THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL

THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL

The value of light is to display what exists; more than that it cannot declare, but if I am in the light I shall see what exists. Hence, when the light shines, the question of interest is, What does it declare?

The light of the gospel displays all that has been accomplished by Christ. It takes its rise from the glory of God, from the consummation of Christ’s work — not from the beginning of His work, but from the climax of it. The light from thence, sent of God into the soul, illuminates Christ’s whole course, and comprises His whole work, from His first descent from the glory to His ascension in glory. The light now is the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ; now, for the first time, light can come to us from the glory. The light declares the relation in which God is to the believer. It declares His relation to me rather than my title to this relation. It declares God; but as it is received it assures my heart in the disclosures it makes of His grace, both the way of it, and my title to it. If I have not this light, it is evident that I cannot understand His relation to me or my relation to Him. The light is from God, and unfolds Him. The Father’s heart and purpose of love to the prodigal are disclosed. This is the object and purpose of the light, and doubtless it fixes and assures the heart in every step of the blessing;

^[p. 67] but its object is to declare the Father. It shines into the heart of the prodigal, but it does not spring there. It springs from God (see 2 Corinthians 4: 6), and it is of all importance to remember this. It springs from God to declare Himself in His grace to the sinner, showing the sinner how he is elevated to the highest position, but occupying his heart with the source of the light, rather than with the effects of it on himself. If he be occupied with the effects on himself, the main object of the light is lost sight of, and the soul sustains damage and loss. Now I am necessarily occupied with its effects on me if I regard the light as merely a gift, like a lamp, confined to myself, rather than to declare Him from whom it springs. The mistake, and the consequent loss to souls at the present hour, is not that they do not believe in Christ, but that they do not enjoy the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Nor is it duly proclaimed.

I suppose no student of Scripture would deny that our blessed Lord was offered to Israel, to bring in the sure mercies of David, after His ascension to glory; that He was rejected in the person of Stephen, and that, instead of His returning to earth in glory, His servant and witness Stephen was killed here, and taken to be with Him in glory. Up to this point the gospel did not go beyond the fact that Christ had risen, and would return to earth in glory. He had not been as yet finally rejected, nor as yet had He taken His place in heaven consequent on His rejection. He could not offer Himself to Israel, and at the same time be seated definitely in heaven. But on His final rejection by Israel, He takes Stephen to be with Him in glory; and after this Saul is called out, and the light displays to him Christ in glory. His first acquaintance with Christ is in the glory. He sees Him there, not offering Himself to Israel, but identifying Himself with the church. From henceforth it is the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. The action of it in the soul is,

as Paul expresses it, “to reveal his Son in me”. God now sends a light from His own glory into the soul, declaring that His Son has perfected everything according to His mind, and that from the very brightness of His presence He can disclose to a poor prodigal the depths of His heart. The light tells, not what He will do or what He is doing, but that which is done — the finish, the consummation. From the climax, it issues at the command of the same mighty One who had said, “Let there be light: and there was light”. It shoots from the centre of glory into the soul, disclosing the wondrous fact, through the Spirit, of the establishment of righteousness; that the righteousness is the warrant for its issue; that God’s own Son has met in judgment all that God required; that on the cross He had endured the wrath of God, and had converted the ministry of condemnation of Mount Sinai into the ministry of righteousness from the glory that remaineth. In the one, the glory was fatal to him who approached near the mount; but in the other, because Christ has borne the judgment, and is now raised from the dead by the glory of the Father and ascended to His right hand, God can by His own mighty creative power cause light to shine into the soul, and disclose to it that glory is not only the place of our Saviour, but that in Him there is the beginning, the birthplace of our new standing before God. There the blessed God is in the zenith of His grace toward man. He never was so till now; and from thence it is that He sends the light into the soul. Glory either exacts from me, or it imparts to me. It exacts, if I have no link with it; for then I must think of myself in relation to it, and this is legality; but if I have a link with it, it imparts to me, and I am of it, and separate from all that is not of it.

The smallest ray that ever penetrated the dark heart of man since the conversion of Saul of Tarsus has sprung by the command of the Almighty from His own presence, where righteousness in all its strength ^[p. 69] is presented and maintained by Jesus Christ His Son, who cleanses us from all sin, and who is charged with tidings of the deep purposes of God’s love to us. And the soul, in any little measure understanding this light, follows it to its source, and finds itself with Christ in glory. The beginning of its acquaintance with Him is there, and from this point it learns deeply and fully all His work and sufferings, and how He opened the way for us into such a scene of light and perfection. If I look at His work from the consummation of it, I must see, in its truest and fullest light, the whole course which led up to the consummation; therefore it necessarily follows that the glory must not only comprise the cross, but that thence alone can I view and estimate the cross in its full magnitude. The light of this gospel, the gospel of the glory of Christ, speaks to a soul of Christ where He has finished everything; and where Christ is thus received, the soul finds that its first acquaintance with Him is in the glory. It is where all is finished that there is sure rest for it, and abiding strength, because it looks up, and sees by faith whence its acquaintance with Him comes, and that it is established in what God is in Himself, in relation to a man in Christ, and not merely in the effects of His grace on him, great as they are. What can establish and cheer my heart so much as the assurance of God’s mind and relation toward me? I draw near to Him in proportion as I know His mind and feelings towards me; and no message from His presence could effect so deep an assurance and joy in the heart as the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God; for from henceforth the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is my portion and privilege. And this imparts such a tone and character touching everything, that not only do our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, but we are so transferred by association with ^[p. 70] Christ in the glory that all present things are superseded and supplanted in the heart. Everything is judged in relation to that glory which displaces and consumes all that is not of it, and allows only that which has been formed in it, and is consequently for it. If souls have not the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, they cannot adorn the gospel of Christ; but if they have, all that is of man is proportionately eclipsed, and Christ is testified of and expressed, while our portion in God is the unfailing joy of the heart.