Saturday, February 16, 2008

Hidden truths

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3-6).

In this passage, Paul responds to the accusation that he has been putting a veil over the Gospel of Christ. Paul was a very educated man; he could look into the Bible with the eyes of a scholar and understand things that many Christians struggle with. But when Paul wrote of these mysteries, some people complained that he was too intellectual; by writing in the way that he did, they felt that he was hiding the truths of God behind big words and advanced philosophical arguments. Some people blamed Paul’s God-given brilliance for their inability to understand God’s saving Gospel.

But Paul was not willing to accept the blame for a person’s failure to understand the Gospel. Instead, Paul points out that when people don’t understand, it is really for one of two reasons—either they don’t understand because Satan has veiled God, or because God has veiled Himself.

First, let us talk about Satan. We know that the devil is the master of deception. Jesus called him the father of lies (John 8:44). If there is anything that Satan fears, it is the truth—because Jesus said the truth will set you free (John 8:32). Paul identifies Satan as the god of this age. How has Satan succeeded in getting the majority of mankind to worship him? By telling people whatever it is that they most want to hear. Which god encourages you to look out for your own interests: the one who says "stick up for your rights!" or the God who says love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you (Luke 6:27-28)? Which god sounds more fun: the one who says "if it feels good, do it!" or the God who says If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Matthew 16:24)? Which god seems to offer you the most freedom: the one who says "it’s up to you to give your life meaning" or the God who says if you love me, you will obey what I command (John 14:15)?

Because we are by nature sinners, we don’t enjoy being told to be submissive. Human beings are much more interested in listening to teachers who speak about empowerment, rights, and the freedom to do as we wish with our lives. But does Satan really intend to give power, rights and freedom to those who follow him? Of course not—the reason that Satan was banished from heaven is because he wanted to rule. A follower of Satan has no real power or rights or freedom—Satan ensnares such people in a web of addictions, dysfunctional relationships, and exhausting pursuit of ever-changing goals. A follower of Satan never knows any lasting satisfaction with his or her life.

If anyone looked at the devil's temptations in the clear light of day, it would be immediately obvious how empty Satan’s promises are. But Satan is the master of deception; whenever a person starts to look towards the truth, the devil immediately tries to distract him and get him to look at something else. "Don’t get up to go to church today; it’s a great morning for sleeping in." "Don’t read that Bible now; there are chores that need doing." "Don’t get involved in a prayer; the news is coming on."

If distracting us doesn’t work, Satan tries to raise doubt in our minds about God’s word. "God says that you are evil from birth? What nonsense—people only do bad things because they are victims of bad parents, bad teachers, and bad political leadership!" "God forgives you just by your asking? He doesn’t expect you to make it up to Him by offering some kind of harsh personal sacrifice? That doesn’t make sense!" It is by distracting us from paying attention to God’s word, and by making fun of what it says to us, that Satan puts a veil between us and the Gospel of life. For the unbeliever, Satan’s lies obscure God’s truths.

But God also veils His glory from us, and He does so for two reasons. The first reason is His mercy. It is true that we are all evil from birth; David wrote surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me (Psalm 51:5). It is also true that God is holy, and that nothing sinful can stand before Him lest it be destroyed by the Lord’s blazing purity. Thus it is unsafe for we sinners to approach God too closely; throughout the Bible, fear is always the response of sinful men when God or one of His holy angels appear to them. As an example, when God gave evidence of His presence at Mount Sinai, the frightened Israelites told Moses speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die (Exodus 20:19).

But God does not want us to be afraid to approach Him; God wants to walk with us, hold us, speak with us and listen to us. So God had to veil His holiness in the body of a man. This man is Jesus Christ, the Son of God veiled in the form of an ordinary-looking human. Isaiah said of Him, He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him (Isaiah 53:2). Jesus deliberately took on an appearance that would never frighten anyone away. Mark records that people were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them (Mark 10:13); Jesus’ appearance and manner were accessible and inviting to all.

Yet in spite of His ordinary appearance, Jesus was God come down to earth; Paul writes in Colossians 2:9 that in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James and John were permitted a brief glimpse of the glory that Jesus’ human body concealed: As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning (Luke 9:29). By hiding this glory of the divine in a human body, God made Himself safe for us to approach; in Jesus, we never need to fear that God’s holiness will destroy us for coming too close to our Lord.

The other reason that God veils His glory is to prompt our growth as Christians. God wants us to look beyond the superficial. You remember Thomas, the disciple who did not believe the others when they told him that they had seen Jesus returned to life on Easter evening. It was not until Jesus appeared to him in person, showing him the scars of His death on the cross to pay for all human sin, that Thomas joyfully called Him My Lord and my God! But Jesus responded Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20:28-29).

Why does Jesus place such importance on faith in what remains unseen? Why doesn’t our Lord perform flashy miracles every now and again to get peoples’ attention? It’s because flashy miracles don’t keep people faithful to God. God visited ten horrendous plagues on Egypt, none of which harmed the Israelites held captive there; God led the Israelites to freedom from slavery through a dry tunnel carved out of the waters of the Red Sea, led them through the desert in a the form of a column of cloud by day and a column of fire by night; God fed them with bread that miraculously formed out of the dew each morning, and showed them His glory on Mount Sinai—yet after only 40 days of waiting, while Moses spoke with God on the mountain, the Israelites were asking Aaron the high priest to use their gold to make a statue of a calf that they could start worshiping as their god! Flashy miracles don’t keep people loyal to God. Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding. Jesus cured people who were blind, deaf and paralyzed. Jesus walked on water, and stopped a storm with a spoken command. Jesus fed in excess of 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus even raised several people from the dead. Yet, less than a week after His latest miracle of healing, the people shouted to Pilate Crucify him!

Flashy miracles can produce a superficial relationship with God, but they do not build a lasting relationship with Him. What builds a lasting relationship is faith—trust in the love and power of the Son of God to save. It is faith that accepts Jesus as the Son of God made man to die for our sins. It is faith that believes the disciples who have assured us that Jesus returned to life after our sins put Him in the grave, thus proving that He has buried our guilt where it can no longer drag us to hell. It is faith that moves us to go to Jesus for mercy, trusting that He will forgive us because John writes if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). It is faith which assures us that, even on the most depressing of days, even on days where His presence seems to be veiled from us, our Lord Jesus is at work looking out for our best interests.

Jesus commends us for having faith in what we cannot see—a sacrifice of atonement for all sin on the cross, that happened long before cameras could record the event, a living Savior who is presently unseen by our eyes. But Jesus has given us proof to bolster our faith—Paul writes For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. The proof of Jesus’ saving work is in the lives of those who believe in Him. When God’s light shines in our hearts so that we can see the truth about Jesus as our Savior, our lives are changed. The person who believes in Jesus starts to question the lies of the god of this world. It is the Christian who asks "what’s the point of defending my rights if it keeps me from reaching out to others in love?" It is the Christian who asks "why should I waste the years of my life trying to give it meaning and purpose before I die, when Jesus loves me and has worthwhile goals for me to pursue?" It is the Christian who asks "what’s the point of spending my time and money on having fun, if I end up spending eternity lonely and miserable in hell?" When a Christian begins to challenge the conventional thinking of this world, it is clear evidence that Jesus is at work within him, changing his outlook on life, death and eternity.

It is true—the gospel of Christ is veiled. Satan casts distractions and confusion into our lives to keep us from seeing God’s truths revealed in Christ. God has hidden the power of His frightening glory behind the friendly, welcoming face of His beloved Son Jesus, so that we can approach our God in joy and safety. And the majority of Jesus’ miracles are not flashy or showy, because such miracles are quickly taken for granted or forgotten. Instead, our Lord works quiet miracles in our daily lives—miracles of sins forgiven and faith nourished through Word and Sacrament; miracles of relationships healed, old hurts forgiven, and strength to face even the toughest of life’s challenges with hope for the future. The Gospel is veiled to some, but not to we who are willing to look beyond the superficial to see our Savior’s hand holding ours every day of our lives.

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