The Revealing of Christ

In the first place, I would like to show you that “the revealing of Christ” is an expression which is biblical. In Galatians 1:15&16, the Apostle Paul writes, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.”

In this text, Paul speaks of his conversion and apostleship, according to God’s good pleasure. From all eternity, the Lord had separated him, and at His appointed time He stopped Paul (then called Saul), called him out of darkness unto His marvelous light, and showed him that Christ is the true Messiah. By true saving faith He showed him that He is the only Saviour; in Him alone is deliverance.

All this was because of God’s grace, without any worthiness on the side of Paul. Luther writes of this in his well-known commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, “He writes of the inestimable treasure freely bestowed upon us by the gospel preached. Wherefore it is a type of doctrine that is not learned or gotten by any study, diligence, or wisdom of man, nor yet by the law of God, but is revealed by God Himself. As Paul sayeth in this place, ‘First by the external Word, then by the working of God’s Spirit inwardly.’”

The gospel, therefore, is a divine Word that came down from heaven and is revealed by the Holy Ghost who was sent for the same purpose, yet in such a way, notwithstanding, that the outward Word must go before. Paul himself had no inward revelation until he had heard the outward Word from heaven which was, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” (Acts 9:4b).

He heard the external Word first, and then in the second place there followed the revelations: the knowledge of the Word, faith, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Luther says here, “Paul has come to true conversion and calling by Word and Spirit.”

For Paul, his conversion and his true saving faith in Christ were tied to his calling unto apostleship. This is a special circumstance which we distinguish from the conversion of others. Yet, it is noteworthy what the English Puritan William Perkins writes of this, that is, of the benefits of the life of those who may be called of the Lord to bring His gospel—that they may come to know Christ.

Paul learned to know Christ. Continually, he sought to be led further into the knowledge of Christ. Those who may be used to speak to others of conversion and the way the Lord leads His people must of necessity know something of that conversion and those ways.

When we speak of the revealing of Christ, we must speak of this in both a wider and a narrower sense. In the wider sense, we comprehend the entire way of God in Christ with His people. The sinner who is stopped by the inward call comes to the knowledge of sin, conversion, and faith. He is cut off from Adam and engrafted into Christ and all that has been merited by Christ in His suffering and dying for His chosen people.

This is applied in their life in the measure which is according to God’s pleasure. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). As long as God’s children are upon earth, they live out of those benefits merited by Christ. Then they receive, in a measure established by the Lord Himself, knowledge of inward calling, conversion, faith, justification, sanctification, and comfort needed to live upon this earth.

Each time, the Lord Himself makes place for these benefits. His children learn more and more that with them there is no place for these benefits. That place-making is accomplished by a cutting off. The Lord says, “That which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up.” In this way God’s people come to know their spiritual poverty, their inward darkness, and the impossibility of redemption from their side. Then every new benefit of the Lord is received as an undeserved blessing.

When we speak of the revealing of Christ in the narrower sense, we speak of an eye of faith which may be opened for the person of Christ—to see in Him that which His people have never seen before. We must always make a clear distinction about what takes place from the side of God and what takes place from the side of man in the moment of regeneration. In that moment, from the side of God His people may have all that is needed. They are cut off from Adam and engrafted in Christ; therefore, from the side of the Lord it is a finished and complete work.

The Lord cannot have any communion with man, fallen dead in sin and trespasses, who is guilty and unclean by reason of sin, without the justifying righteousness of Christ. However—as Christ has now satisfied the righteous justice of God, on the side of God—in and through Christ there is a finished work for all those people chosen by the Father from all eternity.

On the side of man, it goes in exactly the opposite way. By the light of God’s Spirit, there comes knowledge of a righteous and a holy God who cannot have anything to do with sin or any communion with the sinner who by reason of sin is unclean from his head to his feet. Here, the sinner learns not only his own inward depravity and God’s perfect holiness but also that he will have to meet God and that the sentence cannot be anything other than eternal damnation.

The law of God is as a mirror before him. It is a mirror which will not lie but which will honestly reveal all his sin and guilt. At the same time, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ breaks his heart. He learns the prayer of the publican, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Sorrow after the Lord brings him upon his knees to plead as a poor, needy beggar at the throne of God’s mercy and grace. In such a bornagain sinner there is not yet an accepting by faith or an eye upon Christ as the Saviour given of the Father.

He sees only guilt and judgment, sin, and divine justice. Yea, at times, he may taste something of God’s goodness and mercy. This causes the soul to bow deeper and call all the more fervently for His mercy. In this way the Lord continues with law and gospel to teach and lead the sinner more and more to knowledge of self and to show him that deliverance is only in Christ who has satisfied the justice of God. By His Word the Lord calls unto his heart that the poor and needy can find shelter only in Him. In all this the sinner may see what there is in Jesus Christ, but that does not mean that he dares to call Him his own by a true-saving faith.

There may be moments in his life that sin is covered. At such times, nothing is lacking. A fullness may be experienced in that which Christ has merited for him, but a covered guilt is not a forgiven guilt. As Rev. Lamain has written, “It is a blessing in the life of God’s people when it may become Christmas for the soul—when, for the first time, he may see that God has opened a way by which he may be saved. If it is well with him, he cannot remain at that place. There must come a time that it becomes Good Friday for him. Standing at the foot of the cross, he may see that Christ has given His life and His blood—blood which cleanses him before a holy and righteous God.”

Something else, however, needs to take place to come to the knowledge of Christ in his life. A time is needed when it becomes Easter, meaning a time that a resurrected Saviour is applied to his heart. A Saviour who is presented unto him by the Father may be embraced by the arms of faith. Also, there is the God-given lesson that it will never become Easter for the soul unless there has been a time when it has become Good Friday—when Christ cried out, “It is finished,” and the work which the Father had ordained for Him and for which He gave Himself in the stillness of eternity was completed.

Here is a biblical truth. When it is well and right with God’s people, there can never be a resting place outside of the knowledge that He is mine and I am His. When we observe this, we are living in dark times because, in general, we can be so satisfied outside of this knowledge. When the sinner may come to a personal knowledge of Christ, it is as if the Lord turns over a page. Where all was sin and punishment, he now begins to speak of the love, mercy, richness, and sweetness of Christ. There comes a change in his life. His inmost desire is to seek in Christ alone all that is needed for soul and body for time and eternity.

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