“The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ”

God’s anointing upon the Church is the Gift of seeing “Jesus only”, “...to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2.Cor.4:6)

We saw last week that it is in “Jesus only”, - in His uniqueness, in His glory - the brilliance of His glory, the richness of His glory, the exceeding majesty and greatness of His glory - that the content of spirituality is, and it is in no one, nor in anything else.

It is this glory, to which we are now committed, toward which the whole creation is moving.

And the integrity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ compels the Church to hold firm in the uniqueness of Christ and His glory and the revelation of God that comes through Him.

Briefly, these are the things we have looked at together. 

Now, let us go on and look at the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ together.

The entire universe, is awaiting its fullest, complete redemption and function in Christ in His many facets and features.

Paul, in Romans 8, looked ahead eagerly to this fulfilment, 
of “the heirs of God, and the joint-heirs of Christ” (verse 17) coming into all that Christ is in His exalted glory.

In verse 18 he concluded, “...For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
Paul is thinking about how certain the future glory is, and how great it will be.

In essence, he says, ‘We do not realize how great this will be until we recognize that the whole cosmic order - all things, inanimate and animate - are restored to God’s full plan’. 

And that is true.

We do not realize even half of the glory that is stored up  in God’s full thought.

Although God’s glory is something He alone possesses entirely and inherently, Scripture emphasizes the revelation of His glory in the “face of Jesus Christ”.

In the transfiguration was not only the proof of His Deity,
as true, as wonderful, and as glorious as that alone is.

But, it was also proof of the absolute, essential, and victorious humanity that is found only in Him.

It was the revelation of what He was going to restore to those who trust Him, to the Church, the members of His Body.

So, the disciples, while they were with Him there, were given a momentary view of that glory. 

They suddenly saw a change come over Jesus: His face began to shine like the sun, and His clothes became white and resplendant with dazzling light.

His whole body was radiant with light in the refulgence of His divine Person, a refulgence that was as brilliant as the sun itself.

This extended to His entire form, for His very garments had the translucent whiteness of pure light, - a truly remarkable happening.

And what was taking place?

The Glory covering His manhood, was represented by the outshining of that glory in His garments.

What they were faintly seeing was the glory of His perfected humanity.

They would, one day, see in Him His innocence in, not only not having sinned, but in being completely without sin.

They would, one day, see how absolutely sinless in nature, being - “...tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15) 

And at the same time - to be man’s perfection in that nature, He was made to face the cruelest of temptations and still not sin.

A holy man is infinitely greater than an innocent man.

A holy man is not merely a man in whose nature sin has been subdued.

But, a holy man is a man who has looked into the face of sin and voiced an emphatic ‘NO!’.

His glory towered in His emphatic ‘NO!’ to the temptations of sin in which He stood to perfect Manhood.

So Jesus, on the mountain, gave them this quick, remarkable glimpse of His perfected humanity, that humanity that passed through innocence, holiness, and on to final, absolute perfection that His glory exchanged for man’s imperfection.  

This revelation came to His disciples there on the mountain, the revelation that - without death - He was shown as the spiritual Man, the crowning glory of His humanity.

Thus, in Him, God’s Ideal Man is found - He Who was absolutely sinless, innocent, holy, and perfect in all His conquests and victories in His life among men.

Let me, for just a moment, draw your attention to Dan.12:9-10: “And He [the Lord] said, Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and refined...”.

This is a revelation regarding the end time that Daniel received.

It distinctly showed that the end of things is not so revealed as that men shall be able to know it beforehand with certainty.

Daniel was commanded to preserve what was written so that it would be capable of being read right down to the end of time and used by God’s people as a strengthening tool.

The message declared that God’s people would be purified.

It would come through tribulations and hard things which His people will endure to the end.

Of course, we are well aware that, Jesus, as He moved to His earthly end, told of the many things He ‘must needs suffer’.

And, becoming a Savior was the achievement of God’s Son, in facing triumphantly the full demands of His humiliation.

But, He also told His followers who would make up His Church that they, too, would suffer many hard things.

So, the message Daniel declared was well in line with Jesus’ declarations of this.

Daniel had been told, that the wise who understand the message of sufferings will be purified and made white by the afflictions. 

The Lord Jesus, in Luke 5:36, uttered a parable in which He showed that what He had to bring to humanity was not a ‘patch’, but it was the ‘whole new garment’ of life.

He told His listeners that a patch ruins the rest of the new garment from which it was taken.

It does not help to preserve the old garment - that only makes it conspicuously incompatible, unsuitable, inharmonious.

The old needs to be replaced by the new.

In Rev 7:9, John was impressed by the white robes that the great multitude of people standing before the Throne of God wore.
They were there for they had been accepted and honored as God’s true servants - His Church.

The white robes symbolized the new garments they had obtained by the washing and making white in the blood of the Lamb, of those faithful witnesses who followed Him into His death. (verse 14)

They had been prepared for this for they were wearing the  garment of His perfected humanity.

They had received God’s Gift to His Church on earth: - a glorious Conqueror of life for the Church to absorb in all of His perfected humanity.

It is this Glory of His Perfection that has raised the Church to its blessing of its absolute Righteousness in its life, in its work, and in its service.

This was to be glory to its fullest measure - the fullest 
measure to which man’s redemption can reach, a glory directly imparted to His own, to His Church.

This is what Paul had in mind in Romans 8 - what Christ’s second coming means.

This is what the changing of the bodies of our humiliation means - that they may be changed to the Body of His glory, the Church changed to that Body of holiness and perfection of His Life in witness to His Salvation Power.

It is in His Church corporate that - holiness and glory fit together in total compatibility, and Jesus alone has worked it so.

In the flashing glory of that bright scene, these men had unveiled before their eyes what the glory of Christ was to be like.

They caught a fleeting sight of Him in the glory of perfected humanity. 

As the vision passed, these three men - representative of His Church to come - saw “no man but Jesus only”.

Mystified, while yet illumined, having been given a glimpse of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, they followed Him in His descent from the mountain.

They did not understand it at the time, but His way through the suffering of the Cross would unveil the mystery for them.

They would see Him continuing on, humbling Himself - go on through His ignominious Cross, through death on to the Resurrection, and then to His Ascension, and on to His seating on the right hand of God in Majesty.

Through His sufferings in manhood, His perfect humanity worked a new quality of life, the glory as of the “only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

It is a new quality of experience, a new measure of His power, a new awareness of the Church’s character in cooperation with God’s purpose, a new consciousness of the splendor and the glory that surrounds the corporate Church. 
 
In Him, the Church has its blazing Light, a Light stunning in glory, unlimited with power, in the outshining of the glory of His perfected humanity.

The Church functions perfectly and fully out of this new place - in the place of His glory alone.

And how has it reached this place of ministry in His glory alone?

Actually, it has taken place, all along, in the context of individual families, within the context of daily living, within the context of the believer’s community - the perfected Man, - in, by, and out from Whom we learn to live.

It has been all brought about in the power of His glory as the Church looked at “Jesus only”, in the crucible of testing.

It was conformed to be His true Servant, robed in His perfect humanity.

And He has transformed it so that it has become a part of the manifestation of His full glory. 

What seems to be the latest trend today in religious pursuits is termed [quote, unquote] ‘Experiencing God’.

Thank God for the hunger, that it seems to indicate!

But - from where will the Light come to satisfy that hunger?

It is the Church that knows the avenue of fulfilment, of satisfaction.

Here is where the Church in its corporate function, in the place of the glory of God, stands ready in its effectual ministry, to give the answer.

It will echo loudly, clearly, emphatically, and triumphantly:   ‘It is in the face of Jesus Christ and the glory of His perfected humanity’.

He was transfigured so that men may see the Divine Glory - the Glory of God and the Glory of the Son of Man, and thus ‘know and experience’ the only true and living God. 

Let me conlude this message with the admonition of 
Rom.12:1-2: “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, well-pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well-pleasing and perfect.”  - and 
Rev.5:12: “...Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”

Song: # 263
      “Now unto Him Who is able to keep, 
       able to keep you from falling,
       and present you faultless before
       the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy.
       To the only wise God, our Savior,
       be Glory and Majesty, Dominion, and Power,
       both now and forever. Amen
       
Eph.3:20-21: “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding 
abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to            the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations of the age of the ages.”    AMEN.