The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ - Part 1: Sorrow

“The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”

 

2 Corinthians 4:6

 

One day, as Christ’s people, we will get look upon the face of our beloved Lord Jesus by sight, gazing upon God and the glory of God in the Person of the Son. Paul did not so much have that thought in mind when he composed the words of 2 Corinthians 4:6, but rather wrote of seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as something that has happened, and happens, at our conversion and in our continual relationship with Him:

 

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” [emphasis mine]

 

The Christian is able to look upon the face of the Lord Jesus Christ with the eyes of faith recognising there a clear revelation of the glory of God, enabled by the inner working of the Holy Spirit. As per Charles Hodge: “It is the glory of God as revealed in Christ that men are by the illumination of the Holy Ghost enabled to see.”[1]

 

Just as a diamond reveals its beauty as the sparkling brilliance of many facets is shown through various angles of refracted light so this is the first of a series of articles aiming at using various viewpoints taken from Scripture to show some (of the many) resplendent facets of the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.

 

The Glory of God Seen in the Sorrow on Jesus’ Face

 

“He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” Isaiah 53:3

 

Within His work of salvation, the Lord Jesus was to endure such experiences of sorrow that sorrow was a divinely given prophetic title for Him within the bounds of His saving work: for knowing such great sorrows and having such an acquaintance with grief He was to be “a Man of sorrows”.

 

All of the Lord Jesus’ sorrows were from the effects and impacts of sin. Although Jesus did not commit any sin Himself, whether inwardly or outwardly, He would still feel the effects and impacts of the sins that were present in the world around Him, as well as of the sin of His people for which He suffered under its curse and died to make atonement.

 

We can think initially of the time Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem, looking out and seeing all its inhabitants, being moved by how many of them were still refusing and rejecting His offer of salvation and of the dreadful consequence of that rejection for them, Holy Writ records that “Jesus wept” (Luke 19:41). Such is the Lord Jesus’ desire to save that the rejection of His offers of salvation to the people of Israel evoked such powerful emotion within Him.

 

We can consider at the beginning of His Passion, when Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane knowing that His time of suffering and death had now come, the sorrow which must have weighed so heavily upon Him in those moments. Jesus would describe His own soul then as being “exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death” (Mark 14:34). That sorrow was the cause of such intense praying that Jesus’ sweat “became like great drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

 

We can only try to imagine how hurt the Lord Jesus must have felt when His own disciple, Judas Iscariot, one of just a small handful of intimate companions during His years of ministry, betrayed Him over to the authorities with a kiss on the cheek (Matt. 26:49).

 

It is perhaps too much to ask of ourselves who have no such similar experiences to call upon to try to imagine the great sorrow that the Lord Jesus suffered throughout those various beatings at the hands of the Jewish leaders and Roman soldiers: where Jesus was slapped in the face repeatedly and beaten with fists (Matt. 26:67); then was struck repeatedly with sticks against His head again and again (Matt. 27:30); and then scourged with a whip that tore at the flesh and was capable of even breaking bones (John 19:1).

 

There was also the continual mocking and ridicule throughout these various acts of severe violence and brutality, the crown of thorns pushed down the head (John 19:2), and repeated spitting in the face (Matt. 26:67) of the glorious and holy Son of God!!!

 

(I can remember some years ago a footballer who had been spat upon by an opponent, saying that he would have rathered the other player punched him than spat in his face – although the spitting may seem quite insignificant against the backdrop of such savagery, yet even in that spitting there is something incredibly degrading.)

 

Then, during what was a mere brief respite amid those beatings, as the Lord Jesus was being held on one side of the courtyard, His disciple Peter stood across on the other side of the courtyard warming himself around a fire with some strangers. On three separate occasions Peter was asked if he knew Jesus by various strangers, including a young servant girl. On each occasion Peter denied that he knew Jesus. Immediately after the third occasion, Peter turned his head and caught the eye of his smitten Master, who was looking back at him (Luke 22:61). What depth of sorrow must Peter have seen upon the face of Jesus Christ in that moment that would cause him to flee and weep so bitterly?

 

Finally, there was the agony of that horrific death on the Cross, hanging in the place of shame before a laughing, mocking public, dying a slow, agonising death – the Son of God!!!

 

And, even then, as the Lord Jesus hung upon the Cross, dying, how His heart must have broken to see His own mother, Mary, out in the crowd in front of Him, as she watches her precious Son die in such a horrifyingly awful way before her very eyes (John 19:25).

 

Are you able to see anything of the glory of God in the sorrow upon the face of Jesus Christ?

 

Man of Sorrows, what a name

For the Son of God, who came

Ruined sinners to reclaim:

Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

 

P.P. Bliss (1875)

[1] Charles Hodge, The Geneva Series of Commentaries: 1&2 Corinthians, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1978) p.467.