The Gospel is Veiled

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4

At this point in Paul's letter the unpleasant realities of life intrude again. That is the glory of the gospel; it never deals merely with the ideal but with life as it is. Ideally, if God is responsible for results and is desirous that all men be saved, then whenever the gospel is preached there should be many responses. But in actual practice, this is not always true. What about those times?

Once again the veil of pride appears in this discussion. The reference this time is not to the veils which evangelicals employ but to those used by worldly men and women when they are confronted with the good news about Jesus. Paul referred earlier to the phenomenon of being at both life unto life to some who hear his preaching and death unto death to others. The latter fail to see anything good in the good news because there is a veil over their minds, obscuring their ability to perceive the truth. To them the gospel appears unrealistic, remote from real life, making its appeal only to those who have a streak of religion in them.

Here is where we glimpse the enemy. The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers. Satan uses pride to blind their eyes. They are so confident of their own ability to handle life, to them Jesus appears to be dispensable. They fail to see that he stands at the center of life and that all reality derives its content from him. To argue against him is to argue with the very power that makes it possible to take the breath that voices the argument! Jesus is Lord, whether men know it or not.

It is tragic that those who fail to see the gospel as reality are turning away from the very thing they most desperately want to find. The center of the gospel is Christ, and Christ is the likeness of God. Therefore, what is lost to these people is the secret of godlikeness — and that is what men long for more than anything else. God is a totally independent being, having no need within himself for anyone or anything else, and yet, in love, giving himself freely to all his creatures. It is that same kind of independence which humanity craves. To most people, that is the essence of godlikeness, and that is why people are clamoring, Let me be myself! I've gotta be me!

What people fail to understand, in this veiled view of reality, is that such independence for human beings must arise out of dependence. It is God's desire that people be godlike. He wants us to be independent of all other creatures or things in the universe precisely because we are totally dependent on him.

Father, I pray that you might remove the veil from those who have not seen the glory of Christ. Only you are able to do this.