
ability to climb up to God or to make ourselves worthy, we are completely
hopeless. But God loved us so much that He came to us and lifted us from the
miry clay of sin and death- and not only that, but He continues to preserve us
until that day when we do see Him face to face (1 Corinthians 1:21-22,
Ephesians 1:13-14).
Though we cannot see God face to
face now, we can find everything we need for life and salvation in the person
of Jesus Christ. Therefore, as you feel distant from God and desire to know how
He feels about you, look to Jesus and find comfort.
Comments
Post a Comment