The first glorious thing we learn about the person of Christ is that he is the perfect revelation of the Father, for we behold "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6 NKJV). He is "the image of God" (Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4) and "the brightness of [the Father's] glory and the express image of His person" (Heb. 1:3). 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 (John 1:18).

In his divine person, Christ is in the Father and the Father in him, both existing in the unity of the same divine essence (John 1:1; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3). But when he assumed human nature, he became the representative of God's image, so that only by Christ do we understand the wonderful and excellent things of God's nature and will (2 Cor. 4:6). Without Christ, a perpetual comparative darkness would have covered all creation.

It is as the representative of God that the Lord Christ is exceedingly glorious. His revelation of God's nature and will is the foundation of our religion, the rock on which the church is built, and the ground of all our hopes of salvation, life, and immortality.

Those who cannot see Christ's 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 is to be an unbeliever.

This was the sad state of the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles of old. They did not and would not behold the glory of God in Christ, and that was why they did not believe in him (1 Cor. 1:21-25). 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—and these qualities 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 (2 Cor. 4:3-4). The unbelieving world of Jews and Gentiles perished under this darkness, and so do all who deny that Jesus is truly God as well as being truly man. If Christ were only a man, he could never have truly represented God to us, because no mere creature can ever truly represent the divine nature.

Ever since men fell from God by sin, a great part of their misery and punishment is that their minds are covered with thick darkness and are therefore ignorant of the true nature of God. The ancient philosophers had many ideas about the Divine Being. They boasted that they were the only wise men in the world (see Rom. 1:22). But Paul assures us that the world in its wisdom did not come to know God (1 Cor. 1:21). Indeed, he calls these philosophers atheists, or men "without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12).

They were atheists because they had no certain guide to lead them infallibly to know the divine nature. All they had were their own systems of logic and their wild ideas (Rom. 1:21). The best they could do was to feel after God like men groping in the dark (Acts 17:27). Their best ideas of invisible things did not and could not free them from idolatry, immorality, and other gross sins (Rom.1:18-32).

Men may claim they have a light within them, that the power of reason is able to lead them to the knowledge of God so that they may live lives pleasing to him. But without divine revelation they are no better than those described by Paul. Concerning this worldwide darkness—that is, the ignorance of God in men's minds—Christ is called the "light of men" and the "light of the world." By him alone this darkness is dispelled. He is the "Sun of Righteousness" (Mal. 4:2).

Ignorance of God is the source of all wickedness and confusion among men. From this ignorance arose that flood of abominations which God swept away in Noah's day. The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were burned up with fire from heaven. In short, all the rage, blood, confusion, cruelties, oppressions, and disasters which fill the world to this day have arisen from the ignorance of God.

We are the descendants of those described. It was therefore the work of infinite mercy that the day dawned on us, and that the "Dayspring from on high" visited us (Luke 1:78). God might justly have left us to perish in the blindness and ignorance of our fore-fathers. But of his own will, and by his own powerful grace alone, he has translated us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).

In Christ, God himself was gloriously revealed, and the light of the knowledge of these truths dispelled all the shadows. Christ pierced the darkness that was in the world so that none could continue to be ignorant of God but those who would not see (see John 1:5, 14, 17-18; 2 Cor. 4:3-4). This blindness is taken away from the minds and hearts of believers only by the almighty power of God. Paul tells us that "it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).

A True Representation of God's Glory

In Christ, we see a true representation of God's glory. That glory is wonderfully displayed in both wisdom and love.

All the treasures of wisdom are hidden, laid up, and revealed in Christ (Col. 2:3). To behold the glory of the infinite wisdom of God, we behold Christ's own glory. Compared with Christ, all creation reveals little of God's infinite wisdom. To see this fills the souls of believers with "joy inexpressible and full of glory" (1 Pet. 1:8).

John tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8). Love casts out envy, hatred, malice, and revenge with all the rage, fierceness, implacability, persecution, and murder that these evil passions produce. But how shall we behold the glory of this love?

The natural ideas of the love of God, even in the wisest philosophers, are corrupt, weak, and imperfect. Generally, men think that God's love is easygoing, overlooking sin. On the other hand, the works of God's providence sometimes prevent us from having a right view of God's love, and instead we see evidences of his anger and displeasure. How then can we behold the glory of God's love?

John tells us: "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (1 John 4:9). This is the only sure evidence that God is love. So the divine nature is made known to us in the mission, person, and offices of the Son of God. So, whatever ideas men may have gleaned from nature or from the works of providence, yet from them no one can know for sure that "God is love." Apart from Christ no man can come to a true understanding of God's love.

All that may be known of God for our salvation—especially his wisdom, love, goodness, grace, and mercy, on which the life of our souls depends—are represented to us in all their splendor in and through Christ. No wonder then that Christ is glorious in the eyes of believers!

These things are the deep things of God which belong to that mystery of God's wisdom. Those who are unspiritual cannot receive it (1 Cor. 2:14). If then you would be made fit and ready to behold God's glory in eternal blessedness, consider what is represented and made known to you of God in Christ, in whom God purposed to glorify himself.

The Pathway to Glory

It is our duty and our privilege to behold the glory of Christ. But today, many who call themselves Christians are strangers to this duty. Our Lord Jesus Christ told the Pharisees that in spite of all their boasting, they did not know God. They had no real acquaintance with him, no spiritual view of his glory. And it is the same with us. In spite of so many claiming to know Christ, yet few behold his glory, and few are transformed into his image and likeness.

Some talk much of imitating Christ and following his example. But no man will ever become like him by trying to imitate his behavior and life if they know nothing of the transforming power of beholding his glory.

The truth is that most of us are woefully defective in this, and many are discouraged because it seems too high or too hard. But if we regularly beheld the glory of Christ, our Christian walk would become more sweet and pleasant, our spiritual light and strength would grow daily stronger, and our lives would more gloriously represent the glory of Christ.

Is Christ glorious in our eyes? Do we see the Father in him? Do we daily meditate on the wisdom, love, grace, goodness, holiness, and righteousness of God as revealed to us in Christ? Does the sight of his glory which we have here increase our desire for that perfect sight of it we shall one day have above?

You may say, "I do not understand these things, and anyway I am not concerned about them." But nothing is more clearly and fully revealed in the gospel than that we have "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." This is the fundamental mystery and truth of the gospel that, if not believed, will make all other truths useless to our souls.

In fact, the light of faith is given to us chiefly to enable us to behold the glory of God in Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). If we do not have this light that is given to believers by the power of God, we must be strangers to the whole mystery of the gospel. But when we behold the glory of God in Christ, we behold Christ's glory also. This is how the image of God is renewed in us, and how we are made like Christ. This is the root from which all Christian duties arise and grow, and by which they are distinguished from the works of heathens. Faith in the person of Christ is the source and motive of all evangelical obedience, and faith rests on the revelation of the glory of God in Christ.

Here is some advice to daily behold the glory of Christ:

1. Value it! Seeing the glory of God by beholding the glory of Christ is the greatest privilege given to believers in this life. This is the first taste of that heavenly glory which God has prepared for us. For this is eternal life, to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (John 17:3). Unless you value this as a priceless privilege, you will not enjoy it. We are to cry after this knowledge, and lift up our voice for this understanding (Prov. 2:3-6).

2. Pray for it! The glory of Christ is a great mystery which requires much spiritual wisdom to understand rightly (1 Cor. 2:4-5). Flesh and blood will not reveal it to us. We must be taught by God if we would understand it (John 1:12-13; Matt. 16:16-17). Pray with Paul that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened to behold the glory of God in Christ (Eph. 1:18). And pray that the "God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" (Eph. 1:17).

3. Think on it! Fill your minds with spiritual thoughts of Christ. Lazy souls do not get the tiniest sight of this glory. Sinful, unregenerate people continually think on their lustful desires. Shall we not work just as hard in beholding that which transforms our minds into Christ's likeness? When our eyes are continually filled with his glory, we shall never cease to delight in him and to love him.

4. Delight in it! We must not rest satisfied with only an idea of this truth or a bare assent to the doctrine. Its power must stir our hearts! What is the true blessedness of the saints in heaven? Is it not to behold and see the glory of God in Christ? Does it not fill them with inexpressible joy and delight? If this is so, then it is our present view of the glory of Christ which we have by faith that prepares us for that eternal blessedness.

 

Adapted from The Glory of Christ, the treasures of John Owen abridged and made easy to read by R. J. K. Law, copyright © 1994, published by The Banner of Truth Trust.