God gives and he gives himself, Pt.3. The chosen one: Jesus Christ.

This is the third post on the topic of God’s revelation. This is what we have seen so far.

First, remember, God is a giving God, but what present does he give? God gives himself in Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit. Both Jesus Christ and the bible show us this.

Secondly, to unpack the above point we read about election. God chooses people in order to reveal himself. Think of the OT stories. In all of them in one way or another we learn that God the Giver gave to give himself. He gave when he went after sinners and chose a special people he would call his own through whom he would reveal himself to the world.

Now we come to point number three and we still have to talk about election…the election not of a people, but the election of a Person. It is Jesus Christ.

In him he gave himself. He is the Word of God. He that has seen him, has seen the Father. Thinking back to the story of David and the Temple in 1 Chronicles 29 and how it connects with Jesus Christ we remember that he is the Son of David, the true Israel of God. He is the true Temple of God for he is greater than the Temple, and wiser than Solomon. The temple was destroyed and Solomon was not the eternal king, for the Lord had set up Christ Jesus his Son for this. In him the glory of God dwells. Jesus Christ brings us into fellowship with the Father and the Spirit. In him we worship God in the Spirit and in truth. And of course through Christ we are cleansed from guilt and sin, forgiven freely and made new. Jesus is the Word of God whom we are to hear and can hear by the Spirit’s work. In him we are the new Temple being built up into the dwelling place of God and so God dwells with us and we with God. God chose Christ from before the foundation of the world so he could give himself to us, and be our Savior. God the Son offered himself as our sacrifice, in the power of Spirit, according to the Father’s will. As God gave to the people so they could give to God for the building of the Temple (1 Chr 29), so God gave himself as a sacrifice for sin so he could give himself in forgiveness and love to his people. This giving of God brings us to praise him.

Here in Christ is God’s revelation of himself. “What God is toward us in Christ and the Holy Spirit he is eternally in himself.” T.F. Torrance.