God’s Divisive Glory

2 Cor. 4:3 Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Compare verse 4 and verse 6.

4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Notice ‘gospel’ and ‘knowledge’ are placed in parallel. What this means is the gospel has an objective historical reality which can be known. Yet what is known is not merely the historical facts (which demons possess), but glory.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Question:

As quick as you can, name three adjectives we can use to describe Jesus. Would you have picked ‘glorious’?

An Analogy To Describe The Experience

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt

“In the next illustration, consider the analogy between knowing that God is the author of Scripture and knowing that Rembrandt painted “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.” The question I am raising here is this: How much of the painting must you see to know that it is Rembrandt’s? And how much of the Scripture must you read to know it is God’s word? The reason this question matters is that it helps us clarify in what sense the self-authenticating glory of God is visible through the Scriptures. “ (Piper, Peculiar Glory)

Question:

Do you ever get bored reading the Bible? What can we do about it?

What aspect of the gospel captivates you the most?

How helpful is 2 Cor. 4:3-6 in thinking about evangelism?

“The analogy of Christ’s incarnation may be helpful here. Jesus Christ is human the way the Scripture is human writing. And Jesus is also divine, as the Scriptures are also the word of God.

In order to be known as God incarnate, Jesus did not depend on an external voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son” (Matt. 3:17; 17:5). To be sure, God gave him this endorsement. But Jesus never appealed to it as the proof of who he was. Instead he asked, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). In other words, watching and listening to Jesus should have been enough. So when John wrote his Gospel, after spending three years with Jesus, he said, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

The point here is that God was discernible in Jesus not because God put a signature on the painting, or hung a lantern in his house, or shouted Christ’s divinity from heaven, but because God was in Jesus. God was who Jesus was. They were united. The marks of divinity were in Jesus—the whole, acting, thinking, feeling, speaking person. So it is with the Scriptures. They do not have a signature, or a lantern, or a voice spoken over them. The word of man itself is united with the word of God. The marks of divinity are in the meaning of the writing.

What this meant for Jesus is that you could not discern the divine glory of Jesus by looking at his bare feet or at a single moment of his body sleeping. You had to see him acting, and hear his word, and watch his demeanor. So it is with the Scripture. You can’t see the divine glory of Christ in the Scripture by merely looking at a letter of the alphabet in one of its sentences, or by a random glance at a “sleeping sentence” with no connection with other sentences to make the meaning plain. As with a Rembrandt, the marks of the master’s distinguishing greatness are in the composition—the meaning of the God-breathed writing.”

(John Piper, Peculiar Glory)