Fix your eyes on Jesus

Fix your eyes on Jesus to fix your eyes on Jesus Everything you learn about Jesus Christ, as you look and look, is so magnificent that you could never adequately explain Him to anyone else. A tribesman once "fixed his eyes" for the first time on the ocean. He was flabbergasted! He got a quart jar to take some back so he could show his people. Jesus Christ is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being" (Hebrews 1:3), "the exact likeness of the unseen God" (Colossians 1:15, TLB). No angel in the sky Can fully bear that sight, But downward bends his wond'ring eye At mysteries so bright.1 But though angels may look down, God commands you in Hebrews 12:2 to gaze studiously at Jesus, this One who is the very "radiance" of God's glory. Fix your eyes on Him. Look at what you're looking at. You've looked through a toy kaleidoscope, and as you twisted the tube, the bits of colored glass kept changing patterns over and over. Look at Jesus Christ to see God's glory, and that glory will be "new every morning," always different, always beautiful. "Show me your glory," Moses begged the Lord God. "No man can see my face and live," said God. "But I will put you in a cleft of [a certain] rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back" (Exodus 33:22-23). (His back? Moses had asked to see His glory. God is so mysterious.) When God put Moses there in the rock, what was the glory of God that He allowed Moses to see? He "saw" a proclamation of His name -- that God is The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished . . . (Exodus 34:6-7). You're looking through the kaleidoscope at Jesus Christ, "the radiance of God's glory." Twist the tube a little. Oh -- He's the LORD, transfigured before Peter, James, and John. His face shines like the sun, and His clothes become as white as the light . . . Twist the tube. Oh -- He is the compassionate God. Two blind men are before Him begging, "Lord, we want our sight." And Jesus touches their eyes and they see . . . Twist the tube. Look: He's not leaving the guilty unpunished. He's found moneychangers in the temple; He's made a whip out of cords, and He's overturning their tables and driving them out! . . . Twist the tube. "Abounding in love and faithfulness:" Now He's feeding five thousand hungry people. Twist . . . "Gracious:" He's taking children into His arms. Twist . . . "Forgiving wickedness:" He's groaning from the cross, "Father, forgive them . . ." Keep twisting and twisting, and every time you stop, you'll see another radiant facet of the glory of God. And yet all this, so far, is only His back! What will be the rest of God's glory, which will be revealed when you see His face?! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Matthew Bridges, "Crown Him with Many Crowns." * * * * * Prayer: O Lord Jesus, because You are all-important, all-worthy, I press on to fix my eyes on You! In Your incomparable name, amen.