Day 27. Immanuel
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"He who has seen Me — has seen the Father." John 14:9
That was surely a very strange thing for a man to say. Can we imagine John, the beloved disciple, saying of himself, that those who had seen him — had seen the Father? The fact that Christ said it shows that He was conscious of divinity, that He really claimed to be the Son of God. So it is in all Christ's words: He always speaks as God. Wherever we turn in the Gospel, we find the out flashings of Christ's divinity; it would be easier to pluck the stars from the sky — than to tear the truth of Christ's deity from the pages of inspiration. Everywhere it shines its light; the brightest beam in all the radiant splendour that blazes there.
What did Jesus mean when He said this? Evidently that although He was a man, He was also the incarnation of God; that He was living out in a human life, which men could see, the invisible life of His Father. Men on earth could never see God. Then God sent His Son that He might veil His Divine splendour in flesh, and show people how the unseen God feels and acts.
Thus, when we see Him taking little children in His arms, laying His hand on their heads and blessing them, we see how God feels toward children. When we see the compassion of Jesus stirred by human suffering, we learn how our heavenly Father is touched by the sight of earthly woe. When we see Jesus receiving sinners and eating with them, speaking forgiveness to penitents who crept to His feet, and making soiled, stained lives white and clean — we learn the mercy of God. When we follow Christ to His cross and see Him giving His life a willing sacrifice to make redemption for lost men — we see how God loves. So the meekness and patience and gentleness of Christ were mirroring of the same traits in His Father. If we would see the likeness of God, we have but to turn to the story of the Gospel. To know Christ — is to know the Father.
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