“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8.3, NIV).
In December of 2007 I learned the sad news that one of my theological heroes had died – Thomas F. Torrance. I recently received a theological biography of sorts that describes how Thomas Torrance did theology and more specifically how he approached the Scriptures. Jesus’ words in Matthew 11.27 formed much of Torrance’s work
All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal to him (NIV).
What Jesus is saying here is that we do not know God unless Jesus has revealed God to us. A.W. Tozer famously said, “What we think about God is the most important thing about us.” What Jesus is telling us and what Thomas Torrance reminds us of is that if our thoughts about God don’t begin with Jesus, then it is not the true God who is occupying our thoughts. The Son is the image of invisible God (Col 1.15) because God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Col 1.19). The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Heb 1.3).
What are your first thoughts about God? Does Jesus shape your God-thoughts? God has willed that we know him through his Son, Jesus. May God’s Spirit move each of us to take every thought about God captive to Jesus Christ.
"What Jesus was on earth God is forever ... What God is toward us in Jesus Christ, he is eternally forever." ~ Thomas F. Torrance
When you see in the face Jesus Christ the face of God, you know that you have not seen that face elsewhere and could not see it elsehow. ~ Thomas F. Torrance
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