“THE RADIANCY OF THE GLAD TIDINGS”
C. Hammond
I am wondering how much of this radiancy is seen in our lives. Men speak about radiation in a very different context—a radiation of death! This scripture speaks of the radiancy of life in a Man, the Lord Jesus, who once died and has been raised and is now in the presence of God, a living Saviour. Do you believe that Jesus is living in the presence of God? Do you young people believe that? That was a momentous event when Jesus went up into heaven. There had never been a man in heaven before. Now Jesus is there and He is God’s glad tidings. The apostle refers to “the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”.
After the chaos which had come in “and darkness was on the face of the deep”. God said,
“Let there be light”, Genesis 1: 1-3. God has only to utter His fiat and the thing is done! So that in all that follows God was working in the light; and He has been working in the light ever since. If there is any cloudiness or darkness it is with us. That is what the apostle is referring to in the early verses in this chapter—“We have rejected the hidden things of shame”. They are hidden because we are ashamed of them. But believers are not to falsify
“the word of God”, but to be, as Paul says, “by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men before God”.
So Paul writes, “as we have had mercy shown us, we faint not”. What a joy we have in saying that we have had mercy shown us from the blessed God! But where is this “radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God”? It should be seen in our lives and should enter into our preaching. We may have to refer to the judgment to come, to the “revealed wrath of God from heaven upon all impiety, and unrighteousness of men”
(Romans 1: 18), for He cannot overlook sin, though He does forgive sinners. Paul writes to the Thessalonians of “the righteous judgment of God”. Sin has been judged by God in a most affecting way in the Person of Jesus, “who knew not sin”, in the perfection of His obedience to the will of God. Think of what it was to the blessed God when He made His beloved Son that, in a supreme sacrifice. It is not just sins but sin. If it is a question of our sins, as believers we each can say, The Lord Jesus was my Substitute; He bore what was my due. Can we all say that?
Eternity is never-ending time. Think of an eternity without Christ with the remorse that you could have had the blessing, but you spurned it! I believe God will be justified in the conscience of every condemned soul. But it is a most affecting thing that God looks firstly for our names to be in the book of life, for He is a Saviour God; and who will sit on that great white throne?—the Lord Jesus, for the Father has “given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is Son of man”, John 5: 27. Think of the solemnity of an unbeliever dying and being raised eventually to face that judgment-seat, that the One who will be then Judge could have been their Saviour. I sincerely hope that no one here today will be in that awful situation.
But with us, as believers, what of this
radiancy of which the apostle writes? What hinders its shining out? Some ‘hidden thing of shame’ perhaps? The apostle writes, “if also our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those who are lost”—a serious consideration for us. Where then is “the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ”? The apostle Paul conducted his life in the light of the judgment-seat of Christ. He says, “We are zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable to him”, 2
Corinthians 5: 9. Then he goes on to say, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men”. God has met the claims of His attributes—His holiness and His righteousness—in showing us mercy on the basis of the sacrificial death of His Son. So it says God “has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. As we think of persons around us, we cannot say whether a person is destined for judgment, for God regards man in provisional reconciliation on the basis of the new Head for man in Christ, and His atoning sacrifice gives God the basis for showing mercy to all men. God has the answer to every moral question in the universe. But the apostle writes, “If also our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost”, and that is because “the god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ ... should not shine forth for them”. It does shine forth, but not for them!
Can I assume that all here are believers in the finished work of Christ? I tremble for you if this is not true of any, for, as we have said, wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all impiety. We may not emphasize this, but point out the fact that it is revealed. It is possible for a person to take the position of being a Christian, but be unbelieving in heart. In Hebrews 6: 4–6 we
have the solemn record, “For it is impossible to renew again to repentance those once enlightened, and who have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the works of power of the age to come, and have fallen away, crucifying for themselves as they do the Son of God, and making a show of him”. The solemnity of the divine warning is only too apparent. Such a person or persons have been positionally in a place of privilege, but without faith.
God has shone in our hearts; it says, “The God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine ... has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. The radiancy comes out because we have something in our souls—the light of a Saviour God, and He has provided a Mediator for men, as it is written: “God is one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”, 1 Timothy 2: 5. Job called for a mediator, but on the ground of self-righteousness. But in the gospel we can preach that God has provided a Mediator. Christ is also our Advocate when, as believers, we may fall into sin. So when we preach, and also at other times, we should radiate the knowledge of God as known in His beloved Son.
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassingness of the power may be of God, and not from us”. If anything is to be effected, it is God’s sovereign action by the Spirit to bring conviction and blessing to any soul. The Holy Spirit knows our inward parts, and “Man’s spirit is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all the inner parts of the belly”, Proverbs 20: 27. So God has means of reaching the depths of soul in any. I hope all here are sure as to where they stand with God. I appeal to you as one to whom God has shown mercy; and as to those who do believe, may we be radiating “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. May God bless the word.
Preaching at Cullen
15 June 1980