A Christmas Story, Part 2
John 1:14-18
What would it mean to know the God who made all things and holds it all together with a word of his power? The God that made everything with a purpose, for a reason, and with a plan in mind. The one who made you, who had his eye set on you. What would it mean to know what he is like and what he wants? How is it we can know him?
Some people want to imagine God as an impersonal force without a personality, without a mind or will or emotions. But you have to wonder—how did you get your mind and your will and your emotions? You were patterned. You were made in the image of a God who has a mind and will and emotions. But that’s also terrifying, right? Because if God is not simply some impersonal force but a full person—a true person—well, then he has thoughts and desires and plans. And then we have to ask, what does he want? What does he want for you? These are not small questions. How can we possibly come to know him?
Philosophers sit around and figure they’ll just think about it really hard. They’ll think about it and talk about it and figure God out. But who can say their particular ideas are right about what God must be like? That’s not how it works. What we end up doing is inventing a version of God that usually seems suspiciously a lot like us.
The real God—he’s holy. He’s unique. The real God—how could you come to know him? You can’t put him under a microscope. And you certainly can’t just go looking for him in the sky somewhere.
In the 1960s the Soviet Union put Yuri Gagarin into orbit, and afterward the first secretary of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, made a speech where he said, “Why are you clinging to God? Gagarin flew into space and didn’t see God. We went up into heaven and didn’t see God. He must not exist.”
Later, in 1963, C. S. Lewis wrote about that, and he said that looking for God in the heavens is like looking for William Shakespeare in one of his plays. In Hamlet or Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet you don’t find William Shakespeare in them. He’s invisible, in a sense. And yet he’s the author behind it all. His fingerprints are all over everything.
Lewis goes on to say that to know God—the creator, the author behind all of this—you can’t go looking for him somewhere in this world any more than Romeo or Juliet could find William Shakespeare. The only way we can come to know God is if he were to write himself into our world. He has to come to us.
It’s just an analogy, and it’s not perfect, but can you see that’s what Christmas is about? God has come, written himself into this world. The Word became flesh.
Some people want to imagine God as an impersonal force without a personality, without a mind or will or emotions. But you have to wonder—how did you get your mind and your will and your emotions? You were patterned. You were made in the image of a God who has a mind and will and emotions. But that’s also terrifying, right? Because if God is not simply some impersonal force but a full person—a true person—well, then he has thoughts and desires and plans. And then we have to ask, what does he want? What does he want for you? These are not small questions. How can we possibly come to know him?
Philosophers sit around and figure they’ll just think about it really hard. They’ll think about it and talk about it and figure God out. But who can say their particular ideas are right about what God must be like? That’s not how it works. What we end up doing is inventing a version of God that usually seems suspiciously a lot like us.
The real God—he’s holy. He’s unique. The real God—how could you come to know him? You can’t put him under a microscope. And you certainly can’t just go looking for him in the sky somewhere.
In the 1960s the Soviet Union put Yuri Gagarin into orbit, and afterward the first secretary of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, made a speech where he said, “Why are you clinging to God? Gagarin flew into space and didn’t see God. We went up into heaven and didn’t see God. He must not exist.”
Later, in 1963, C. S. Lewis wrote about that, and he said that looking for God in the heavens is like looking for William Shakespeare in one of his plays. In Hamlet or Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet you don’t find William Shakespeare in them. He’s invisible, in a sense. And yet he’s the author behind it all. His fingerprints are all over everything.
Lewis goes on to say that to know God—the creator, the author behind all of this—you can’t go looking for him somewhere in this world any more than Romeo or Juliet could find William Shakespeare. The only way we can come to know God is if he were to write himself into our world. He has to come to us.
It’s just an analogy, and it’s not perfect, but can you see that’s what Christmas is about? God has come, written himself into this world. The Word became flesh.
GOING DEEPER
Parallel, Related and Referenced Passages
1) THE GLORY
2) THE TENT
3) THE LAW
4) THE REVELATION
Parallel, Related and Referenced Passages
1) THE GLORY
- Psalm 19:1 — Creation declares God’s glory
- Psalm 139:14 — Wonderfully made
- Romans 1:19-20 – Gods invisible attributes seen in creation
- Romans 3:23 — All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
- Genesis 1–2 — Humanity created to reflect God’s glory
- Genesis 12:1–3 — God’s promise to bless the world thru Abram
- Exodus 33:18–23 — Moses asks to see God’s glory
- Exodus 34:6 — The LORD… abounding in faithful love and truth
2) THE TENT
- Exodus 40:34–35 — God’s glory fills the tabernacle
- Genesis 2 — God dwelling with humanity in the garden
- Leviticus 26:11–12 — God dwelling among His people
- Ezekiel 37:26–28 — God’s dwelling place with His people
- Isaiah 7:14/Matthew 1:23 — “Immanuel” (God with us)
3) THE LAW
- Exodus 19–20 — The giving of the Law through Moses
- Romans 3:20 — The law reveals sin, cannot justify
- Psalm 19:7 — The law of the LORD is good
- Galatians 3:24 — The law as a tutor leading to Christ
- Matthew 5:17 — Jesus fulfills the Law
4) THE REVELATION
- John 14:9 — “The one who has seen Me has seen the Father”
- Philippians 2:6–8 — Christ’s humility and incarnation
- Isaiah 53 — The suffering servant bearing sin
- Revelation 21:3–5 — God dwelling with people, all things new
- Colossians 1:15–20 — Christ as the image of the invisible God
- Hebrews 1:1–2 — God has spoken fully through His Son
- 2 Corinth. 5:19 — God reconciling the world to Himself in Christ
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