Glorious Mystery - Chapter 5

Our end in religion is to know God - "This is done perfectly only in the person of Christ, all other means of it being subordinate thereunto."

1. God is incomprehensible. 2. So we can have no direct knowledge of him but we see him as Moses saw him (Ex. 33:18-23). Angels cannot represent the glory of God, but we are so remote from comprehending God that we cannot conceive the limited reflections of him on these finite creatures. 4. Man ruined himself, becoming idolaters, trying to find other ways of worshipping not ordained by God. God does not want this a) God provided an image of himself to makind, they should not choose any other. b) anything man thinks up will be a false image of God. 5. God hath declared that a representation of himself was needful for man to allow measures between them. 6. "All this is done in the person of Christ."

In Christ two things are required 1. all the properties of the divine nature are manifested to us 2. we can receive and he can give them.

In Christ:
1. "A blessed representation made unto us of all the holy properties of the nature of God - of his wisdom, his power, his goodness, grace, and love, his righteousness, truth, and holiness, his mercy and patience." (p. 70)
2. "The most incomprehensible approach of the divine nature made unto ours, such as all the imaginations of men did ever infinitely fall short of." (p. 70)

The image God gave of himself (Col. 1:15) "is everyway approved of him" (p. 71). 1. The son is said to be in the Father - "their nature is one and the same" (p. 71) 2. But also the Son is with the Father: "in the distinction of his person" (p. 71)

But the Father is not the image of the Son, nor does he receive anything from the Son.

Christ may be considered in 3 ways: 1. only as God in his nature, not being the image of the Father for both are the same. 2. as the essential image of his Father's person - the eternal Son of God, with respect of his divine nature the Son of the Father. 3. as he took our nature upon him... in order unto the work of his mediation.

The Pharisees did not know god, the disciples did. Why? because the disciples knew Christ. Three things required for such an assertion: 1. Father and Son have same nature. 2. They need to be distinct. 3. the Son needs to be incarnate.

The Scripture, in proposing the above to be true, does so in order: "to draw men unto the diligent study of Scripture, wherein alone they are revealed and declared." (p. 74) distinction of word of God from Jesus the Word of God. The Bible "is the revelation and declaration of it [viz. the manifestation of God the Word in the flesh] unto us" (p. 74).

Consider 3 things: 1. Christ is the object of our faith. 2. The gospel is the means by which this is conveyed. 3. The Spirit enables us to behold the glory God in the face of Christ.

What does the glory of God do to with man? 1. God reveals himself gloriouisly, we tried to make an image for him , we are no different from those who did it in the Bible and therefore we must truat and reverence God more. 2. God is chiefly manifested in Christ by faith, therefore: "There is not the meanest believer, but-in the real exercise of faith in Christ-hath more glorious apprehensions of God, his wisdom, goodness, and grace, of all his glorious excellencies, than the most learned and wise in the world can attain unto, in the exercise of reason on the proper objects of it." (p. 77) 3. It is wrong to draw your knowledge of God fromthe light of nature and reject the clear revelation of God in Christ. This act will lead you to reject the divinity of Christ. 4. Knowing God any where other than Christ will have no effect on your life or the world.