

Both Paul and John had life changing encounters with the glorified Son of God. Their testimonies are very similar, both said His face was like the brightness of the sun. John said “His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength”. God’s creation displays the beauty and glory of the Lord. The sun is actually one of the great pictures of the glory of God that is literally right in front of us every day. Jonathan Edwards preached a message in 1739 that displayed how the sun points us to the glory of the Son of God. Here is a snippet from that message.

“Christ is as it were is the Sun [of] the spiritual world. The natural world is full of images of things in the spiritual world, but the most bright and glorious image of Christ that we have in the whole natural world is the sun….. What the sun is in the natural world, that is Christ in the world, and that on two accounts, viz. his glory and his influence.

First. Christ is as it were is the Sun of the spiritual [world] on the account of the glory of his person. He is the brightness of God’s glory.

Second. On the account of his influence. As the sun is a body of the greatest glory of any in {the natural world}, so it is a part of the material world that is of the greatest, most extensive influence. The extensiveness and universality of his influence is described, Ps. 19:6. “His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.”

Edwards said the sun portrays Christ in two basic ways; through its glory and its influence. The sun is the most dominant celestial object from our vantage point on earth. The brilliance of the glory of the sun gives us a peek at the glory of the Son of God. This glory is what blinded Paul’s natural eyes and opened his spiritual eyes. Jesus is the radiance of the Father’s glory. The sun also influences everything with its gravity, heat, and light. Christ is also the dominant influence in our lives. His sovereign power (gravity) holds our life in perfect harmony with Him and His plan. His heat enflames our passionate love for Him. His love is like no other. His revelation light opens our blinded eyes. Now we can see Him and through that light our vision of everything else has radically changed. Jesus is the light of the world and only in His light do we see light.


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