God Who Dwells In Unapproachable Light Series

“I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” [1]

Whenever I speak of God, I am fully aware that I am addressing a subject that is greater than my mind can grasp. I cannot possibly define Him or adequately express His character—no one can do so. How can the finite understand the infinite? Had God not chosen to reveal Himself to mankind, how would we know of His existence? Except God informs us of His Person, we are ignorant of Him.

However, God has given a revelation of His Person in His Word. We are able to speak of Him according to the knowledge that He gives of Himself. Thus, we know something of who He is, and we are able to speak of His nature and the attributes He has revealed of Himself. We know that God is a Triune Being; and we speak of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We do not worship a god manifesting himself in three separate persons; we worship God who is Triune. We know that God is self-existent and infinite.

Concerning the attributes of God, we speak of His omnipotence, His omniscience and His omnisapiaence. We say that God is omnipresent and eternal. We are convinced on the authority of the Word that He is immutable. We who are born from above are able to speak knowledgeably of God’s love, His mercy and His grace. Though all mankind should speak of God’s faithfulness, we who are alive in Him speak not only of His faithfulness, but also of His holiness. Because we know these attributes of God, we recognise that we are to reflect these same attributes because having been twice-born we bear the image of the divine.

Writing under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, the Apostle pens a glorious doxology, ascribing to God and to the Christ, attributes that are essential to well-rounded worship. We can perform a liturgy and we will say that we have worshipped. If we will worship truly and well, we will know the One we worship and we will understand what we are doing rather than merely performing a rite. And that is the purpose of our study today—to know Him whom we worship and to lay a solid foundation for worshipping well.

THE CONTROVERSY — “I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”

As we saw in a previous study [2], Paul focuses on the life-sustaining activity of the Lord God. Then, he launches into this beautiful doxology. The doxology turns our attention to what is coming—“the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Though I do want to study this doxology, I dare not ignore what is next on God’s time-table. Therefore, let’s refresh our memories and encourage our hearts by reminding ourselves of what is coming next.

As He prepared to depart this earth, Jesus spoke to His disciples concerning where He was going. “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” [JOHN 14:1-3].

To be certain, the Risen Saviour would send His Spirit to be with His disciples. During that same time as He prepared His disciples for His exodus, Jesus taught them, “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.