The Glory of Christ, Part 1

I just started reading John Owen’s book “The Glory of Christ”—partly because my pastor is doing a series on the person of Christ from Philippians 2:5-11. I’ve made it through the introductory pages and chapter one. It was so incredibly rich that I couldn’t resist doing a recap here. (Can anyone say “book report”? Ha.)

Part 1, Chapter 1 is entitled “Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ: The Explanation of the Text.” A dazzling title, no? But don’t judge a book by its cover (um, a chapter by its title). This is heady stuff.

In John 17:24 Jesus prayed, “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world” (emphasis mine).

Owen’s main idea, which he states with surprising perspicuity (you know why I say “surprising” if you’ve ever read Owen), is this: Christ’s desire for His church is that they behold His glory. Simple enough. His foundational point is this: that “one of the greatest privileges and advancements of believers, both in this world and unto eternity, consists in their beholding the glory of Christ” (45).

He begins by pointing out that unbelievers—all unbelievers—denigrate the glory of Christ, whether they do it by actively despising Him, or by simply conceiving “slight thoughts of Him” (46). Now, there will come a day when Christ will vindicate His own honor and glory in this world. But, "in the meantime, it is the duty of all those who 'love the Lord Jesus in sincerity' (Eph. 6:24) to give testimony in a peculiar manner to His divine person and glory, according to their several capacities" (46).

So to behold the glory of Christ is the special duty of believers. And, what’s more is that it is also our greatest privilege and joy. “On this our present comforts and future blessedness depend. This is the life and reward of our souls” (46).

There are two ways, Owen says, in which believers behold the glory of Christ: (1) “by faith, in this world” and (2) “by sight, or immediate vision, in eternity” (47).

[A side note: He does say that in the verse he’s using (John 17:24), Jesus is primarily referring to the second of these two (seeing His glory in heaven). This is pretty clear from the context, since Jesus is talking about His followers being with Him where He is. But Owen also points out that Jesus did not “exclude from His desire that sight of His glory which we have by faith in this world, but pray[ed] for the perfection of it in heaven” (47)—the idea being that what we now “see in a mirror dimly” we will there see “face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12).]

Owen launches into a powerful discussion at this point. He makes it clear that viewing Christ’s glory “by sight” in eternity must be preceded by viewing it here “by faith.” “No man,” he says, “shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight hereafter who does not in some measure behold it here by faith” (47). He adds: “Grace is a necessary preparation for glory, and faith for sight.”

The reason for this necessity for faith before sight, at least in part, is that beholding the glory of Christ “face to face” is a thing that we simply aren’t capable of now, in our present state. We don’t have the spiritual faculty for it, just as we don’t have the physical faculty to stare directly at the sun. We can’t see it; it darkens our sight immediately. It is the same spiritually. So, “only by a view of the glory of Christ by faith here may we attain such blessed conceptions of our beholding His glory above by immediate vision that our hearts shall be drawn to admire it and desire its full enjoyment” (50).

Here’s a question: Do we truly desire to behold the glory of Christ in eternity?

"Most men will say with confidence, living and dying, that they desire to be with Christ and to behold His glory; but they can give no reason why they should desire any such thing....If man pretends to be enamored of, or to greatly desire, what he never saw nor was ever represented to him, he but dotes on his own imaginations. The pretended desires of many to behold the glory of Christ in heaven, who have no view of it by faith while they are here in this world, are nothing but self-deceiving imaginations" (48).

He concludes: “It is not to our edification to discourse on beholding the glory of Christ in heaven by vision until we go through a trial whether we see anything of it in this world by faith or not” (49). If we are to behold Christ’s glory for eternity, we must behold it now.

And, on that note, I think I'll stop. This is becoming an incredibly long post...so I’ll make it another two-part series and will post the rest in the next day or two!