To Discover The Glory Of God We Look To The Face Of Jesus (Christmas Presence #1) | Dr. Larry Baucom, Dr. Troy Doucet | November 30, 2025

As the Christmas season begins, Dr. Larry Baucom and Dr. Troy Doucet invite us to prepare our hearts, not just for a holiday, but for the profound mystery at the center of our faith: God became man and revealed His glory among us.

To understand that glory, the Gospel of John takes us far deeper than the manger. John brings us all the way back to before creation itself.

Their message centers around three key ideas:

Point 1: There is a rich understanding of the relationship between God and nature.

Unlike the ancient religions around them, Israel confessed a radically different story about the world:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Not many gods. Not mythic battles. Not cosmic accidents.

Dr. Baucom contrasts Hebrew faith with:

• Fertility cults that merged nature with immorality,

• Greek mythology that made nature divine (Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite),

• Greek philosophy that separated the physical world from true, perfect reality.

Against all this, Israel proclaimed:

One God, good, wise, intentional, created everything and remains intimately connected with creation.

Dr. Troy expands this beautifully: Hebrews didn’t start with superstition or speculation, they started with a confession. Creation wasn’t divine, but it was filled with the Divine’s fingerprints. Genesis 1 is a liturgy teaching Israel to see the world as ordered, purposeful, and loved.

And at Christmas we celebrate that the same God who spoke galaxies into being stepped into His own creation as a child.

Creation tells us we are not accidents.

Incarnation tells us we are not abandoned.

Point 2: John Reintroduces Jesus by Reintroducing Creation

Where Luke starts with a manger, Matthew with a genealogy and magi, and Mark with ministry, John starts with eternity.

He retells creation through the lens of Christ:

“In the beginning was the Logos…
and the Logos was with God…
and the Logos was God.”

John dares to take one of the most sacred Hebrew phrases, “In the beginning”, and frame it in a new way:

The Logos through whom everything was created is the One who became flesh and lived among us!

Dr. Troy notes that John doesn’t simply record history; he detonates it.

He reveals that:

• Jesus didn’t begin in Bethlehem; He broke into Bethlehem.

• The Baby in the manger is the very Mind, Logic, and Ordering Principle of the universe.

• The Light of Genesis 1 is the Light walking among us.

This means:

1. Nothing in our lives is beyond Christ’s creative power. The One who brought order out of chaos can bring order to ours.

2. Our lives are not random. If Christ is the Logos, then meaning, coherence, and direction are woven into the fabric of our existence.

Point 3: The Glory of God Is Seen Most Clearly in the Face of Jesus

To discover the glory of God, we look where the disciples looked: into the face of Jesus.

Dr. Baucom recalls the Transfiguration, Christ shining like the sun.

John wants us to know that the same creative glory of Genesis was present in Jesus, and Paul confirms it:

“The God who commanded light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
(2 Cor. 4:6)

Dr. Troy adds that science and faith are not enemies here:

• Science explains the mechanisms; faith reveals the meaning.

• Science studies the artwork; faith encounters the Artist.

• Science describes the patterns; faith discovers the Presence behind them.

Whether we look through a telescope or a microscope, all of creation echoes the glory that appeared in Christ.

Thus Christmas becomes not merely tradition or nostalgia, but a call to behold the One who “makes all things new”, not only saving us, but transforming us.

“Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let heaven and nature sing.”

Conclusion: “I Want to See Him”

Dr. Baucom closes with a personal story about his young daughter, simply staring at his face after he had been away, longing to see him.

This is the posture of Advent.

This is the cry of the human heart:

“I want to see Him.”

Christmas is not about Black Friday shopping or seasonal frenzy. It is about the presence of God, the God who created the world, entered it, and still reveals His glory today in the face of Christ.

“Let every heart prepare Him room.”

May we see His glory, the brilliant light of His creative presence, this Christmas season.