“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.
Genesis 3:1ff sets out the doctrine and reality of the fall. What happened is that the serpent promised Eve that she would be like God. Evidently Eve believed the promise and ate of the fruit. Adam then ate the fruit and spiritual death happened immediately and man also began to die physically. But the promise that man would be like God is indeed the nature of the fall into sin. The essence of the fall is that man wants to be like God and so is now proud. It is nothing but pride that would make men even think that he can be like God. As Romans 1:18-32 sets out; man has to suppress the truth about God in order to sin. Man is always exchanging the glory of God for something lesser, and that lesser is always himself. Man thinks that he can live according to his own will and wisdom. Man thinks that he can obtain his own righteousness and this is known as self-righteousness. Man loves himself and so lives as his own chief end and goal in all he does rather than love God in all that he does.
The Gospel is God’s work in setting man right and bringing man back to living for His glory. The true Gospel must be something that would lead men to exchange seeking their own glory to seeking the glory of God. Can anything but the Gospel of the glory of God do that? The true Gospel must be something that leads men to suppress the sin in their hearts for the glory of God. The true Gospel must be so glorious that it will lead men to living by His wisdom and will rather than seeking their own. The true Gospel must be so glorious that it will deliver man from trying to obtain his own righteousness and rely on the righteousness of God through Christ alone. The true Gospel must turn a man from self-love to a love for the glory of God so that all the man does is for the glory of God. As you can see from comparing the present paragraph with the previous one, the Gospel must turn men from serving, loving, and trusting in self to serving, loving, and trusting in God.
I can’t think of anything more deceptive than a man-centered gospel. A man-centered Gospel comes to man who is a slave to his own self-love and tells him that God loves him so much that He sent His Son to die for him. Now all man has to do is to trade some sinful actions for eternity in heaven. All man has to do is to make a choice and go to church and be reasonably good. With this method God is thought to be centered on man and would do almost anything to save man. Man is left in his own self-love and pride and so is never truly humbled in order to see the glory of the true Gospel. Whenever the true Gospel is heard by people like this, they hate it since it calls upon them to deny their chief love which is self and to follow Christ. They do not want to follow Christ but rather follow their own wills and loves.
In lowering the view of God the Church has exalted man to the center stage. We have kicked the living God out of Church and replaced Him with many little gods. Each human being is a god to himself and he will have the church operate as he wants and it must operate in a way that pleases him. After all, he is god to himself and wants everybody else worship him. The Gospel of the glory of God must be preached or the churches will remain full of little gods. To rephrase one Scripture, each god will be doing what is right in his own eyes. The truth of the exalted God has been lowered and so the true Gospel has been lost. What has happened is that man has lowered the truth of God and so has exalted himself. The Gospel of the glory of God, therefore, as been lowered to be the gospel about how all the gods can retain their godhood. The exalted man cannot bear to hear of a rival in terms of the Gospel of the glory of God. Low views of God destroy the Gospel.
God Loves... Himself 
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