Two newsletters previous to this one we looked at the nature of faith and how it operates in the spiritual realm. Last week we looked at how justification by faith alone (without works) means that man is not to trust in himself at all and in fact must look upon his own efforts and works for salvation as filthy rags. This week we want to look at faith and what it sees in the spiritual realm which is another reason why it requires that man turn from any and all self-trust in biblical self-denial and repentance. When one sees the glory of God in the face of Christ (the real object of faith in the Gospel) there can be no doubt that this is what is seen by faith and faith alone since the natural man thinks of the Gospel as foolishness and weakness. Seeing the glory of God in the Gospel is the power of the Gospel to overcome the prideful and self-centered hearts of sinners and show the glory of God in a way where man turns from his own puny and putrid works (or trust in himself) to trust in Christ alone.Without traversing over the ground of what Justification is, we must ask the question as to what faith beholds and how it does so. We have previously seen that faith must be at least the sight of the soul in the spiritual realm and that faith brings its reality from the spiritual realm. Faith cannot be the act of the natural man since faith beholds things in the spiritual realm and the natural man has no spiritual capacity to see spiritual things. So what is the difference between the rational person who thoroughly understands the Gospel and even has an intellectual belief that the doctrines of the Gospel are true and the person that does not have a thorough grasp and yet believes and loves the Gospel? This, I think, gets to the heart of the real issue of true faith in Christ and His Gospel.
In the Gospels we see many people believing in Christ after they heard Him teach or after seeing Him perform miracles. But they were not converted people. Eventually, though, they fell away when the hard teachings came. We see people believing today and praying prayers and so forth. We see Reformed people explaining the doctrines of the Gospel in a way that has more doctrinal content than others, but they are still practicing evangelism just like everybody else. An Arminian can tell a basic content of the Gospel message and a Reformed person can explain a more thorough understanding of the Gospel, but neither really arrives at the real issues. Either way both camps in this sense are asking a person to pray a prayer or make a decision based on the person’s self and old nature. The Arminian will congratulate the person on making a wise choice and the Reformed person will praise God that the person made the choice. In reality, however, both have relied on the person making the choice. Faith cannot come from a natural man and it must be involved in the spiritual realm. While doctrine and the message of the Gospel are vital, they are not enough.
We can look at John 11 and get at the basic concept. Jesus waited until Lazarus died until He went to be with Lazarus’ sisters and the body of Lazarus. Jesus said regarding the sickness of Lazarus at that time, that it “is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it” (p. 4). After He raised Lazarus from the dead, “Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”” (v. 40). Those who believed saw the glory of God in the resurrection and those who did not have faith saw the resurrection but not the glory. Some who saw the resurrection of Lazarus even went to the head Jews and informed them. The Jews did not deny that the resurrection of Lazarus had happened, but they then wanted to kill Jesus and Lazarus so that they would not lose their positions (John 11:46, 53, 57; 12:9-11).
This is a vital point. Those with faith saw the glory of God in the resurrection and that was the point of Jesus letting Lazarus die. Faith operates in the spiritual realm and sees things that men without faith do not see. Faith sees the glory of God that men without faith do not see. The resurrection of Lazarus was an event to behold. Those without faith saw it and recognized that a man had been raised from the dead. They could not and did not understand it at all. They saw it from a self-centered perspective and it actually caused resentment and anger among them when they saw that others left the Jews and followed after Jesus.
Those with faith, however, saw things about the resurrection of Lazarus that those without faith could not see. Since faith operates in the spiritual realm, that is, the realm which God moves in the Spirit, it saw what God was doing and saw His beauty and majesty. Faith beheld the beauty of God in overcoming the power and dominion of Satan by overcoming the power of death. Faith saw the glory of Christ in that even dead men obey Christ when He speaks. Faith saw sheer grace in that Lazarus did not deserve this. Faith saw the beauty of God shining in His power over death and in causing the dead flesh and muscle to walk out right then and there. Faith saw the pleasure of God in displaying His glory as He pleased. Faith saw the goodness of God in preserving this man for his sisters. Faith saw the love of God in that Christ wept over Lazarus. Faith saw the character of God and the beauty and glory of that character when the unbelieving man saw none of that. While unbelieving man may see some of the character of God in its raw form as it acts within the natural realm, it does not see the beauty and glory of the character of God as it shines in the spiritual realm. The man who does not have faith is blind and dead in the spiritual realm and so does not see the glory of God.
We see glimmers of this in both Testaments. In John 1:14 we see who Christ really was and is: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt [tabernacled] among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Christ was the very tabernacle (O.T. picture of the dwelling place of His glory) of the glory of God on earth. When people really saw Christ for Who He really was, as John says, they “saw His glory.” While it is the received doctrine among Christians that we must believe in the deity of Christ in order to be saved, surely there is more to it than simply holding to an intellectual only form of belief that Jesus Christ was and is Divine. How can we really believe that unless we see the glory of God shining through Him? We can have an intellectual belief of Christ since it is what the Bible teaches, but do we really have the belief of it from the inner man unless by faith we behold the glory of God shining in and through Christ? I don’t think so. To believe that Christ is the Son of God and the Messiah is to see something of the glory of God in Him. How could it be anything else since, as Christ told Phillip, He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
We have the passage in John 12:41 which tells us that the words of Isaiah 6 were said because “These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.” What Isaiah saw, therefore, was the glory of Christ. This is the same glory that men are to behold as in a mirror and be transformed by it. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (II Corinthians 3:18). It is only by beholding this glory by faith that one is transformed into the image of that glory. As Paul explained in I Corinthians 1-2 the natural man does not understand the cross and the things of God. They are nothing but foolishness to them. The difference, then, is that the believing person understands spiritual things and as such beholds the glory of God in them.
This basic concept is seen clearly from II Corinthians 4:4-6. In this we see what the glory of the Gospel really is. “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” (II Corinthians 4:6). We should note that the knowledge of the glory of God comes to man in the face of Christ. It comes to man when God shines into the heart of man to give the light of that knowledge. But notice that it is God Himself who shines in the heart. Christ Himself is the light and so all light of the glory of God must be Christ. What does the devil have to do to keep people from believing the Gospel? “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 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” (II Corinthians 4:3-4). The text does not tell us that the evil one tries to keep people from hearing the message of the Gospel, though he may do that in some instances, but he simply has to blind “the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” If the evil one can keep people from seeing the glory of Christ and of the Gospel, they will not believe. Unbelievers do not see the glory. Once they see the glory in truth, they are believers.
Let me try to draw this together. True faith is not simply an act of the will, but comes from a spiritual nature given in the new birth. But more than that, true faith must behold the glory of God in the face of Christ. It is the glory and beauty of the character of God that distinguishes the believer who believes the facts of the Gospel and is saved from the unbeliever who actually believes the facts of the Gospel intellectually and yet is not saved. The biblical Gospel is all about the glory of God as displayed and seen in Christ. All who do not see the glory of God in the Gospel have not seen the true Gospel and have not believed in Christ. So the Church must wake up and do its preaching, teaching, and evangelism in a far different way. People who have an intellectual belief in the facts of the Gospel without a sight of the glory of God do not have true faith and are not saved. They are exercising a faith that comes from a fleshly nature and rests in some facts that they believe are true, but they do not see Christ in His glory. The facts are true, but to see Christ in truth is to see Him in His glory. Surely we must teach people in a way that is conducive to them seeing the glory. That is different than what the Church is doing now.
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