We don’t know. One day we shall see Him as He is, and become like Him (1 John 3:2). (Doubt He looks like the blue-eyed, blond-haired version sold here in the States as “Jesus junk,” that is, as trinkets.) Yet, we do have some clues as to what He is like. His character shines through brighter than His physical appearance. He’s full of compassion (Matthew 9:36: σπλαγχνίζομαι = moved with compassion), which is much deeper than mere emotion. More broadly, He’s full of grace and truth. He is the living embodiment of Grace, and Truth became a Person. Grace is meant to be experienced, truth intended to be known in the same way. We are to “receive” them as we receive Him. God’s grace never fails, and as wholly true He is completely faithful. (He’s not like us.)

Yet, He became like us. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is in the Gospel of John, first chapter, verses 14 & 16. It reads:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…. And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

In His incarnation, Jesus stepped down into our world, showing us the worth of God in real-time. Someone has said the Incarnation is “deity for dummies.” God made Himself obvious and visible. Jesus was overflowing with the two essential qualities of perfect humanity: grace and truth. Those twin perfections remind us of God’s essential character: “steadfast love [Hb. hesed] and faithfulness [Hb. ’emet]” as revealed about 1,500 years prior in Exodus 34:6 (cf. Exodus 33:18–19). Moses asked to see God in all His glory. Yet the great patriarch was only  able to see the back side of God’s presence passing by. Here in Jesus we see God making Himself known as a person. To be known, experienced, treasured and loved. If God is a theory or His Son simply a business transaction to get us to Heaven, we we’ll miss everything in between. This relationship of love is founded on endless grace and rock-solid truth. God intends Jesus to be sufficient for our failures and sweeter than our failures. He is Grace & Truth in action, making life worth enduring until the end. The Triune God enjoys a fullness that spilled over into this world.

A few years back pastor John Piper wrote about these Scriptures and the Incarnation in a short article on these verses (read the entire thing here). Here are some highlights:

• …the one from whose fullness I am being drenched with grace is the Word that was with God and was God (John 1:1-2), so that his fullness is the fullness of God—a divine fullness, an infinite fullness;
• …this Word became flesh and so was one of us and was pursuing us with his fullness—it is an accessible fullness;
• …when this Word appeared in human form, his glory was seen—his is a glorious fullness;
• …this Word was “the only Son from the Father” so that the divine fullness was being mediated to me not just from God, but through God—God did not send an angel but his only Son to deliver his fullness;
• …the fullness of the Son is a fullness of grace—I will not drown in this fullness but be blessed in every way by this fullness;
• …this fullness is not only a fullness of grace but of truth—I am not being graced with truth-ignoring flattery; this grace is rooted in rock-solid reality.

As I savor this illumination of Christ’s fullness, I hear Paul say, “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9). I hear him say, “In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19). And I hear him say, “In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).

Can we see how deeply that God’s glory resides in Jesus? He intends us to seek Him in that one place alone: in Christ. Piper continues:

Paul prays that we would experience Christ’s fullness. Not just know about it, but be filled with it. Here is the way I hear him praying for me:

That I “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18-19).

The “fullness of God” is experienced, he says, as we are given the “strength to comprehend” the love of Christ in its height and depth and length and breadth—that is, in its fullness. This is remarkable: The fullness of God is the spiritual apprehension (experience) of the fullness of the love of Christ. This love is the grace and truth that fills the Son of God and pours out on us.

• Read the rest of Piper’s meditation on John 1:14-16.

Experiencing the fullness this Christmas. Pray you are as well.

Timmy Brister, a pastor at Grace Baptist Church pointed this out in a recent post . He notes that C.J. Mahaney, in the concluding chapter of his book, Living the Cross-Centered Life , talks about the centrality of the gospel and how you never move beyond your need for the gospel.  When asked, “But don’t I need more than the cross?” , Mahaney responds thus (emphasis mine):

“In one sense, the answer is no.  Nothing else is of equal importance.  The message of Christ and Him crucified is the Christian hope, confidence, and assurance.  Heaven will be spent marveling at the work of Christ, the God-Man who suffered in the place of us sinners.

In another sense, the answer’s yes.  You do need more.  You’ve been saved to grow, to serve in a local church, to do good works, and to glorify God.  But the ‘more’ you need as a follower of Christ won’t be found apart from the cross.  The gospel isn’t one class among many that you’ll attend during your life as a Christian–the gospel is the whole building where all the classes take place! Rightly approached, all the topics you’ll study and focus on as a believer will be offered to you ‘within the walls’ of the glorious gospel.

Name any area of the Christian life that you want to learn about or that you want to grow in.  The Old Testament? The end times?  Do you want to grow in holiness or the practice of prayer? To become a better husband, wife, or parent?  None of these can be rightly understood apart from God’s grace through Jesus’ death.  They, and indeed all topics, should be studied through the lens of the gospel .”

- C.J. Mahaney, Living the Cross-Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2006), 149-150.

In the morning when I put on my glasses — through which I see daily life and without which I cannot see much at all — I will again be reminded that to see the world in a way pleasing to God I must see all things through His Gospel. In fact, without that perspective I might as well be blind.

(These are not terms I’ve invented. Nor did Tim Keller, but he has been so instrumental in our day on reminding us that every problem in our lives is really a Gospel problem.)

In this audio message from the 2007 Gospel Coalition, Pastor Tim Keller speaks on "Gospel-centered ministry" from 1st Peter 1-2. Listen up, it’s well worth your time.

[download mp3]

In this message Keller points out that the Gospel is …
all about Jesus: Who He is, and What He has done
The Gospel also is:

1. Good News (not good advice)
2. Doxological — bring people to full-flourishing through glorious worship (which is our purpose)
3. Christocentric — it’s all about Him (see below)
4. Personal (individual) — we cannot make ourselves Christians; we must be converted & regenerated, each of us. Substitutional atonement and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. Jesus died the death we should have lived, and lived the life we should have lived. Thus, the Gospel is everything, from A-Z, our only basis of relationship with God.
5. Cultural — the Gospel creates a culture: the Church. It motivates by joy, and makes us as people relate to the culture around us. Creates a counter-culture that seeks the common good, loving people and the community (Jer. 29). It is so massively transformational that it produces a distinct worldview, through which we see everything.
6. Wonderful — the angels long to look into it — they love it — and never tire of it (1 Peter 1:12). The Gospel is not the ABC’s, it is the A-Z; it is everything. It must be at the heart of everything we do and think.

It’s All About Him

"Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures." Luke 24:27

"Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us.

Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for acquittal.

Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void not knowing wither he went to create a new people of God.

Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me,” now we can look at God taking his son up the mountain and sacrificing him and say, “Now we know that you love us because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from us.”

Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.

Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.

Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant.

Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.

Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.

Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.

Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk losing an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.

Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.

Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.

The Bible’s really not about you — it’s about Him."

“As God, Christ is the destination to which we move; as man, the path by which we go.”

- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion , 3.2.1 (via OFI )

The first was an afternoon idea-ing and planning session talking about our church’s Advent series coming up the few weeks before Christmas. One theme will be JOY … and how much Joy there was when Christ came the first time, how much there shall be one day when He returns in the fullness of His glory, and the unending pleasure to be found as subjects and sons and daughters in His Kingdom.

Being forgiven and right with God on the basis of nothing we have done in and of ourselves (except to contribute to the need for redemption and a Savior) is the basis of our joy. God is our joy. Find as much pleasure as you can in God — for we were created to prefer Him above all else. (And as we recognize that Jesus Himself gave Himself away, for the joy set before Him ( Heb. 12:2 ) and laid down His life, enduring the cross, then we see that quickest path to joy today is to resolve to find our identity in Jesus, and to give our time and resources — our very lives — in the service of others.)

The second centered around the message last night at high school group. Aaron preached on Romans 3:21-26 , a passage packed with the mystery and wonder of what God has done in His Son. Yes, that is a place in Scripture full of "happy tensions," for in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not holding their (our) sins against them (us). Justification. Propitiation. Forgiveness. Redemption. All wonderful and transforming realities. Yet, none of them has the value they were meant to, apart from what they do — they remove all the obstacles to our getting to God. (Or, really, His getting to us, since He is the One who initiated and came to us, removing all the obstacles.) Wow. So much to think of. So much to be happier about. There, joy came and found me today. It came from outside of myself, and drew me outside of myself. Much happier now.

"Before you can ever make a clean and unamended confession of your sin, you have to first begin by confessing your righteousness. It’s not just your sin that separates you from God; your righteousness does as well. Because, when you are convinced you are righteous, you don’t seek the forgiving, rescuing, and restoring mercy that can be found only in Jesus Christ." (p. 22)

“Grace is for the willing and we only become willing when we confess not only the gravity of our sin, but our inability to deliver ourselves from it. Then our willingness opens to us all the sustenance of heart that can only be found in the Son.” (p. 24)
- Paul David Tripp, Whiter Than Snow (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2008), 22, 24.

“All that may be known of God for our salvation, especially his wisdom, love, goodness, grace and mercy on which the life of a soul depends, are represented to us in all their splendour in and through Christ. No wonder then that Christ is glorious in the eyes of believers!”

- John Owen, The Glory of Christ (Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1994), 20.

[HT: Of First Importance ]

“God did not create us to get the cosmic, infinite joy of mutual love and glorification, but to share it. We were to join in the dance. If we center our lives on him, serving him not out of self-interest, but for the sake of who he is, for the sake of his beauty and glory, we will enter the dance and share in the joy and love he lives in. We were designed, then, not just for belief in God in some general way, nor for a vague kind of inspiration or spirituality. We were made to center our lives upon him, to make the purpose and passion of our lives knowing, serving, delighting, and resembling him. This growth in happiness will go on eternally, increasing unimaginably (1 Corinthians 2:7-10 ).”
- Timothy Keller, The Reason For God (New York, NY: Dutton, 2008), 219.

“It is radically humbling to confess that the source of all our joy resides outside ourselves.”
—John Piper, Future Grace, p. 88.

Kari and I think and talk often about having a home of our own again.  (And we sort of chuckle because we do own a home, but rent it out to others.)  In the meantime we live with family in this sort of suspended reality, patiently (okay, not always patiently, that’s why we talk about it so often) awaiting the day when we will walk into a new home again of our own.  That sounds comfortable, but not on the same degree that God Himself is our comfort.  In the second chapter of Don Postema’s book Space for God, he brings up the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism, which asks:

What is your only comfort in life and death? 

The answer:

That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him. 

Belong.  What a word.  It means “to be the property of a person or thing.”  That The God of the universe, the One whom I have often offended and rebelled against calls me His own. Not simply on account of His creating me but more so because He has redeemed me in Jesus.  I am twice-bought, and He owns me completely, eternally.  That truth will stir one’s affections to love and honor God above all.

My identity is a chosen and beloved child of God  The balance of the Scriptures reveal the blessedness of belonging to God in Christ, such as this classic:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32)

At the climactic point of Romans 8 — in my opinion the most important and life-changing chapter in the Bible — we see a string of questions aimed at revealing the secure love an adopted son of God should experience and embrace.  Indeed, if God Almighty Himself is for us, in all His exhaustive love, why would it matter if anyone else is against us?