Oh, Glorious Day!
Dr. Jim Pennington
Copyright © 2026 Dr. Jim Pennington
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB 1995), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org.
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
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Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Scripture quotations marked GNT are taken from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked TLB have been taken from the Living Bible, copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.
Scripture quotations marked NLV have been taken from the New Life Version, copyright © 1969, 2003 by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked CEV are from the Contemporary English Version, copyright © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.
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General Editor: Patty Pennington
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CONTENTS
PREFACE xi
INTRODUCTION xiv
CHAPTER 1 1
Living He loved me
Living Speaks of His Incarnation 1
When Jesus Became Man, did He Give Up being God? 1
Can I Not Believe in the Incarnation of Jesus and Still Go to Heaven? 7
If Jesus Is God, Then How Can He Identify With Us and Provide an Example for Us? 10
He loved me Speaks of His Revelation 12
1. God’s Love Reveals God’s Glory 16
2. God’s Love Reveals God’s Accessibility 18
3. God’s Love Reveals the Means of Salvation 19
4. God’s Love Reveals the Purpose of Life 21
5. God’s Love Reveals the Call to Godly Living 21
6. God’s Love Reveals Our Mediator With the Father 22
CHAPTER 2 27
Dying He saved me
Question #1: Why Did Jesus Christ Die? 32
Question #2: How Did the Death of Jesus Pay the Price for Man’s Sin? 33
Dying Speaks of the Penalty of Sin 33
He Died Physically 33
He Died Spiritually 48
He saved me Speaks of the Purchase from Sin 52
Christ’s Death Was: 56
Payment for the Penalty of Sin 56
Satisfaction of God’s Judgment of Sin 57
Reconciliation of Man in His Relation to God 59
Redemption of Sinners from Their Bondage to Sin 59
CHAPTER 3 63
Buried He carried my sins far away, pt. 1
Buried, He carried my sins Speaks of the Forgiveness of My Sin 64
Question: “If God Has Forgiven Me of My Sin, Why Haven’t I Forgotten My Sin?” 65
1. I Do Not Understand the Real Meaning, Thoroughness, and Completeness of God’s Forgiveness 65
far away Speaks of the Removal of My Sin 65
2. I Do Not Understand Why God Allows Me to Remember My Sin 69
3. I Never Really Confessed and Repented of My Sin 72
4. I Have Not Forgiven Others the Way God Has Forgiven Me 76
CHAPTER 4 80
Buried He carried my sins far away, pt. 2
Question: If God Has Forgiven Me of My Sin, Can I Do Anything That Cannot Be Forgiven? 82
Question: If God Has Forgiven Me of My Sin, Why Don’t People Trust Me? 84
Question: If God Has Forgiven Me of My Sin, are There Still Consequences? 91
Question: If God Has Forgiven Me of My Sin, If I Sin Again, Will God Forgive Me? 94
CHAPTER 5 102
Rising He justified freely forever
Rising Speaks of the Victory Over Sin 102
The Surprise of the Resurrection 102
They Were Unprepared 104
They Were Uncertain 105
They Were Uninformed 105
They Were Unconvinced 106
The Importance of the Resurrection 108
He justified Speaks of the Freedom from Sin 108
The Results of the Resurrection 110
1. I Can Be Assured That Jesus Is Who He Said He Is 111
2. I Can Be Sure That the Same Resurrection Power is Active in My Life 111
3. I Can Be Confident That Jesus Can Accomplish Everything Else He Promised 111
4. I Can Know That the Kingdom of Heaven has Entered into My Life 111
5. I Can Be Certain of My Resurrection and Eternal Destiny 112
6. I Can Be Positive That I Am on the Right Path to Heaven 112
The Substantiating Evidence of the Resurrection 113
The Resurrection Appearances 113
The Manner in Which the Event Is Recorded 114
The Life of Christ Demands Such a Climax 114
The Empty Grave and the Disappearance of the Body Argue for It 114
The Dramatic Transformation of the Disciples Attests It 115
The Very Existence of the Church Is Tangible Evidence 115
The Witness of Paul Confirms It 116
The Lord’s Day Stems from the Resurrection 116
The Arguments Against the Resurrection 117
Argument #1: The Myth Theory 118
Argument #2: The Hallucination Theory 128
Argument #3: The Swoon Theory 131
Argument #4: The Conspiracy Theory 137
CHAPTER 6 145
One day He’s Coming, O Glorious Day!
One day He’s Coming Speaks of the Purpose of His Return 145
The Rapture 145
There Will Be a Rapture of Living Believers 146
There Will Be a Resurrection of Sleeping Believers 147
When Will Jesus Return at the Rapture? 149
How Will Jesus Return at the Rapture? 149
What Does the Rapture Mean to Me? 150
The Second Coming 153
O Glorious Day! Speaks of the Promise of His Return 153
Heaven 154
I Know What It Will Be Like in Heaven 154
What Is Heaven Like? 156
Heaven Is a Real Place 157
Heaven Is a Unique Place 159
Heaven Is a Beautiful Place 161
I Know Where I Will Live in Heaven 163
The New Jerusalem 163
The Builder of New Jerusalem 163
The Dimensions of New Jerusalem 164
The Materials of New Jerusalem 165
The Inhabitants of New Jerusalem 165
I Know What I Will Do in Heaven 167
I Will Worship and Praise God in Heaven 167
I Will Serve the Saints in Heaven 168
I Will Rest from the Labors of Earth in Heaven 168
There are Some Things I Will Not Be Able to Do in Heaven 169
Teach a Bible Study class 169
Share the Good News of Christ With a Lost Person 169
Lead My Family to the Savior 169
Give My Resources to Support the Ministry 170
I Know How Long I Will Be in Heaven 172
Forever 172
I Know What I Will Be Like in Heaven 173
I Will Have a Glorified Body in Heaven 173
I Will Not Become an Angel in Heaven 176
I Will Have a Sanctified Spirit in Heaven 176
I Will Have a Transformed Mind in Heaven 177
I Know How to Prepare to Live in Heaven 177
Start Living That Way, Now 178
CONCLUSION 179
ENDNOTES 180
PREFACE
Oh, Glorious Day!
One day when Heaven was filled with His praises,
One day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin,
Dwelt among men, my example is He!
Refrain:
Living, He loved me;
Dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified, freely forever;
One day He’s Coming—Oh, Glorious Day!
One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain,
One day they nailed Him to die on a tree;
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected:
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He!
One day they left Him alone in the garden,
One day He rested, from suffering free;
Angles came down o’er His tomb to keep vigil;
Hope of the hopeless, my Savior is He!
One day the grave could conceal Him no longer,
One day the stone rolled away from the door;
Then He arose, over death He had conquered;
Now He’s ascended, my Lord evermore!
One day the trumpet will sound for His coming,
One day the skies with His glories will shine;
Wonderful day, my Beloved One, bringing;
My Savior, Jesus, is mine!
This song reveals the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. It is titled “One Day” and was written in 1910 by a Presbyterian Evangelist and Pastor named John Wilbur Chapman. Hy Pickering tells the story of Chapman’s conversion experience.
“When the great evangelist, D. L. Moody, called for an after-meeting I was one of the first to enter the room, and to my great joy, Mr. Moody came and sat down beside me. I confessed that I was not quite sure that I was saved. He handed me his opened Bible and asked me to read John 5:24; and trembling with emotion I read: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.’
“He said to me: ‘Do you believe this?’ I answered, ‘Certainly.’ He said, ‘Are you a Christian?’ I replied, ‘Sometimes I think I am, and again I am fearful.’ ‘Read it again,’ he said. Then he repeated his two questions, and I had to answer as before. Then Mr. Moody inquired: ‘Whom are you doubting?’ and then it all came to me with startling suddenness.
“‘Read it again,’ said Moody, and for the third time he asked: ‘Do you believe it?’ I said, ‘Yes, indeed I do.’ ‘Well, are you a Christian?’ and I answered, ‘Yes, Mr. Moody, I am.’ From that day to this, I have never questioned my acceptance with God.”
Sometime after his conversion, Chapman wrote a poem about the day he accepted Jesus as his Savior. It was a “glorious day”. His friend Charles Marsh put it to music. In its five Verses, the song clearly conveys the Easter story, proceeding verse by verse through the life of Jesus: His Life, Crucifixion, Burial, Resurrection, and Second Coming. After each verse, we sing the Refrain, where there is a one-line summary of each of the Verses.
In 2009, the contemporary Christian music group Casting Crowns introduced this song to a new generation with their updated version. Its message is as true and powerful today as the day it was written.
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever heard a song being played on the radio, or someone whistling a tune, and it got stuck in your head? Try as you might, you can’t stop thinking about it. It just keeps repeating over and over, all day long. That’s what I hope to make happen with this song. I want it to get into your head, into your brain, and stay there. I don’t want you to stop thinking about it. Why? Because its message is so important. It is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the message of the salvation that He provides.
A mnemonic device is a memory aid. It uses patterns, associations, rhymes (i before e except after c for spelling), acronyms (ROY G. BIV for the colors of the visible light spectrum), acrostics (My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos for the planets in our solar system), songs (ABC song for the alphabet), etc., to help you recall complex or lengthy information.
The Refrain of this song can serve as a mnemonic device for the essential elements of the Gospel, which are further expanded in the verses.
Living, He loved me;
Dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified, freely forever;
One day He’s Coming—Oh, Glorious Day!
Let it get into your head, into your thinking. Let its message permeate your faith and influence how you live. After all, when all has been said and done here on Earth, Heaven still awaits us.
Oh, Glorious Day!
CHAPTER 1
Oh, Glorious Day!
Living He loved me
Look with me at the first verse of the song.
One day when Heaven was filled with His praises,
One day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin,
Dwelt among men, my example is He!
And then, the Refrain,
Living, He loved me;
That Refrain gives us the two key thoughts of this chapter: Living, and He Loved Me.
Living Speaks of His Incarnation
Living speaks of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. The word “incarnation” is a theological term that speaks of the distinctive Biblical teaching that God became man in Jesus Christ. God took on flesh and became a human being.
Someone asks, “When Jesus Became Man, Did He Give Up Being God?” Good question. Here is the answer.
4. The incarnation is an act of addition, not subtraction.
In the incarnation, the eternal Son who has always possessed the divine nature has not changed or set aside his deity. Instead, he has added to himself a second nature, namely a human nature consisting of a human body and soul (Phil. 2:6–8). As a result, the individual Jesus is one person—the Son—who now subsists in two natures, and thus is fully God and fully man…
Jesus did not give up being God when He was incarnated. He added human nature to Himself.
Some have claimed that Jesus only seemed, or appeared, human (Docetism), or that he was a blend of human and divine natures (Monophysitism).
But the Bible makes it clear that Jesus was fully God and fully human. Speaking of both His human nature and His divine nature, Isaiah wrote:
14. Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:14 (NASB 1995)
He was born as a human child, and yet, His very name means “God with us.” Fully human. Fully God.
The Apostle John confirmed His divine nature when he wrote,
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1,14 (NASB 1995)
In the original language that the New Testament was written in, Greek, the end of verse 1 actually reads:
theos en ho logos.
A literal translation is,
God was the word.
So, let’s read verse 1 again.
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.
Now, read verse 14.
14. And the Word became flesh,
According to verse 1, Who became flesh? The Word. And, Who is the Word? God. So, let’s put it together.
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.
14. And God became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
One expert in the Greek language says,
By placing theos first, in contrast to the word order of the preceding clause, he makes the term particularly forceful.
In other words, John was intentionally using the grammatical structure of the language to intensify a point that he was making. He wanted to make sure that his readers did not miss the point. What was the point? God literally, physically, became human in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul confirmed this when he wrote,
8. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 9. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
Colossians 2:8-9 (NASB 1995)
Here is how various translations word this verse.
9. For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ,
Colossians 2:9 (CSB)
9. For the full content of divine nature lives in Christ, in his humanity,
Colossians 2:9 (GNT)
9. For in Christ there is all of God in a human body;
Colossians 2:9 (TLB)
9. For Christ is not only God-like, He is God in human flesh.
Colossians 2:9 (NLV)
There are many other passages in the Bible that either directly or indirectly teach the truth of the Incarnation. There are two reasons why God said it multiple times.
One, God wanted to make sure that we get it, that we understand this truth. So, He said it over and over.
And second, God said it in many different ways because we all learn in different ways.
Let me direct your attention to just a few of those passages.
• Matthew 13:41 - Jesus speaks of the angels as being “His angels”. Though they were created by God and are subject to God and belong to God. But Jesus said that they were His angels. How could He say that? He based his claim on the angels on His claim to be God.
• Matthew 25:31-46 - Jesus said that He will sit on a glorious throne and judge the world. A right that is reserved exclusively for God to execute.
• Matthew 26:63-66 - Jesus was questioned if He was the Messiah, and He said, “Yes”. Then, He added that one day they would see Him seated at the right hand of the Mighty One. The Jews knew exactly what He was saying. And for this statement, they said that He had blasphemed. What does that mean? It means that Jesus had claimed that He was God. And for that, He should be stoned. He had the opportunity to correct them and tell them that He didn’t mean that. But He didn’t. Why? Because that was exactly what He was saying.
• Mark 2:5 - Jesus claims authority to forgive sin. Something that only God can do.
• Mark 2:27-28 - Jesus says that He is “Lord of the Sabbath”, meaning that He determines how the 10 Commandments are to be obeyed. That prerogative belongs to God.
• John 3:13 - Jesus says that He descended to earth from Heaven.
• John 5:18 - Jesus is accused of making Himself equal with God
• John 8:58 - Jesus says that He existed before Abraham, and then He uses the title, “I Am”, to speak of Himself, which is a title reserved in the Old Testament to be used exclusively of God.
• John 10:30 - Jesus says that He is “one with the Father”.
• John 14:7-9 - Jesus says that to see and know Him is to see and know the Father.
• John 14:23 - Jesus says that He and the Father are working together.
• John 19:7 - the Jews were prepared to stone Him because He had committed blasphemy when He, “claimed to be the Son of God”.
• John 20:28 - Thomas called Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus did not correct Him but accepted his statement as true.
• Philippians 2:5-11 - Paul says that before Jesus existed in the form of man, He existed in the form of God.
• Colossians 1:19 - Paul says that Jesus is the “image of the invisible God”. In other words, Jesus is the physical manifestation of the spiritual reality. When you see Jesus, you see God.
• Matthew 1:23 - Jesus is called, “Immanuel,” which literally means, “God with us”.
• Romans 9:5 - Speaks of Jesus as “the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.”
• Titus 2:13 - Paul speaks of Jesus when he writes, “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”.
• Titus 3:4 - Paul calls Jesus, “God our Savior”.
• Hebrews 1:8 - God the Father is speaking of Jesus and says, “But of the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.”
• 1 John 5:20 - John writes that Jesus Christ is “the true God”.
• 1 Peter 3:18 - Peter speaks of “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”.
• Revelation 22:13 - Jesus says, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Those titles refer to the absolute sovereignty over all of history by none other than God Himself. They speak of the beginning of creation, the control of history, and the consummation of time itself. And Jesus applies these titles to Himself. He is God!
Over and over and over again, in multiple ways, the Bible decisively declares the fact that God became man in Jesus Christ. Incarnation. It is a distinctive teaching of the Bible.
I have used the word “distinctive” twice already to identify the Incarnation because it is a Biblical teaching that sets it apart from all other major world religions. One commentator writes:
If we do not understand the weight of the miracle of Christ’s incarnation, it is because we do not understand the weight of the holiness of God. The incarnation is shocking. It is outrageous to think that an infinite and holy God would voluntarily become finite to live with unholy sinners. In fact, the incarnation is so appalling that it separates Christianity from Islam and Judaism. The Jerusalem Talmud says, “If man claims to be God, he is a liar” (Ta’anit 2:1), while the Qur’an says, “Allah begets not and was not begotten” (Sura al-Ikhlas 112). Jews and Muslims understand how ludicrous it is to think that a holy God would humiliate himself by becoming human.
Is it important that I believe in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ? Can I Not Believe in the Incarnation of Jesus and Still Go to Heaven? Well, listen to what John wrote.
1. Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.
1 John 4:1-3 (NASB 1995)
7. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
2 John 7 (NASB 1995)
You cannot just pick and choose what you want to believe. God has been very specific about what truth is necessary to believe in order to go to Heaven. And one of those truths is the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
If God thought it was important enough for Him to become man, and if God thought it was important enough for Him to inspire the writers of the Bible to declare that He had become man, do you think that it would probably be a wise thing for me to find out what it means, and that it should be an important part of my belief system? Absolutely!
In 1790, just about a month before he died, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to Ezra Stiles, president of Yale University, who had asked him his views on religion:
As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his divinity; tho’ it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as it probably has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any particular marks of his displeasure.
I am amazed at the frivolous, dismissive attitude of Franklin. One of the most educated men of his day. And with little thought, he just casually trivializes one of the key doctrines of the Christian faith. What did he say?
I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it...
Why do you think that he did that? Because he was a product of his day. There was a growing philosophy of humanism that had begun to pervade the intelligentsia of his day. And that philosophy placed man at the pinnacle of all things. If man was going to be at the top, there was no room for God. So, many of them simply tried to dismiss God from the conversation. Oh, they said that He might exist, or He might not exist. They didn’t know, and it made no difference to them. God just wasn’t important. However, in order to ruffle as few feathers as possible, they said that they might be able to accept the existence of God, but that they felt that God was so exalted, so different from man, so other-worldly, that it would be impossible for man to know anything about God. Especially, to know God personally. People who held to this humanistic philosophy were called “Deists”.
The sad part is that Franklin thought that there was no need to even consider whether Jesus was God or not, because he would soon die, and he would find out afterward.
I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble.
The problem is, it’s a little too late, then. Once a person dies, the time has passed. You must make your decision about Jesus now, before you die. You see,
You make a decision about Jesus in the present,
then Jesus makes a decision about your future.
Franklin is not alone. There are people today who are either uncertain if Jesus was God, or they simply deny that Jesus was God. And yet, it is one of the distinctive, foundational truths of the Christian faith.
In history there have been those who have sought to handle the difficulties of the incarnation by sacrificing either the deity of Christ (e.g. the Ebionites) or his humanity (e.g. the Docetists)…
They are not reinterpreting traditional Christology but abandoning it…
The doctrine of the incarnation provides the Christian with a doctrinal touchstone to determine a departure from orthodoxy.9
What he is saying is that belief in the Incarnation is one of the historical, foundational teachings of Christianity. It is nothing new. It is nothing that has changed. And those who would challenge it are departing from 2,000 years of Christian teaching.
“If Jesus Is God, Then How Can He Identify With Us and Provide an Example for Us?”
The first verse of the song says, “Dwelt among men, my example is He!” It is suggested: “If Jesus is God, then He had an unfair advantage over humans because He had power that we don’t have. And He cannot be an example for us because we cannot respond to life in the same manner that He did.” And yet, Matthew wrote that Jesus was tempted:
1. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Matthew 4:4 (NASB 1995)
And the author of Hebrews wrote:
15. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15 (NASB 1995)
Jesus was tempted just like we are tempted. In that temptation, He gave us an example of how to respond.
21. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,
1 Peter 2:21 (NASB 1995)
How is that possible? Consider this:
7. From conception, the Son limited his divine life in such a way that he did not override the limitations of his human nature.
As a result of the incarnation, the divine Son lived as a true man with the normal physical, mental, volitional, and psychological attributes and capacities of original humanity. As the incarnate Son, he experienced the wonder and weaknesses of a completely human life. He grew in wisdom and physical stature (Luke 2:52), experienced tears and joy, and suffered death and a glorious resurrection for his people’s salvation (John 11:33, 35; 19:30; 1 Cor. 15:3–4).
His humanity was 100% real. He lived as a human being, no less than you and I live as human beings. He experienced life with all its intricacies and challenges, the same as you and I do (cf. Matthew 26:38; 27:46; John 4:6). While on earth, He voluntarily limited the advantage of His divine nature to Himself, to the degree that you and I are limited in accessing the power of His divine nature.
If you refuse to believe that God became man in Jesus Christ, then, as Ricky Ricardo used to say to Lucy, “You got some splainin’ to do.” And it is not to me that you’re going to have to explain it. No, it is to Jesus. You’re going to have to explain to Jesus why you say that:
• God the Father was wrong about what He said about Him.
• The Holy Spirit was wrong about what He said about Him.
• And Jesus was wrong about what He said about Himself.
“You got some splainin’ to do!”
He loved me Speaks of His Revelation
The song says,
Living, He loved me
Living Speaks of His Incarnation
He loved me Speaks of His Revelation
I heard about a boss who wondered why one of his most valued employees had not phoned in sick one day. Having an urgent problem with one of the main computers, he dialed the employee’s home phone number and was greeted with a child's whisper.
“Hello?”
“Is your daddy home?” he asked.
“ Yes,” whispered the small voice.
“May I talk with him?”
The child whispered, “No.”
Surprised and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, “Is your Mommy there?”
“Yes.”
“May I talk with her?”
Again, the small voice whispered, “No.”
Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, “Is anybody else there?”
“Yes,” whispered the child, “a policeman.”
Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee’s home, the boss asked, “May I speak with the policeman?”
“No, he’s busy,” whispered the child.
“Busy doing what?”
“Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the Fireman,” came the whispered answer.
Growing more worried as he heard a loud noise in the background through the earpiece on the phone, the boss asked, “What is that noise?”
“A helicopter,” answered the whispering voice.
“What is going on there?” demanded the boss, now truly apprehensive.
Again, whispering, the child answered, “The search team just landed a helicopter.”
Alarmed, concerned, and a little frustrated, the boss asked, “What are they searching for?”
Still whispering, the young voice replied with a muffled giggle, “ME!”
Some people think that’s the way God is. He created all the universe, and now He’s hiding out behind some distant star. Unwilling to be discovered by the very ones that He had created.
But the Bible gives us quite a different picture. Instead of hiding, God has taken multiple measures to disclose not only His existence, but also His nature and activity. To tell us:
• Who He is.
• What He has done.
• How He operates.
• And what He expects from us.
God’s process of disclosing Himself to us is called “revelation”.
So, then, why don’t people recognize God’s revelation? The problem is threefold.
One, some people simply refuse to believe in God. Their mind is made up. So, even when they see the evidence, they immediately dismiss it; they refuse to accept it.
Second, some people don’t recognize the evidence, even when they see it. They are looking God straight in the face and don’t even see Him. Why? Because they don’t know what to look for. Their preconceived picture of God does not fit the true picture.
Third, some people don’t see God because they are not looking for Him. They are so caught up in life, so busy, so consumed, that they never even give God a second thought. He is right there in front of them, but they are not looking for Him.
Do you know what this means?
- --- .-. - ..- .-. .
It is Morse Code, and it means “torture”.
In July 1965, Jeremiah Denton began flying combat missions for the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. A month later, the Mobile native was shot down near Thanh Hoa. He was captured and recalled his captivity in a book titled “When Hell Was in Session.”
“They beat you with fists and fan belts,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1979. “They warmed you up and threatened you with death. Then they really got serious and gave you something called the rope trick.” The use of ropes - to cut off circulation in his limbs - left him with no feeling in his fingertips and intense muscle spasms, he said.
…Denton declared his loyalty to the U.S. government during a 1966 interview for what was supposed to be a propaganda film. But his enraged captors missed his more covert message: “T-O-R-T-U-R-E,” blinked into the camera in Morse code, a dispatch that would alert the U.S. military to the conditions he endured.
Some of the most severe torture came after the 1966 interview, in which he confounded his captors by saying that he continued to fully support the U.S. government, “and I will support it as long as I live.”
“In the early morning hours, I prayed that I could keep my sanity until they released me. I couldn’t even give in to their demands, because there were none. It was pure revenge,” Denton wrote.
The tape was widely seen, and U.S. intelligence experts had picked up the Morse Code message. But Denton theorized later that his captors likely figured it out only after he was awarded the Navy Cross - the second-highest decoration for valor - for the blinks in 1974.
He said his captors never brought him out for another interview. But with the war’s end drawing closer, he was released in February 1973.
Denton, who would survive 7½ years confined in a tiny, stinking, windowless cell at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” and other camps before his release in 1973, died of heart problems Friday in Virginia Beach, Va., at age 89 (March 2014), his grandson Edward Denton said…
Right in front of their eyes, he revealed a message to everyone who was watching him. But they did not see it. Why? Because they were not looking for it.
Through creation, through conscience, and through Scripture, God began revealing Himself, even before He created the first human being. But now, He has gone even further. Now, He has climaxed all other forms of revelation and has revealed Himself through Jesus.
1. God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature,
Hebrews 1:1-3a (NASB 1995)
Now, having accepted the fact that God came to live among us in the person of Jesus Christ, Incarnation, the question we need to answer is this: “What does God’s living among us reveal about His love for us?”
1. God’s Love Reveals God’s Glory
God’s love for us reveals His glory. His greatness. His wonder. His majesty.
We have already looked at John 1:14.
14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 (NASB 1995)
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ reveals God’s love, and that love reveals the glory of the Father.
As CS Lewis put it in The Last Battle, “Once in our world, a Stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.”
His love reveals His glory.
In the past, God had revealed Himself through His works (as recorded in the Scriptures), His world (Psalm 19:1-6), and His word (Ps. 19:7-14). In the coming of Christ, God was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ...
The Lord clearly claimed to be the very One whom the apostles represented as the incarnate Son of God (John 1:1; 6:38; II Cor. 8:9; Phil. 2:6,7; Gal. 4:4-5). To refuse to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as God incarnate is therefore to reject all of God’s divine revelation, be that the Old or the New Testament Scriptures (cf. John 5:39-40; 6:45, 68; 8:26, 31-32, 42-47; Matt. 22:29).
It is little wonder, then, that those who reject the biblical teaching of the incarnation also reject the authority of the Scriptures which so emphatically teach this doctrine.
3. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature,
Hebrews 1:3a (NASB 1995)
17. For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18. No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
John 1:17-18 (NLT)
There is a painting in a palace in Rome by Reni. It is painted into the ceiling of the dome, over 100 feet high. To stand at floor level and look upward, the painting seems to be surrounded by a fog that leaves its content unclear. But in the center of the great dome room is a huge mirror, which, in its reflection, picks up the picture. By looking into the mirror, you can see the picture with great clarity.
Jesus Christ, born in a manger at Bethlehem, is the mirror of God. In him we see a clear reflection of the Father.
9. Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?
John 14:9 (NLT)
Phillips explains: “Jesus saw the event of His greatest earthly humiliation–the apex of His servant obedience–as His true glorification on earth. ‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified’ (John 12:23).” Calvin boldly states that the richness of God’s glory “is invisible until it shines forth in Christ…the majesty of the Father is hidden until it shews itself impressed” on Christ’s image.”
2. God’s Love Reveals God’s Accessibility
People often struggle with their concept of God for two reasons.
• One, He is so big that He is seemingly unknowable. He is beyond our realm of understanding.
• Two, He is so small that He is inconsequential. He is nothing more than a glorified superhuman.
It is rather incredulous that men would try to tell God what He can and cannot do. Here is our struggle. We look into the night sky through massive telescopes and cannot even see the edge of the created universe. Then, we realize that with all our technology, we can barely put a man on the moon, the closest celestial body to the Earth. There is no way that we will ever understand all of creation, nor could we ever reach up to it. That makes us feel so small, so insignificant, so incapable.
Then, we reverse the proposition and impose the exact opposite dilemma on God. If God is so big that He created all the universe, how can He possibly reach down to us?
We surmise: if we cannot reach up to God, then God cannot reach down to us. Then how could God possibly take an even bigger step and get to earth? You can’t get here from there.
But then we consider God’s love. It means that God is on our side. He is not a distant deity, judging us and hurling thunderbolts from heaven. He made himself weak and vulnerable. He is infinitely above us, but He came alongside us.
In the Old Testament, God was accessible only through the mediation of prophets, priests, the tabernacle, and the temple. No Israelite could see God (John 1:18). John Calvin said the revelation of God prior to Christ was like a pencil sketch.
In Christ, God became accessible to us in a most familiar form. Six times in the opening of His first letter, John says, “We saw him!” (1 John 1:1-4).
During Jesus’ earthly ministry, the majestic God of heaven and earth cried out to the crowds, “Come to me!” (Matt. 11:28). If you want to know what God is like, study Christ.
As it has been written, Jesus’ earthly posture, tone of voice, attitude, and reaction to events were those of God. “God is Christ-like.”
When God became man, He came into your world; He showed up on your front doorstep. Whatever you are, whatever you do, God invades your world. God enters into your space and time in order to reveal Himself personally, in a way that you will understand. Someone has put it this way:
Titles of Jesus Christ:
To the architect, He is the chief cornerstone (1 Peter 2:6)
To the bride, He is the bridegroom (Matthew 25:1)
To the carpenter, He is the door. (John 10:9)
To the engineer, He is the new and living way. (Hebrews 10:20)
To the farmer, He is the Lord of the harvest (Matthew 9:38)
To the horticulturist, He is the true vine (John 15:1)
To the jurist, He is the righteous judge. ((2 Timothy 4:8)
To the philanthropist, He is the unspeakable gift (2 Cor. 9:15)
To the philosopher, He is the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24)
To the preacher, He is the Word of God (Revelation 19:13)
To the soldier, He is the captain of his salvation (Hebrews 2:10)
To the statesman, He is the desire of the nations (Haggai 2:7)
To the sinner, He is the Lamb of God (John 1:29).
God makes Himself accessible to you.
So that you will make yourself available to Him.
3. God’s Love Reveals the Means of Salvation
16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 (NASB 1995)
When God the Father sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, into our world, it was the single greatest expression of love ever made. God sent His sinless Son into a world ravaged by sin with one message: “I love you. Every single one of you. Regardless.”
Nothing could be more clearly documented in the Scriptures than the fact that the principal purpose of the incarnation was to save men from their sins:
“For the son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10; cf. Matt. 9:13; Mark 10:45).
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (Gal. 4:4-5).
It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all (1 Tim. 1:15; cf. 1 Jn. 4:10).
Rightly, then, Dr. B. B. Warfield concludes:
Eliminate sin as the proximate occasion and redemption as the prime end of the Incarnation, and none of the other relations in which it stands, and none of the other effects which flow from it, will be fulfilled, at least in the measure of their rights.13…
We should hardly be surprised that Satan would choose to give his best efforts at undermining the doctrine of the incarnation, for it is foundational to man’s redemption…once the incarnation is set aside, Christianity has no special or exclusive claim to redemption…
Once the doctrine of the incarnation is set aside, the whole matter of redemption through the person and work of Christ is scuttled. And thus we find a great deal of controversy surrounding this vital doctrine.
4. God’s Love Reveals the Purpose of Life
Do you know why so many people are stressed, depressed, worried, and unfulfilled? Because they have spent their entire lives, their energy, their money, their time, and their passions pursuing some purpose or goal, and either along the way or perhaps when they reached it, they realized it was wrong. They got what they wanted:
• the education
• the career
• the job
• the success
• the family
• the house
• the car.
But then, it doesn’t satisfy. They still have this emptiness, this longing, this feeling that there should be something more. Life is meant to be more than this. What they thought would give meaning, and significance, and peace, and satisfaction to their life did not work. Why? Because those things are meant to be a by-product of life’s purpose, not the purpose of life. You’ve got things backwards. You’ve got the tail wagging the dog.
The purpose of life is to know God.
Everything else is either a means to accomplish the purpose or a by-product of the purpose. But they are not the purpose.
5. God’s Love Reveals the Call to Godly Living
19. …Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.
Romans 6:19c (NLT)
14. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15. and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NASB 1995)
8. …God, 9. who has saved us and called us with a holy calling…
2 Timothy 1:8c-9a (NASB 1995)
14. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:14-16 (NLT)
If the Purpose of Life is to know God, then life should be lived according to that purpose. Our lives should be holy because our purpose in life, God, is holy.
The purpose of life is to know God, and the key to life is to live according to that purpose.
6. God’s Love Reveals Our Mediator with the Father
5. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
1 Timothy 2:5 (NASB 1995)
When King Hussein of Jordan died in early 1999, he was eulogized as a peacemaker and a sensitive leader. In one incident early in his reign, he demonstrated the servant-hearted approach to leadership that accounted for his success as a world figure. From the beginning, he tried to get down on the level of his subjects to understand their needs and respond accordingly to them. Late at night, the young king (disguised in street clothes) secretly left the palace. With the help of a friend, he borrowed a taxi and pretended to be a cab driver. In the wee hours of the morning, the king drove through the streets of Amman and picked up fares. As his passengers sat in the back seat (unaware of the true identity of the driver), the king asked about their hopes and concerns. He even asked what they thought of the new king who had come into power.
14. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:14-16 (NASB 1995)
John Wilbur Chapman (June 17, 1859, Richmond, Indiana – December 25, 1918, New York, New York) was a Presbyterian evangelist in the late 19th Century, generally traveling with gospel singer Charles Alexander…
Chapman took on several pastorates before shifting to the evangelistic circuit. He began preaching with the legendary D.L. Moody in 1893, as well as leading many evangelistic events of his own. Among Chapman’s disciples on the evangelistic circuit was Billy Sunday.
In May 1882, Chapman married Irene Steddon. In April 1886, she bore him a daughter, Bertha Irene Chapman. Irene Steddon Chapman died in May 1886. Chapman remarried on November 4, 1888, to Agnes Pruyn Strain; they had four children: Robert (who died in infancy), John Wilbur Jr., Alexander Hamilton, and Agnes Pruyn. His second wife died on June 25, 1907. Chapman married a third and final time on August 30, 1910, to Mabel Cornelia Moulton.
John knew what it was like to suffer the death, the loss, of a loved one. In fact, it happened to him on several occasions. But he knew this; Jesus understood what he was feeling. Why? Because Jesus had also suffered the death and loss of a loved one.
I heard about a lady named Joy who teaches underprivileged children in an inner-city church. Her class is a lively group of nine-year-olds who love life and aren’t afraid of God. There is one exception, however–a timid girl by the name of Barbara.
Her difficult home life had left her afraid and insecure. For the weeks that my friend was teaching the class, Barbara never spoke. Never. While the other children talked, she sat. While the others sang, she was silent. While the others giggled, she was quiet.
Always present. Always listening. Always speechless.
Until the day Joy gave a class on heaven. Joy talked about seeing God. She talked about tearless eyes and deathless lives.
Barbara was fascinated. She wouldn’t release Joy from her stare.
She listened with hunger. Then she raised her hand. “Mrs. Joy?”
Joy was stunned. Barbara had never asked a question. “Yes, Barbara?”
“Is heaven for girls like me?”
Let me ask you a few questions.
• Have you about walked away from God? God will never walk away from you.
• Have you about quit on God? God will never quit on you.
• Have you about given up on God? God will never give up on you.
God never gives up on those who need Him.
When Joseph was dropped into a pit by his own brothers, God didn’t give up.
When Moses said, “Here I am, send Aaron,” God didn't give up.
When the Israelites wanted to go back to slavery instead of ahead to milk and honey, God didn’t give up.
When Aaron was making a false god at the very moment that Moses was with the true God, God didn’t give up.
When only two of the ten spies thought the Creator was powerful enough to deliver the created, God didn’t give up.
When Samson whispered to Delilah, when Saul roared after David, and when David schemed against Uriah, God didn’t give up.
When God’s Word lay forgotten while man’s idols stood glistening, God didn’t give up.
When the children of Israel were taken into captivity, God didn’t give up.
He could have given up. He could have turned His back. He could have walked away from the wretched mess, but He didn’t.
God didn’t give up.
When God became flesh and was the victim of an assassination attempt before He was two years old, He didn’t give up.
When the people from His own hometown tried to push Him over a cliff, He didn’t give up.
When His own brothers ridiculed Him, He didn’t give up.
When He was accused of blaspheming God by people who didn’t fear God, He didn’t give up.
When Peter worshiped Him at the supper then denied Him at the fireside, He didn’t give up.
When people spit in His face, He didn’t spit back.
When the bystanders slapped Him, He didn’t slap back.
When a whip ripped his sides, He didn’t command the awaiting angels to stuff that whip down that soldier’s throat.
And when human hands fastened the divine hands to a cross with spikes, it wasn’t the soldiers who held the hands of Jesus steady. It was God who held them steady…
So, the next time that you feel like God has given up on you…go out to the hill…go out to the hill called Calvary…where there is a cross stained with holy blood, where the hands of God the Father held the hands of God the Son so that they could be pierced by the nails that would hold Him there…so that He could die for you…and remember…“God would give up His only Son before He’d give up on you.”
God will not give up on you!
ENDNOTES
“Biographical Sketch of John Wilbur Chapman,” Wholesome Words, accessed November 24, 2025, https://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bchapman2.html.
Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 705.
“Ministry Implications of the Incarnation,” Next Step Ministries, accessed November 24, 2025, http://nextstepministries.com/ministry-implications-of-the-incarnation/.
“Benjamin Franklin,” Wikipedia, last modified 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin#Kite_experiment_and_lightning_rod.
Daniel B. Wallace, “The Importance of the Incarnation,” Bible.org, accessed November 24, 2025, https://bible.org/seriespage/1-importance-incarnation.
Joe Carter, “10 Things You Should Know About the Incarnation,” The Gospel Coalition, accessed November 24, 2025, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-incarnation/.
“Jeremiah Denton, Ex-Senator and Vietnam POW Who Blinked Torture in Morse Code, Dies at 89,” CBS News, March 29, 2014, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeremiah-denton-ex-senator-and-vietnam-pow-who-blinked-torture-in-morse-code-dies-at-89/.
“The Incarnation: Five Reasons Why It Matters,” Christian Today, accessed November 24, 2025, https://www.christiantoday.com/article/the-incarnation-five-reasons-why-it-matters/73786.htm.
Daniel B. Wallace, “The Importance of the Incarnation,” Bible.org, accessed November 24, 2025, https://bible.org/seriespage/1-importance-incarnation.
Publishers, Inc., 1988, 304.
“Why the Incarnation Still Matters,” Ligonier Ministries, accessed November 24, 2025, https://www.ligonier.org/blog/incarnation-relevance/.
Daniel B. Wallace, “The Importance of the Incarnation,” Bible.org, accessed November 24, 2025, https://bible.org/seriespage/1-importance-incarnation.
“John Wilbur Chapman,” Wikipedia, last modified 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilbur_Chapman.
Max Lucado, Six Hours One Friday (Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 1989), 43–44.
Max Lucado, Six Hours One Friday (Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 1989), 57–59. (my revision)
