The Glory of Christ

A mosaic of Christ ... made piecemeal ... bit by bit ... but still beautiful.

From The Glory of Christ:

In our view of the glory of Christ by faith, we gather things, one by one, out of the Scripture; and comparing them in our minds they become the object of our present sight—our spiritual comprehension of the things themselves. We have no proposal of the glory of Christ to us by vision or illustrious appearance of His person, as Isaiah had of old (6:1—4); or as John had in the Revelation (1:13—16). We need it not; it would be of no advantage to us. For as to the assurance of our faith, we have a Word of prophecy more useful to us than a voice from heaven (II Pet. 1:17—19). And of those who received such visions, though of eminent use to the Church, yet as to themselves, one of them cried out, "Woe is me! I am undone"; and the other "fell as dead at his feet." We are not able in this life to bear such glorious representations of Him, to our edification.

And as we have no such external proposals of His glory to us in visions, so neither have we any new revelations of Him by immediate inspiration. We can see nothing of it, know nothing of it, but what is proposed to us in the Scripture, and that as it is proposed. Nor does the Scripture itself, in any one place, make an entire proposal of the glory of Christ with all that belongs to it; nor is it capable of so doing, nor can there be any such representation of it to our capacity on this side heaven. If all the light of the heavenly luminaries had been contracted into one, it would have been destructive, not useful, to our sight; but being by divine wisdom distributed into sun, moon, and stars, each giving out his own proportion, it is suited to declare the glory of God and to enlighten the world.

A few things I noticed from this excerpt:

1. Our vision of Christ and his glory is like a mosaic. It is brought together piecemeal. It is a glorious view, but it it is garnered one bit at a time from Scripture. This idea is wonderful. We are given a view of Christ's glory that is beautiful and awe-inspiring. Yet, it is not complete; not perfect. But it will be one day.
2. A powerful, spiritual visitation or vision of Christ, like those had by Isaiah or John, is not in the works for us. But, WE DON'T NEED IT! A very Revelation-like vision of Christ would be of no advantage to us! Why? Because we have the Word of God!
3. We behold the glory of Christ ONLY by faith and ONLY in the Scriptures.