Week 3—Saturday Luke 9:28-32
Week 3—SATURDAY
“AND WE HAVE BEHELD HIS GLORY”
We are studying “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” We have considered that “grace” was first and “truth” was second. For the first thing in God is “God is love,” and hence the outflowing of that love is grace. If the first thing in God were “God is truth,” then the outflowing of that truth would be a statement on how to live life. But that would be the word become word. God as truth would mean religion as philosophy, but God as love means religion as redemption—God acting in love to save us.
And note it says “full of grace and truth,” which would mean that in Jesus there is not a spotty character—grace and ungrace, truth and untruth. There is grace and only grace, truth and only truth. A Hindu put it this way: “We like to listen about a Man who practiced everything he preached.” A very important verse is this one: “But now Christ has come, high priest of good things already in being” (Heb. 9:11, NEB). Other versions give the alternate reading of “good things to come.” It is both, for Jesus as “the Word become flesh” is the highest priest of “good things already in being.” He is anticipation, and he is realization. When you have him, you have the present and the future. Jesus is full of grace and full of truth, so there is no room for the opposite. He is one Character and only one.
And “We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” “We have beheld his glory”—what would that “glory” be? “Who is he?” I asked a disciple of “a holy man” in India. “He is God, he can tell you anything”—his glory was in his knowledge. Others would reply concerning some other: “He is God, he can perform miracles”—his glory is in what he does. But in Jesus, his glory was in what he was—“glory as of the only Son from the Father.” It was a glory, not of knowledge and might, but a glory of being. His knowledge and might flowed from his being. Being the “Son” was everything.
O Jesus, I thank you for what you are. For what you are determines everything. And you are the only Son. We look on you and know, and know that there can be no other like you. You are the only Son and therefore the only Incarnation. We thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I glory in that I am a child of God—what else do I need?