The apostle here witnesses to what God has done for himself and for others and the way by which He enlightens those whom He has purposed to bring to a saving knowledge of Himself. In Isaiah 1: 11, the Scriptures make mention of some who walk in the sparks of their own kindling, and we are told that the end of such is that they will lie down in sorrow. But that is not the way it will be with those whom God enlightens with His own marvellous light.
In meditating on these things, however, we will notice—
I. The work of God.
II. The things which God gave His people.
III. The way by which God giveth these things, that is, in the face of Jesus Christ.
I. God is great and glorious and as He is so, all His works are great and glorious also, and the soul who receives this light grows more and more in the knowledge of God and of His works, as we have written in Proverbs iv: 18, “But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
The apostle, here, brings us back to the first revelation that God gave of Himself. In the first chapter of Genesis and the third verse we have written “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” This is the first record we have regarding light as the work of God. What He has commanded is performed. Here also we have a witness to the power of God. It were futile for any creature to say, Let there be light, but He spoke and it was done. Indeed, it is very little we can understand of the nature of natural light—even the light of day; we are so accustomed to it that we see nothing wonderful about it. Oh! What a wonderful revelation of the power and wisdom of God we have here in the works of creation. He commanded the light and it was. The work of God is not a work of darkness, as the work of the devil is who performs his works in darkness. God will never be ashamed of His own works. The wisdom of God is to be seen in all things that He has made, as His servant David says in Psalm civ, verse 24:
“How manifold, Lord, are thy works!
in wisdom wonderful
Thou every one of them hast made;
earth’s of thy riches full.”
II. This light which God communicates to His own people is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. We will not believe that God is, until God Himself will cause us to believe this great truth. By nature, secretly in our hearts we do not believe that God is. Denial of the Eternal God is not upon our lips but it is in the unregenerate heart, as we read in Psalm iv, verse 1, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” We have lost our knowledge of God by the Fall. We clearly see that solemn fact in the history of Adam and Eve. Immediately they had sinned, they were in darkness and they thought that they could hide themselves from God. That itself indicates the terrible darkness that entered the soul of man. It cannot be denied, when the light comes into the soul, that it makes itself manifest. The witness is in the light itself. God makes known that He is and He reveals this to the enlightened soul, as the truth says in Hebrews xi: 6, “For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
We are very ready to imagine that we never doubted the Being of God. But this light is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God when God makes Himself known through the Law. When man was in a state of innocence he was endowed with the knowledge of the glory of the law of God, and that glory did not change and the glory of God Himself did not change although man sinned. When God begins to deal with the soul, that soul understands that it is with God he has to do. We are responsible to Him. The power and wisdom of the Most High are revealed, and according to the truth man is brought face to face with God and with the judgment of God. Men are brought to judgment by the Word of God; they are brought to understand that they must come face to face with the judgment of God. This people heard the sentence of death pronounced upon themselves, through the inerrant Word of God. There was no evasion from this, as David says in Psalm cxxxix: 7, 8:
“From thy Spirit whither shall I go?
or from thy presence fly?
Ascend I heaven, lo, thou art there;
there, if in hell I lie.
Take I the morning wings and dwell
in utmost parts of sea;
Ev’n there, Lord, shall thy hand me lead,
thy right hand hold shall me.”
Those who were enlightened in this way believed and they saw how just the sentence of their condemnation was; they had to believe it. God convinced them of this by His Word and they saw the glory of God bound up with the condemnation of the guilty. God will have glory in condemning and damning impenitent sinners. The believer saw that the sentence was right, just and holy and he will not argue against that.
III. We see that this glory is revealed to them in the face of Jesus Christ. This revelation was altogether new. This that God has done was not revealed until man fell. This was a new revelation—new and wonderful indeed as beheld in the Person of Jesus Christ the Lord. It was a revelation which exhibited more of the glory of God, in that God was willing to reconcile sinners unto Himself not imputing their trespasses to them. He devised a way—a way of light—reconciling them unto Himself in the Person of the Mediator. The Eternal Son of God took their nature and was made under the law, as the Scriptures say in Romans x: 4, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” He is their righteousness, Jehovah Tsidkenu. This is their God as He is revealed in Jesus Christ.
God is immutable as Christ Himself says, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John i: 18). Here is revealed the power of God in Jesus Christ. God, in infinite wisdom, devised a way by which He could be just in justifying the ungodly. This blessed One was sent in order to bring sinners unto God; He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man can come unto the Father but by Him. No one can say that He was sent to condemn and destroy sinners but to save them. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John iii: 19). But He had to give complete obedience and full satisfaction. It behoved Him to give perfect obedience to the law which required “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself” (Luke x: 27). This holy One is a Person in whom there is salvation for the soul of man. If Christ was condemned in your place, you shall never see condemnation, as it is written in John viii: 36, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” The soul that God has brought alive by His Spirit can rest assured of this. The believer in Christ is now brought under the shelter of the law; the law, which was before now condemning him, is now shielding him, as the sweet Psalmist says,
“Truth met with mercy, righteousness
and peace kissed mutually:
Truth springs from earth, and righteousness
looks down from heaven high.”—Ps. lxxxv: 10.
The law of God now stands by the penitent believer and Justice exclaims, “It is impossible that this person be condemned; Christ suffered his condemnation for him and therefore he cannot be condemned.” Christ as Mediator was anointed as Prophet, Priest and King, and such as are taught by the Holy Spirit understand this. They know that they are saved from that ignorance and darkness which possessed their hearts.
The prophets preached Christ to men but they were not able to implant these things in their hearts. Jeremiah wept over this; he could not bring one soul from darkness to light. But God is able to do this by His Word and Spirit. He is able to bring them out of darkness more and more. Conviction of sin is continued in the believer and he is more and more enlightened regarding the way of salvation and holiness. In Christ they have also the atonement, as we read in Hebrews x: 4, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”
On the resurrection morning He rose from the dead manifesting unquestionably that He had finished the great work of salvation. He rose triumphantly over the power of the grave, expunged the guilt of His people and forever dispelled the darkness completely, as it is written, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and, as a cloud thy sins” (Isaiah xlv: 22). Who then can condemn this people who are in such a safe and blessed state? He is also as their wise and powerful King leading them and guiding them as the Psalmist says:
“I will both lay me down in peace,
and quiet sleep will take;
Because thou only me to dwell
in safety, Lord, dost make.”—Ps. iv: 8.
As King He will restrain, bridle and vanquish all their inveterate enemies. Although graceless men and women are sadly ignorant of the enemies and darkness which are arrayed against the people of God, yet these foes are very real to themselves—to true believers—to such as are regenerate by the Holy Spirit, but Christ will dispel their darkness and triumphantly disperse their mighty enemies. The Psalmist is a swift witness to this when he says “Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre” (Ps. xlv: 5, 6).
Mercy in God is revealed to this people as David says in Psalm lxxxix: 1, “God’s mercies I will ever sing.” God teaches the believer the way by which He reveals Himself. Some will say, unhesitatingly, that they see God in the works of creation, but we will never attain to the knowledge of God apart from beholding Christ as Mediator. We will see and adore the love of Jehovah by spiritual, saving meditation of Christ as the Scriptures say in Jeremiah xxxi: 3, “Yea, I have loved thee with everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.” We discern the love of God in the wounds of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. When He shed His Blood, you saw there the love of God—the love wherewith He loved you from all eternity.
He came in the fulness of time and in God’s good time the light shone in the soul and the glory and love of God was revealed in the face or Person of Jesus Christ. The glory of this work exceeded the glory of the law. This for a poor, unworthy sinner is also free, without money and without price. God made the work of creation free and without price and also for poor, guilty sinners He made the work of salvation free. Therefore we ought to say with David,
“ Not unto us, Lord, not to us,
but do thou glory take
Unto thy name, ev’n for thy truth,
and for thy mercy’s sake.”
This was and could be the only way of salvation, although unregenerate sinners fondly imagine that they themselves must do something meritorious. We need not go to the Church of Rome to discover justification by works; we will find that in our own breasts. Gloriously and free God has opened up a way in Christ by which guilty, defiled sinners could escape. Oh! Poor sinner, Come as you are—just as you are—stay not for one moment—Come as you are to Christ. His people will go to Glory with Him. They will be welcome for His sake, as He Himself says, “ In my Father’s house are many mansions ” (John xiv: 2). At death He will come for them to receive them into Glory. Then he will forever take away their darkness and they will be made perfect in the light. They will have eternity to enter into and wonder at the love of God, and the Way of Salvation which He devised from all eternity, before the foundations of the world were laid and how He betrothed them to Himself and to all the attributes of God for eternity.
May the Lord bless anything that was said in accordance with His own mind.
(R’a leantuinn)