THESE are glorious words. They seem like music sounding, or as the song of a bird, in a clear sky. They are the outcome of a heart that knew what it was to bask in the light of which it speaks. May the divine “Shining Light” be manifest to every eye that reads these lines.
You have watched the day break; you have seen the trembling light shine across the wide expanse of heaven, and illuminate the earth beneath. You have seen it, like the smile of God, gild the lofty hills, the spreading trees and the verdant landscape. It shines to give light and warmth, to beautify and fructify. The voice of God commanded it first to shine out of the darkness — “Let there be light.” And at His Word the bright beams of light, children of the day, came forth from the womb of night. Sun and moon and starry radiance have told the story of their birth to every age since then,
“Forever singing as they shine,
‘The hand that made us is divine.’”
And the same God Almighty, Who thus wrought in creation, and maintains it by ever acting power and unchanging laws, is He “that hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Our hearts were abodes of darkness; the natural heart is but darkness; every sinner is in darkness, and walks in darkness. So it is with you, sinner, as you now read these lines.
The Light came as a revelation. It revealed God in Christ. It shone upon the darkness of earth, and into the dark hearts of those whose eyes of faith gazed upon the face of the Son of God. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:44In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4)). The words of Christ are, “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness.” (John 12:4646I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. (John 12:46).) He came the “Light of the world,” shining in grace, and revealing in every ray the love of God. God Himself shone on earth, veiled in the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is in heaven now; but the light of the gospel of His glory shines — the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God. It was seen by Saul himself when on the road to Damascus: the glory of God shone around him from Christ at the right hand of God.
It has shone for more than twenty centuries, and it is shining now. Have you seen it? Has your weary eye been gladdened with a sight of Him who is the image of God, seated in the glory of God? Has your heart got the life and the light that comes from Christ in heaven? Oh! it shines, it shines! “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
“In the face of Jesus Christ.” Yes, of that face once marred more than any man’s. But the beloved apostle John, who gazed upon the face of the Master, says: “And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.” He could see, not only “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” but His divine glory as the Son of the Father. Have you ever seen beauty in Christ the Redeemer? The world, and His ancient people even, saw none in Him: “there was no beauty in Him that we should desire Him.” And you, sinner, belong to that world that lies in darkness still.
Stephen, gazing up to heaven, beyond the hate of men, saw with rapt and earnest eyes, “the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” It was “this same Jesus,” the face of the Master looked down upon him from the glory. It lit up all the darkness of human hatred and unbelief around him, as he thus stood in the presence of eternal realities. His heart and face were radiant, shining with “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Does it not shine from Heaven today? The Shining Light, even if little understood, has given joy and gladness to untold hearts; and where it shines the darkness of sin fades away. Its blessed beams have divine power to light up the vistas of eternity; and faith, gazing from afar, can see beyond earthly shadows and above the world’s sin “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
O, ye unsaved, children of darkness, still “sitting in darkness and the shadow of death,” God loves you — so loved you as to give His only-begotten Son. How fearful is the gloom where you are dwelling; and do you never think of the blackness of darkness forever?
Ages ago light shone out of darkness; and so, after the darkness of desertion — Christ’s on the Cross — “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” shone from heaven. Yes, in the Face that once looked from Calvary — in the Face with the blood trickling down from the thorn-encircled brow. When the dark folds of judgment rolled aside, which had shrouded the sinless One made sin for us, hiding in impenetrable gloom for three long hours, “the Light of the world”; when, emerging from that dread eclipse, the Saviour cried: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” then, rising above the clouds of divine judgment of sin, in resurrection splendor the Light shines down from above.
We should never have known the glory of God in salvation had we not seen it in the face of Christ. No sinner can gaze on glory, or stand before God, but through Christ. As a lowly Man, the Man Christ Jesus comes near to us; and now that redemption is accomplished, we can gaze upon God’s glory shining in the face of Christ. O blessed, blessed God! thus to reveal Thyself in a once humbled and now glorified Christ, as our Saviour.
O, sinner! Lift up your eyes and gaze on Jesus. He beheld you from Calvary. He has been in the darkness for you, and called you to Himself, the Light. He has died for sinners, and God has raised Him from the dead. The light of His love is shining now in glory. God invites you to come to Him: and Christ’s prayer for His people is: “Father I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am: that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me.” (John 17:2424Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24).)