Formation Edition · Ophel
“These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.” (John 12:41)
Isaiah 6 gives us one of Scripture’s most overwhelming visions of divine holiness. The prophet sees “the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,” while seraphim cover their faces and cry, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:1, 3). Isaiah does not respond with casual admiration. The holiness before him exposes his own uncleanness, and he cries, “Woe is me! for I am undone” (Isaiah 6:5).
Centuries later, the apostle John returns to this very passage and tells us something astonishing. After quoting Isaiah, he writes, “These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him” (John 12:41). In context, John is speaking of Jesus Christ. The glory Isaiah saw was the glory of the Son.
This means we must never think of Jesus merely as a great teacher, prophet, or moral example. The One who walked the roads of Galilee is the One before whose glory the seraphim covered their faces. The One who sat weary beside Jacob’s well is the Lord whom Isaiah saw high and lifted up. The One who welcomed children into His arms is the King before whom the prophet trembled.
John had already prepared us for this truth at the beginning of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). When that eternal Word entered the world, His deity did not disappear. John says, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory)” (John 1:14). The glory was veiled in true humanity, but it was not diminished.
This truth became especially important in the early centuries of the church. Athanasius, a fourth-century Christian leader, spent much of his ministry defending the biblical teaching that Christ is truly God and not merely the highest of created beings. The controversy was not about a minor theological detail. Athanasius understood that if Christ were only a creature, however exalted, He could not truly reveal God to us or accomplish the salvation Scripture attributes to Him. The church’s confession of Christ’s deity mattered because the identity of the Savior mattered.
John 12:41 gives that confession remarkable clarity. Isaiah did not merely see a glory later borrowed by Christ. John says Isaiah saw His glory. The New Testament therefore does not ask us to admire Jesus from a distance as an unusually holy man. It calls us to worship Him.
Hebrews describes the Son as “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). Paul says that Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), and that “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). God has not merely sent information about Himself. He has made Himself known in the Son.
This helps us understand Jesus’ words to Philip: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus is not saying that He and the Father are the same Person. He is saying that the Son perfectly reveals the Father. We do not move beyond Christ in order to find a clearer vision of God. The more truly we know the Son, the more truly we know the Father whom He reveals.
This should change the way we read the Gospels. Familiarity can cause us to move too quickly through scenes we have heard many times. We read of Jesus sleeping in a boat, speaking with a woman at a well, touching a leper, or receiving children, and we may forget who stands before us. These are not merely stories about a compassionate religious teacher. They are moments in which the Lord of glory has come near.
Paul writes that God has shined in our hearts “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). If we want to know what God is like, we look to Christ. His holiness reveals the Father’s holiness. His compassion reveals the Father’s compassion. His righteousness, truth, mercy, and faithfulness make the invisible God known.
Yet the holiness of Christ should also expose us, just as the vision of the Lord exposed Isaiah. When Isaiah saw divine glory, he stopped comparing himself with other men. He saw himself before God. The same is true for us. The clearer Christ becomes, the less room remains for pride, self-righteousness, and shallow comparisons. His holiness reveals our need for mercy.
But here is the wonder of the incarnation: the Holy One before whom Isaiah trembled came near to sinners in grace. The glory did not become less glorious. The Holy One did not become less holy. Rather, the eternal Son took flesh and came among those who could never have climbed upward to Him.
As Christ is formed within us, familiarity gives way to reverence. We begin to read His words more carefully, worship Him more consciously, and approach His presence with deeper wonder. The name of Jesus ceases to be merely familiar and becomes increasingly precious, because we understand more clearly whose name it is.
The One Isaiah saw upon the throne is the One who has come near.
And the nearer we draw to Christ, the more clearly we behold the glory of God.
And Christ is formed in us.
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