He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of Lords, the only One who has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; no one has seen or can see Him, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:15-16)
Only under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit could Paul so perfectly write of God and His glorious attributes. But there is something we get glimpses of throughout Scripture, people’s inability to describe the beauty of God. Reading chapter one of Ezekiel you get the sense that the prophet is running out of words to explain the vision of God before him.
When we are truly confronted with the glory of God there is something within us that instinctively responds, “Magnificent, wonderful, powerful, beautiful!” Words fail us, but we know that in seeing Him everything else in creation is but a shadow of Him. Nothing compares.
In His light the overwhelming weight of our sin is felt. We were okay before, when all we had for comparison was weak and flawed human beings around us. But now we stand before perfection, corrupt and sinful idolaters, creations who have loved and served lesser beings than our Creator.
Isaiah knew this when he stood before the throne of God (Isaiah 6). He was undone by the majesty of God, because it revealed who he was. One lost, a man of unclean lips. And he recognized then that he had lived among a people of unclean lips.
When you finally see the perfection, beauty, wisdom, power, glory, holiness, immutability, and goodness of God, it is there that you see your own wickedness. How far short you truly fall of His glory. You know that, if not for the mercy of God, His holiness would burn you up like chaff before a fire.
But then you hear that wonderful message of forgiveness thunder from the throne. The reconciliation that God has Himself brought forth. He takes your filthy garments and clothes you in whiteness, in the very righteousness of Christ. A righteousness that He has provided, a forgiveness that He gained by His suffering and death.
You stand now before the glory of God not by your goodness, but by His grace. The prayer of your heart becomes that of David,
One thing have I asked of the Lord , that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4 ESV)
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