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Article Archive |
2007
To the Glory of God
by Jim Morris
Christmas is coming. Matthew and Luke's gospel accounts begin the story of Jesus with the events surrounding his one-of-a-kind, miraculous birth. Mark's account skips it all together and jumps right into the ministry of John the Baptist. However, John's account takes a different approach to the coming of Jesus. He begins with the creative glory of God.
The Genesis account reads, “In the beginning, God created . . .” (Genesis 1:1). John's account reads in a similar way, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God . . . Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:1-3). Both accounts elaborate the creative glory of God through his Word. Before anything existed, the infinite, perfect God revealed his own glory.
God's glory is beyond anything we can imagine or comprehend. It is awesome, perfect and complete. There is absolute communion and contentment and joy within the life of God himself. Why describe God as living in communion within himself? The answer is that God is a Trinity—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Hebrew word for “God” in Genesis 1:1 (Elohim) is the plural form, “Gods,” but it is written in English as singular, “God.” All three persons within God are God. They have lived in sweet fellowship for eternity. Only in understanding the magnitude of God's glory can we begin to appreciate Christmas.
Jesus left heaven to come all the way down to take up his life with us. Eugene Peterson's translation of John 1:14 in The Message, reads, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” Christ took off his royal robes and put on wretched rags. He stepped out of the peace of heaven and entered into the ragged hardships of earth. When God came down, he immersed Himself in our suffering, our sorrow and our death. God transformed himself in order to embrace an earth crippled from the ravages of sin with his love and grace.
The apostle Paul said, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).
12-19-07
# 51
