Have We Beheld His Glory?

For the past 21 weeks Vickie and I have been part of a small group working through the Gospel of John one chapter a week; we read the same chapter each day, ponder it, meditate on it, and when we gather we share within the chapter; because we are unaccustomed to submitting to the Biblical text this is challenging – perhaps more on that in another post.

I’ve been asking myself the question, “Have we beheld His glory in our journey through the Gospel of John?” The question comes from John 1:14: And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

If Jesus is Christianity then beholding His glory, beholding God in Christ Jesus, is central to life and central to our experience of the Scriptures – but is beholding Christ normative for us? In John Chapter 12 Philip is approached by Hellenistic Jews who say, “We want to see Jesus.” Do I approach the Bible with the attitude that I want to see Jesus? Do I approach the text with a desire to behold His glory? As a teacher or friend or brother do I measure fellowship and ministry with the questions, “Have we beheld His glory? Have we seen Jesus?”

I don’t think that many of the religious or Christian or churchy things I have thought important in this life are going to carryover into eternity; what will carryover is beholding Jesus and His glory, individually and collectively.

The writer of Hebrews exhorts us to: fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith… Is there anything more I could want today than to see Him, to know Him, and to share Him?