TODAY'S DEVOTION ON THE BIBLE
Unlike God’s giving of His law in the Old Covenant, which was meant to show us what we are like, God’s giving of His Son in the New Covenant was meant to show us what He is like. According to the Apostle John, God, whom no man has ever seen, has now been revealed to the world through His Son Jesus Christ (John 1:18). Whereas God gave the world His law through Moses, showing us what we are like, hopelessly lost sinners who can never earn our own salvation or merit God’s favor, God gave us grace and truth through His Son Jesus Christ, revealing to us what He is like, a gracious God willing to give eternal life to anyone who will believe the truth of His salvation in Christ (John 1:17).
In Hebrews 1:1-4, we are told that God gave glimpses of Himself throughout the Old Testament. At different times and in different ways He gave glimpses of Himself through the Old Testament prophets. Isaiah showed us a little about God, as did Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the other Old Testament prophets. Still, the picture of God in the Old Testament was part and partial. It only gave us pieces of the puzzle and glimpses of God. In the New Testament, however, God gave us His Son, who is “the brightness of [God’s] glory,” as well as “the express image of his person.” In other words, Christ is the full revelation and whole picture of God.
When Philip, Christ’s practical disciple, asked Christ to show His disciples the Father, our Lord was grieved, answering: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?” The truth, as Philip learned on this occasion, is that all you have to do to see God is look at Jesus, who came into the world to show us what God is like.
Don Walton
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