3 Things Happen When We See God For Who He Is

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I used to love listening to the radio. In fact, as a teenager, I would listen to Christian radio all day and all night.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw a picture of one of the radio DJs. I was in utter shock at how different he looked from the image I had of him in my mind.

As I would listen to his deep radio voice, I had a picture of him in my head that didn’t look like him at all.

It was the same way when Jesus lived on earth.

“For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.” Isaiah 53:2

Isaiah, prophesying about Jesus, tells us that He will stand out as would a young sapling growing in the desert; and yet they will still not give Him much attention because He will not be all that pretty.

Not only that, He would be rejected, filled with grief and pain.

And because man will do anything to not allow grief and pain to touch him in any way, Isaiah said that they would have an aversion to Him and try to shrink away from this picture of God that doesn’t agree with what they wanted Him to be.

When we think of a Savior, we don’t think of man who is not handsome, sad, and rejected.

We think of John Wayne – rugged, handsome, confident, and saving the day.

But here’s our Savior, being described by Isaiah, who in no way looks like a confident hero ready to ride in and save His people from their enemies.

He goes on and says that they didn’t even really notice him.

And this was true. The Israelites missed their moment of visitation from God, because they didn’t recognize Him. They had read the Scriptures and got an image of God riding in like a super hero, ready to save them from the Roman Empire.

The thing was, though, He didn’t ride in like a super hero.

He was born as a helpless baby to a unmarried woman in a stinky, stone shelter; grew up stigmatized by his birth, and lived among ordinary people.

There was nothing super-hero about him at all.

So, when He became the substitute for their sickness, pain, and sin, they didn’t even acknowledge Him for it, because they didn’t recognize Him for who He was.

The Problem When We Don’t See God for Who He Is

There are many people today who have created an image of Christ, with regards to His character, that looks nothing like Him.

They have created an image of God that agrees with what they want Him to be – the trouble is, when they are presented with an accurate depiction of God – according to the Bible – they don’t recognize Him.

And while God chose not to put a physical description of Christ in the Bible, he has described His character in great detail from cover to cover. The entire Bible gives us a very detailed description of who God is.

There are those in progressive Christianity who desperately want God to be more permissive, tolerant, and understanding.

The God of the Bible is too rigid and demanding; has too many rules and expectations. And they find that ugly and crippling to His character.

So, they have to “fix” the picture.

They throw out portions of the Bible that don’t agree with what they want him to look like; they twist other portions of Scripture to make Him appear more inclusive and tolerant; and they excuse the parts they don’t agree with by calling them “cultural” and “historical” – not meant for today.

They’ve despised and rejected Him; they have an aversion to who He truly is, and refuse to acknowledge Him as Lord because He doesn’t look like the graven image they have created.

3 Things Happen When We See God for Who He Is

If we would dare to look into the Bible, and if we would dare to remove all the filters that want to make God appear more acceptable, and just see Him for who He is, three things will happen that will utterly revolutionize how we live our lives everyday

1. We see ourselves rightly

When we recognize the God of the Bible for who He really is, we will see the gospel clearly. Seeing God rightly means that we our sin for what it is.

When we remove our filters while reading the Bible, we will see how God’s holiness demands righteousness and our own inability to meet that standard.

It puts us in our proper place.

We see our own incapability to meet that standard and our desperate need for a Savior to save us from our sin.

God is no longer intolerant, too rigid, and too demanding; He is holy and righteous but wholly willing to sacrifice His own Son to meet the requirement for sin so that we can meet His standard.

He not only demands the payment for sin, but then turns around and makes that payment for us.

Now, God’s righteousness isn’t negative but becomes the packaging for the grace He gives us. It becomes the most beautiful, elegant, and luxurious gift we will ever receive!

2. We see our world and culture rightly

When we see the God of the Bible rightly, we will see our world and culture through a proper lens.

We will realize that justice will not be attained by signing on to the social justice of this world, because these battles will not be fought with the carnal weapons of the social justice movement.

We will also realize that biblical standards do not shift with the changing tide of culture.

The God of the Bible that said that it is an abomination for a man to lay with a man as he lays with a woman still calls homosexuality an abomination.

Just as Jesus said that so much as looking at a woman with lust is equal to the sin of adultery.

These standards have not changed, even though the cultural belief of our day tells us that young people’s hormones are too volatile to expect them to remain virgins until they marry; and therefore we should teach them safe sex, not abstinence.

God’s standard for human sexuality has not changed, even though cultural belief tells us that a person’s sexual orientation isn’t defined by their biological sex, but by the sex they identify with; and therefore we should expect that a Christian can be both Christian and have gender dysphoria.

“Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.” Psalm 119:89

God has established His Word, it is as solid as the most enduring foundation, and it lasts forever.

It does not change, even when culture redefines sexual orientation, morality, marriage, and family; God’s Word will never change; God’s standard does not change, and His final judgment will be based on His Word.

3. We see eternity rightly

When we see God rightly, we begin to see eternity rightly. We begin to view everything we do in the here and now through the lens of eternal values.

Dear sister, God didn’t send His Son to die on the cross to give you a Bible filled with personal affirmations. His Word isn’t a guide for self-care.

To be frank, God isn’t nearly as interested in your self-care as He is in your eternal life.

If God cared so much about our comfort here on earth, then He must be very uncaring about the Christians in persecuted countries who have never – and will never – live in comfort, security, or safety.

These dear brothers and sisters would not dream of reducing the precious Word of God to a guide to self-care and personal affirmation, but recognize it as our eternal food, our daily sustenance.

It is the very foundation of our faith – the core of our spiritual life – and without it we cannot live a life that pleases God.

When we see God for who He truly is; we put this life into proper perspective; and eternity becomes far more real than any day we’ve lived in this life.

Truly, we will live this life through the lens of eternity.