Devotions - Read Online
Wednesday | 19 September 2018
The light of the gospel shines from the face of Christ when it is proclaimed by His messengers who are in His right hand. 2Co 4:6-10. When we receive this word, we can turn and look, with an unveiled face, into Christ’s face. Paul said that Christ’s face is a mirror. 2Co 3:18. Without a mirror, we cannot truly know ourselves. We are only able to know the reality of our name and works as we look in the mirror and receive a reflection from outside of ourselves. Otherwise, our understanding of ourselves will be completely self-centred.
Through the reflection that we receive by looking into the face of Christ, we are able to distinguish between our endeavours − which are projections to cover the shame of pursuing an image for ourselves − and the truth of our name. In this fellowship, we can be affirmed to our name and sanctification as we put off our projections. With this clarity, we are able to appreciate the name and sanctification of others, and can make offering by revealing others. This is foundational to worshipping in Spirit and in truth. Joh 4:24.
This mirror is in the fellowship of the presbytery, which is extended to every person through the preaching of the word. How we receive and walk in the light of this word reveals the extent to which we are looking into the mirror of Christ’s face. As the apostle James wrote, ‘For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word, this one will be blessed in what he does.’ Jas 1:23-25.
Further Study:
Galatians 2
Daily Proverb:
References:
2Co 4:6-10
For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
2Co 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Joh 4:24
God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Jas 1:23-25
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.