DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 7, 1879,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined
in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:6.
THE Apostle is explaining the reason for his preaching Christ with so
much earnestness–he had received Divine light and he felt bound to
spread it. One great motive power of a true ministry is trusteeship.
The Lord has put us in trust with the Gospel; He has filled us with a
treasure with which we are to enrich the world. The text explains in
full what it is with which the Lord has entrusted us–He has bestowed
upon us the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ and it is ours to reflect the light, to impart the
knowledge, to manifest the Glory, to point to the Savior's face and to
proclaim the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Having such a work before
us, we faint not, but press onward with our whole heart.
I. With no other preface than this we shall ask your attention this
morning, first, TO THE SUBJECT OF THAT KNOWLEDGE in which Paul
delighted so much. What was this knowledge which, to his mind, was the
chief of all and the most worthy to be spread? It was the knowledge of
God–truly a most necessary and proper knowledge for all God's
creatures! For a man not to know his Maker and Ruler is deplorable
ignorance, indeed! The proper study of mankind is God. Paul not only
knew that there is a God, for he had known that before his
conversion–none could have more surely believed in the Godhead than
did Paul as a Jew.
Nor does he merely intend that he had learned somewhat of the Character
of God, for that, also, he had known from the Old Testament Scriptures
before he was met with on the way to Damascus. Now he had come to know
God in a closer, clearer and surer way, for he had seen Him, Incarnate,
in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle had also received
the knowledge of "the Glory of God" Never had the God of Abraham
appeared so glorious as now! God in Christ Jesus had won the adoring
wonder of the Apostle's instructed mind. He had known Jehovah's Glory
as the One and only God. He had seen that Glory in creation, declared
by the heavens and displayed upon the earth. He had beheld that Glory
in the Law which blazed from Sinai and shed its insufferable light upon
the face of Moses.
But now, beyond all else, he had come to perceive the Glory of God in
the face, or Person, of Jesus Christ and this had won his soul! This
special knowledge had been communicated to him at his conversion when
Jesus spoke to him out of Heaven. In this knowledge he had made great
advances by experience and by new Revelations–but he had not yet
learned it to the fullest, for he was still seeking to know it
perfectly by the teaching of the Divine Spirit and we find him saying,
"That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the
fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death."
Paul knew not merely God, but God in Christ Jesus! Not merely "the
Glory of God," but "the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." The
knowledge dealt with God, but it was Christward knowledge! He pined not
for a Christless Theism, but for God in Christ! This, Beloved, is the
one thing which you and I should aim to know. There are parts of the
Divine Glory which will never be seen by us in this life, speculate as
we may. Mysticism would desire to pry into the unknowable–you and I
may leave dreamers and their dreams–and follow the clear light which
shines from the face of Jesus. What of God it is necessary and
beneficial for us to know, He has revealed in Christ! And whatever is
not there, we may rest assured it is unfit and unnecessary for us to
know.
Truly the Revelation is by no means scant, for there is vastly more
revealed in the Person of Christ than we shall be likely to learn in
this mortal life–and even eternity will not be too long for the
discovery of all the Glory of God which
shines forth in the Person of the Word made flesh. Those who would
supplement Christianity had better first add to the brilliance of the
sun or the fullness of the sea! As for us, we are more than satisfied
with the Revelation of God in the Person of our Lord Jesus and we are
persuaded of the truth of His Words, "he that has seen Me has seen the
Father." Hope not, my Brothers and Sisters, that the preacher can
grapple with such a subject! I am overcome by it!
In my meditations I have felt lost in its lengths and breadths. My joy
is great in my theme and yet I am conscious of a pressure upon brain
and heart, for I am as a little child wandering among the mountains, or
as a lone spirit which has lost its way among the stars. I stumble
among sublimities. I sink with amazement. I can only point with my
finger to that which I see, but cannot describe it. May the Holy
Spirit, Himself, take of the things of Christ and show them to you! We
will, for a minute or two, consider this glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ historically.
In every incident of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord's
Anointed, there is much of God to be seen. What volumes upon volumes
might be written to show God as revealed in every act of Christ from
His birth to His death! I see Him as a Baby at Bethlehem lying in a
manger and there I perceive a choice Glory in the mind of God, for He
evidently despises the pomp and glory of the world which little minds
esteem so highly. He might have been born in marble halls and wrapped
in imperial purple, but He scorns these things and, in the manger among
the oxen, we see a Glory which is independent of the trifles of luxury
and parade.
The Glory of God in the Person of Jesus asks no aid from the splendor
of courts and palaces. Yet even as a Baby, He reigns and rules! Mark
how the shepherds hasten to salute the new-born King, while the magi
from the far-off East bring gold, frankincense and myrrh and bow at His
feet. When the Lord condescends to show Himself in little things, He is
still right royal and commands the homage of mankind. He is as majestic
in the minute as in the magnificent; as royal in the Baby at Bethlehem
as in later days in the Man who rode through Jerusalem with hosannas!
See the holy Child Jesus in the Temple when He is but 12 years old,
sitting in the midst of the doctors, astonishing them with His
questions! What wisdom there was in that Child!
Do you not see there an exhibition of the Truth of God that "the
foolishness of God is wiser than men"? Even when God reserves His
wisdom and gives forth utterances fit for a child, He baffles the
wisdom of age and thought. Watch that youth in the carpenter's shop.
See Him planing and sawing, cutting and squaring, working according to
His parent's commands, till he is 30 years of age. What do we learn
here when we see the Incarnate God tarrying at the workman's bench? See
we not how God can wait? Is not this a masterly display of the leisure
of the Eternal? The Infinite is never driven out of His restful pace of
conscious strength.
Had it been you and I, we would have hastened to begin our lifework
long before! We could not have refrained from preaching and teaching
for so long a period! But God can wait and, in Christ, we see how
prudence tempered zeal and made Him share in that eternal leisure which
arises out of confidence that His end is sure. The Godhead was
concealed at Bethlehem and Nazareth from the eyes of carnal men, but it
is revealed to those who have spiritual sight with which to behold the
Lord. Even in those early days of our Lord, while He was yet preparing
for His great mission, we behold the Glory of God in His youthful face
and we adore.
As for His public ministry, how clearly the Godhead is there! Behold
Him, Brothers and Sisters, while He feeds 5,000 with a few loaves and
fishes and you cannot fail to perceive therein the Glory of God in the
commissariat of the universe, for the Lord God opens His hands and
supplies the need of every living thing! See Him cast out devils and
you learn of the Divine power over evil! Hear Him raise the dead and
you must reverence the Divine prerogative to kill and to make alive!
See Him cure the sick and you think you hear Jehovah say, "I wound, I
heal." Hear how He speaks and Infallibly reveals the Truth of God and
you will perceive the God of knowledge to whom the wise-hearted owe
their instruction!
Set over against each other are these two sentences–"Behold, God
exalts by His power; who teaches like He?" and "Never man spoke like
this Man." It is always the Lord's way to make His Truth known to those
of humble and truthful hearts and so did Jesus teach the sincere and
lowly among men. Observe how Jesus dwelt among men, wearing the common
smock-frock of the peasant, entering their cottages and sharing their
poverty! Mark how He even washed His disciples' feet! Herein we see the
condescension of God who must stoop to view the skies and bow to see
what angels do– and yet He does not disdain to visit the sons of men!
In wondrous Grace He thinks of us and has pity upon our low estate.
See, too, the Christ of God, my Brothers and Sisters, bearing every day
with the taunts of the ungodly–enduring "such contradiction of sinners
against Himself–
and you have a fair picture of the infinite patience and the marvelous
longsuffering of God! And this is no small part of His Glory. Note well
how Jesus loved His own which were in the world, yes, loved them to the
end! And with what tenderness and gentleness He bore with them, as a
nurse with her child, for here you see the tenderness and gentleness of
God and the love of the great Father towards His erring children.
You read of Jesus receiving sinners and eating with them and what is
this but the Lord God, merciful and gracious, passing by transgression,
iniquity and sin? You see Jesus living as a physician among those
diseased by sin, with the one aim of healing their sicknesses–and here
you see the pardoning mercy of our God, His delight in salvation and
the joy which He has in mercy. Beloved, I cannot go through the whole
life of Jesus Christ–it is impossible, for time would fail us–but if
you will, yourselves, select any single incident in which Jesus
appears, whether in the chamber of sickness or at the grave, whether in
weakness or in power, you shall, in each case, behold the Glory of God!
Throughout His ministry, which was mainly a period of humiliation,
there gleams forth in the Character, acts and Person of Jesus, the
Glory of the everlasting Father. His acts compel us not only to admire
but to adore! He is not merely a Man whom God favors, He is God
Himself! What shall I say of His death? Oh never did the love of God
reveal itself so clearly as when He laid down His life for His sheep,
nor did the justice of God ever flame forth so conspicuously as when He
would suffer in Himself the curse for sin rather than sin should go
unpunished and the Law should be dishonored! Every attribute of God was
focused at the Cross and he that has eyes to look through his tears and
see the wounds of Jesus shall behold more of God there than a whole
eternity of Providence or an infinity of creation shall ever be able to
reveal to Him. Well might the trembling centurion, as he watched the
Cross, exclaim, "Truly, this was the Son of God."
Do I need to remind you, too, of the Glory of God in the Person of
Christ Jesus in His Resurrection, when He spoiled principalities and
powers, led Death captive and rifled the tomb? That is, indeed, a
godlike speech, "I am He that lives and was dead, and behold I am alive
forevermore and have the keys of Hell and of death." His power, His
immortality, His eternal majesty all shone forth as He left the shades
of death!
I will not linger over His Ascension when He returned to His own again.
Then His Godhead was conspicuous, for He again put on the Glory which
He had with the Father before the world was. There, amid the
acclamations of angels and redeemed spirits, the Glory of the
conquering Lord was seen. By His descent He had destroyed the powers of
darkness and then He ascended that He might fill all things as only God
can do. I would only hint at His session at the right hand of God, for
there you know how–
"Adoring saints around Him stand, And thrones and powers before Him
fall.
The God shines gracious through the Mian, And sheds sweet glories on
them all."
In Heaven they never conceive of Jesus apart from the Divine Glory
which perpetually surrounds Him. No one in Heaven doubts His Deity, for
all fall prostrate before Him, or now and then all seize their harps
and wake their strings to the praise of God and the Lamb!
The Glory of God will most abundantly be seen in the second advent of
our Lord. Whatever of splendor we may expect at the advent, whatever of
Glory shall surround that reign of a thousand years, or the end when He
shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father–in every
transaction which prophecy leads us to expect–God in Christ Jesus will
be conspicuous and angelic eyes shall look on with adoring admiration
as they see the eternal Father glorious in the Person of His Son!
These are great themes–we do but mention them and leave them to your
quiet thought. It is enough to point to a table if men have appetites
for food. But now I will ask you to think of the Glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ, in the same line of thought, only putting it in
another fashion. Treat it by way of observation. When you look upon the
material universe you can see, if your eyes are opened, somewhat of the
Glory of God. The reverent mind perceives enough to constrain the heart
to worship and yet, after awhile, it pines for more.
I have often heard the earth spoken of as the mirror of God's image.
But when I was traveling among the Alps and saw many of the grandest
phenomena of creation such as glaciers, avalanches and tempests, I was
so impressed with the narrowness of visible things in comparison with
God that I wrote such lines as these–
"The mirror of the creatures lacks space To bear the image of the
Infinite.
'Tis true the Lord has fairly writ His name,
And set His seal upon creation's brow,
But as the skillful potter much excels
The vessel which he fashions on the wheel,
E'en so, but in proportion greater far,
Jeho vah's self transcends His noblest works.
Earth's ponderous wheels would break, her axles snap,
If freighted with the load of Deity.
Space is too narrow for the Eternal's rest,
And time too short a footstool for His Throne." If your mind has ever
entered into communion with God, you will become conscious of the
dwarfing of all visible things in His Presence. Even when your thought
sweeps round the stars and circumnavigates space, you feel that Heaven,
even the Heaven of heavens, cannot contain Him. Everything conceivable
falls short of the inconceivable Glory of God!
When you come, however, to gaze upon the face of Christ Jesus, how
different is the feeling! Now you have a mirror equal to the reflection
of the eternal Face, for, "In Him dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily." His name is "Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God." He
is the Image of God, "the brightness of His Glory and the express Image
of His Person." If your conception of Christ is truthful, it will
coincide with the true idea of God and you will exclaim, "This is the
true God and eternal life." Like Thomas, you will salute the wounded
Savior with the cry, "My Lord and my
God."
Truly, "God was manifest in the flesh"–not a part of Him, but God in
perfection. In the visible creation we see God's works, but in Christ
Jesus we have God Himself, Emmanuel, "God with us." The Glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ is most sweetly conspicuous because you are
conscious that not only are God's attributes there, but God Himself is
there! In the Person of Jesus we see the Glory of God in the veiling of
His splendor. The Lord is not eager to display Himself–"Verily You are
a God that hides Yourself," said the Prophet of old. The world seems to
be created rather to hide God than to manifest Him, at least it is
certain that even in the grandest displays of His power we may say with
Job, "There was the hiding of His power."
Though His light is brightness itself, yet it is only the robe which
conceals Him. "Who covers Yourself with light as with a garment." If
thus God's Glory is seen in the field of creation as a light veiled and
shaded to suit the human eye, we certainly see the same in the face of
Jesus Christ. Where everything is mild and gentle–full of Grace as
well as Truth. How softly breaks the Divine Glory through the human
life of Jesus–a babe in Grace may gaze upon this brightness without
fear! When Moses' face shone, the people could not look at him, but
when Jesus came from His transfiguration the people ran to Him and
saluted Him! Everything is attractive in God in Christ Jesus! In Him we
see God to the fullest, but the Deity so mildly beams through the
medium of human flesh that mortal man may draw near and look and live.
This Glory in the face of Jesus Christ is assuredly the Glory of God,
even though veiled, for thus in every other instance does God, in
measure, shine forth. In Providence and in Nature such a thing as an
unveiled God is not to be seen and the revelation of God in Christ is
after the same Divine manner. In our Lord Jesus we see the Glory of God
in the wondrous blending of the attributes. Behold His mercy, for He
dies for sinners! But see His justice, for He sits as Judge of the
quick and the dead. Observe His Immutability, for He is the same
yesterday, today, and forever! And see His power, for His voice shakes
not only earth but also Heaven. See how infinite is His love, for He
espouses His chosen, but how terrible His wrath, for He consumes His
adversaries. All the attributes of Deity are in Him–power that can
lull the tempest–and tenderness that can embrace little children. The
Character of Christ is a wonderful combination of all perfection's
making up one perfection and so we see the Glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ, for this is God's Glory, that in Him nothing is excessive
and nothing is deficient. He is all that is good and great–in Him is
light and no darkness at all.
Say, is it not so seen in Jesus our Lord? When I think of God I am led
to see His Glory in the outgoing of His great heart, for He is
altogether unselfish and unsparingly communicative. We may conceive a
period when the Eternal dwelt alone and had not begun to create. He
must have been inconceivably blessed, but He was not content to be
enwrapped within Himself and to enjoy perfect bliss alone. He began to
create and probably formed innumerable beings long before this world
came into existence–and He did this that He might multiply beings
capable of happiness. He delighted to
indulge His heart by deeds of beneficence, manifesting the inherent
goodness of His Nature. In whatever God is doing, He is consulting the
happiness of His creatures, being in Himself independent of all, He
loves to bless others.
He is living–we speak with awe in His Presence–He is living, even He,
not unto Himself, but living in the lives of others, rejoicing in the
joy of His creatures! This is His Glory and is it not to be seen most
evidently in Christ Jesus, who "saved others, Himself He could not
save"? Do you not see the great unselfish Glory of God in Christ Jesus?
When did He ever live unto Himself? What single act of His had a
selfish purpose? What word ever sought His own honor? In what deed did
He consult His own aggrandizement? Neither in life nor in death did
Christ live within Himself–He lived for His people and died for them!
See the Glory of God in this!
There are two things I have noticed in the Glory of God whenever my
soul has been saturated with it and these I have seen in Jesus. I have
sat upon a lofty hill and looked abroad upon the landscape and seen
hill, dale, woods, fields and I have felt as if God had gone forth and
spread His Presence over all. I have felt the outflow of Deity. There
was not a pleasant tree, nor a silvery stream, nor a cornfield ripening
for the harvest, nor mountain shaggy with pines, nor heath purple with
heather but seemed aglow with God! Even as the sun pours himself over
all things, so does God–and in the hum of an insect, as well as in the
crash of a thunderbolt, we hear a voice saying–"God is here." God has
gone forth out of Himself into the creation and filled all things! Is
not this the feeling of the heart in the Presence of Christ?
When we come near Him, He is the all-pervading Spirit. In any of the
scenes in which Jesus appears, He is Omnipresent. Who but He is at
Bethlehem, or at Nazareth, or at Jerusalem? Who but He is in the world?
Is not He to us the everybody, the one only Person of His age? I cannot
think of Caesar or Rome, or all the myriads that dwell on the face of
the earth as being anything more than small figures in the background
of the picture when Jesus is before me! He is to my mind most clearly
the fullness, filling all in all–all the accessories of any scene in
which He appears are submerged in the flood of Glory which flows from
His all-subduing Presence. Truly the outgoing Glory of God was in
Christ.
But you must have had another thought when you have felt the Glory of
God in Nature–you must have felt the indrawing of all things towards
God. You have felt created things rising unto God as steps to His
Throne. As you have gazed with rapture on the landscape, every tree and
hill has seemed to drift towards God, to tend towards Him, to return,
in fact, to Him from whom it came! Is it not just so in the life of
Christ? He seems to be drawing all things to Himself, gathering
together all things in one in His own personality. Some of these things
will not move, but yet His attraction has fallen on them, while others
fly with alacrity to Him, according to His Word, "I, if I am lifted up,
will draw all men unto Me."
Thus those observations of the Glory of God, which have been suggested
to us by Nature are also abundantly verified in Christ and we are sure
that the Glory is the same. I cannot express my own thoughts to you so
clearly and vividly as I would, but this I know, if you ever get a
vision of the Glory of God in Nature and if you then turn your thoughts
toward the Lord's Christ, you will see that the same God is in Him as
in the visible universe and that the same Glory shines in Him, only
more clearly. There is one God and that one God is gloriously
manifested in Christ Jesus. "No man has seen God at any time; the
Only-Begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared
Him."
Let us now treat this thought of the Glory of God in the Person of
Christ by way of experience. Have you ever heard Christ's doctrine in
your soul? If so, you have felt it to be Divine, for your heart has
perceived its moral and spiritual glory and you have concluded that God
is in it for sure. Has your heart heard the voice of Christ speaking
peace and pardon through the blood? If so, you have known Him to be
Lord of all! Did you ever see the fullness of His Atonement? Then you
have felt that God, Himself, was there reconciling the world unto
Himself.
You have understood the union of the two titles, "God, our Savior."
Beloved, you have often felt your Lord's Presence and you have been
admitted into intimate communion with Him. Then I know that a profound
awe has crept over you which has made you fall at His feet and in the
lowliest reverence of your spirit you have acknowledged Him to be Lord
and God. But when He has bent over you in love and said, "Fear not."
When He has opened His heart to you and shown you how dear you are to
Him, then the rapture you have felt has been so Divine that you have,
beyond all question, known Him to be God!
There are times when the elevating influence of the Presence of Christ
has put His Godhead beyond the possibility of question–when we have
felt that all the Truths of God we ever heard before had no effect upon
us compared with the
Truth that is in Him–that all the spirits in the world were
ineffectual to stir us till His Spirit came into contact with our
spirit! In this manner His Omnipotent, all-subduing, elevating love has
proved Him to be none other than "very God of very God." Thus have we
spoken of the supremely precious object of Christian knowledge.
II. Secondly, let us say a few words in noticing THE NATURE OF THIS
KNOWLEDGE. How, and in what respects do we know the Glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ? Briefly, first. We know it by faith. Upon the
testimony of the Infallible Word we believe and are sure that God is in
Christ Jesus. The Lord has spoken and said, "This is My beloved Son,
hear you Him." We accept as a settled fact the Godhead of the Lord
Jesus and our soul never permits a question upon it. We know that the
Son of God has come. We know that He has given us an understanding that
we may know Him that is true and that we are in Him that is true, even
in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
Knowing our Lord's divinity by faith, we next have used our perceptive
faculty and, by consideration and meditation we perceive that His life
furnishes abundant evidence that He was God, for God's Glory shines in
that life. The more carefully we pay attention to the details given us
by the four Evangelists, the more is our understanding persuaded that
no mere man stands before us. If, my Brothers and Sisters, your
spiritual nature was set at the task to try and describe how God would
act if He were here, what God would be if He became Incarnate and dwelt
among men–I am sure you would not have been able to imagine the life
of Christ. But if someone had brought to you the description given by
the Evangelists, you would have said, "My task is done! This is,
indeed, a noble conception of God manifest in the flesh."
I do not say that the wise men of this world would suppose God to have
thus behaved, for their suppositions are sure to be the reverse of the
simple, unaffected, open-hearted conduct of Jesus! But this I do say,
that the pure in heart will at once see that the acts of Christ are
like the doings of God! He has done exactly what a pure intelligence
might suppose God would have done! The more we have studied the more we
have seen the Glory of God in Christ. And now we have come further than
this, for we feel an inward consciousness that the Deity is in Christ
Jesus. It is not merely that we have believed it and that we somewhat
perceive it by observation, but we have come into contact with Christ
and have known, therefore, that He is God.
We love Him and we also love God. And we perceive that these two are
One and the more we love truth and holiness, and love, which are great
traits in the Character of God, the more we see of these in Christ
Jesus. It is by the heart that we know God and Christ–and as our
affections are purified, we become sensible of God's Presence in
Christ. Oftentimes when our soul is in rapt fellowship with Jesus, we
laugh to scorn the very thought that our Beloved can be less than
Divine! Moreover, there is one other thing that has happened to us
while we have been looking at our Lord. Blessed be His name, we begin
to grow like He! Our beholding Him has purified the eyes which has
gazed on His purity. His brightness has helped our eyesight so that we
see much already and shall yet see more.
The light of the sun blinds us, but the light of Jesus Christ
strengthens the eyes. We expect that as we grow in Grace we shall
behold more and more of God's Glory–but we shall see it best in the
Well-Beloved, even in Christ Jesus our Lord! What a sight of God we
shall enjoy in Heaven! We are heading that way and, as we get nearer
and nearer, our sight and vision of the Glory of God in Christ is every
day increased! We know it, then! We know it! We believe it! We are
conscious of it! We are affected by it! We are transformed by it! And
thus at this day we have "the light of the knowledge of the Glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ!
III. Thirdly, let us gratefully review THE MEANS OF THIS KNOWLEDGE. How
have we come at it? That brings us to read the text again–"For God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our
hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ." Why did not everybody see the Glory of God in
Jesus Christ when He was here? It was conspicuous enough. Answer–it
matters not how brightly the sun shines among blind men.
Now, the human heart is blind–it refuses to see God in Creation except
after a dim fashion–and it utterly refuses to discern God in Christ.
Therefore He is the despised and rejected of men. Moreover, there is a
god of this world, the Prince of Darkness, and since he hates the Light
he deepens and confirms the natural darkness of the human mind, lest
the Light should reach the heart. He blinds men's minds with error and
falsehood and foul imaginations, blocking up the windows of the soul
either with unclean desires, or with dense ignorance. We, at one time,
did not perceive the Glory of God in Christ because we were blind, by
nature, and were darkened by the Evil One. As only the pure in heart
can see God, we, being impure in heart, could not see God in Christ.
What, then, has happened to us? To eternal Grace be endless praise! God
Himself has shined into our hearts–that same God who said, "Light be,"
and light was, has shined into our hearts! You know creation's story,
how all things lay in black darkness? God might have gone on to make a
world in darkness if he had pleased, but if he had done so, it would
have been to us as though it had never been, for we could not have
perceived it. Therefore He early said, "Let there be light." Now, God's
Glory in the face of Jesus Christ might have been all there and we
should never have discerned it– and as far as we are concerned it
would have been as though it had never been if the Lord had not entered
into us and the thick darkness and said, "Let there be light."
Then burst in the everlasting morning, the light shined in the darkness
and the darkness fled before it. Do you recollect the incoming of that
illumination? If you do, then I know the first sight you saw by the new
light was the Glory of God in Jesus Christ! In fact, that light had
come on purpose that you might see it–and at this present moment that
is the main delight of your soul, the choice subject of your thoughts!
In the light of God you have seen the light of the Glory of God, as it
is written, "In Your light we shall see light." One thing I want to say
to comfort all who believe. Beloved, do you see the glory of God in
Christ Jesus? Then let that sight be an evidence to you of your
salvation.
When our Lord asked His disciples, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of
Man, am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the
living God." Now note the reply of the Lord Jesus to that
confession–"Blessed are you, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood has
not revealed it unto you, but My Father which is in Heaven." If you can
delight in God in Christ Jesus, then remember, "no man can say that
Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Spirit," and you have said it! And
this morning you are saying it! And, therefore, the Holy Spirit has
come upon you.
"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." You believe
this and, therefore, you are born of the Father. "Whoever denies the
Son, the same has not the Father: but he that acknowledges the Son has
the Father also." You love God and you are His–the Spirit of God has
opened your eyes and you are saved. While I have been preaching, this
morning, a number of my hearers have been saying, "We care nothing
about Jesus Christ. His name is a most respectable one in our religion.
We call ourselves Christians, but as to seeing the Glory of God in Him
when He was a Baby and when He was despised and rejected of men, we
know nothing of it. No doubt He is exalted now in Heaven and we worship
Him, though we hardly know why. But we see no special Glory in Him."
Others of you have been saying, "Yes, God was in Christ Jesus
reconciling the world unto Himself and He has reconciled me to Himself.
I never loved God till I saw Him in Christ. I could never have any
familiarity with God till I saw His familiarity with me in the Person
of His Son. I never understood how I could be God's son till I
understood how God's Son became a Man. I never saw how I could be a
partaker of the Divine Nature till I saw how His Son became a partaker
of the human nature and took me up unto Himself that He might take me
up unto His Father."
Oh, Beloved, do you delight in Jesus Christ? Is He all your salvation
and all your desire? Do you adore Him? Do you consecrate yourself to
His honor? Do you wish to live for Him and to die for Him? Then be sure
that you belong to Him, for it is the mark of the children of God that
they love God in Christ Jesus!
IV. So I finish by mentioning, in the fourth place, THE
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THIS KNOWLEDGE. There have been considerable
debates among the interpreters as to the precise meaning of this text
and some of them think it means that Paul is giving a reason why he
preached the Gospel. This makes the verse run thus–"For God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts,
that we might give out, again, the light of the knowledge of the Glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ." God gave light to the Apostles
that they might show forth the light of the knowledge of God in the
face of Jesus Christ to the nations.
I do not know whether this is the exact run of the text, but I know it
is true. Never is a gleam of light given to any man to hide away–and
to spiritual men the great object of their lives, after they have
received light–is to reflect that light in all its purity. You must
not hoard up the light within yourself–it will not be light to you if
you do. Only think of a person when his room is full of sunlight saying
to his servant, "Quick, now! Close the shutters and let us keep this
precious light to ourselves." Your room will be in the dark, my Friend!
So, when a child of God gets the light from Christ's face, he must not
say, "I shall keep this to myself," for that very desire would shut it
out. No, let the light shine through you! Let it shine everywhere!
You have the light that you may reflect it. An object which absorbs
light is dark and we call it black. But hang up a reflector in its
place when the sun is shining and it will not appear black–it will be
so bright that you will hardly be
able to look at it! An object is, itself, bright in proportion as it
sends back the light which it receives. So you shall find, as a
Christian, that if you absorb light into yourself, you will be black,
but if you scatter it abroad you shall be brilliant– you shall be
changed into the very image of the light which you have received–you
shall become a second sun!
I noticed last Sabbath evening, when I came into this pulpit, that, at
the angle of the building before me, on the left hand the sun seemed to
be setting. And I saw the brightness of his round face and yet I knew
it to be the wrong quarter of the heavens for the sun to be setting
there. Perhaps you will observe that there is a peculiar window on the
other side of the street and it was reflecting the sun so well that I
thought it was the sun himself and I could hardly bear the light! It
was not the sun, it was only a window, and yet the radiance was
dazzling. And so a man of God, when he receives the light of Christ,
can become so perfect a reflector that to common eyes, at any rate, he
is brightness itself! He has become transformed from glory to glory as
by the image of the Lord!
Brothers and Sisters, if you have learned the Truth of God, manifest it
and make it plain to others! Proclaim the Gospel, not your own
thoughts, for it is Christ that you are to make manifest! Teach not
your own judgments, conclusions and opinions, but the Glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ! Let Jesus manifest Himself in His own light.
Do not cast a light on Him, or attempt to show the sun with a candle.
Do not aim at converting men to your views, but let the light shine for
itself and work its own way. Do not color it by being like a painted
window to it, but let the clear white light shine through you that
others may behold your Lord.
Scatter your light in all unselfishness. Wish to shine, not that others
may say, "How bright he is," but that they, getting the light, may
rejoice in the Source from which it came to you and to them. Be willing
to make every sacrifice to spread this light which you have received!
Consecrate your entire being to the making known among the sons of men
the Glory of Christ. Oh, I wish we had swift messengers to run the
world over to tell the story that God has come down among us! I wish we
had fluent tongues to tell in every language the story that, coming
down among us, God was arrayed in flesh like our own and that He took
our sins and carried our sorrows.
Oh, that we had trumpet tongues to make the message peal through Heaven
and earth that God has come among men, and cries, "Come unto Me all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"! Oh for a
voice of thunder to speak it, or a lightning pen to write it across the
heavens–that God has reconciled the world unto Himself by the death of
His Son, not imputing their trespasses unto them–and that whoever
believes in Christ Jesus has everlasting life! I cannot command thunder
or lightning, but here are your tongues, go and tell it this afternoon!
Here is my tongue and I have tried to tell it, and may it be silent in
the dust of death before it ceases to declare that one blessed
message–that God in Christ Jesus receives the sons of men in boundless
love!
Tell it, Brothers, with broken accents, if you cannot speak it more
powerfully. Whisper it, Sisters, gently whisper, if to none other, yet
to your little children and make the name of, "Emmanuel, God with us,"
to be sweet in your infant's ears. You are growing in strength and
talent, young man–come, consecrate yourself to this. And you,
gray-beard, before you lie down on your last bed to breathe out your
spirit, tell the love of Jesus to your sons that they may tell it to
their sons and hand it down to coming generations, that mankind may
never forget that the "Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we
beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of Grace and truth." God bless you. Amen.
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The One Foundation