The apostle says, " If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost" (2 Cor. 4:3);* but observe, he does not say it is hid. *A more correct translation of this passage is, " If our gospel be veiled, it is veiled in them that are perishing." It is hid, or veiled, not to them but in them-the blinding is in the state of heart of the unbelieving. Ed.* The gospel shines forth in all its brilliance and clearness; but if men see it not, it is because they are blind, not that the gospel is hidden. The sun shines in the heavens for all, but it is only the blind who do not see it; and if men see not the gospel of the glory of Christ, it is because he whom the Holy Spirit calls "the god of this world " has so successfully blinded their eyes that they cannot see it. My friend, have you seen it yet, or are you still under that awful Satanic power and blindness ?
It is surprising what a small thing will hinder a man from seeing the sun if placed before the eye; and Satan knows, alas, too well, what to use most successfully to blind men's eyes to the gospel of the glory of Christ. The things of sense and time, in one way or another, "temporal things," as the apostle calls them, are used to shut out the things that are "unseen and eternal" (2 Cor. 4 :18).
What a wonderful gospel it is-the gospel, or good news, of the glory of Christ! How few think of it! How few understand it! The Son of God, who was here, a man, and who glorified God on the earth and finished the work He gave Him to do, is now in heaven, in the glory of God-a man in heaven! Never had there been such a thing before. God, in the grace and goodness of His own heart, had come down to man's sphere in the person of Jesus, "the Word made flesh " (John i :14), in order to reach man's desperate case and bring him into eternal favor and blessing. But now it is man gone up into God's sphere-man glorified in heaven in the person of the man Christ Jesus as the result and fruit of His obedience unto death. His present place is the divine estimate of His work at Calvary, and the divine answer to His prayer as the beloved and obedient Son, "Father, glorify Thy Son" (John 17:i).
When Jesus was here, He was "the light of the world," and the light shone in the midst of the darkness and exposed the darkness, and men in their sinful state could not stand the light; "they loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil " (John 3:19). Then at last they combined against the light to put it out, and they cast out and crucified the Son of God. And when Jesus lay in that new tomb, "wherein was never man yet laid," the world was wrapped in gross moral darkness, the light was gone-put out by man in his wickedness! What a testimony to the awful moral condition of men; to your state and mine, dear soul, as sinful and unconverted men! It might well humble us and make us tremble before God.
What a triumph it must have seemed to Satan when he put out "the light of the world "! Ah, how little he knew the wonderful meaning as well as the perfection of the work accomplished by Jesus when He died on that cross!-of His devotedness, even unto death, to accomplish the will of God!-of the sin-bearing and wrath-enduring of the sinless substitute, so that God was glorified about the whole question of sin once and forever! How little indeed did Satan know of that infinite and perfect work! And was there to be no answer on the part of God to such devotedness and obedience as this ? Was there to be no answer given to the prayer of the only One who ever glorified Him on the earth, in the scene where He had been so dishonored! Surely! surely! How could God be silent at such a moment! Nor was the answer long delayed. " Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thy foes Thy footstool" (Ps. 110:1). That was God's reply to it! What a triumph for the rejected, cast-out and crucified One! what discomfiture for Satan!
How blessed to see that Hand that had smitten the Shepherd, Jehovah's Fellow, put down into the grave to take out the devoted and beloved Son! What a sight for angels and men! What must the angels have thought, who had seen Him in the hour of His terrible temptation in the wilderness and ministered unto Him-in His bloody sweat and exceeding sorrow, even unto death, in the garden-in His awful crucifixion and forsaking of God in that supreme moment of His devotedness! What must they have thought as they watched Him risen, ascended, seated and made supreme (i Pet. 3:21, 22) in heaven, as the Man Christ Jesus, God blessed forever!
We can almost fancy we hear the cry, '' Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in " (Ps. 24:7). What a sight for them to see the earth-rejected man ascend up to heaven, and pass up through their shining ranks, through the myriads of angels, right up to the throne of God, and take His seat there-a Man on the throne of God! It must have been to them a wonderful sight. The light of "the world, put out on earth, had gone up to heaven to shine there:and there faith sees Him to-day. There Stephen saw Him; and there Saul of Tarsus saw Him, in a light brighter than the midday sun- a light which blinded him for life to all else. Well may we sing,-
"Of the vast universe of bliss,
The center Thou, and sun."
Blessed be God, it is "the gospel of the glory of Christ." Christ as man is now glorified because His work is done. All the power is in His hands, whether in heaven or on earth. '' Angels, authorities and powers are all made subject unto Him." Everybody will have to own Him. All must bow to Him and confess Him Lord (Phil. 2:10, 11). Even the lost souls and the fallen angels, all will have to acknowledge the man Christ Jesus as Lord. God has glorified His Son, and in that fact, and in that act, we see the righteousness of God in placing Him there (John 16:10).
But if it is Christ in glory, He is there because He has put away our sins forever, and settled the whole question of our sinful state as children of Adam. He has removed the distance that separated between us and God, and brought us nigh now as to our souls' experience, and will bring us nigh by and by in the changing of our bodies, and placing us in the glory where He is Himself, in bodies of glory like His own.
We are in Him, the Second Man, and the last Adam. Faith looks up, and sees our place in Him there now; and the knowledge of that place and portion, and occupation of heart with Him in it, gives joy and peace and liberty, and produces Christlike-ness in our walk and ways on earth (2 Cor. 3 :18). Nothing else will do it.
It is not a humbled, tempted, suffering Saviour- blessedly true as it all was when He was here; it is the same precious Christ of God in glory, but it is the good news of the glory of Christ now; and every one really and truly believing on Him there, is endowed with all the blessings, and invested with the Spirit's power, which spring from Him as the accomplisher of the work that has glorified God and given Him the title to give Christ that place, and who now honors Christ and His work in putting the believer into the same glory He has given His Son.
O dear soul, look up and trust that glorified Saviour, and delight yourself in all these God-given blessings which flow from Him there. They are the portion of all who believe the gospel. Remember, you will not always have the opportunity :embrace it while you have it. Soon the Lord Jesus will rise up from the throne where God has set Him and come forth to receive His own-it may be at any moment. What if He should come and find you unprepared, in your sins and unbelief-one who intended to be ready, but put it off till it was too late! How awful it would be! Your doom will then be sealed; and instead of being up there in the glory with and like Christ, you will be banished from His presence for ever and ever, an eternally lost soul. Look to Him now, at once, and be saved! Wm. Easton.
New Zealand