The glory of God in the face of Jesus
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2Cor. 4:6).
What was it about the face of Jesus that revealed the glory of God? Well-set eyes and nose? Was His beard groomed perfectly? Were His cheekbones just so and His lips and bite just right? Did His ears hang evenly and symmetrically? Was it handsomeness that revealed the glory of God? Perfect conformation and build?
“Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1Sam. 16:7). Our fallen natures quickly dive into idolatry as was seen by Israel in Gideon’s day. (Ju. 8:27).
Because our faculties of humility and contrition are so enfeebled, and, to many, barely functional, we depend on beauty or some other sensory input to evoke emotion and a semblance of life to our dead souls. We must constantly have life from our Redeemer implanted to our mechanisms to repent and to walk humble and repentant.
It is in humility that God has shined so brightly. He loves to humble Himself for the sake of His creation. Here is where Jesus truly revealed His Father—not in handsomeness or in anything that would tempt us into self-gratification by proxy through a Jesus of our fancy—but in His humiliation.
Not in beauty, but in pain and grief do we truly see the Father revealed in Jesus. “His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men: so shall He sprinkle many nations.” (Is. 52:14,15).
The scars, the wrath of God on His upturned look of surrender and love and submission to the plan to redeem corrupt man; the rejection, and the sorrow—all of this, the true glory of God shining in the face of Jesus.
What was it about the face of Jesus that revealed the glory of God? Well-set eyes and nose? Was His beard groomed perfectly? Were His cheekbones just so and His lips and bite just right? Did His ears hang evenly and symmetrically? Was it handsomeness that revealed the glory of God? Perfect conformation and build?
“Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1Sam. 16:7). Our fallen natures quickly dive into idolatry as was seen by Israel in Gideon’s day. (Ju. 8:27).
Because our faculties of humility and contrition are so enfeebled, and, to many, barely functional, we depend on beauty or some other sensory input to evoke emotion and a semblance of life to our dead souls. We must constantly have life from our Redeemer implanted to our mechanisms to repent and to walk humble and repentant.
It is in humility that God has shined so brightly. He loves to humble Himself for the sake of His creation. Here is where Jesus truly revealed His Father—not in handsomeness or in anything that would tempt us into self-gratification by proxy through a Jesus of our fancy—but in His humiliation.
Not in beauty, but in pain and grief do we truly see the Father revealed in Jesus. “His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men: so shall He sprinkle many nations.” (Is. 52:14,15).
The scars, the wrath of God on His upturned look of surrender and love and submission to the plan to redeem corrupt man; the rejection, and the sorrow—all of this, the true glory of God shining in the face of Jesus.
posted by David | 9:45 AM
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