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The Glory of God in the Face of Christ (2 Cor 4:3-6) by Jay Wegter INTRODUCTION: Two hundred plus years of humanistic philosophy in the Western world have deepened the collective pride of sinners. In this age of philosophic naturalism, implicit trust of one’s own mind is treated as a ‘given’. As a consequence, without God’s revelation as one’s fixed point of reference for truth, reality, right, and wrong; the individual is left with self-interest as the sole shaper of personal values. (In light of this; it’s easy to see how divine moral truth has been lost; and immorality has rushed into the vacuum.) Biblical Christianity is being marginalized as irrelevant; it is slowly being pushed to the edge of a precipice. The sign on the brink of this cliff reads, “Warning, Christianity is implausible. Stand back! Dangerous intellectual drop off.” An evolutionary world view dominates the academy; the sensate (pertaining to the five senses) is treated as ‘real’, and the ideational (immaterial reality) is treated as unreal (J. P. Moreland, Love God with all your Mind, p. 91). Students who attend a secular university find themselves in an academic environment in which the autonomy of the intellect is assumed at every turn. ‘Rational’ conclusions drawn from methods of reasoning based on human autonomy from God are questioned less and less. The need for believing students to be taught Apologetics and Christian World View is vital if they are to effectively engage the futile thinking of those in the academy. (At times, this war between worldviews that is often below the surface emerges in a violent clash of ethics—i.e. abortion; euthanasia; same sex marriage, etc.) When the Christian Gospel confronts the unbeliever (especially when one is witnessing in an academic setting); the unbeliever is often insulted by the exclusivity of the Gospel message. Where naturalism and pluralism are presupposed as core commitments; Christianity will be increasingly relegated to the category of the implausible. Christians need to know the ethical reason for this intellectual rebellion; the Word of life condemns the cherished autonomy, and the self-centered opinions the natural man holds dear. Unbelieving college students and professors have chosen a world view that allows their love of sin and self to remain in place. God’s Word exposes the intellectual rebellion, and spiritual darkness of the natural man. In response to the faithful witness of believers; impenitent sinners may look briefly within; and then claim to see none of the revolt and hostility toward God that is housed in their souls. We know
why; the natural man uses his erroneous world view to lock out the Gospel; his
love of darkness (Jn Now more than ever, the value of a working knowledge of Christian world view is vital if we are to be salt and light. We saw last time in our message, The Edenic Lie, and the ‘Eve Theory of Knowledge,” that Satan’s original lie drove a wedge into the mind of man. A dichotomy within man’s mind was formed in the process. Our first parents, having acted upon the devil’s lie, saw God’s glory, and man’s highest good as mutually exclusive. Satan’s lie created a breach, or wedge, in man’s thinking between the will of God and the good of man. In effect, Satan told a lie about God’s goodness; a lie that once believed would ‘logically’ justify human self-determination, and autonomy of human reason. Satan’s lie
was nothing short of murder (Jn Lucifer’s lie about God’s goodness scribes the very outline, or shape, if you will, of the spiritual darkness that rules every unregenerate soul. Adrian Rogers breaks down the Edenic lie into four parts: 1.) “God is not good and loving.” God is withholding your highest good. He is even threatened by your human potential. He is severe and unloving. This became an excuse to think negatively about God. 2.) “God is not truthful.” “You shall not die.” Doubt leads to denial. The lie cast doubt upon the authority; authenticity; reliability; and truthfulness of God’s Word. This became an excuse to think skeptically about God. 3.) “God is not righteous.” God is not going to comprehensively punish sin. His threats are idle. God is not to be feared. His dictates are not really commands; only advice. This became an excuse to think irreverently about God. 4.) “God is not gracious.” Since God is not good, truthful, and righteous; you need to be your own god. Experiment a bit; liberate yourself; determine truth; reality; right and wrong for yourself. This became an excuse to think independently from God.
SERMON PROPOSITION: We’ve established that the Edenic lie plunged man into spiritual darkness by separating (in the mind of man) God’s glory from man’s highest good. Our purpose is in this message is to seek to comprehend the matchless grace of God—for in causing the glory of God to shine in our hearts in the face of Christ; God has effectually rejoined, in the mind and heart the redeemed, the glory of God with the good of the creature. This rejoining is accomplished in
Christ. To see God’s glory in the face
of Christ is to be saved. Once we are
saved; our beholding of God’s glory
in the face of Christ has just begun.
Now as ‘unveiled ones’, we continue to behold the glory of the Lord and
are thereby transformed (2 Cor
Spiritual Darkness 4:3, 4 -- The
Gospel is glorious; but its glory is hidden from the lost. The Gospel’s true character and excellence as
the revelation of God is not apprehended.
Unbelievers cannot perceive or rejoice in the splendor of the
Gospel. The reason is because of the
character of those who reject the Gospel; Scripture says that they are foolish
(1 Cor God testifies to the fact that man is born dead to the things of God (Eph 2:1-3) Though sinners are still aware of God; they are blind to His glory; thus the things of God are not viewed as precious; as life; as wisdom; as the highest good; as infinitely desirable; as the rule of life. Satan is
behind this concealment of God’s glory. The
god of this world has blinded the minds
of the unbelieving. The gospel is veiled to those who are perishing (4:4). Satan is the blinder; the destroyer; the
murderer of souls (Jn The
glory of Christ is the sum of all His divine and human excellence. These perfections, centered in His Person,
make Him the radiant point of the universe—the clearest manifestation of God to
the creature—the object of supreme adoration, admiration, and love. To see His glory is to be saved; for we are
thereby transformed from glory to glory ( Satan
tries his best to block the illumination men’s minds. The Gospel, as the revelation of the glory of
Christ, is the source of the illumination.
Through the evil one’s lies; the unbeliever is incapacitated from gazing
upon the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. The darkness began when our
first parents sinned in the Garden of Eden.
Original sin extinguished the knowledge of God. Spiritual darkness is characterized by
ignorance, fear, enslavement, corrupted affections, estrangement, and
rebellion. Spiritual darkness is also characterized by suspicion and hatred toward God; enmity if you will, wherein God’s foundational attribute; holiness, is a cause for hostility, and distance; not closeness, and adoration. Man’s
spiritual blindness is so great that when he attempts to contemplate God, he
winds up: a.) making a god like himself (Ps 50); b.) exchanging the
glory of God for the image of a creature (worshipping and serving the
creature—Romans 1); c.) choosing alienation and estrangement from
God (he does not seek God); d.) seeking to
protect himself from God by religion and philosophy; e.) studiously suppressing what he does know about God
(see Romans Our text alludes to the original darkness of creation week (4:6). The primordial darkness could not make its own light—it had no properties which could be developed into light. If there were to be light; there must be an external source to shine upon the newly created world; God, by a fiat act (fiat – by divine order of decree), said, “Let there be light.” The darkened soul of man also has no properties that can be developed into light. The sinner needs an external source of light; God alone can provide that light. The Glory of God God’s glory
is the outshining of His perfections and
excellence. The creature was made
for the glory of God. God made the world
in order to manifest His glory; as a stage for His glory. God’s glory is His moral majesty. God shall
most certainly realize the end and goal for which He created all things. Neither angelic, nor human rebellion will
thwart His purposes. God’s moral majesty is His
burning holiness and purity. God dwells
in unapproachable light (1 Tim The only way that sinful man can love a holy God is to be justified in the sight of our holy Creator. Apart from redemption in Christ; God’s holiness justly argues for our eternal punishment. Man’s response to threatened damnation is enmity. Reconciliation
through Christ is the all-sufficient means of purging the heart of hostility
toward God ( Just
as man cannot look up at the Jesus said, “He who
has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn
14:9). Christ our Redeemer is the image
of God; and of man at the same time.
This is God’s mystery; that the second Person of the Godhead should be
man in His true essence and stature according to the purposes of the
Creator. Christ as logos emanates the
brightness of the Father’s glory. Christ
is equal with God; yet clothed in our nature (Phil 2:6). In Christ’s theonthropic Person; the divine and the human
meet, and are reconciled. Christ is an
exalted man; He takes the redeemed from dust to glory. He is our man in glory. The world to come shall be ruled by glorified
men above angels (Heb 2:5-8). It has not
yet appeared what we shall become (1 Jn 3:2). We can only ‘see’ and behold God’s attributes from the vantage point of safety; from the vantage point of the new covenant inaugurated by Christ’s blood. While subject to wrath due to the guilt of our sin; we cannot know God (we will retain our enmity; and we will hide from our Creator). God, who spoke light into existence; spoke through the O.T. Prophets. In these last days; He has spoken with finality in the incarnation of Christ (Heb 1:1-3). One cannot know the God of glory independent of God’s redemptive design in Christ. How does a sinner gain the knowledge of God? He must know himself to be the object of God’s redemptive work in Christ; he must receive pardon for sins in order to know God. God is infinite. Our minds can hardly conceive of a structure like the Sombrero Galaxy which has 50 billion suns; how much more difficult to contemplate God. Galaxies are but the finger work of God (Ps 8:3). Man’s Spiritual Blindness is Satanically Energized The devil
works upon the mind; the reasoning powers of man. Satan design is to prevent men from seeing
the glory of Christ. Satan is the god of
this world; unbelieving men serve him by default; to not serve God is to serve
the god of this world (2 Tim Man’s
darkened reasoning is futile; it does not create a new ‘reality’ in which man
is ‘free’ from God’s moral government.
Futile thinking only makes a man a fool who dwells in spiritual darkness
(Rom We Preach--knowing that no one can say “Jesus is
Lord,” but by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3). 4:5 – Paul declares states that the
apostles do not preach to attract the admiration of men; to attempt to do so is
to ‘make the cross of Christ void” (1 Cor To fall at
the feet of Christ as Lord (kurios – equality
with God) is only attainable by the work of the Holy Spirit. Knowledge of God in Christ is not a mere
matter of intellectual apprehension; it is a matter of spiritual discernment;
to be derived from the Spirit of God only.
God must shine in the heart to give the knowledge (Matt Can you see why the Scriptures make the knowledge of Christ consist of true religion? Christ is God; to know Him is to know God (to deny Him is to not know God; it is to deny God). Is salvation a decision to accept a body of truth? Is salvation mental assent to a body of facts concerning the life of Christ? Does my decision to accept that body of truth have the power to regenerate me; causing me to be born again? Our text informs us that salvation is by revelation; it is not simply the acceptance of the recorded facts of Jesus’ life, and work, and message. Men of God of two centuries past saw the ‘religious’ unsaved as those who had converted to Christianity but not to Christ. Though outwardly moral and verbally orthodox, the false professor is without personal knowledge of Christ. This subject of being a stranger to Christ was the touchstone that permeated the messages of our predecessors when they addressed nominal Christianity. (Therefore as ministers of the Gospel; it behooves us to know the defenses and machinations of soul that keep the door barred from faith and repentance. How can we preach over, under, and around the door if we do not know the reasons the false professor has so securely bolted the door against the Lamb of God?) Regarding the need for the work of grace in the conscience, Philpot observes; pulling down of all man’s false refuges, stripping him of every lying hope, and thrusting him down into self-abasement and self-abhorrence, is indispensable to a true reception of Christ. No matter how informed his judgment is he will never receive Christ spiritually into his heart and affections, until he has been broken down by the hand of God in his soul to be a ruined wretch (J. C. Philpot, The Heavenly Birth and its Earthly Counterfeit, Chapel Library, p. 4). The
need for revelation: faith in the historical Jesus, or in “Christ the Son of
the living God?” In Matthew Peter had not arrived at his
belief by mere reason: flesh and blood had
not worked out the problem; there had been a revelation to him from the Father
who is in heaven. To know the Lord in
mere doctrinal statement, no such divine teaching is required; but Peter’s full
assurance of his Lord’s nature and mission was no theory in the head: the truth
had been written on his heart by the heavenly Spirit. This is the only knowledge worth having as to
the Person of our Lord (Charles H. Spurgeon, The Gospel of Matthew, Revell, p. 224). The Apostle Paul’s own testimony of
personal salvation also includes the revelation
of Christ. “But when it pleased Him,
who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to
reveal His Son in me, in order that I might preach His Gospel among the
Gentiles. . .” (Gal 1:15-16a). The outward and the physical would
have never sufficed to convert Paul. The
Apostle’s testimony was in “His good
pleasure He revealed His Son in me.”
It changed a man who was breathing murderous
threats against Christ’s church into one who breathed doxologies whenever he reflected on God’s marvelous redeeming love
to one so undeserving as himself. The immediate purpose if this
separation and calling is here said to have been “to reveal His Son in
me.” To reveal is to remove the scales from the eyes of the heart. Paul had been persecuting God’s only begotten
Son. God wanted Paul to see that the
Jesus, whom in His disciples Paul had been persecuting, was indeed partaker of
God’s very essence, Himself God (William Hendrickson, NTC, pp. 52-53). Many today believe in the historical Jesus who are ignorant of the character of God. The power of the Gospel is to give the knowledge of the glory of God (His true character) in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:6). Many trust in Christ precisely as the Jews did in Moses. This is another gospel; an historic Jesus, not the glory of God in the face of Christ. Those who hold to this gospel are strangers to the truth and are still in love with the world (James Haldane, Revelation of God’s Righteousness, Chapel Library, p. 27). As a consequence of this reductionist gospel, many have devalued knowledge;
as if we might become acquainted with God without having the heart affected by
the truth. No, the knowledge of God
produces the radical change; the entire change of the sinner’s heart. “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee” (Jn 17:3). Nature may have a superficial knowledge and illumination of the Savior. The natural man may be active and do something for Him. But to love the cross, to suffer with Him, to follow Him through the streets of Jerusalem to Golgotha as He stoops dumb before His shearers so that your spirit feeds on His flesh and blood and humiliation is a work of God’s Spirit in you. The natural man may have His emotions stirred by Christ’s passion, but only the true saint is acquainted with Christ in his spirit so as to feed upon his Substitute (Morgan, The Life and Times of Howell Harris, p. 239). The most important question that
could ever be asked is: Do you know in reality the living Christ? Do you know Christ by personal
revelation? The question is not: Do you
read the Bible? Are you religious? The question is: Have you ever seen yourself
a lost, vile sinner before a holy God?
Have you ever been stripped of your self-righteousness and laid low in
the dust of humility? Have you ever
viewed by faith the glorious Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, all because of a
direct and personal revelation to you of God the Holy Spirit? (W. F. Bell, Do you know Christ by personal revelation? -- Chapel Library). If you only know Jesus by no
more than the world knows, than the learned among men know, you have not the
real blessing. If you only know the Lord
of Glory by what you have found out yourself, in reading or in talking to
others, unaided by the Father’s drawing power, you are not blessed with true
salvation. The true children of God have
been made humble. They confess their
total dependence upon the grace and mercy of Christ, and place their entire
confidence and faith in His meritorious righteousness and shed blood (ibid.). Is Christ your Surety, your
Substitute, your Sacrifice, and your Savior?
Do you believe in Jesus by an inward discernment of Him? Do you clearly
see Him as the Son of man and the Son of God?
Do you see Him as your propitiation before God? If you know Him in this way, it has not been
learned from the instruction of men; you have had a direct revelation made to
you by the Father concerning who Jesus Christ really is (Gal 1:16) (ibid.). The saved have had their eyes
enlightened to understand the full and complete satisfaction made by the Son of
God; that He has satisfied divine justice for all who believe. They are enabled to apply this to their own
hearts. They have the testimony of the
blood and the washing of the Holy Spirit ( The true saint never ceases to marvel that God has made an infinite difference between us and our fellow creatures by causing us to behold (by revelation) Christ’s death, humiliation, passion (ibid.). God’s
‘shining into the heart’ is an act of Sovereign Mercy 4:6 – All
things are of God! ( By divine fiat He spoke light into existence (fiat – by order or decree). When God shines into the heart of a man; it
is by means of the Gospel that He does so (James God’s
activity of shining dispels the darkness in the heart and removes the sinner’s
enmity and hostility ( At the
moment of conversion; God floods the heart with light. The heart is the center of a man’s whole
being (moral, intellectual, and spiritual).
The reality of the shining guarantees man is nothing less than a new
creature ( The result
of the light shining is gnosis—the
saving knowledge of God; the revelation of the Father in the Son; the image of
the invisible transcendent God—in whom are hidden all the treasures of God’s
wisdom and knowledge ( The light of God shining into the heart and mind lifts the veil; removes the satanically induced blindness; and brings the knowledge of God to the sinner (knowledge of the ultimate truth; knowledge that is advancing form glory to glory; complete at the appearance of Christ (1 Jn 3:2). Salvation
is a matter of revelation (Matt Your
salvation is a sovereign act of God (‘No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws him – Jn
Christ is God’s ‘Light’; the Redeemed have seen the
Glory of God in the Face of Christ The Gospel is hidden from one class of men; God opens the eyes of the others to see His glory. God’s glory is divine majesty and excellence (the proper object of our admiration and adoration). It is only seen by faith; in the face of Jesus by the illumination of the Spirit. God becomes
in Christ the object of knowledge—the clearest revelation of God. Those who refuse to see God in Christ have
lost all true knowledge of God (Jn To come to
know God is to know Him personally—by His covenant name; ‘Father’. Only the Holy Spirit can produce the spirit of sonship;
the pervading consciousness that the redeemed sinner is truly the child of
his Heavenly Father (Rom This knowledge of God comes only in the face of Christ. For in the face of Christ; we see God’s merciful plan to redeem sinners; we see His infinite love; His eternal plan to share Himself (that the creature may find God to be his true home; his highest good; and his greatest treasure and delight). In Christ God provides a place for us to be washed; hidden; accepted; adopted. It is a place of favor; status; sonship; and right-standing—all graciously given. In Christ we see God’s mighty attributes exercised in order to bring us to glory. We see Christ in all His offices; Prophet; Priest; and King (all these offices are necessary in order to bring us to heaven). In the Person of Christ, we see God’s perfect attributes in our own human nature. We see Christ as Mediator; we see His perfect suitability to be our Savior. The revelation of God’s glory is bound up in His plan to manifest Himself in the Son (Heb 1:1-3). The Gospel is the message of God’s plan. The message of the cross reveals the character of God; the heart disposition of God toward sinners; and also the character of the sinner. As said before; mortal man cannot contemplate the infinite moral majesty of God. God’s glory is spiritual; it is transcendent; man cannot grasp it. Men have no immediate knowledge, or point of contact with the glory of God. Yes, a form of reflected glory can be seen in the wonders of God’s creation (Ps 19). But God’s essential glory must be reflected in the face of Christ in order for us to know, and behold God as He truly is. God’s glory
is revealed within the specifics of God’s plan; a plan referred to as God’s mystery; or, the mystery Christ (the plan that Christ should become incarnate in
human history in order to redeem sinners – Eph Eph
1:9; 3:3; Christ turned God’s wrath away from believing sinners. Christ took upon Himself all our unfitness; our demerit; our curse; our separation from God; our guilt, and liability to judgment. To see Christ as our suffering Substitute has the net effect of purging the soul of enmity, hostility, fear, and suspicion. Like a prism bending light so that we see each of its beautiful spectral colors; Christ was bent in the crucifixion so that the light of the glory of God might be seen in all of its variegated colors (all the perfections of God). For in the Person and work of Christ; all of the attributes of God were put on display for the first time in human history. In Christ
we see that God’s attributes are cast into Gospel promises for the safety;
welfare; and security of the believing sinner (2 Pet 1:1-3). To look
upon Christ; God in our nature, doing His vicarious work; bleeding, dying,
receiving the penalty for our sins in His own Person—pours light into the
soul. One believing look and that man is saved for all
eternity. To see Christ as your Redeemer; is to see God in His glory. For there is but one safe place; but one vantage point from which to see clearly so as to behold God’s glory—it is only found in the cleft of the Rock (Ex 33:12-23). God’s plan to show you His glory is bound up in His purpose of hiding you in Christ (Jn 17:1-5, 24). God communicates Himself to you in Christ; to know God in Christ is to be a saved person (Jn 17:3). We were created to run on God; to find our treasure; our purpose; our existence; our happiness; our very life in Him. Christ came to bring us back to God. As we keep looking to Christ and contemplating all that God is toward us in Christ; we are transformed; we are liberated from the residual effects of the Edenic lie (the lie is always attempting to refasten itself to us; the evil one is constantly seeking to sow doubt about God’s goodness toward us in particular). To see Christ as your Redeemer is to see God’s attributes in right relation; it is to see holiness, love, justice, power, mercy, wisdom, sovereignty--all active in the work of redemption. It is the living Word of God manifesting and commending the truth of God to the conscience (4:2). Christ changes our Relationship to God’s Glory The natural man has no sentiment to live for God’s glory. Concerning God’s glory; the natural man is without passion; he has no sentiment whatsoever to live for God’s glory. The reason is that the darkness of the Edenic lie still reigns in the heart of the unbeliever. The ancient lie sent the message that God’s glory was antithetical to man’s highest good—no wonder those controlled by the lie have not one bit of interest in living for God’s glory. When the
light of God’s glory shines into the heart in the face of Christ; the sinner is
awakened to God. The saved man becomes an “unveiled one” ( By Christ’s work of propitiation, God’s wrath against our sins was placated; satisfied; pacified. The finished work of Christ has forever changed our relation to God’s holiness. Because of the cross; our holy God is free to send an unending cascade of grace and mercy upon us. Christ
brings us near to God (Eph One ravishing look at Christ; and the believing sinner is reconciled to God so that God’s cause (His glory) becomes the passion of the saved man. God’s sovereign mercy in Christ is the rationale for abandoning ourselves to God as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1, 2). To see the glory of God in the face of Christ brings us into total sympathy with God’s plan to glorify Himself. God’s cause becomes our cause; we are animated by a passion for His glory. How can we know if God’s cause is our cause? When God’s cause is our cause; we want what God wants; namely to see God glorified in the calling and sanctifying of sinners as they are converted and prepared to live with God forever in glory. A passion
for God’s glory means that we will pant after God; we will feed upon His Word;
and proclaim His Word; we will make it our practice to behold His glory in
Christ. We will invest in souls. We will long to do our part in the Great
Commission. We will serve our Savior by
edifying the body; we will use our gifts to assist in preparing God’s people
for eternity ( Select Bibliography: John Calvin, Calvin’s
Commentary Jonathan Edwards, “The End for which God Created the World,”
Works of Edwards James Haldane, Commentary on Romans James Haldane, “The Wisdom of God
Displayed in the Mystery of Redemption,” Works of James Haldane James Haldane, Commentary on Romans James Haldane, Revelation of God’s Righteousness William Hendrickson, NTC Charles Hodge, I &
II Corinthians Philip E. Hughes, ITC J. P. Moreland, Love
your God with all your Mind Edward Morgan, The Life and Times of
Howell Harris Charles H. Spurgeon, The Gospel of Matthew
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