"...THE GOSPEL
OF THE GLORY OF THE BLESSED GOD, which was committed to
my trust" (1 Tim. 1:11).
"In whom ye
also, having heard the word of the truth, THE GOSPEL OF
YOUR SALVATION, - in whom, having also believed, ye were
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an
earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's
own possession, unto the praise of his glory" (Eph.
1:13-14).
"With all
prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the
Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and
supplication for all the saints, and on my behalf, that
utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to
make known with boldness THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL"
(Eph. 6:18-19).
There are one or two
things which we must note at the outset in connection
with the above. Those passages are all words of fullness;
that is, they are written very near the end of the life
of the Apostle, when he is in possession of a very full
revelation which has been growing through the whole of
his life as a servant of the Lord. To the initial vision
there has been added revelation, an enlargement of
spiritual knowledge - added, sometimes in especial ways
and also in the normal course of his continuous walk with
the Lord; and here he is writing when that revelation, so
far as his earthly course is concerned, is practically
full, and out of that these words occur - "the
gospel of the glory of... God"; "the gospel of
your salvation"; "the mystery of the
gospel". You note that his letter to the Ephesians
opens with the second of these phrases and closes with
the third. The point is that these are not two different
gospels - the gospel of your salvation, and the mystery
of the gospel. They are not the gospel divided into two.
They are one gospel, and they are both gathered into that
other fragment - "the gospel of the glory of...
God". What I desire to indicate is that the gospel
is a much profounder thing than is generally recognised.
Oh, how full is that
word "mystery" as used by the Apostle! It is a
tremendous word in its significance. As you know from
this letter to the Ephesians, the "mystery"
relates to the deep and hidden counsels and purposes of
God before the world was. It relates to something ever
present to the mind of God through all previous ages,
though undisclosed - waiting for the day in which He
should bring it out as a revealed secret; and in it are
all those Divine counsels and purposes which find their
full revelation at the end of the ages, in this
dispensation, in the fullness of the times; and all that
is said to be gospel, the mystery of the gospel. Yes -
the gospel of your salvation is all that; something
immense, unfathomable. In this one short letter alone it
is all summarised in superlatives which are heaped
together one upon another. You feel the Apostle is so
pent up as he dwells upon this as to be very near an
explosion. He cannot find words in the very rich language
at his command to express himself concerning all this
which he calls the mystery, the stewardship of which has
been committed to him. It is tremendous.
And when he writes his
letter to Timothy, he goes beyond everything in packing
all the immense meaning of that into a little phrase -
"the gospel of the glory of the blessed God".
You want to sit down with that and think. What is the
gospel? It is the gospel of the glory of God. Now,
comprehend that if you can! The glory of God - fathom
that if you can! If we want a key to unlock this whole
marvellous disclosure, to unlock those secret counsels of
the Godhead before times eternal, to unlock the mystery
hidden from ages and generations, it is in one word -
glory. That word alone is the key to everything from
eternity to eternity.
What
Glory Is
What is glory? Have you
ever tried to write down what glory is? It cannot be
done, and we shall look foolish whenever we try to define
the glory of God. Nevertheless, with the Lord's help, let
us at least approach the matter. What is glory? Before we
come immediately to attempt an answer, let us say
something which will indicate what a task we have, what a
field we are in. To answer that question - What is glory?
- from the standpoint of the Scriptures means that we
shall come to the understanding of a number of other
matters such as the following:-
To begin with, to
understand glory will be to understand God, for He is the
God of glory (Acts 7:2); and also to explain His creation
intention, for right at the heart of His creation lies
that word as its intention - glory, the glory of God.
Again, to answer our
question will be to know the meaning of the fall.
Firstly, the fall of Satan - the whole matter of glory is
bound up with that; and then the fall of man, because
right at the heart of man's existence in the purpose of
God lies this matter of glory.
Further, it will be to
know the nature and meaning of eternal life - that
uncreated, Divine life which God intended man to have and
which he never did have until he had it in Christ - for
that life is the potentiality of glory.
Further, to know the
meaning of glory will be to know the meaning of
redemption, for again, redemption all circles round this
one thing - glory; and I would remark, before we say any
more, that whenever redemption is represented as an
accomplished fact, even in type, glory is linked with it.
Get the altar and the laver and everything of redemptive
means in line, and the end of that line is the glory of
the Shekinah in the Most Holy Place. It all issues in the
glory. To understand glory will be to understand
redemption.
To answer our question,
What is glory? will be to explain priesthood and
government in spiritual and Divine meaning, for both are
always related to the glory.
And here is a little
thing for you on the way! - to understand glory will be
to see right through all the Scriptures. When I saw this
matter of glory I got a new Bible. I thought my old Bible
was very wonderful and altogether beyond me, but this put
a new Bible into my hands. It will do the same for you if
you see the meaning and content of just one word - glory.
It will be to apprehend
and to grasp all the meaning of Christ. He is the glory
of God; all the glory of God is centred and seated in
Him. His whole work is connected with the glory of God.
He came into this world from which the glory had
departed, as the custodian of the glory of God. To
understand glory will be to understand Christ.
If we apprehend the
meaning of glory we shall know our calling, for we are
called "unto his eternal glory" (1 Pet. 5:10),
"that we should be... to the praise of his
glory" (Eph. 1:6). Further, we shall come to
understand our vocation, our service; for what does the
service of God resolve itself into, after all? All
service to God and for God can be weighed as to its
spiritual value by this one word - glory, the glory of
God.
"The
Blessed God"
Well then, all this
that we have mentioned is in this little phrase -
"the gospel of the glory". The whole phrase
is, "the gospel of the glory of the blessed
God". That word "blessed" is not an easy
one to translate into English. You know how very many
times it occurs in the New Testament. It is the word with
which every Beatitude begins. "Blessed are the poor
in spirit". "Blessed are they that mourn";
etc. (Matt. 5:3-10). Elsewhere in the New Testament the
word is translated "happy". Truly it is that in
the Beatitudes. "Happy are the meek", and so
on. But you hesitate to use that word in connection with
God - "the gospel of the glory of the happy
God." That hardly sounds right to our ears; but you
might perhaps catch something even inside of that. God is
in the place and state of great blessedness. Are you not
always asking the Lord to bless you and yours? What do
you mean? Oh, to be put into a position and condition of
complete satisfaction: where everything is just as you
would have it: where you have all fullness to live upon
for yourself, and to dispense to others. That is a happy
position to be in. "It is more happy to give than to
receive" (Acts 20:35); there is the same word. It is
very happy, very blessed, to be in a position to give;
and God is in that position. All fullness is His, and He
has limitless resources to give. What a happy position!
"The happy, the blessed, God."
Now let us take another
step. It is "the gospel of the glory of the blessed
God". It is the good news of the glory of God Who is
full to overflowing with all resources of wisdom, power,
grace, truth - everything. Out from such a God the
gospel, the good news, comes. I say this gospel of
salvation is an immense thing. What do you mean by
salvation and the gospel? Well, being delivered from the
guilt and condemnation and consequences of sin (here, and
mostly hereafter) and perhaps some other blessings, such
as assurance, thrown in! But in that you have only
touched the fringe of the gospel! I say again, it is not
an extra gospel, a second gospel, it is one; and if that
full gospel had been preached, there would be a very
different situation in the world today from what there
is. The trouble is the smallness of the gospel preached.
It is the gospel, the good news, of the glory of the God
Who is all-sufficient in Himself and for everything else
- the blessed God.
Glory
Linked With the Character of God
Now we will get nearer
to the word. Glory - what is glory? Well, the Greek root
of this word means proving by testing. There is one
little passage which will help us a good deal, and it is
in 1 Pet. 1:7. If you were reading that in the Greek you
would find in that verse three words which have the same
beginning, indicating that they contain a common idea.
Here they are, emphasized:
"That the PROOF
(or TRIAL) of your faith, being more precious than gold
that perisheth though it is PROVED by fire, may be found
unto praise and GLORY..." "Trial",
"proved", "glory". Glory is something
proved by testing.
What is the glory of
God? You will find that the glory of God is almost
invariably linked with His character; and His character
is proved, established, unalloyed righteousness. He is
right, He is righteous altogether, there is not the
slightest shadow or suspicion of question about His
perfection. And glory is linked with His character;
therefore glory is the character of God shining forth in
expression, the very nature of God manifested.
There are symbols, but
they only help us on the way. We very often take the
symbol to mean the reality. The symbol for glory is
light, just as the symbol for evil and sin is darkness.
The real thing is the essence of God's nature and being,
and when you get that, you get what you mean by light,
and that is glory. The glory of God is the essential
nature of God as unquestioned righteousness shining
forth.
The
Good News of God Manifested Universally
Before we go further,
let us come back. What is the gospel - the 'good news' -
of the glory of God? It is this, that everything is going
to be like Him, everything in His universe is going to be
a manifestation of Himself and His nature. We are called
unto that eternal glory. Let that stand over against what
we are in ourselves and see what our calling is, see how
great the gospel is! What do you feel about yourself? Any
hope of glory? - that is, any hope of the manifestation
of unquestioned righteousness and holiness? Ah, the
gospel which has come to us is good news indeed. What a
possibility, what a hope! "We know that, if he shall
be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him
even as he is" (1 John 3:2). It is the issue of the
gospel of the glory. Get hold of that. What is
glory? It is God in His essential nature, unalloyed
righteousness and holiness, in expression. That is the
good news - you and I and all this creation to be brought
into that, so that the earth shall be filled with the
glory of God, not just a radiance, a phosphorescent
glory, but the glory of a nature in which there is
nothing that is questionable, evil, sinful - "no
darkness at all". It is the hope of the gospel. That
is the gospel of your salvation. That is the hope
referred to by the Apostle as he has seen it in its
growing fullness. He speaks of it right at the end, from
his prison - "Christ in you, the hope of glory"
(Col. 1:27).
Well, we are launched
out into such an immensity we really do not know what to
do with it! I confess that at that point I do not know
how to proceed. You see, everything tumbles on top of
you. We begin with Genesis, go all the way through the
whole Bible, fragment by fragment, and we find it is all
centred in and circling around this matter. The Cherubim
- what are they there at the gate for? (Gen 3:24). They
are custodians of the glory. All the way through it is
this matter. And then the Son of God is manifested, Who
is "the true light" that "shineth in the
darkness" (John 1:9,5) and the message which He
brings is gathered up by the Apostle John in this way:
"God is light, and in him is no darkness at
all" (1 John 1:5). The Son came both to manifest and
to declare what God is - unquestioned, unsullied holiness
and righteousness in His very nature and being. That is
God, and we are called unto His eternal glory. It is
something almost too big to believe, is it not?
And now the word 'hope'
comes in, associated with the gospel. "Be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel" (Col. 1:23). We
are begotten again "unto a living hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Pet.
1:3). So we could just pile it up like that. Do not such
words as these hint at a tremendous prospect set before
us in the gospel? It is the prospect of glory, and glory
is character proved through testing.
The
Trial of Faith Unto Glory
Now then,
"That the proof of your faith, being much more
precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by
fire, may be found unto praise and glory..."
You are going through a test, an awful, fiery
trial. What is happening? Well, the scum is coming to the
surface and being removed, and the purity, the reality,
the genuineness of your faith is being brought out
through testing. The reality is being established through
fiery trial, and when, through testing and trial, you
have got the reality of the Divine nature established,
you have glory. "Be found unto... glory." It
is what is of God in us put to the test, tried, through
fiery processes, and issuing in glory. It is God
manifested in and through us.
In practical spiritual
life it means this. God by His grace has planted in us a
little germ of faith. How small and how weak it seems!
But then, under Divine discipline and trial we are tested
as to that faith. And as the fiery trial goes on, a good
deal of ourselves comes to the surface. Is that not true?
When we are in trial, a lot that is of ourselves comes to
the surface. Yes, all that inherent unbelief of our
nature comes up - resentment, rebellion, bitterness. Oh
yes, it all comes up in the fiery trial. We do not know
ourselves until we get into the fires of trial and
testing. We would not believe what there is in us until
we are put to the test. I heard Dr. Campbell Morgan once
say that any man is capable of any sin you like to
mention if only he is put into circumstances calculated
to find him out. That is a terrific thing to say. You may
not accept it, but that is because you have not been put
into the situation. Put that in another way. You are not
just going to pass through the temptations of life, be
they what we think of as 'common' temptations or related
to the most awful sins, without knowing that you are
being tempted and therefore you could give way. The bias
towards evil is all there. The Lord Jesus was only
saying that sort of thing when He said, in substance,
'Moses said, Thou shalt not...; but I say, if you think
about it - if you only look - it is just as bad as though
you had done it' (Matt. 5:27,28). What was He meaning? -
that it is in you, it is a part of you. Oh, you may think
that is terrible, but I think it is glorious! Do you say,
'We cannot stand up to this; it is worse than ever; it is
going to push us further down than ever. Moses is bad
enough, but if we take this on, who will survive'? But I
say that that is not bad but good. The Lord was not
heaping condemnation upon condemnation. He was only
saying, 'It is not just a matter of what you do or do not
do; it is a matter of what you are, and I have
come to take away what you are, not merely what you do'.
That is glorious! That is the gospel of the glory, the
righteousness of God which is by faith in Christ Jesus
deals not simply with things that we do or refrain from
doing, but gets us entirely out of the way,
bringing in a new creation. That is glory; that is the
hope of the gospel. Thank God, there will come a moment
in the history of this universe when the last vestige of
the fall will be rooted out of every one of us who trust
in Christ. One moment and we shall be changed, and even
this body of our humiliation will be made like unto His
body of glory, a holy body, a sinless body.
Yes; we were saying it
is in trial that all this self-nature comes to the
surface, but it is as well that it does come to the
surface. Grace deals with it, grace working through the
growing knowledge of our need of Christ makes us very
humble, and humility is a trait of God. Meekness is a
fruit of the Spirit, it is the counter to the poison of
fallen Lucifer - pride. Trial brings these things out in
the grace of God, and it is found unto glory -
Christ-likeness, God-likeness. Or again, in simple
experience, our deep and terrible trials make us more
like the Lord under His grace. They do not make people
outside of Christ more like the Lord. It is only those
who are under the grace of God who become more like the
Lord through fiery trials. It is found unto glory,
God-likeness.
I think I must stop
there. I trust it is a glimpse of the greatness of our
salvation, "the gospel of the glory of the blessed
God." What a prospect it opens up before us! We are
lost in it. But if we suffer with Him we shall be
glorified together with Him (Rom. 8:17).