Saturday, June 3, 2017

Jn 14:8-9 - O that we would see Christ, by faith, in the preaching of the Word!

"Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?"
John 14:8-9

How glorious it is to see Christ! So exactly and completely is He the imprint of the Father that, once having seen Him, there is nothing more of the Father that we may see! Indeed there is nothing un-Christlike in the Father.

But what of us? Coming so long after Philip, have we missed our opportunity in this world for this glorious vision? By no means. For when the apostle Paul defends plain preaching and teaching as his strategem for ministry, he​ argues that it is God's means for doing something that no device of man could ever do:

"Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
2Co 4:1-6

O, let us wrestle at the throne of grace for this: that God the Holy Spirit would attend the preaching in our churches, granting to us to see Christ Himself by faith!

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