Thoughts with regard to 2Corinthians 4:6 and a reference to Psalms 19:1

2Corinthians 4:6 “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Dear reader, consider what Divine poetry, what a manifestation of perfect, unbroken order is given: From the light of nature to the second coming, all things point to Christ the glory of God who will in that last day unveil His sovereign Kingship over all without measure. Saint and sinner, saved and lost, will all with one accord acknowledge openly and undeniably that He rules and reigns and there is none like Him, nor ever has been, and the knee will bend without resistance and the head will bow in total submissiveness to His Majesty!

But long before then, yea from the very beginning, God has so ordered His works that they should manifest His loving care and purpose to this end that from that grand stage of creation Jehovah makes an open show of just how pleased He is for the salvation of His Son’s children. So much so that He has set forth an open declaration in His creation of all things in heaven and in earth to make His eternal power as GOD inexcusably obvious to all mankind – Romans 1:20. And as God He commanded His creation to be brought out of an abysmal darkness into a shining light, and by that singular act God furthermore reveals to all history that He will and has done so for the hearts of the sons and daughters of Christ whom He redeemed. Our Saviour, even while in perfect essence and happiness with the Father before creation, always had his eye and his heart upon the saints declaring that while in that eternal state of bliss He was yet “rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men”! – Proverbs 8:31.

There are, in a sense, two divinely written books which God has published for the edification and instruction of His dear people and the glory of His name. Psalms 19:1-4 treats of them both: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,”. The book of creation was written to inexplicably show the glory of God and power of His Godhead as Creator. The book of the Holy Scriptures is of course the other which makes known the revealed will of God, or His will of precept. This book is a lamp for direction and obedience to in all things – Psalms 119:105. It is also that which testifies of the Lord Jesus Christ – John 5:39; and it teaches us patience and comfort to give us hope when there is none, and to give us understanding in doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, thoroughly furnishing God’s children unto all good works – Romans 15:4; 2Timothy 3:16. The summation of both books is this that the same God who made the frame of nature in one is also the law giver in the other and from each God’s glory is made known and demanded and the saints are taught and perfected. David tells us that we learn God’s glory from where He has been at work in the earth and in the heavens. Paul tells us that from God’s work of creation we learn of the spiritual illumination wrought within the saints through His Son Jesus Christ.

As Christ the “Word” was in the beginning making all things and without him nothing was made that was made (John 1:1-3), so Christ is that same author and maker of our salvation, and not a one is made unto salvation that was not made of Christ to be saved. “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

Can we not live within that text? If we stand before God whole as Peter says, that is, completely without eternal harm, neither ultimately scathed nor crippled by our sin and before God without blame, it is through, of, and from that life giving Word, Christ our Lord, who hath as in creation, shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God in the face, the very appearance and person of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.