Just over two years ago, I began our study in the Gospel of Matthew during our Sunday morning beach service. Now finally, we are in the last few verses of the last chapter. And what a tremendous blessing it has been in my life and I trust in others as well to take such an in depth, careful look at the life of Jesus Christ through the book of Matthew.
While all of Scripture, from the Old Testament through Revelation, has the common theme of the Christ, there is something special about the gospels. There we see Jesus Christ unveiled in His glory. And looking at the glory of Christ unveiled is the source of our sanctification. As it says in our text we are studying this Wednesday evening at our mid week Bible study, 2 Corinthians 3:18 “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.” When you look in the mirror, do you see Jesus Christ? I know I don’t even like looking in the mirror. I see too much I don’t like there. But when I look at the mirror of God’s word, I see Jesus first, then I see myself in all my inadequacies revealed, but then, by the mercy of God, I see the glory of Christ reflected on my reflection, as I am being transformed day by day by the Holy Spirit.
There is no substitute for looking at the unveiled face of Jesus Christ in His Word. It is the means to our sanctification. And the purpose of our sanctification, in fact even our salvation, is to transform us into the image of God. Salvation and the benefits which follow are not designed to make us merely happier, more successful citizens of earth, but to transform us into citizens of heaven, resulting in the view as the hymn writer said, that when we “turn our eyes upon Jesus… the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
Both Paul and James use the picture of a mirror in context with the Word of God. And there is no better place to see Christ. John starts off in his gospel describing the eternal Christ as the Word, existing with God and as God before time began. How thankful we should be that to see Jesus today, we need only to pick up His Word. We don’t need to travel to Jerusalem, or climb some high mountain, or seek Him in some church or cathedral, we need only to look at the Word, and we see Him.
John went on to say that “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. He was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.” But 2 Cor. 4 says that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel.” Our job then, our ministry, is to be the reflection of that glory of God, that the blazing light of Christ would shine from us like it did from Moses when he came down from spending time with God and delivered the old covenant to the Israelites. Christ has come to us with unveiled face, bringing the good news of the new covenant, fully shining the light of God on us as we look on His face, so that we might also shine the light of God in the darkness of the world.
“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.”
As we continue to preach Jesus Christ on the beach this season, we are careful that we are “not walking in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God”, but by the manifestation of the truth continuing in this ministry which we have received from God. I hope you will join us and strive with us as we shine the light in Bethany Beach.
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