THE GOSPEL OF THE GLORY
THE GOSPEL OF THE GLORY
What I understand by the gospel of the glory is God’s satisfaction in the complete bringing to pass of His will and purpose of blessing in the hands of One in whom He is perfectly revealed. The will of God is all that which is in His heart to bring to pass; all is centred in the One in whom God is effulgent, and there only is God fully revealed. Where did God shine out in all His fulness? I believe it was in the death of Christ. He went into death to bring into it the testimony of God’s love. God is effulgent in [p. 323] Christ; the glory of God shines in the face of the One to whom is committed the full accomplishment of God’s purpose.
I wish I could say a little more about the glory of God. I feel for myself how little I am affected by it. God has been revealed, and every attribute of God magnified. The love of God was revealed in Christ, but it was made effulgent at the cross. The Son of God came here to make God known, and He did this; and as the Man who glorified God, He has now gone up to God. He came out that God might be effulgent; and, on the other hand, as the Man who has glorified God, has gone in to God — one and the same blessed Person, but viewed in two distinct lights. That is what faith apprehends. Faith is now the light of the glory of God in the soul, and if we are rightly affected by it the result will be most marked. Where the word has entered the soul, and brought in the light of the love of God, that man is completely subdued to God — he loves God; and the moment a person loves God a most wonderful and complete revolution is produced in him.
Many have been affected by the grace of God, but I do not think we have been so much affected by the love of God. God has come out in love that He may secure man’s heart for Himself. He will have the love of man, He has set Himself to gain the heart of man — but how? By making known His love. “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. The believer is in the light of the glory, and he rejoices “in hope of the glory of God”.
Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”, that is the first point; the next point is being brought to God, not only for salvation,
[p. 324] but to be according to His nature. We have peace as far as God is concerned, and we have security and rest as far as evil is concerned; then we are brought to God by divine teaching, and when we are brought to Him we joy in Him. When Israel is brought to God, then they will know the Lord, they will be brought to Him. We are brought to God, as to the state of our souls, by divine teaching.