Advent Week 1: Revelation
from Ron’s pen …
I love the Advent season. When I was growing up, we never celebrated it. When I went to a church that did, I came to appreciate the emphasis every December on the coming of the Christ. On this first Sunday of Advent I am thinking about “Revelation.” Revelation means to uncover, to explain, or to reveal.
The revelation I am thinking of is the disclosure of who God is and what God is like through Jesus Christ. The book of Hebrews chapter one tells us that “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.”
We can know what God is like because he has revealed himself to us. His ultimate revelation of himself is found in his son, Jesus Christ. The words and works of Jesus display the glory and nature of God. If we want to know God better, we need to look at the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus bears the exact imprint of the nature of God.
In John 1:1 and 14, John writes “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The baby Jesus whose birth we celebrate is more than just a baby in a manger scene. He is God come down to man in human form.
Jesus is the Word who was with God and was God. He is the one who came from the Father full of grace and truth. He is the One and Only. He is God in flesh. He is called Immanuel, which means “God with us.” This is the amazing revelation from God to humanity. Jesus has come to reveal God to us.
When I reject the revelation of God, I reject the God of revelation. When I reject the God of revelation, I am left to my own imagination to determine what God is like. This never turns out well. God is so transcendent that no human imagination can conceive him as he truly is. Thankfully I am not left to my imagination to know God and to know his nature and character. He has revealed himself in his son, Jesus.
When God reveals himself I am obligated to respond to his revelation. This Advent season I respond in faith again to the Lord Jesus, the revelation of God. How about you?
(All scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1984. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.)
