“…who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen,” (1 Timothy 6:16).
Though woefully insufficient by comparison, God set the sun in the sky as a daily reminder of what “unapproachable light” looks like. The earth is 93 million miles away from our primary light source, and yet the light of the sun is still so intense that it can cause retinal damage if you choose to stare at it. How much more intense, by comparison, is the “unapproachable light” of our Great God?
When God began establishing a relationship with His people Israel, He laid down clear and indisputable boundaries regarding how He is to be understood and encountered. One such example is shared in Exodus 19 when God descended on Mount Sinai. In preparation for His descent, God gave specific instructions to Moses for His people to cleanse and consecrate themselves. Further, they were particularly told not to approach the mountain nor touch the foot of it while God was present there or they would die.
The Exodus 33 narrative tells the story of how Moses asked to see God in His glory. Though Moses was highly favored of God and specially chosen to lead His people out of Egypt to the land of promise, God denied Moses his request. Divine mercy was evident in that denial, for God told Moses, “No man can see Me and live.”
The light of the glory of God is of such quality and nature that makes Him unapproachable. In our natural state we can no more bear the strength of His glorious light than we can walk on the surface of the sun.
And yet the unapproachable God chose to conceal His glory in human form (Phil. 2:7-8; John 1:1-4, 14) and become approachable. In the Jewish temple, a 4-inch thick, massive veil separated the holy of holies – where God’s presence rested – from the rest of the temple area. Only the high priest could enter this area behind the veil, and then only once per year in order to make atonement for the sins of Israel (Ex. 30:10).
But once God’s required payment for sin had been satisfied by Christ’s death on the cross, God tore the veil housed in the temple in Jerusalem in two, from top to bottom, showing the completed work of Christ in His covenant mediation. We must always approach God through Christ. God’s people are encouraged to come boldly before His throne (Heb. 4:16) … but not before proper preparation and cleansing (James 4:8).
Gaining a true knowledge of God through the light of His Word is the only way we have access to Him. Because He “dwells in unapproachable light,” we cannot move toward Him apart from His ordained means. John Calvin rightly said, “If we reflect how prone the human mind is to lapse into forgetfulness of God, how readily inclined to every kind of error, how bent every now and then on devising new and fictitious religions, it will be easy to understand how necessary it was to make such a depository of doctrine as would secure it from either perishing by the neglect, vanishing away amid the errors, or being corrupted by the presumptuous audacity of men.”
God is infinite light, infinite glory, infinite holiness. No man can see God and live, for we are far too dark and tainted with sin to come into His presence apart from being cleansed in the blood of Christ and clothed in His righteousness. The inapproachable God made Himself approachable by way of the death and resurrection of His Son – the fullness of God veiled in human flesh. Only through faith in our approachable Savior are we allowed a relationship with this God who dwells in unapproachable light.
- Lord, help me discern between man’s opinions and the truth of Your Word. Help me be more diligent to understand the nature of true faith in Christ, since it is the only means whereby I might be saved. So many people think faith is just a common assent to the history of the Gospel… and they miss the personal relationship with the God who dwells in unapproachable light and truth!
- Since You dwell in a light that is inaccessible, Christ must intervene. Jesus even called Himself “the light of the world,” and in another passage, “the way, the truth, and the life.” There is no one who can come to God – the fountain of light and life – except by Him.
- No man knows the Father but the Son, and the Son reveals the Father to whom He chooses. For, “no man knows who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” Paul further declares, that in the person of Christ the glory of God is visibly manifested to me, or, that I have “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” What a blessing beyond words this truth is! You would remain distant and concealed from me, Lord, if I were not enlightened by the brightness of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit.
- O Lord Jesus, thank You for manifesting the Father to me. By communicating spiritual blessings that come from Your work and merit for me, You express the true image of Your glory to me. Help me acknowledge Your Spirit which presses me to seek You in all Your glory, that I might remember that the invisible Father is to be found nowhere but in the revelation of Yourself in Your Word.
Further References for 1 Tim. 6:16
1 Tim. 1:17; John 1:18; Ps. 104:2; Exod. 33:20; 1 John 1:5; Ps. 90:2
