[T]he fight for joy is first and always a fight to see. Seeing the glory of Jesus Christ in the gospel awakens joy. And joy in Christ magnifies his worth. That is why Satan aims chiefly at blinding us us from seeing Christ for who he is. He hates to see Christ honored. And Christ is mightily honored when the sight of his glory gives rise to the kind of gladness that cuts the nerve of sin and causes radical sacrifice in the cause of the gospel.If you have avoided risk-taking love lately when it was clearly called for (I know I have), the solution is not to beat yourself up over it, but to see once again "the glory of Jesus Christ in the Gospel."
Paul tells us about this design of Satan in 2 Corinthians 4:4: "The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of god." If joy in Christ, with all the risk-taking love that flows from it, is to be stopped, then seeing the glory of Christ must be blocked. That is Satan's chief employment.
This is to be taken as a gentle but firm admonition to all who preach (or blog) in the name of Jesus. Is the end result of our preaching (or blogging) that people after hearing (or reading) our words cand truly say that their vision of "the gospel of the glory of Christ" has been clarified, enhanced, made bright?
No comments:
Post a Comment