Christ's Glory

The glory of Christ is the glory of the person of Christ. So, He calls it “that glory which is mine,” which belongs to Me, to My person (Joh 17:24).
The first glorious thing we learn about the person of Christ is that He is the perfect revelation of the Father. This revelation of the Father is for the benefit of the church, for we behold “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2Co 4:6).
The glory of God includes both the holy properties of His nature and the things He has purposed to do. The only way we can know these things of God is “in the face” or person “of Jesus Christ,” for He is “the image of God” (2Co 4:4). He is “the brightness of his [Father’s] glory, and the express image of his person” (Heb 1:3). He is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15).
But Christ is especially glorious because He and He alone perfectly reveals God’s nature and will to us. Without Christ, we would have known nothing truly about God, for He would have been eternally invisible to us. We would never have seen God at any time, either in this life or the next (Joh 1:18).
In His divine person,2 Christ is the essential image of God the Father. He is in the Father and the Father in Him, both existing in the unity of the same divine essence (Joh 14:10). Furthermore, He is with the Father, as well as being the essential image of the Father (Joh 1:1; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3). But when He assumed human nature, He became the representative of God’s image to the church, so that only by Christ do we understand the wonderful and excellent things of God’s nature and will (2Co 4:6). Without Christ, God would still be to us the “invisible God.” We see the glory of God only in the person of Christ.
This is the glory that the Father gave Him, which we by faith may behold. He alone makes known both to angels and men the essential glory of the invisible God, without which a perpetual comparative darkness would have covered all creation.
The foundation of our religion, the rock on which the church is built, the ground of all our hopes of salvation, of life and immortality, is the revelation that is made of God’s nature and will by Jesus Christ. So, if Christ fails, if He, the Light of the world becomes darkness, then we are forever lost. But if this Rock stands firm, the church is safe and shall be triumphant forever.
It is as the representative of God that the Lord Christ is exceedingly glorious. Those who cannot see His glory by faith do not know Him. When they worship Him, they worship an image of their own devising. Not to see that Christ is the only true representative of the glory of God to the souls of men is to be an unbeliever. This was the sad state of the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles of old. They did not, they would not, they could not, behold the glory of God in Him; that was why they did not believe in Him (see 1Co 1:21-25). The one who does not see the wisdom and power of God and all the other holy properties of the divine nature in Christ—as well as seeing in Him the only way of salvation—is, to put it bluntly, an unbeliever.
The essence of faith lies in glorifying God (Rom 4:20). But we cannot do this without the revelation of the glorious qualities of His divine nature. These qualities and glories of the divine nature are revealed to us by Christ alone.
It is only by Christ that we can glorify God rightly and acceptably. Hence, the great purpose of the devil, when the gospel was first preached, was to blind the eyes of men’s understanding and to fill their minds with prejudices so that they might not behold His glory. By various deceitful ways, he attempted to hold on to his title “god of this world” (2Co 4:3-4). By counterfeiting supernatural appearances of power and wisdom, he labored to prejudice the minds of men and so to turn them away from the glorious light of the gospel that proclaimed to all that the Lord Christ was the perfect and only true revealer of God’s image. This blindness is taken away from the minds and hearts of believers only by the almighty power of God; for Paul tells us that God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts with “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2Co 4:6). The unbelieving world of Jews and Gentiles perished under this darkness; so do all present-day unbelievers who deny that Jesus is truly God as well as being truly man. But if Christ were only a man, He could never have truly represented God to us; for no mere creature can ever truly represent the divine nature.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Muckle Kate Not a very ordinary name! But then, Muckle Kate, or Big Kate, or Kate-Mhor, or Kate of Lochcarron was not a very ordinary woman! The actual day of her salvation is difficult to trace to its sunrising, but being such a glorious day as it was, we simply wish to relate something of what shone forth in the redeemed life of that "ill-looking woman without any beauty in the sight of God or man." Muckle Kate was born and lived in Lochcarron in the county of Ross-shire. By the time she had lived her life to its eighty-fifth year she had well-earned the reputation of having committed every known sin against the Law of God with the exception murder. Speaking after the manner of men, if it took "Grace Abounding" to save a hardened sinner like John Bunyan, it was going to take "Grace Much More Abounding" to save Muckle Kate. However, Grace is Sovereign and cannot be thwarted when God sends it on the errand of salvation, and even the method used in bri
Read more
  Severance from Christ is death   to the Church. A Christless Church is a headless trunk. We may retain the doctrine and ethic of the New Testament, but, nevertheless, amputation of the Head means death. Even a partial severance of connection involves paraylsis - loss of spiritual power and loss of spiritual feeling. II.  INTERNALLY, THE CHURCH IS THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST. It is filled with Christ. He is not only the Head above it; he is the life within it. He does not only teach, bless, command, and lead from without; he inspires his people and lives in his Church. Christ fills " all  in all;"  i.e.  the Spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth is in the whole universe, inspiring all creation and all providence with wisdom and goodness, purity and grace. The same Spirit is in the Church. As yet, unhappily, the Church is not filled with Christ. Though Christ is received into the heart of Christians, every door within is not yet flung open to the gracious Guest. But in the perfect
Read more

Lo, I am with you always

Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:20) SUCH were “the words of Jesus” when He was just about to ascend to Heaven. The mediatorial throne was in view – the harps of glory were sounding in His ears; but all His thoughts are on the pilgrim Church He is to leave behind. His last words and benedictions are for them. “I go,” He seems to say, “to Heaven, to my purchased crown – to the fellowship of angels – to the presence of my Father; but nevertheless, ‘Lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’” How faithfully did the apostles, to whom this promise was first addressed, experience its reality! Hear the testimony of the beloved disciple who had once leaned on his Divine Master’s bosom – who “had heard, and seen, and looked upon Him.” That glorified bosom was now hid from his sight but does he speak of an absent Lord, and of His fellowship only as among the holy memories of the past? No! With rejoicing emphasis he can exclaim – “Truly o
Read more