John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
So we now have great numbers who oppose the person and glory of Christ under a pretense of sobriety of reason, as they vainly plead. Yea, the disbelief of the mysteries of the Trinity and the incarnation of the Son of God—the sole foundation of Christian religion—is so diffused in the world that it has almost devoured the power and vitals of it. Not a few, who dare not yet express their minds, give broad intimations of their intentions and good will toward Him, in making the object of their scorn those who desire to know nothing but Him and Him crucified. John Owen
It is important if not vital to note the importance Owen puts on the person and glory of Christ. It is not necessary to deny the important teachings of Christ openly, but instead if people don’t stress them and don’t teach them as Scripture sets them out they are denying them in practice. II Corinthians 4:3-4 sets this out quite clearly for us.
3 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.
It would appear from this text with that the devil fights and blinds people from the glory of Christ and His gospel by blinding people to the glory of it. It does not say that he blinds them to the intellectual awareness or knowledge of it, but to the glory of it. When the Gospel of Jesus Christ is drained of its glory by well-meaning people, they are doing the work of the devil as much as if they intended to do so. Christ prayed for people to see His glory, yet pastors will not preach the glory and so many academics deny it outright. There is no Gospel of the glory of Christ or the Gospel of the glory of God apart from the glory of God in the face of Christ being declared and set out.
The intrusion of fallen reason into theology starts off a chain of destruction. It is not just that unbelieving theology can be destructive to true Christianity, but professing believers and conservative professing believers can be destructive as well. It matters not what a person claims to believe or actually believe, fallen reason that has not bowed to the authority and glory of Christ can intrude into theology. The higher fallen reason is lifted the lower it will cause (in perception) the glory of the Gospel to fall. We must never forget that human nature is fallen and that includes its reasoning powers and the desires that drive the practice of reasoning.
Any doctrine or theology as such that is not primarily flowing from and back to the glory of God is false. The Gospel flows forth from the internal glory of God and is intended to point all hearts back to the glory of God. A so-called gospel that does not do that is false at some point if not all points. Preachers and those who practice something called evangelism can preach Christ crucified in such a way that it is nothing but a transaction and is not the very glory of God on display. Yet, when this is done the heart of the cross is gutted and the devil has succeeded in blinding people from the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.
Yes, it is true; there are many, many people today who deny the Trinity and the incarnation of the Son of God. In doing so, they have denied the very heart and glory of Christianity. Yet there appear to be many who do not openly deny the Trinity and the incarnation of Christ and yet they do deny it by not openly and clearly teaching these things. But again, it is possible to preach, teach, and evangelize of a crucified Christ and yet leave out the very glory of the cross by not setting out what makes the cross glorious. It is not just a man on the cross; it is the very Son of God on that cross fulfilling His promise to the Father to save the elect. At the cross we see the very glory of the triune God on display and so the glory of the cross is not just that Jesus went to the cross, but that the Father from all eternity had covenanted with the Son to be sent and that the Son covenanted to take human flesh and suffer and die on the cross. How easy it is to simply set aside the glory of the cross, the Gospel, and Christ Himself while preaching the basic truths of Christianity. How many pulpits across the land preach the cross each Sunday and yet the glory of Christ is simply not set forth? Satan is pleased when that is done.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment