The Unveiled Reality of God

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
(John 1:14)

I read something about this verse today that thrilled me! Don't you love it when the Lord shows you something new? Woo-Hoo!

We know that the Word is Jesus. John 1:1 tells us, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." God created the world through His spoken Word. Now He has sent redemption to His creation through His living Word, Jesus Christ.

The Word made flesh.

Now the exciting part.

We are told that Jesus is "full of grace and truth." The Greek word for 'truth' is aletheia (al-ah-thay-ah) which means "unveiled reality."

UNVEILED REALITY!

Jesus is the unveiled reality of God's glory!

Let's rest on this for a minute. Who can behold the glory of the Lord? It far exceeds our wildest imaginations. Just think...His voice is in the thunder. He holds the seas in the cup of His hands. He rides on the wings of the wind. His glory is such that we cannot look upon Him with our earthly bodies.

And yet.
And yet He craved our fellowship so much that He sent Jesus to earth so that we could be in His Presence and learn of His love and mercy and salvation. He sent Jesus so that we, His children, could put on the robe of righteousness and behold Him for all of eternity. THAT'S how much He loves you and me.

Let's go a little deeper.

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." A literal translation of 'dwelt' means 'tabernacled'. Think of the tabernacle in the wilderness. This is the holy place where God dwelt among the people. The ark with His mercy seat was in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle - the innermost place - and was behind a VEIL. This was the same veil that we read about in the depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus. At the moment Jesus died the veil in the temple was torn in two. The very separation between God and us was done away with. The atonement for our sins was complete through His blood.

The veil is very important. During the Old Testament only the High Priest was allowed to venture behind it. He had a rope tied to his ankle in case he died while in the Lord's Presence. The rope enabled another priest to pull him out.

THAT is how holy God is!
THAT is how magnificent His glory is!
And NOW! Now, through Jesus, the unveiled reality of God, we can know Him!

Jesus. Emmanuel. God with us unveiling His reality, bringing us His glory!

Father, This is such an awesome revelation! And it makes so much sense. Thank you for showing us this truth about Jesus. He brought Your magnificent glory to earth - to us! He revealed Who You are to us and He joined us to You through His suffering and pain. He laid us in Your everlasting arms because of His love. How do we thank You Father? We offer You praise and adoration.