“But unless the weight of the burden is felt the gospel can mean nothing to the man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and burden. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them” (A. W. Tozer).
2 Corinthians 4:4 “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 4:6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
These verses are quite clear regarding the issue that we are discussing. One, the gospel is the gospel of the glory of Christ. Two, the Gospel of the glory of Christ is light. Three, Christ is the image of God. Four, the light that God commanded then and commands now is the light of the Gospel. Five, the light He shines is Himself because the text speaks of “the One who has shone in our hearts.’ Six, when He shines in our hearts that gives the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Seven, the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God is in the face of Christ.
The last blog ended with some discussion on light, but that discussion should be carried on a bit longer. The Gospel of John speaks a fair amount about light and of how Christ is the light (1:4-5). “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life” (John 8:12). How was Jesus the light of the world? He was light because He was and is the outshining or radiance of the glory of God (Heb 1:3). There can be no light of the Gospel, therefore, without talking about the light and the glory of God which is that light. When people saw Christ, they saw the glory of God being imaged forth if they had the eyes of faith to see. A low view of God has led some to deny the deity of Christ. That is a clear denunciation of the glory of the Gospel since it denies that Christ is the image of God as the Word of God and He would not be the outshining of the glory of God.
From II Cor 4:4 & 6 we see that the light that God commands to shine in the hearts of people is the Gospel of the glory of Christ which is really His glory in the fact of Christ. Or, to put it as the text puts it, the light that shines in the hearts of man is really God shining forth Himself in the hearts of man. We can also connect this with Hebrews 1:3 again where Christ is the outshining or radiance of God’s glory. So God shines Himself in the hearts of man when He outshines Himself and His glory through Christ in man. But again, He does this through the Gospel of His glory. Now, if people have low views of God which by definition cannot include His glory, then the Gospel has been lost in their case. The Gospel cannot be see without the glory of God shining in it because the Gospel consists of the glory of God.
The Gospel is to be preached by men. It is through the Gospel preached that God outshines His glory (Christ) into the hearts of men to bring light to them. But when a low view of God is in the preaching, there is no glory that shines forth. Let me try to apply this to different cases. Liberalism has no Gospel because it does not have a great and glorious God to begin with. Many conservatives have no Gospel because they are too concerned with conserving a message about God or morality to set forth His glory. Many Reformed people have no Gospel because they are too concerned about being correct on details and academically respectable to set forth the glory of God. When people are more concerned about details and other issues than the glory of God in the Gospel, they have lost the Gospel though they may be doctrinally sound.
The basic doctrine of the Gospel is not all that hard. Then we get into the academic approach and things get tough. However, there are many bright people and they wade through all the issues and wrote books on these issues. Without denying that there can be some importance to these types of things, if the glory is missing then so is the Gospel. If the glory is missing, so is the light of the Gospel. If the glory is missing, so is the God who shines the light of Himself in the hearts of men. God will not be where His glory is not. A message of the Gospel without the glory of the Gospel is a gospel without God. Low views of God destroy the Gospel.
God Loves... Himself 
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