{transcribed from audio} 2 Corinthians 3:18 - 4:7 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, arebeing transformed into the same image from one degree of glory toanother. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not loseheart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse topractice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statementof the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in thesight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who areperishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of theunbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of theglory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, withourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in ourhearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the faceof Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassingpower belongs to God and not to us. I know that you have gotten a heavy dose of Edwardsian theology. I hopethat what you will get now in the next half-hour is faithful, Biblicalexposition. I do believe that all that you have heard from this pulpithas been true and reflects the Scripture. I hope that it will be moremanifestly Biblical because of our exposition this morning. As you remember, I'm responding to an objection. The objection after Ilifted up the centrality of joy in the Deity and the centrality of joy inour glorifying Him. I raised the objection, "Where was the cross in allof that ? Where was the gospel in all of that ? Where was thejustification by grace alone through faith alone on the ground of therighteousness of Christ alone ? And where was regeneration in all of that?" And so that's what I'm responding to. Focus with me now for a few moments on the root of Jonathan Edwards'God-entranced vision of all things. It's rooted, it's sunk in threelevels of salvation that I see, especially in verses 4 and 6. The reasonthat Edwards vision of all things is so God-centered and so God-exaltingand so God-entranced is that each of the three levels that are mentionedin these two verses, verse 4 and verse 6, of 2 Corinthians 4; He issovereign, He is decisive, He is beautiful at each of the three levels. Let me read with you verse 4, and I'll point out the three levels brieflyand then we'll come back and let Edwards do the exposition. Verse 4: "In their case (those who are perishing, that is) the god of this worldhas blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing (nowwatch very carefully here and see if you see three levels in the nextwords ) the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the imageof God." Now notice the close parallel in verse 6: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in ourhearts to give (now notice the parallels) the light of the knowledge ofthe glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Let me just point out the parallels very carefully, as you look at verse4 and 6. Both verses have the term light: the light of the gospel, thelight of the knowledge. The word gospel is parallel to the word knowledgein verse 6. The light of gospel corresponds to light of knowledge. So thegospel he has in mind here is a proclamation of something that can beknown. And then the parallel of the glory of Christ in verse 4 to theglory of God in verse 6, followed by words that make plain that the gloryof Christ and the glory of God are the same glory. In verse 4, the gloryof Christ who is the image of God, and in verse 6, the glory of God whichshines out from the face of Christ. When you came face to face withChrist, as you read his history in the gospels, you come face to facewith God and the glory of God. So I hope you see the parallel structureof verse 4 and verse 6; now here are the three levels of salvation that Iwant to talk about. We'll start with the deepest level. I have them, levels is not the idealphrase, I apologize, you pick a better phrase. I'm gonna start with thedeepest level and move up. The deepest level of salvation is in thephrase "the glory of God in the face of Christ" in verse 6, or "the gloryof Christ, who is the image of God." This is the objective glory of God.Dr. Packard referred to this word kabod, or glory, having these multiplelayers of meaning. The glory in its intrinsic beauty, the glory emanatingout, the glory (Edwards word ) reminating back, and all of that, a Bibleuse of glory. This glory is the glory of Christ, the image of God, theglory of God in the face of Christ. This is the objective reality that'sout there in Christ and in God. Now I call this the deepest level of salvation. Because you can't gobeneath this on your way to hope and joy. There is no deeper reality,there is no higher or greater value than the glory of God in Christ. Whenyou have this, you are at the end of your quest. You have come home. Theglory of God is not a means to anything greater. You don't step on it onyour way to anything. This is ultimate reality. All true salvation endshere, not before and not beyond. There is nothing beyond and everythingbefore is not good enough. This is the end of salvation. This issalvation, the glory of God in Christ is what makes the gospel "gospel."The glory of God in Christ seen and finally possessed, and being as itwere, swallowed up into, is what makes the good news finally good.Nothing short of it is the end of the gospel. That's level one. Level two. I'm a sinner, and will be incinerated by that glory, if I gothere by myself in my righteousness. We need gospel events, we needsomething to have happened. So you see in verse 4, the word gospel, thelight of the gospel; and you see knowledge in verse 6, the light of theknowledge, I need to know something; something had to have happened inhistory that I can know that will somehow create a good news for asinner, who, if I were to approach the ultimate goal of the gospel, Iwould be consumed, destroyed, incinerated; because I'm so unworthy, havebeen such a rebel. And, therefore, we have this word gospel. That's leveltwo. We'll come back and talk about what it is. Level three. I don't want the gospel. I hate the gospel. I hate God. Why,I have all I want. Nobody would come to the gospel unless light dawned intheir hearts. So now we have light. This is the third level of salvation.Verse 4, light of the gospel. Verse 6, light of the knowledge. And then,back up to the beginning of verse 6, and you see the most clear statementof this miracle that has to happen for me, because in my fallenness, Ijust don't want the gospel, the cross is foolishness to me, the glory ofGod is boring to me, and I'm just not interested until God, who said atthe beginning of creation, "Let light shine out of darkness", has in acorresponding, miraculous, sovereign, Creator way, shone in my heart togive light. And suddenly I see. Glory, beauty, truth in what I once hadcalled foolishness and a stumbling block. Now those are the three levelsthat need to be opened. Those are the three levels in which theGod-entranced vision that you've been hearing from every speaker isrooted. Seeing, savouring, enjoying the glory of God is at the bottom.Then because we are guilty, hell-deserving sinners, there is Christcoming into the world to save sinners, proclaimed as gospel. And as itarrives to people who aren't the least interested in it, and don't wantit, and are rebels against it, a work of creation happens, called light,spoken by the Sovereign God. Those are the three levels. Let's letEdwards now talk to us, because he loved these levels, he understoodthese levels, he delighted in these levels; because he was a sinner. Level number one; the deepest level of salvation: the glory of Christ.Edwards believed that the glory of God in Christ was displayed,manifested most clearly in the gospel events. The work of Christ incoming, living a perfect life, and dying, and rising, and ascending, andreigning, and interceding. He believe that great glorious work was thebest display of the glory of God, which we will contemplate forever. Hebelieved that that gospel of Christ's saving activity carried in itsglory its own evidence, and was self-authenticating. So that when yousaw the glory of God in it, you knew you were seeing the glory of God init. Let me read you the way he puts it: "Thus the soul may have a kind of intuitive knowledge of the divinity ofthe things exhibited in the gospel; not that he judges the doctrines ofthe gospel to be from God, without any argument or deduction at all; butit is without any long chain of arguments; the argument is but one, andthe evidence direct; the mind ascends to the truth of the gospel but byone step, its divine glory." In other words, when the gospel is faithfully preached, and Christ livinga perfect life as our spotless high priest and righteousness and layinghimself down as a perfect lamb and raising himself up, "Nobody takes mylife from me: I lay it down of my own accord, and if I lay it down, Iwill take it again", rising up, proving, ascending. When that gospel isfaithfully preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, a divine gloryshines out through it, so that the spiritual eyes being illumined by thislight, may ascend by no long chain of argument to an absolute certaintythis is of God. Oh my, how miraculous and supernatural is the gospel. Edwards labored in his preaching to put the glory of Christ on display inthe gospel. Perhaps one of the best places, if you've bought anything ofEdwards, and if you bought the two works, it's in there. Maybe one of thebest sermons he ever did was "The Excellency of Christ." I've preachedmy version of it several times to my church over the 23 years, they don'tknow that, you don't know that, but I did. He took his text fromRevelation 5:5-6, where Christ is described as the "Lion of Judah" andthe "Lamb standing as though it had been slain" Lion of Judah, Lambslain. And he says, here's the doctrine he draw out... "There is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in JesusChrist." Now the reason I'm focusing on this, I'm going to read you the summary ofhis sermon that he himself wrote. The reason I'm focusing here to get atthe glory, because I do believe when I talk about the self-authenticatingChrist in the gospel, the self-evidencing Christ in the gospel; I don'tmean there's nothing you can say when you're sharing the gospel, and He'sjust got to do it, miraculously without the words. I don't mean that,Edwards didn't mean that, no gospel preacher has ever meant that. Wemean, we try to display with our inadequate language the diverseexcellencies which, when they come together, strike the hearer illuminedas inimitable on planet Earth by the resources in human nature. Andtherefore real true authentic of God. Lion and Lamb. And that he justworks these for probably 45 minutes. And I'll do it in 30 seconds. Hereit goes. Meeting together in Jesus Christ are infinite highness and infinitecondescension . . . infinite justice and infinite grace . . . infiniteglory and lowest humility . . . infinite majesty and transcendentmeekness . . . deepest reverence towards God and equality with God . . .infinite worthiness of good, and the greatest patience under thesufferings of evil . . . an exceeding spirit of obedience, with supremedominion over heaven and earth . . . absolute sovereignty and perfectresignation . . . and self-sufficiency, and an entire trust and relianceon God. And on and on we could go in declaring the excellencies, the diverseconvergence of excellencies in our Self-Authenticating Saviour. Do not beashamed to tell people of Christ. He will handle His being seen. That's the glory of Christ. To see him and be with him and to enjoy himis our final and all-satisfying salvation. The end for which we weremade - to spend eternity (to use Sam Storms words ) in the joys eternalincrease, (and to use Packer's and Lewis' phrase), the eternalenlargement of our enjoyment of that glorious Christ is the end ofsalvation and the deepest level of our salvation. However, I am a sinner, and so are you. I am guilty and I deserveeverlasting punishment in hell, because my sins are against an infinitelyholy God, and therefore, they are infinitely heinous, and therefore theydeserve an infinite punishment. So I will never enjoy the glory of God,because I will spend eternity in hell, cut off from the glory of God.Unless He has done something. Unless He has done something to save me.Save me for His glory. To enjoy His glory, to see His glory. And what Hehas done is called the gospel. So level number two: the level of the Gospel. 2 Corinthians 4:4 -- "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." Edwards loved, because he was a sinner; oh how he knew his sin, oh how heknew his hell, and oh how he knew his heaven. And because he knew his sinand his hell so well, he loved the double truth, the double truth , thatChrist satisfied the righteous wrath of God by dying in our place, andthat Christ performed a perfect righteousness which God reckons to us byfaith alone. This double truth is the heart of the gospel, and both arecrucial. Edwards was jealous for the whole glory of God. The whole gloryof God in Christ. He was jealous that Christ get glory as my substitutesacrifice, as my substitute sin-bearer, as my substitute punishment, asthe one who bears the curse and the wrath for me, and absorbs everythingthat would have crushed me eternally in hell. He loves to magnify Christas the one who does that. And he loves to glorify Christ as the one whocomes to believers and imparts to them a sanctifying righteousness. Andmakes us degree by degree into the image of Himself, and the glory ofFather. Real moral change wrought by Jesus' Spirit. He loves to magnifythe glory of his Saviour in those two ways, and he loves to glorify hisSaviour, who wrought out for him, lived out for him, a perfect obedienceand righteousness, demanded from me by God, which I never have nor evercan perform. Which will then be by grace alone, through faith alone,imputed to me freely, as the only ground of my acceptance. He loved tomagnify the whole glory of Jesus. Not two-thirds of the glory of Jesus.He loved the doctrine, the truth, the reality of justification by gracealone through faith alone, grounded on the righteousness wrought byChrist alone. And, oh how we ought to love our Saviour's whole work. Itought to be our song in the night. I'll stick this in, perhaps it will be significant. I was standing withthe choir back here, they're scattered all over the place now, prayingwith them before. And I didn't say it, but I thought this. We're prayingfor you, and exalting in the gospel; and I thought, and I should havesaid, "Some of you are going to sing at my funeral, please sing at myfuneral." Chuck, have a big choir. And know this. That at that funeral,or as any of us walk toward it, through the hospital bed, or through oldage, let us at those funerals, and on those hospital beds, love thiswork. This wrath-bearing, sin-bearing work. This imputed alienrighteousness of Christ. Which I never could have performed. Never ineternity could I be a righteous person, because I will always be the JohnPiper who, the cumulative Piper will always be a sinful Piper. There isno hope of acceptance with God in me and what I am. I must be clothed inan alien asbestos righteousness, transparent to the glory of God that cantake me into the flame of that 6 trillion degree centigrade holiness andenjoy it, instead of being consumed by it. I've got to have anotherrighteousness. Oh, Edwards loved the gospel. You know why ? Don't be afraid of thoseawful sermons you're going to see about hell and damnation. He loved thegospel because he felt so the weight of damnation. Listen, this isEdwards. "If it be allowed that it is requisite that great crimes should bepunished with punishment in some measure answerable to the heinousness ofthe crime . . . because of their great demerit and the great abhorrenceand indignation they justly excite: - it will follow that it is requisitethat God should punish all sin with infinite punishment, because all sin,as it is against God, is infinitely hateful to him, and so stirs upinfinite abhorrence and indignation in him." And there are two ways that God can settle these accounts. Either thatabhorrence and that just indignation against my rebellion and my sin andmy hardness of heart can be poured out on His Son, my substitute at thecross, or it can be poured out on me in my unbelief in hell forever.Those are the only two options if God is to be just. And praise be to Hisname, He did not just leave the second option to us. At the cost of Hisown Son, God did not spare (hear that word, and the heart of God) God didnot spare his own Son, (I have two of mine sitting down here, I have foursons) God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. He waswounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, uponhim, from his Father was the chastisement that made us whole, and by hisstripes we have everlasting healing. All of us like sheep have goneastray, we've turned every one of us to our rebellious own ways, and theLord, in unspeakable mercy, has laid on him, the iniquity, the wrath, thecurse, the guilt of us all. And he loved, he loved, the double truth; not only the satisfaction ofGod's wrath by the sin-bearing Son; but also the performance of arighteousness on my behalf which would grant me a title to heaven. Inother words, not only is my title to hell cancelled, but my title toheaven is provided. Let me read this for you, this is Edwards: "We are accepted, and approved of God as heirs of salvation," and we nowknow the deep fulness of that word, as heirs of salvation "not out ofregard to the excellency of our own virtue or goodness, or any moralfitness therein . . . but only on the account of the dignity and moralfitness of Christ's righteousness." He loved the double truth of the gospel. Let God speak. That I be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comesfrom the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, therighteousness from God that depends on faith. For Christ is the end or goal of the law for righteousness to everyonewho believes For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him wemight become the righteousness of God. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so bythe one man's obedience the many will be made righteous Double glory here. The glory of Christ as our sin-bearing substitute, andthe glory of Christ as our righteousness, which commends us to Godsufficiently, and without which, nothing can commend us to God. That'slevel two of our salvation, the gospel. There's another problem now, there's another problem. The natural mind,that is, the fallen mind, without any influences from the Holy Spirityet; the natural mind, worldly, does not want to be saved. It doesn'twant to be saved the way I have defined salvation, the way Paul isdefining, the gospel of the glory of Christ. Oh, the natural mind wantsout of hell. And will do anything you tell him to do to get out of there.Pray any prayer, sign any card, go to any meeting. The natural mind wantsto be healed of diseases. Of course, no regeneration needed there.Everybody wants to be well. The natural mind wants to go to heaven to bewith mom or wife or child. No spirituality in that, that's purelynatural. Oh sure, if salvation means escape from hell, a lot of nicethings happening in this life, and heaven with lots of either virgins orreunion with mom or eternal golf or something like that. Everybodywithout any new birth would want that. And if you offer it in those termswould probably take it. And you can build big churches that way. Level three is the level of regeneration, which is necessary because noneof those things are salvation. Enjoying forever with an eternalenlargement Christ who is the image of God is salvation. And nobody onplanet Earth wants to go there and do that. Nobody loves Christ more thanthey love being praised by men. Nobody loves Christ and delights inChrist more than sex and lust and pornography. Nobody loves Christ morethan succeeding at the job so that people look with favor upon us. Nobodyloves Christ more than wife and children and family. There's nobody thatwants to be saved, if salvation means enjoy Christ more than anything.And so in our rebellion and our darkness, we need to go to verse 6 andsee what has to happen. And pray as you go, that it would happen to you,if it hasn't already. God who said, Let light shine out of darkness -- now you see that's anallusion back to creation, so the analogy with what must happen in myheart is to the creative work of God out of nothing on the first day---For the God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in ourhearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the faceof Jesus Christ. The way anybody gets converted, the way anybody comes tosee and savour the glory of Christ as their greatest treasure and theirsweetest joy is that God sovereignly causes light to shine in the hearts;so that we're no longer stumbling about in the darkness, feeling a cross,and saying, "Stupid, ugly, boring." But the light comes on and we see aSaviour giving himself for us, we see a God reaching out to us with hisarms wide, saying, "Faith alone, trust alone, just fall into my arms asyour treasure." And we say, how can we not ? which is all that Calvinistsmean when they say irrestible grace. We don't mean any yanking aroundagainst anybody's will. The solution, what we need is not free will, weneed wills made free. We need that our...we're so enslaved to pride andmovies and sports and scholarship and ministry maybe and family. We'rejust enslaved to bad things and good things, so that we can't evenconceive in our minds of delighting in God above all things. Becausewe're so enslaved in what we will. We must be set free, we mustexperience the words of Jesus outside the tomb of Lazurus. "Lazurus, comeforth." And that word creates obedience. Lazurus, the dead man, obeyedthe command of the Sovereign Saviour. That's how anybody gets saved. Onlyit happens here in this verse with light. Let there be light, andsuddenly all the darkness that distorts reality and makes the fleetingpleasures of sin, which are poison taste like sweet wine, all thedarkness flees, and we say "Blcch", how could I have ever given myself tothat ?? And then we look at the fountain of everlasting life, and we say"How could I have ever committed such blasphemy as to turn away fromthat, and try to drink that arsenic ? Oh forgive me, I am so sorry."That's where repentance comes from. When we see, finally, by theillumination; what horrors we have committed in loving the unlovely. Edwards calls it regeneration. It's a fancy word, you know the biblicalword. It's being born again. We must be born again. He calls it a divineand supernatural light immediately imparted to the soul by the Spirit ofGod. That's the title I gave to this message. A divine and supernaturallight immediately imparted to the soul by the Spirit of God. I thinkthat's what you're reading in verse 6. Let there be light and lightimmediately is imparted to the soul. And what was once regarded as follyand a stumbling block becomes the wisdom of God, and the power of God. Listen to Edwards describing regeneration: "The first effect of the power of God in the heart in regeneration, is togive the heart a Divine taste or sense; to cause it to have a relish forthe loveliness and sweetness of the supreme excellency of the Divinenature." That's how you became a Christian. You didn't have to know that. I hopenow that you know it, you'll give Christ more glory. You'll give yourFather more honour, you'll give the Spirit his due. Before regeneration -before God creates the new taste for Christ - money and comfort and easeand security and sexual stimulation and food and success and family andproductivity and the praise of men tasted better than Christ. And afterregeneration they don't. Something has happened. God has shone in ourhearts, everything is illuminated. And the pleasures of this world areseen to be fleeting and suicidal. And God is seen to be permanent andinfinitely satisfying. What we once thought was bloody boring cross turnsout to be the beautiful treasure chest of holy joy. (or the one wethought was a bloody, boring fool turns out to be the beautiful treasurechest of holy joy) Now I'm moving to Friday's night message to make the connection. Edwardssays, "The change that takes place in a man, when he is converted . . . is notthat his love [or desire] for happiness is diminished, but only that itis regulated." Say it another way. When you're born again, your desires for happinessare not diminished, contradicted, thrown away, said to be sinful. Theyare simply now miraculously and spiritually given a whole new taste anddirection. Spiritual things, God Himself, Christ, the cross, the gloriouswork of redemption, become your portion. And you say with the psalmist"You have shown me the path of life, in your presence is fullness of joy,at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Here's my conclusion. I argued Friday night that Jonathan Edward'God-entranced vision of all things is essentially this: "God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen . . . but by itsbeing rejoiced in." And I drew out these implications. Our passion for satisfaction in God isa barometer of our passion for His glory; since He is glorified in ourbeing passionate for joy in Him. Our joy in Him is the barometer of ourglorifying Him. And I drew out this implication which follows from that.Not to pursue your joy in God is an insult to His glory. And the objection I raised was where in all of this talk is the cross ?where is justification by faith ? where is regeneration by the HolySpirit ? To which objection I now sum up the answer that we have alreadyseen. By the cross - that is, by the blood-shedding and the completedrighteousness of Christ - the wrath of God was removed, and the greatobstacle that it interposed between me and everlasting joy was takenaway. His suffering became my punishment, his obedience became myrighteousness, the curse of the law was borne by Christ in his dying, andthe demand and the command of the law was performed by Christ in hisliving and dying, so that the curse that was on me and the righteousnessthat was demanded from me is now Christ. If somebody asks me on my dyingbed, "What about the curse on sin and you're a sinner ?" I would say,"Christ is my curse and has taken it from me." And if they say, "Where'sthe righteousness that you performed, you proud imperfect father,husband, pastor ?... grumbler ? tell me that "...that's what Satan willsay when you're dying. And if you do not have ready, "Christ is myrighteousness," then the objection will stand. What has all this joytalk to do with you, John Piper ? It had nothing to do with me, unless adoor has been opened into paradise through Christ. It has everything todo with the cross. The cross is my only hope of everything you've heardin this conference. Because of sin. And standing in the way between me and everything Edwards has held out tome, and all the talks that you have heard is my disinterest as a carnalfallen human. I not only have guilt, I have rebellion, I still want it.Therefore I not only need the cross work of God in his providing asacrifice to absorb his wrath, and his providing a righteousness tosatisfy His demand...i need that. I can't even begin to have any title toHis presence but I need another great work of salvation in my life. I'm arebel who hasn't the least interest in coming to receive all this joythat you've been talking about. Frankly it sounds very boring to me, Iwant to just get out of this room and get to the game. And there's onlyone hope then. And that's regeneration. The One who said, Let there belight. Coming now in this room as we close, and doing a miracle by thegospel through the Spirit. Let there be light. And there was light. So, the cross, justification by faith, regeneration. What has that to dowith this ? Answer: everything. Because without the cross, withoutjustification by faith alone, without regeneration, I have no access tothe goal for which I was created. Namely, to display the glory of God inmy everlasting increase of enjoyment in Him. I have no access and nodesire, if it were not for the cross and justification and theregenerating work of the Spirit in my life. It's a great gospel, myfriends. I know that the vast majority of you revel in it, and would likenow to sing once more about it. So, I'm going to pray, Chuck's going tocome, and I'm going to let you tell the Lord how glad you are as we sing.But lets pray first. Father, I pray now for the miracle, perhaps for some it happened in thetwinkling of an eye as the Word was being spoken. For others, they willgo home now and tonight, late, they will be alone, and the thought willcome. Maybe I should think about this. Maybe I should pray. Maybe Ishould get out a Bible. And it would happen tonight. God, let it happen.Let none come under the hearing of this gospel and not see light. Theself-evidental, self-authenticating beauty of Christ who brings togethersuch diverse excellencies. Oh, Christ, we worship You. We are so gladthat Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. My chains fell off, and Iarose, and I went forth, and followed You. So that there is no, finally,no condemnation. Let's stand and sing it one more time.
