John 1:10, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.”
This was part of the text that I preached on this past Sunday. As I was preparing for the message I was trying to sit under the weight of the reality that John is explaining here….the Creator of the universe, came into the universe, and yet was not recognized as Himself by the creatures–at least, the human creatures–of that universe.
You can listen to some thoughts on this concept starting at ~11:30 in this past weekend’s sermon:
This morning, though, as I was working on this verse picture, it struck me that–because they failed to recognize God in Christ–the world crucified Him….and it is precisely in that crucifixion that the brightest light of God’s saving revelation rises on humanity (John 8:28, 13:31-32).
In His sovereign wisdom, God ordained that the rejection of His Son should result in the crucifixion of His Son, in which the glory of God in the Son is most blazingly manifest. And now it is only by seeing the crucified Son, the rejected Son, the unrecognized Son, that we see the glory of God in His face.
And, of course, the saving sight of God’s beauty shines in the slain Son only when illumined by the resurrection. “the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” – Psalm 118:21-22
