2 Corinthians 4:1-6 - Light of Christ’s Gospel

2 Corinthians 4:1-6

1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 

3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 

5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 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.

Jesus Christ is the light (John 8:12) of the world!  We all are born into the darkness of sin’s curse for which we deserve death as a reward, yet Christ hung on the tree of the curse to fulfill the perfect keeping of God’s Law for us by suffering the curse of sin and death for us by His goodness of grace.  This is the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, by which God has called us out of the hopelessness of the dark into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9-10) which is shined into our hearts and souls by the Lord entering into us as He delivers us in such a great salvation.  This is the ministry entrusted to we who are in Christ now, to share this mercy and not give up or lose heart in the seeming futility of facing deaf ears to what we offer as we are continually rejected for the gospel we bear witness to.  What then?  We do not try to make the gospel relevant to reach others through craftiness or deceit to spring the gospel through trickery, but we continue to offer it the way Jesus and the apostles have shown us in demonstrating the truth of our sinful condition from birth and the only way to life through turning from sin (repentance) to Him by believing and receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior (John 1:12).  This we do to keep a good conscience with God who saved us this way and with men and women who we bear this witness of unworthy grace to.  When the gospel message remains hidden it is because the ears of those set for destruction (Romans 9:22-23) refuse to listen and turn that they might be saved from the works of darkness they refuse to let go of (John 3:19-21) instead of coming towards the light of God in Christ to expose their hopeless works (Romans 3:20, 6:23) and accept Christ’s work as the only way (Acts 4:12, John 14:6) to be reconciled with God and have our sins covered.  God’s light in the image of Jesus Christ must shine on each of us to be saved from our just judgment we have all earned as the wages of sin from the inheritance of Adam and our own corrupt natures passed down to us since the original sin of disobedience and disbelief in God’s word at Eden’s Garden.  This is the light of the good news we bear as servants to all the world as we preach Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23) and risen from death to life as Sovereign Lord over all creation that we might share in eternal new life in Him (John 5:24) through faith in what He has done and offers us.  God commanded light to shine out of the darkness in the first creation (Genesis 1:3) that He might now shine again into our souls in regeneration to bring us back to life in a new creation (Galatians 2:20) with this knowledge of Him revealing His glory in the face of Jesus Christ in whom we now live!  This is the light of Christ’s gospel, not just the hope of escaping Hell and torment (1 John 4:18), but of seeing God face to face in the end by His goodness that called us out of the darkness of sin into such marvelous light in His presence (Revelation 21:23) of forgiving grace and mercy.  This explains the Light of Christ’s Gospel which reconciles us sinners with our holy God.