Therefore we should not be surprised when the apostle John, in John 1:1, says. God sees the real us, the inside, the part that matters. It is the Son Who … 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son… Amen. David sought God’s testing, asking Him to examine his heart and mind and see that they were true to Him (Psalm 26:2; 139:23). Anything less than this would be idolatry. He said, ‘Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. God sees your affliction! John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. Rather God himself took the initiative to bestow his own fullness on a man in the act of incarnation. You are a beloved child of God, Scripture says. Because we were created for something infinitely better and nobler and greater and deeper than self-contemplation. In Hebrews 1:3 it says of the Son. a perfect stamp or imprint of his nature. “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” The Son of God is not merely a chosen man. International Standard Version The one who did not spare his own Son, but offered him as a sacrifice for all of us, surely will give us all things, along with his Son, won't he? ): seeing God for who he really is has proven again and again to be the most powerful and compelling force in motivating my quest for holiness and joy in him. But these are not really two different glories. He sees everyone's actions—even those who wrong us. But this verse also relates to God’s plans for us: He knows the way He will lead us, how He will take us from our present situation all the way until we stand perfect before His glorious throne. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ. Job 1:5 – “And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them (his kids), and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. the way You would like to see me do them. The Bible says that we are planted by God and therefore we must be deep rooted in the Word and not the World. How shall God not insult what is infinitely beautiful and glorious? Read these Top 24 Bible verses-How God sees us … 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.The LORD … We should embrace unconditional election primarily because it’s true. - For God so loved the world. And it's not just so that He can make a note of when we get things wrong but so He can protect us, and guide us through life's many twists and turns. Live in a way that pleases God, and see how he acts in your behalf. The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. It was by His Son that God made the world. While the Israelites were … When God sees us now, does He see His reflection? But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Our God cares about us. So let’s set aside how we see ourselves for a moment and take a look at five things the Bible says about how God sees us. I’m so touched by this. No matter what is happening, he never leaves us. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation [that is, the one who has the exalted status of divine Sonship over all creation, as the next phrase shows]; for in him all things were created in heaven and on earth. Some of us are going through very heavy physical or mental or spiritual trials. Does the presence or absence of happiness say anything about us morally, or is happiness simply a nonmoral state of affairs? As you read these comforting Bible verses, remember that the Lord is good and kind, your ever-present protector in times of need. Since the Son is the image of God and the reflection of God and the stamp of God and the form of God, equal with God, and indeed is God, therefore God’s delight in the Son is delight in himself. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” As long as there has been God, there has been the Word of God, the Son of God, who took on a human nature in Jesus Christ. God did not look out over the world to find a man who would qualify for his delight and then adopt him as his Son. But you and I were created to SOAR to the Son of God. But why? Through faith in Christ, we are sinners, saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8). The first and most fundamental thing we can say about the pleasures of God is that he takes pleasure in his Son. I didn’t realize how much God loved his people. God doesn’t just forgive our sins, He makes us righteous. Question: "Why does God test us?" Without our consent, without our approval, without our say, God decided to save his own. Not meaning to be selfish, but I never realized how much he loved me. a perfect form or expression of his glory. This story is encouraging if you are suffering and feel that God has abandoned you. Not to love him and delight in him is a great insult to his worth. We all hurt to different degrees. We may even believe God is angry with us because try as we might, we can't stop sinning. So it is my prayer, and I hope that you will make it your prayer, that in seeing the objects of God’s pleasure we will see the excellency and worth of his soul; and in seeing the excellency and worth of his soul we will see his glory; and in seeing his glory we will be changed from one degree of glory to another into his likeness; and in being changed into his likeness we will confront this city, and the unreached peoples of the world, with a living witness to a great and irresistibly attractive Savior. His soul delights in the Son! Rather than seeing our sinfulness, God sees the righteousness of His Son. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Now we can get a better idea of what the Bible means when it calls him the image or reflection or stamp or form of God who is equal with God. But we should also embrace it because it’s precious. But herein lies also the very foundation of our salvation, for it is precisely the infinite regard that the Father has for the Son which makes it possible for me, a wicked sinner, to be loved and accepted in the Son, because in his death he restored all the insult and injury that I had done to the Father’s glory through my sin. How shall God not commit idolatry? God tells you how he sees you in his personal message to his followers, the … As soon as I started reading Exodus 3 I noticed that God heard the cries of His people. Today is just the beginning. And so the righteousness of God is the infinite zeal and joy and pleasure that he has in his own worth and glory. So the light conveyed by preaching is a light of glory, and you can speak of this glory as the glory of Christ who is God’s image, or the glory of God perfectly reflected in Christ. That means that as a preacher I am constantly confronted with the question: How can I best portray the glory of God so that the greatest number of people will see it and be changed by it? Because He sees, you can see His mercy, and submit to Him. Preaching is the portrayal or display or exhibition of divine glory to the hearts of men and women (that’s 2 Corinthians 4:4–6), so that by the beholding of this glory they might be changed into the likeness of the Lord from one degree of glory to another (that’s 2 Corinthians 3:18). When he looks at his Son, he enjoys and admires and cherishes and prizes and relishes what he sees. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org, Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, “Because the, have certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt and have heard their groans, and I have come down to rescue them. We're not invisible to Him or without value. Chapter 3 COVERED WITH HIS LOVE God covered you and I with his own love to avoid seeing our faults and failings, just so that he could look on us with total love. Why? This pushes us back further into the Godhead and on to affirmation three. Then Colossians 1:19 relates this to God’s pleasure: “In him all the fullness [of deity] was pleased to dwell.” Or you could say (with the NIV), “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.” In other words, it was God’s pleasure to do this. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them. They are children of God. Herein lies the greatest obstacle to our salvation: for how shall such a righteous God ever set his affection on sinners like us? It's wonderful to know that God is watching over us. In verse 4 Paul says it is the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. God gave His Son everything. apart from himself and his grace, has been of such a commanding, exhaustless, immeasurable kind, that it was equal to any emergency, and able to secure for the worst and most degraded, for the outcast, the serpent … He is well-pleased with his Son. His soul delights in the Son! The Son of God has the fullness of deity. It is precisely what I know to be true from my own experience (as do many of you! Scripture tells us God knows what is going on in our lives and is faithful. To the choirmaster. Verse 10 says he will see his offspring. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. . He says this on one other occasion: at Jesus’s baptism, as the Holy Spirit comes down and anoints Jesus for his ministry, signifying the Father’s love and support — “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”, And in the gospel of John, Jesus speaks several times about the Father’s love for him: for example, John 3:35, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.” John 5:20: “The Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing.” (See also Matthew 12:18 where Matthew quotes Isaiah 42:1 in reference to Jesus: “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.” The Hebrew word behind “well pleased” is ratsah, and means “delights in.”). Justification is more than just a pardon. And therefore God the Son is co-eternal with God the Father and equal in essence and glory. First, God gives the disciples a brief glimpse of the true heavenly glory of Jesus. We hum the music we listen to. 10:3) 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? You and I know from experience that the root conflict in the human soul is between two glories — the glory of the world and all the brief pleasures it can offer, versus the glory of God and all the eternal pleasures it can offer. 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. Because of him who passes by and returns; And no oppressor will pass over them anymore. At times I have They were born at 26 weeks and I have seen the Hand of God in our lives. This is what Peter says in 2 Peter 1:17: “[Christ] received honor and glory from God the Father.” Then God reveals his heart for the Son and says two things: “I love my son” (“This is my beloved Son”), and “I take pleasure in my Son” (“with whom I am well pleased”). "For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, and He sees all his steps" (Job 34:21). So it is with God. God is the most glorious of all beings. But God is making in us something that neither Satan nor his … Jesus talking to Nicodemus, depicted by William Hole. These two glories compete for the allegiance, admiration, and delight of our hearts. I believe this text teaches us that one of the ways we are changed progressively into the likeness of Christ is by looking at his glory. It is a promotion. I have certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt and have heard their groans, and I have come down to rescue them; come now, and I will send you to Egypt.’, Perhaps the Lord will look on my affliction and return good to me instead of his cursing this day.”. (Ro. It is the saving work of God. The result is a plan to preach thirteen messages entitled the pleasures of God. If teenagers tend to fix their hair like the stars they admire, so Christians will tend to fix their character like the God they admire. The lesson I learn from this for preaching is that to a great extent preaching must be the portrayal of the glory of God, because the goal of preaching is to change people into the likeness of God. He looks at us, and this is what He sees: ‘The blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin’ (1 John 1:7). Verse 2: “His face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light.” Then in verse 5 a bright cloud overshadows them and God speaks from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”. Applying it to us, we can put it: Because God sees our affliction, we can see His mercy and submit to Him. And what an honor that is! I think this fits with Paul’s view of preaching because just four verses later, in 2 Corinthians 4:4, he describes the content of his preaching as “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.” And two verses later in verse 6 he describes it just a little differently as “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”. I know it hurts. Before you even started praying He already had the answer. So our first statement is that God the Father loves the Son, not with any self-denying, sacrificial mercy, but with the love of delight and pleasure. Isn’t the essence of righteousness to be moved by perfect delight in what is perfectly glorious? The Bible teaches that this eternal God has always had. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power. Does He see His image? When he looks at his Son, he enjoys and admires and cherishes and prizes and relishes what he sees. 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