The Radiance of the Glory of God - Jesus

Church Family:
The greatest danger to our celebration of Christmas isn’t the culture “out there” but what happens in our own hearts—we grow bored with the most breathtaking story in history. As followers of Jesus, we must fight, spiritually and intentionally, to keep Christmas about what God meant it to be: the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s glory isn’t a decorative theme added to the story; it is the blazing center of the whole thing. This is the part we dare not miss.

Talking about God’s glory can feel abstract, so picture it this way: imagine standing in warm sunlight. The sun itself is like God—infinitely powerful, beautiful, and full of life—and the rays on your face are like the “beams” of His divine character reaching you. Every attribute of God—His holiness, love, wisdom, goodness, and power—shines out like those rays. They don’t just inform you; they warm you, nourish you, and change you. At Christmas, those beams of God's glory stepped into our world in a person. Jesus, “the Lord of glory” (James 2:1), brought God’s glory close enough to see, hear, and touch. What once felt distant and occasional in the Old Testament became near, constant, and personal in Christ. That is what gives Christmas its meaning.

The prophets saw this coming. Isaiah looked forward to a day when “the glory of the Lord” would be revealed and all people would see it together (Isaiah 40:5). He was pointing to Jesus—the radiance of who God is—so that when we look at Christ, we are seeing what God is really like. Luke then shows us that this glory arrived in history: ordinary shepherds were doing their night shift when suddenly an angel appeared and “the glory of the Lord shone around them,” and terror gave way to awe (Luke 2:8–9). In that moment, the quiet fields outside Bethlehem became a stage for God’s radiant presence.

A few verses later, Luke lets us listen in as heaven itself interprets what is happening. A whole army of angels fills the sky, praising God and declaring, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased” (Luke 2:13–14). Heaven’s verdict is clear: the birth of Jesus is the supreme display of God’s glory and His peace‑giving grace to broken people like us. John, looking back on the life of Jesus, says that Christmas is when the eternal Word “became flesh and dwelt among us,” and he testifies, “we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). In other words, if you want to know what God’s glory looks like in everyday human flesh, look at Jesus.

Hebrews pulls all this together and speaks directly to our hearts: long ago God spoke through the prophets in many ways, but now he has spoken to us by His Son. This Son is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature,” the One through whom God created the world and who now upholds everything by His powerful word (Hebrews 1:1–3). The baby in the manger is not sentimental decoration; He is the full, visible expression of God’s glory, who later made purification for our sins and now reigns at the Father’s right hand.

So, the purpose of Christmas is not just nostalgia, family tradition, or even generosity—good as those can be. The purpose is for you and me to rejoice in the glory of God revealed most fully in Jesus, to be stunned again by His majesty, love, sacrifice and grace, and to realize that this glorious God invites us into a real, living relationship with Himself. Christmas means that God’s radiant presence has moved into our neighborhood and into our lives. When that grips us, boredom gives way to worship, and the season becomes what it was always meant to be: a celebration of God’s personal, shining glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

See you Sunday, celebrating Jesus, the Lord of Glory: Steve