Blinded Minds

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Paul wished for the entire world to both see and have the gospel of Jesus Christ, as had been revealed to him. He calls himself an “able minister of the New Testament” (2 Corinthians 3:6), and then “seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully” (2 Corinthians 4:1, 2). His chief concern regarding this message of the New Covenant was that it not be handled in a wrong manner, but that it was open and honest before all.

He knew that the glorious gospel was and is life-changing. He also knew that the only way to stop the light of the gospel from penetrating into every area of darkness was if the enemy went to work blinding men from receiving it. “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost” (2 Corinthians 4:3), Paul says, knowing that the good news is so good that it can never be hid from a saint, only from the unsaved.

Paul goes a step further with his description, stating that it is not only hid from the lost but that “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not” (4:4). It is not their spiritual eyes that the enemy must blind, because they can’t really use them anyway, but it is their minds. A sinner can certainly use his or her mind to reason and theorize, so Paul identifies that Satan will attack this capability in the unbeliever to try and convince them against the good news of Jesus Christ.

Have you ever encountered someone who does not believe on Jesus and they give you a laundry list of reasons why they have no faith in God? They have intellectualized their unbelief and have left themselves no room for faith. In that instance, you are speaking to someone who has been blinded to the truth of the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s answer to this problem was to continue to shine the light. “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord” (4:5), is Paul’s way of saying that there is no need to argue of your own intellect; simply preach Jesus Christ. When you meet someone who is an unbeliever and who wishes only to argue about whether or not God exists or how many days it took Him to create the earth, your only counter is to shower them with the love of God. In the face of all of their disputations, simply give them more of His love. The good news of Jesus can be boiled down to one simple fact: God loves you. If this principle is repeated and reinforced, it is the only truth that can penetrate the darkness of unbelief.

Even believers benefit by frequent and repeated exposure to this light. Paul said that this light gives “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (4:6). We literally learn more of the glory of God as we see the face of Jesus day to day. Actually, we are changed into His very image as we learn more of His glory through the good news of Christ’s finished work (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Be changed into who He is by the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Go in peace!

The Gates Are Broken

Isaiah 45:2-3

God promised to “break in pieces the gates of brass”, using His anointed one Cyrus. Cyrus was a Gentile king, and the first non-Jew to be referred to as anointed. The usage of this king to make crooked paths straight and cut bars of iron is the biblical “Law of Double Reference”, where one character is addressed, but a deeper meaning is implied.

The anointed one Cyrus is a type of the anointed one, Jesus. The Double Reference first occurs in Eden when God speaks to the serpent, cursing him to exist on his belly and promising that the woman’s seed will bruise his head (Genesis 3:14, 15). The serpent did not have his head bruised at Calvary but Satan did; thus God was speaking in part to the snake and in part to the devil. In Isaiah 44:28 and in the 45th chapter, God is doing the same thing in reference to Cyrus, while giving us promises that only Jesus could fulfill.

Why would we need gates to be broken in pieces? Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. Common sense tells us that gates are not used as offensive weapons but rather are closed to keep invaders out. Referring to the gates of hell as being powerless to stop the church infers that we will be going against hell in some capacity and that hell itself will not be able to stop us because Jesus has broken the staying power of its gates.

Gates are not only used to keep invaders out, they are also used to keep people in. Hell has thrown various strongholds against the believer from the very beginning; intent on keeping God’s people down, depressed, miserable and defeated. What Satan has done is not so much throw things at the believer as much as he has hid awesome truths from the believer. These truths have been shut up by strongholds of the enemy so that saints never see the truths for themselves; and what the believer does not know certainly hurts him.

Paul said that if the good news is hid, “it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4). Satan has worked for 2000 years to deny mankind the light of the good news. Every sermon that emphasizes man’s works or glorifies God’s law as the source of redemption takes the light off of the loveliness of Jesus. This traps the message of grace and favor behind the gates of hell, so that people cannot be exposed to the glory of the image of Jesus.

We are never changed by seeing how bad that we are and then working to improve. Instead, we are changed into His image as we behold His face, and this change is not by our works but from “glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Let’s not hold this glorious good news back one more day from one more person. Let that light shine to all who are in darkness.

Giving Glory to God

Romans 4:18-22

Abraham may not have been a highly moral man, but he was a man with strong faith. His faith is what caused God to view him as righteous (Romans 4:3, 22), and this faith was honored even when his actions were weak.

Faith is best characterized as a measure of what you really think of God. If you think that God is angry and distant then you will be less likely to ask for things, or to believe that He desires to do good in your life. Your faith will be weakened by a view of a distant God. On the other hand, if you think that Jesus’ sacrificial work was done for you and that you are a beneficiary of all that Jesus paid for, then you have a view of God as loving, appeased and helpful. This causes you to ask and believe because you see nothing separating you from God’s mercy and grace.

The word “glory” is often misused by Christians as we read God’s word. The Greek word is “doxa” and it has two basic meanings. One definition deals with praising God and lifting up His name, and this is certainly an important thing to do. But, when you reference the word in Greek, this definition is the second most common definition, not the first. The first definition is, “to have a good opinion of”, and it is the most commonly used definition of “glory” in all of the New Testament. Insert that definition into Abraham’s life and see what a difference it makes:

“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;” (Romans 4:20).

Remember, insert “have a good opinion of” into the place of “glory” and you get that Abraham was strong in the faith, having a good opinion of God. What made him strong in faith was his good opinion of God. With a good opinion of God his faith was made stronger, while a poor opinion of God would keep our faith weak. Each one of us should evaluate our opinion of God to determine how strong our faith is.

Your faith comes to you as you hear of Jesus (Romans 10:17), but your faith is made stronger as your opinion of God lines up with Jesus’ finished work. If you view God as having anger against you, then your opinion of God is weak, though you may love Him very much. You have limited God due to a bad opinion of Him. By not honoring the finished work as a truly finished work, you have stated that Jesus did not pay it all and there is more left to be paid. This insults the finished work and it tramples on the blood of Jesus.

Let’s change our opinion of God to one of a loving Father who has paid a great price for us. When that opinion turns to a good opinion our ability to walk in faith increases. Abraham was strong in faith, not because he was closer to God than any of us, but because he believed God was a God of His Word. Do you?

Blinded Minds

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Paul wished for the entire world to both see and have the gospel of Jesus Christ, as had been revealed to him. He calls himself an “able minister of the New Testament” (2 Corinthians 3:6), and then “seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully” (2 Corinthians 4:1, 2). His chief concern regarding this message of the New Covenant was that it not be handled in a wrong manner, but that it was open and honest before all.

He knew that the glorious gospel was and is life-changing. He also knew that the only way to stop the light of the gospel from penetrating into every area of darkness was if the enemy went to work blinding men from receiving it. “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost” (2 Corinthians 4:3), Paul says, knowing that the good news is so good that it can never be hid from a saint, only from the unsaved.

Paul goes a step further with his description, stating that it is not only hid from the lost but that “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not” (4:4). It is not their spiritual eyes that the enemy must blind, because they can’t really use them anyway, but it is their minds. A sinner can certainly use his or her mind to reason and theorize, so Paul identifies that Satan will attack this capability in the unbeliever to try and convince them against the good news of Jesus Christ.

Have you ever encountered someone who does not believe on Jesus and they give you a laundry list of reasons why they have no faith in God? They have intellectualized their unbelief and have left themselves no room for faith. In that instance, you are speaking to someone who has been blinded to the truth of the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s answer to this problem was to continue to shine the light. “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord” (4:5), is Paul’s way of saying that there is no need to argue of your own intellect; simply preach Jesus Christ. When you meet someone who is an unbeliever and who wishes only to argue about whether or not God exists or how many days it took Him to create the earth, your only counter is to shower them with the love of God. In the face of all of their disputations, simply give them more of His love. The good news of Jesus can be boiled down to one simple fact: God loves you. If this principle is repeated and reinforced, it is the only truth that can penetrate the darkness of unbelief.

Even believers benefit by frequent and repeated exposure to this light. Paul said that this light gives “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (4:6). We literally learn more of the glory of God as we see the face of Jesus day to day. Actually, we are changed into His very image as we learn more of His glory through the good news of Christ’s finished work (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Be changed into who He is by the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Go in peace!

The Gates Are Broken

Isaiah 45:2-3

God promised to “break in pieces the gates of brass”, using His anointed one Cyrus. Cyrus was a Gentile king, and the first non-Jew to be referred to as anointed. The usage of this king to make crooked paths straight and cut bars of iron is the biblical “Law of Double Reference”, where one character is addressed, but a deeper meaning is implied.

The anointed one Cyrus is a type of the anointed one, Jesus. The Double Reference first occurs in Eden when God speaks to the serpent, cursing him to exist on his belly and promising that the woman’s seed will bruise his head (Genesis 3:14, 15). The serpent did not have his head bruised at Calvary but Satan did; thus God was speaking in part to the snake and in part to the devil. In Isaiah 44:28 and in the 45th chapter, God is doing the same thing in reference to Cyrus, while giving us promises that only Jesus could fulfill.

Why would we need gates to be broken in pieces? Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. Common sense tells us that gates are not used as offensive weapons but rather are closed to keep invaders out. Referring to the gates of hell as being powerless to stop the church infers that we will be going against hell in some capacity and that hell itself will not be able to stop us because Jesus has broken the staying power of its gates.

Gates are not only used to keep invaders out, they are also used to keep people in. Hell has thrown various strongholds against the believer from the very beginning; intent on keeping God’s people down, depressed, miserable and defeated. What Satan has done is not so much throw things at the believer as much as he has hid awesome truths from the believer. These truths have been shut up by strongholds of the enemy so that saints never see the truths for themselves; and what the believer does not know certainly hurts him.

Paul said that if the good news is hid, “it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4). Satan has worked for 2000 years to deny mankind the light of the good news. Every sermon that emphasizes man’s works or glorifies God’s law as the source of redemption takes the light off of the loveliness of Jesus. This traps the message of grace and favor behind the gates of hell, so that people cannot be exposed to the glory of the image of Jesus.

We are never changed by seeing how bad that we are and then working to improve. Instead, we are changed into His image as we behold His face, and this change is not by our works but from “glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Let’s not hold this glorious good news back one more day from one more person. Let that light shine to all who are in darkness.

Giving Glory to God

Romans 4:18-22

Abraham may not have been a highly moral man, but he was a man with strong faith. His faith is what caused God to view him as righteous (Romans 4:3, 22), and this faith was honored even when his actions were weak.

Faith is best characterized as a measure of what you really think of God. If you think that God is angry and distant then you will be less likely to ask for things, or to believe that He desires to do good in your life. Your faith will be weakened by a view of a distant God. On the other hand, if you think that Jesus’ sacrificial work was done for you and that you are a beneficiary of all that Jesus paid for, then you have a view of God as loving, appeased and helpful. This causes you to ask and believe because you see nothing separating you from God’s mercy and grace.

The word “glory” is often misused by Christians as we read God’s word. The Greek word is “doxa” and it has two basic meanings. One definition deals with praising God and lifting up His name, and this is certainly an important thing to do. But, when you reference the word in Greek, this definition is the second most common definition, not the first. The first definition is, “to have a good opinion of”, and it is the most commonly used definition of “glory” in all of the New Testament. Insert that definition into Abraham’s life and see what a difference it makes:

“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;” (Romans 4:20).

Remember, insert “have a good opinion of” into the place of “glory” and you get that Abraham was strong in the faith, having a good opinion of God. What made him strong in faith was his good opinion of God. With a good opinion of God his faith was made stronger, while a poor opinion of God would keep our faith weak. Each one of us should evaluate our opinion of God to determine how strong our faith is.

Your faith comes to you as you hear of Jesus (Romans 10:17), but your faith is made stronger as your opinion of God lines up with Jesus’ finished work. If you view God as having anger against you, then your opinion of God is weak, though you may love Him very much. You have limited God due to a bad opinion of Him. By not honoring the finished work as a truly finished work, you have stated that Jesus did not pay it all and there is more left to be paid. This insults the finished work and it tramples on the blood of Jesus.

Let’s change our opinion of God to one of a loving Father who has paid a great price for us. When that opinion turns to a good opinion our ability to walk in faith increases. Abraham was strong in faith, not because he was closer to God than any of us, but because he believed God was a God of His Word. Do you?

Blinded Minds

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Paul wished for the entire world to both see and have the gospel of Jesus Christ, as had been revealed to him. He calls himself an “able minister of the New Testament” (2 Corinthians 3:6), and then “seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully” (2 Corinthians 4:1, 2). His chief concern regarding this message of the New Covenant was that it not be handled in a wrong manner, but that it was open and honest before all.

He knew that the glorious gospel was and is life-changing. He also knew that the only way to stop the light of the gospel from penetrating into every area of darkness was if the enemy went to work blinding men from receiving it. “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost” (2 Corinthians 4:3), Paul says, knowing that the good news is so good that it can never be hid from a saint, only from the unsaved.

Paul goes a step further with his description, stating that it is not only hid from the lost but that “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not” (4:4). It is not their spiritual eyes that the enemy must blind, because they can’t really use them anyway, but it is their minds. A sinner can certainly use his or her mind to reason and theorize, so Paul identifies that Satan will attack this capability in the unbeliever to try and convince them against the good news of Jesus Christ.

Have you ever encountered someone who does not believe on Jesus and they give you a laundry list of reasons why they have no faith in God? They have intellectualized their unbelief and have left themselves no room for faith. In that instance, you are speaking to someone who has been blinded to the truth of the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s answer to this problem was to continue to shine the light. “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord” (4:5), is Paul’s way of saying that there is no need to argue of your own intellect; simply preach Jesus Christ. When you meet someone who is an unbeliever and who wishes only to argue about whether or not God exists or how many days it took Him to create the earth, your only counter is to shower them with the love of God. In the face of all of their disputations, simply give them more of His love. The good news of Jesus can be boiled down to one simple fact: God loves you. If this principle is repeated and reinforced, it is the only truth that can penetrate the darkness of unbelief.

Even believers benefit by frequent and repeated exposure to this light. Paul said that this light gives “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (4:6). We literally learn more of the glory of God as we see the face of Jesus day to day. Actually, we are changed into His very image as we learn more of His glory through the good news of Christ’s finished work (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Be changed into who He is by the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Go in peace!

Slow to Leave; Quick to Return

Ezekiel 10:4, 18, 19, 23, 24; Acts 2:2

The glory of the Lord rested on the mercy seat, between the two cherubims, on the top of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark itself sat in the back of the temple, in the most Holy Place, and was visited only once per year by the High Priest. This glory was often characterized by a cloud, and all of Israel knew that this was the very Spirit of the Lord.

Ezekiel saw a vision of the final moments of the presence of the Spirit of the Lord in Jerusalem. Having shown Ezekiel the debauchery that was taking place in the temple; idolatry, prostitution and blasphemy (Ezekiel 8), God is now ready to depart from the temple, emptying it of His presence, making room for the enemy to ransack and destroy it. In light of how bad things have gotten, you would think that God would run out as fast as possible, but His slow movements speak of someone who does not want to leave, but would rather stay as long as possible, speaking just a bit longer.

He starts in Ezekiel 10:4, “over the threshold of the house”, which is the doorway into the temple. Then He proceeds outward, “Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims” (Ezekiel 10:18). Now outside of the main room of the temple, the Spirit is hovering near the cherubims that were present at the event, who now fly out the east gate of the temple, with the glory “over them above” (verse 19).

Next we find God’s glory over the heart of Jerusalem, “And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city” (Ezekiel 11:23). Still slow to leave, the Spirit takes one more look at Jerusalem before going up from the mountain, back into heaven (verse 24).

Just over 600 years later, after the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the Holy Spirit makes His triumphant return to Jerusalem. The book of Acts records the way that He arrives as, “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:2). He comes in a hurry! There is no slow arrival. Some say that He had to be begged in by the prayers of the 120, but that is not true. He waited until, “the day of Pentecost was fully come” (Acts 2:1), so that He could arrive on time.

Some say that if you are not very careful you will run the Holy Spirit off. I have heard it said that any foolishness in a service, even down to someone chewing gum will run the presence of the Lord out of the house. I say that if chewing gum ran the power out of a service, then there wasn’t much to begin with. The Holy Spirit was slow to go and quick to return. Don’t be deceived into believing that He is quick to leave you now. In fact, He will not leave you, nor forsake you. He will stay with you through all things because He is your comforter, and He is always pointing you to Jesus.

Go in the assurance that the Holy Spirit is in you as a child of God. He is not looking for some excuse to leave you high and dry, but rather, He is looking for another excuse to bless you. Take the abundant grace and dwell in it.