To be near unto God - pagina 604

shown, but in the New Testament the reality has appeared in the person of Christ. "The law, which is given by Moses" (John 1:17) does not refer to the ten commandments. The law here is the name of the whole Old Testament. taken as an instruction, a revelation, a word of God addressed to Israel. This word, revelation, instruction which God gave in figure, began to assume a form with Moses. But when Bethlehem sees the birth of the Holy Infant, something entirely different appears. It is no more instruction and announcement, but it is truth that is given. And in this connection truth means what we call reality. The image is not the truth, the shadow is not the truth. Image and shadow in themselves are unreal. That which is true onl}^ comes, when in tangible reality he appears, whose image has been seen from afar, and whose Divine shadow has fallen upon Israel. Therefore the Apostles emphatically declared that they had seen Jesus, that they had heard him, that they had handled him. They emphasized the fact that now the Word has received flesh, i. e. reality in the earthly. This emphasized no less the fact that Jesus has been foretold that he has appeared at times, and that he has vanished again, but that at last he has come in full reality, and that from Bethlehem to Golgotha he has dwelt among us. To dwell in a place is really and permanently to tarry there. Not merely to come, but also to stay. .Not to turn in for the night a single time, but continuously and permanently to reveal one's presence in one place. God dwells in heaven and his abode is in the light. But though the Scripture is

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