1 Timothy 6:16

‘Who only has immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable, whom no man has seen, nor can see, to whom be honour and power eternal. Amen.’

The King of kings, and Lord of lords is now defined. He is unique and is the One Who alone has absolute immortality. All life has its source in Him, and all life is subject to Him. Even in eternity the redeemed will enjoy their life at His behest, guaranteed because He is unchangeable. And He dwells in unapproachable light. We are reminded how the people dared not approach Sinai, even though God’s glory was veiled in a cloud (Exodus 19:0). And yet even so that glory was manifested in the flesh (John 1:14; Hebrews 1:3). But what He is in Himself is so glorious that none can approach unless they are made fit by Him (Revelation 21:22-23; Revelation 22:5). From before Him even earth and Heaven flee away (Revelation 20:11). For His light is so pure and so holy that only absolute holiness can stand before its outshining. For us it will one day be possible, but only through the blood of Christ (1 John 1:5-7).

‘Whom no man has seen, nor can see.’ This is firstly because He is invisible and beyond the eye of man (1 Timothy 1:17), but also because man could not bear the sight. If men had to demand the veiling of Moses because the glory of God shone on his face (Exodus 34:29-35), how much less could they behold the unveiled glory of the Supreme? Through the graciousness of God men have been allowed glimpses. Consider Abraham from the depths of a divine sleep (Genesis 15:12; Genesis 15:17); Jacob when He came to him in the form of a man (Genesis 32:24-30); Moses who was the most favoured of all but could only look on the tail end of His glory, for had he seen the whole he would have been blasted out of existence (Exodus 33:18-23); Isaiah who saw him dimly through the smoke in the Temple (Isaiah 6:1-7); Ezekiel Who saw something of His glory revealed on His travelling throne (Ezekiel 1:26-28). But none had seen Him face to face, or had beheld the fullness of His glory. And even His light is but a garment beneath which is the unknowable and unseeable (Psalms 104:2)

‘To whom be honour and power eternal. Amen.’ And all honour and power is summed up in Him, and must be given to Him. For He is the Lord of all. In comparison to Him all Caesar’s claims to honour and power, and some of them had made great claims, were as nothing. Amen (so be it).