hout bay

Exodus 20 v 3. You shall have no other gods before me.

 

We know that it is God who takes the initiative in our salvation. It is not us. God choses us and reveals Himself to us. Nevertheless from the point of view of our own personal experience, there comes a moment when we need to choose God. But once we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit and moved to choose God as our God and to embrace Him forever, we suddenly find that before we can do so we must have some knowledge about Him. We need to know who He is and what He is like.

 

It’s like getting married. Before you choose a life partner, you must know something about that person. What is their temperament like, their beliefs, their priorities, their values? Will they be compatible and will they be faithful? So with God we need more light, more understanding. And where do we discover such knowledge? In His Son, of course. Jesus said “If you really knew me you would know the Father as well” (John 14 v 7)

 

God has revealed what He is like through his magnificent creation, where we discover His wisdom and His power. He has revealed Himself through His dealings with Old Testament Israel. His greatness, love, faithfulness and justice are there to be seen by all. But finally He has revealed Himself through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the exact representation of His being (Hebrews 1 v 3) Was Jesus kind, so is God! Was Jesus patient with the weak and foolish? So is God. Was Jesus compassionate on the sick and the outcasts? That is exactly what God is like.

 

To know God you must come to Jesus Christ. And to know what God is like, read the Gospels to see what Jesus was like. There was no one like Him, nor will there ever be. He is worthy of your love and devotion.

You shall have no other gods! Firstly because there are no other gods, only deluding evil spirits and secondly because the true God has revealed Himself to us through Christ and has made it possible to know Him.

If this is true, imagine our culpability if in the light of Gods great grace, we stubbornly reject Him.

 

Prayer: O God, we praise you for revealing yourself to us, not only through creation and then history, but also finally through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen