Garry spoke this morning from John 1:9-11, verses which show us despite being the Creator of the universe, Jesus was not recognised as God when He came to earth. God’s fingerprints are etched into the universe and Paul tells us that God’s handiwork is visible to all, but many refuse to recognise God (see Rom 1:21-28), choosing other theories and explanations for how the world came into being.
Some do not recognise God because they have an erroneous view of God, culled from a ‘mish-mash’ of religious education or spiritual ideas. Others have a view of God which is clearly contrary to that found in Scripture (for example, many blame God for natural disasters and human actions; personal experiences can also influence our view of God.) Even the Jews, however, who had the Scriptures did not recognise Jesus.
Part of the problem in recognising God is that we operate on an either/ or understanding, not comprehending how God’s righteousness and love can co-exist. Jer 31:20 tells us how God yearns for His people and delights in them; his heart is bursting with longing even for those who seem to have no desire to know Him, but we fail to understand both the heights of His holiness and the depths of His love. When we look at the law, we feel that God must be mean to set the standards so high; when we see His acceptance of even the unrighteous, we are offended by His grace and mercy!
Once our eyes have been opened to who God is, He asks us to testify to others so that they too may know Him (John 14:26, John 15:26-27, John 16:12-15, Matt 18:12-14). That testimony comes from a personal, intimate relationship with God. We are asked to go beyond the ‘headlines’ (people’s superficial knowledge of God) and reveal God to others so that He is no longer unrecognised!