The sweet love of God

John the Revelator

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John.” - Revelation 1:1

In songs and sermons, Christian talks or environments, we often use the biblical expression “through faith and not vision”, but I must admit that oftentimes I have wondered at the literal meaning of this expression. I have often thought “what’s wrong with vision, when you already have faith?” And while I read the opening verse of the Book of Revelation, the book with probably greater visionary content than any other book in the Bible, my mind is made clear about the beauty of this statement.

Beginning from the Book of Genesis and on with all the books in the Bible, God always has something to tell humanity - something all new or the renewal of a promise, the assurance of a blessing, or the warning of an eminent punishment. It is as He felt He needed to share with us who, as the song says, are nothing more than “a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow.” He, the timeless sovereign of the universe, chooses to reveal us His plans, his wishes and feelings - to us, whose future is uncertain even as regards our very next day on earth.

How sweet is the knowledge that God has never chosen, in any moment of human history, to leave us in the dark about the things He intends to do. Starting from the creation, when the Lord well informs man on the sure consequences that would follow if he failed to obey, in the hundreds of occasions the Bible tells of God making His plan known, and up to the revelation of the things yet to come, God has found such a loving way to further show His love for mankind: He has made known to us everything we need to know, just like a good friend, though under no obligation, chooses to share with his friends the things he plans to do.

The confidentiality that God shows in a book like Revelation is simply a sure seal of the loyal friendship He has towards us. Here stands the beauty of Christianity as opposed to all human efforts to approach God. We do not follow a capricious, impulsive or mystical God, but a God Who chooses to call us friends and reveal everything to us. In the person of the Lord Jesus, the whole of God’s character was revealed to us. In His Word, the whole line of God’s plan from the past to the future has been submitted before us. What excuse do we have for not believing?

The details of an ever-approaching future, or the tasting smell of the glory awaiting us in heaven, show that we do not, or at least need not, go through life each with his or her own different vision of the things to expect of God. The Bible reveals God in all the abundance of His knowledge in the measure we can appropriate. Let it be our encouragement every day to go to God in prayer, submission and faith that He will always reveal His will for us, for all things big and small in the lives of each and every one of us, and may our heart always be obedient to follow Him, the one Who never fails and Who never likes to do things secretly. He Who delights in including us in the great things He has done and is about to do. He Who has not spared us the view of paradise, will He not be always faithful and openhearted to make us taste what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God?