The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Mystery of Godliness"
"Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh" (I Timothy 3:16).
The Lord Jesus Christ is the God who became man, and the man who remains God. This raises mystery beyond compare when we consider that the Infinite enrobed Himself with the finite, the Eternal entered the realm of the temporal, and God the Son somehow became something other than He had forever been (again, without relinquishing His divinity). No greater enigma exists, even as born again believers in the Lord Jesus uncompromisingly proclaim the truth of our Lord's Heavenly and earthly duality united in One.
"The Word was God… the Word was made flesh" (John 1:1: 14).
In Christ, we discover who God is. "No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared (revealed) Him" (John 1:18). All Scripture - the written Word - directly and indirectly unveils the being and nature of God. In Christ the living Word, however, the disciples and others saw God in terms of the personal. This displayed our Creator in a way never before seen, revealing how different He is to us in many ways, but also how alike He is in others. Most importantly, we see the character, nature, and way of God in the Lord Jesus - "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" - revealing His heart of love, grace, and mercy, along with His uncompromising integrity of holiness. In Christ, God becomes accessible, but always in accordance with His pristinely perfect righteousness (John 14:9).
We also discover who we are meant to be through the Lord Jesus. "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). What is a human being? Look no further, or to no other than the Savior. He is human as God originally purposed and designed humanity. Moreover, our Heavenly Father works in believers to make us like the Lord Jesus in character, nature, and way. "We shall be like Him" declared the Apostle John of that day when in His direct presence, "we shall see Him as He is" (I John 3:2). In this day, the process of increasing Christlikekness proceeds in every believer as "all things work together for good," that is, the "good" of being conformed to the spiritual and moral image of the Lord Jesus (Romans 8:28-29). He is the prototype, and we can be sure all blessing, challenge, and mundane events of every day serve the purpose of our becoming more reflective of His glorious image.
In Heaven and earth, there is no one like the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the chief delight of both His Father and the redeemed, and the glorious One in whom God's "eternal purpose" forever proceeds (Ephesians 3:11). His being as both God and man transcends our understanding. It does not, however, transcend our capacity for love, faith, and devotion directed to Him through the leading and enabling of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we do well to acknowledge the mystery, while rejoicing in the mercy whereby we discover who we are meant to be by ever seeking to…
"Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
(II Peter 3:18)
Weekly Memory Verse
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is."
(I John 3:2).
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