‘I’ve heard it said, “we become what we behold.”’
As a theology student it is your greatest privilege to spend so much of your time in the pages of God’s Word, beholding Christ in all his glory. Yet how easy it is to read but not see, to study but not be transformed, to behold but not believe and so not become.
This book by Jackie Hill Perry is beautiful to read. Not only because she flows in and out of poetry as she depicts the holiness of our Creator and Father, but because it is a stark and yet comforting reminder that God is wholly other. Sinful and unholy as I am I cannot hope, of my own accord, to enter into the presence of this holy, holy, holy God. Yet because he has replaced my blind eyes with spiritual sight capable of perceiving his glory, I can now behold the God of my salvation through the pages of his word, believe with Spirit-filled heart in the sufficiency of his sacrifice and become daily more like the one who we will one day see in all his glory. And as we see him, we will become like Him.
In the midst of a theology degree, the study of even the greatest of gifts given to us by our Father can sometimes distract us from the greatest of all. Nowhere have I found so helpful a reminder as this book that ‘being forgiven, justified and atoned for are worth our praise, but these gifts are not higher than the ultimate one, which is God himself. To see and know him forever… This is what makes the good news good, that we were blind and now we can see God. As the Bible says, we become what we behold.’
