Behold the Lord: the Gospel of the Glory of Christ Shines into us and Through Us

The gospel of the glory of Christ shines into us, within our hearts, and out from within us so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ shines through us!

The gospel is of the glory of Jesus Christ, for it is the gospel of His glory that illuminates and shines forth; the god of this age is actively doing a work to blind the thoughts of the unbelievers and veil our eyes not to see Christ, but we need to turn our heart to the Lord and be unveiled to see Him face to face.

Even though God is invisible and we cannot sense Him with our physical senses, He has an image; Christ is the image of God.

When Christ came, God was manifested, declared, explained, and defined in Christ. For example, we know that God is love; this, however, may be quite abstract. But when Christ came, He expressed God as love.

In Luke 7 there was a widow who lost her only son, and many people joined in the funeral procession to console her. The Lord Jesus, though He was not even asked by the mother or anyone around Him for this, took the initiative to raise from the dead this young man and restore him to his mother.

This is how God as love looks like; if we look to Jesus, we see God as love.

On another occasion, we see that some parents brought their children to the Lord, but the disciples were like a bodyguard, keeping the parents away. When the Lord Jesus heard this, however, He became indignant with His disciples; He wasn’t upset with the children or the parents but with the disciples who were frustrating the parents from bringing the children to Him.

So He took the children in His arms, blessed them fervently, and therefore expressed God as love toward them.

If we want to see how God is like, we need to look to Jesus; as we read the Gospels, we will have a clear picture of how God is like.

One day the Lord Jesus went into the temple and realized that people are using the temple not for worship but for commerce.

In John 2 we see that they were trading, making money, and doing business in the temple, instead of worshipping God. So He made a whip of cords and cast out all the animals and turned over the tables of the money changers. He expressed God in His jealousy, for He said, Don’t make My house a house of merchandise!

This is how God is in His righteousness. If we come to Christ, if we enjoy Christ, and if we allow Christ to infuse us with Himself, we will know who God is, what God is like, and what does God want. Our mind, however, needs to be renewed again and again to such an extent that we have a clear view of Christ as the image of God.

Escape the Blinding Work of the god of this age and Behold the Lord to be Infused with Him

In 2 Cor. 4:4, Paul informs us that the god of this age – who is the ruler of this world – has blinded the thoughts of the unbelievers that they may not see the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The gospel is the shining forth of God, but the people in the world are blinded, veiled, and unable to see, because the god of this age is doing an active work of blinding them. Satan is the god of this age, the ruler of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Eph. 2:2), and he dominates today’s world.

He hunts of people’s worship by blinding their thoughts and minds. Oh Lord Jesus! God in Christ is shining through the gospel, but the god of this age blinds the minds of the unbelievers to stop them from seeing and receiving the shining.

Satan is working all the time, even right now. He is working tirelessly to blind us and cause us to be veiled so that we don’t see Christ as the effulgence of God’s glory.

We may even be in a meeting with the saints, and then we check our phone to see what the notifications are; five or ten minutes later we realize that we have been completely out of it while checking our phone.

We may have a time with the Lord and enjoy good fellowship with Him, but we may entertain a thought or a concern, and we may be led away from the Lord for a while.

The god of this age is working to blind us and veil us so that we don’t see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

We all can testify that the enemy uses so many things, situations, and matters to distract us from the enjoyment of Christ. We must hate the enemy.

We must hate his blinding work. We must not settle for the blinding work, thinking that this is how things are; rather, we need to turn our heart to the Lord and allow Him to remove any veils so that we may see Him face to face.

The god of this age is Satan, the ruler of the present age, who dominates today’s world and hunts for people’s worship by blinding their minds and thoughts. The Lord Jesus said that the ruler of this world is coming and in Him he has nothing.

We used to walk once according to the age of this world, but now we have been saved and rescued from this world to serve the Lord.

Satan uses everything in the world to distract us from the enjoyment of Christ. And with us, the believers in Christ, the enemy uses all kinds of good things, moral things, and even scriptural things that are apart from Christ in order to veil us so that we don’t see the illumination of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh Lord!

There are veils that cover today’s Christians, making them very touchy about their doctrines, way of living, and ordinances. Satan, the subtle one, is crouching in their minds, lurking in the mentality of the Christians who are veiled today.

May we be on the alert today. May we realize that it is possible for anything that is not Christ Himself to be used as a veil by Satan, the subtle one.

Satan even uses the Scriptures or the law given by God as veils. Though the law of God is good, holy, and spiritual, Paul testified in Rom. 7 but even this can veil him and keep him down and away from enjoying God in Christ as life. Satan can use even the highest spiritual gift to veil our understanding.

Anything that is not Christ Himself can be used by Satan to veil us and blind us so that we don’t see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

We may see this and we may realize how much the enemy tries to blind us and veil us but how can we get out of this? It is not by our trying or striving, nor is it by our perfecting ourselves or using our efforts.

We need to open to the Lord, turn our heart to Him, and worship Him.

We need to pray to the Lord and trust in Him to defeat the god of this age. We need to actively choose to worship no one and nothing apart from God.

We simply need to worship God and drop all our concepts, behind which the enemy hides to use them to blind us and veil us. Sadly, all the people today – whether primitive or highly cultured, have been blinded by the god of this age.

Whether people are primitive or religious, whether they are in the supermarket or in today’s chapels and cathedrals, whether they are on the street or in denominational buildings, all men are blinded and veiled by the enemy not to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But if we turn our heart to the Lord and pray to open to Him and worship only Him, the divine light will shine, and we will receive revelation.

If we believers in Christ drop our concepts and turn our heart to the Lord (2 Cor. 3:16), the veils will be taken away, and the god of this age will have no ground in our being.

Whenever the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. We may be veiled, but when our heart turns to the Lord, the veils are removed. May we come to the Lord desperately and tell Him honestly,

Lord Jesus, we trust in You to defeat the god of this age. You see how much the enemy uses all kinds of things to veil us so that we don’t see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ! Oh Lord, we turn our heart to You. Apart from You, we do not worship anything or anyone else. We turn our heart to You and we drop all our concepts. We choose to worship You and be one with You in all things. Save us from the blinding work of the enemy. Cause our heart to turn to You so that the veils may be removed! Amen, Lord, we want to see You face to face and be infused with You! We are willing to drop our concepts and turn our heart to the Lord so that we may behold You with an unveiled face and reflect You! Amen, Lord, may the god of this age have no ground in our being. Grant us to be fully unveiled so that we may behold You, be infused with You, and shine You forth as the gospel! Hallelujah, whenever the heart turns to the Lord, the veils are taken away, and we can behold and reflect the Lord!

The Gospel of the Glory of Christ shines Into us and out from Within us – the Light of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ Shines out through us!

If we believers in Christ are watchful and diligent to deal with any veils that the enemy tries to put over our eyes, and we are able to behold the Lord Jesus face to face, we are infused with Him, and the glory of God will shine on the face of Jesus Christ in our spirit.

As we behold the Lord Jesus, we also reflect Him. The gospel of Christ is the gospel of His glory that illuminates and shines forth. Amen! The more we are unveiled and behold the Lord, the more the gospel of the glory of Christ shines into us (2 Cor. 3:16-18).

God is invisible, but Christ, the Son of God’s love, is HIs image; Christ expresses what God is. Christ is the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of His substance (Heb. 1:3).

When we receive the gospel, we don’t receive mere doctrine; we receive the gospel of the glory of Christ, for something of God shines on the face of Jesus Christ and is impressed into us.

The more we open to the Lord and deal with any veils that hinder us from seeing Him, the more we are saturated with the glory of the Lord.

Eventually, this inner glory will consume us, swallow us up, and fill our entire inner being. Then, the Lord will have a way to shine out through us!

The gospel of the glory of Christ shines first into us and then out from within us! This shining is not a teaching or an impartation of doctrine; this shining comes through our experience of Christ as the glory of God and the manifestation of God.

The image of God refers to the expression of God and the fullness of God, that is, Christ Himself. God is invisible, but even though He dwells in unapproachable light and is invisible, He has a visible image (Col. 1:15). Christ declared Him, expressed Him, and manifested Him.

Now this Christ is the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of His substance, and we can behold Him in our spirit with an unveiled face.

The more we spend time with the Lord and turn our heart to Him, being willing to drop our concepts so that we can simply behold Him face to face in His word, the more He has a way to infuse us with Himself. He shines on us and He also shines within us. He wants to shine in the depths of our being so that He may infuse us with all that He is.

Through His shining, He brings in the element of God into us and transforms us into His image.

Thank the Lord that we have received His shining; now He is shining within us, and as we allow Him to shine and infuse us with Himself, He will also shine through us. The Lord shines throughout our entire inward being, and He shines forth from within us to those around us!

The goal of God’s economy is that we may express God, that is, that we may shine forth the glory of God! And this will happen: the New Jerusalem for eternity will bear the glory of God, for God shines through Christ and through the city to express and manifest the glory of God to the entire universe! Amen!

Today, however, we need to open to His shining and deal with anything that hinders His shining. We need to place ourselves under the Lord’s shining day by day so that He may saturate us with Himself. When He shines on us and within us, we enjoy the sweetness of Christ living in us to be our life and person.

When we allow Him to shine within us and also through us, the gospel of the glory of Christ will shine forth through us. Others around us will see something and taste something of God in us, something that is different from anyone else.

They will sense that the Lord is with us, and they will smell a fragrance of Christ. To some, this fragrance will be to life, and to others, it will be unto death. May the Lord have a way to shine on us, within us, and through us in an unhindered way!

Lord Jesus, may the gospel of the glory of Christ shine in us today! Remove all the veils from our eyes to see You! Amen, Lord, we drop our concepts and we turn our heart to You today. May the glory shile within us. May Your glory penetrate our being and saturate it. Oh, may the inner glory consume and swallow up our entire inner being! We just open to You. We are willing to deal with any distractions and frustrations to Your shining in us and within us. We desire to have Your shining within us today. Hallelujah, Christ has shone into the depths of our being, and now He is shining within us! We say Amen, Lord, to Your shining within! Shine within us and shine through us! Oh, may the glory of God shine in us, shine within us, and saturate us to shine through us! Amen, Lord, may the gospel of the glory of Christ shine through us to those around us to bring God to them and infuse God into them!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Galatians, msg. 4 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2) (2024 December Training), week 17 (msg. 5), Christ as the Image of God and the Treasure.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Whenever the heart shall turn to the Lord, / The veil shall be taken away. / So turn your heart to the Lord all the day, / And the veil shall be taken away. / Now the Lord is that Spirit, / And where the Spirit of the Lord is, / There is liberty—such liberty! / Whenever the heart shall turn to the Lord, / The veil shall be taken away. (Hymns #1345)
  – As a glass, beholding / With uncovered face, / I can see His glory / And reflect His grace. / O that no more covering / May the Lord obscure, / That I may reflect Him / With a heart made pure. / Gazing on His glory, / Face to face to see; / Constantly beholding, / Ever would I be. (Hymns #399 stanzas 3-5)
  – Life is full of opportunities / Ordered by our Father’s hand: we see / Everything’s the best that it could be, / So let’s gain Christ! / Christ our content and reality / To shine out from us unceasingly: / He must have a way in you and me, / He must have a way. / Hallelujah! In the body we / Bear the death of Christ continually: / Thus His life comes forth for all to see as / The outer man is broken down, / The inner man is shining so that— / In these earthen vessels men can see / There’s the treasure of reality! / Thus the gospel’s glorious light will be / Shining out from us. (Hymns #1178 stanza 2)