Recently, I began to think about the old console television sets my family used to own. My grandmother Vickers had an old console set where you actually had to push buttons to change the channel along with a couple of silver knobs. Now, I have no idea what happened to that set, but many TV sets like it had an antenna that you had to adjust to bring in a clearer picture. It took a bit to get it just right, and then you hoped it stayed that way.
One question with which we are sometimes faced is, “What is the meaning of life?” How would you answer that? Jonathan Garby of England published a book many years ago that contained answers of well-known individuals to that question. One of them, who was a church leader, gave a good answer. As a child, he says, he watched his family’s black and white TV, wishing they could get a clearer picture, but he was thankful they had that subpar set anyway.
Then his family learned that an outside antenna was needed. “Suddenly,” he said, “We found that we could get clear and even distant pictures. Our enjoyment was increased.” Then he draws the comparison: “Life without a relationship with God through Jesus Christ is like a television without the antenna.”
Without knowledge of God and the revelation of His purposes in Scripture and in Christ Jesus, we humans have at best a blurry picture of the invisible, holy Creator. However, when we open up the Bible and read about and study Jesus, the Man who was God-in-the-flesh, the fuzziness vanishes. The Savior Himself declared, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?” (John 14:9). In I John 1:1-3 we read:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Also in Acts 1:8 we find, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth”
Have you seen Jesus clearly in God’s Word? Are you helping others to see Him too, just like the apostles did? Remember, unless you see Christ in the Bible, you can’t get a clear picture of Him.
