“O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out” (Romans 11:33). “He is a child born, with reference to His nature: He is born of the virgin, a child. But He is a Son given with reference to His divine nature, being given as well as born.” A depth very few ever scratch the surface! How few really understand the nativity scenes so beautifully displayed this time of year: that this scene depicts the incarnation of our Lord God Almighty, who became an infant and drew His nourishment from the breast of a woman. Yet this bewildered, confused, religious world (unaware of their confusion) thinks it has the inexhaustible, incomprehensible God of all creation solved. A god that can be discovered is not God at all. That god is a figment of the imagination and does not exist. A man may draw up a few guidelines of religious order; he may devise a neat layout of programs and forms and fit the god of his mind into it, and yet miss the true God altogether and never know it until eternally too late.. Do you suppose that could be what is described by our Lord in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name?’ (Spent all that time and money on nativity scenes and Christmas cantatas?) And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” What a poor fool misses by mere natural religion that which can only be received by divine revelation: and what he receives by revelation is an understanding of the nature of God, which is His spirituality. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship Him in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). By missing this they never see more than “the babe in a manager or the man upstairs,” a god who they control. “A nature belongs to every creature which is difficult to understand; and also to God which is most difficult of all.” How do men think they have the God of the Bible figured out when they can’t begin to understand one another? “Can you, by searching, find out God? Can you find out the almighty to perfection?” (Job 11:7). “The world by wisdom knew not God.” (I Cor.1:21). The incomprehensibleness of God is a fact, yet one that should not despair believers from searching after Him. Somewhat of God’s nature may be apprehended by our minds, yet can never be fully understood. Though we can never fully comprehend God, there is a source of apprehension and that source is Christ. Philip said, “Show us the Father and it will satisfy us. Christ said to Philip, Have I been so long with you and you have not seen the Father? If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” Paul gives the source of finding out God in II Cor.4:6, “God gives the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.” Manger of Bethlehem thou hast miracles poured into thee, the incarnation of the Son of God, God became man that He may be a loving forgiving Father for those who know Him.
Older
Top
