The Rising of The Sun of Righteousness

Mal. 4:1-2a For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.

Is. 60:19-20 The sun shall be no more your light by day,nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself;for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.

Matt. 17:2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

Rev. 1:16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

Ps. 84:11a For the LORD God is a sun…

Rev. 22:5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Acts 26:13 At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.

As I drove home from work early Sunday morning, I encountered a fiercely bright sunrise. It reminded me of the glory of Christ, who is the Sun of Righteousness. The Sun is the brightest and most awesome light that we encounter in God’s physical creation. Since Jesus is compared to the sun, we are to see Him when we see and are arrested by the sheer glory of the physical sun. This is a means of us comprehending how much more amazing and brilliant is Christ’s glory, He who is brighter than the noon-day sun (as Paul experienced on the road to Damascus).

Thinking about how the sun and Christ (the S-O-N) compare has made me ponder some thoughts my close friend shared with me recently. When giving me A History of the Work of Redemption by Jonathan Edwards recently, he had opportunity to share some thoughts about the book. The book traces God’s work of redemption from the Fall to the Ascension and beyond. Edwards does a spectacular job dealing with OT types and highlighting the gospel/Christ-centeredness of all of Scripture. He has excellent thoughts on the advance of the gospel after the writing of the NT up to his present time, as well. His thoughts are rooted in Scripture and the work is well worth puchasing and reading, as it magnifies God for His great and glorious work of redemption.

A few thoughts Dave (my friend) shared have stuck with me. First, he mentioned that the natural creation was created to show the glories of God’s spiritual work. When encountering Scriptural teachings on types or comparisons, I typically just assumed that God was borrowing from the natural realm, so to speak, to highlight truth about His spiritual works. But the work of redemption was planned “before the foundation of the world”! So, when God created the world, the very way in which He did it was not arbitrary but planned. He knew that He would expressly compare the creation of life in dead hearts to the creation of physical light (2 Cor. 4:6). The physical process of human birth was designed with the new birth in view. I think one of the ways the heavens and physical creation declare the glory of God is that they provide illustrations of His work of redemption. When God is compared with light–the very quality of physical light is meant to teach us about God’s character (albeit it cannot teach us perfectly or completely, as it is only a picture of Someone who defies description). The family unit, with father-child and husband-wife relationships, were designed and established to reveal aspects of our relationship with God as His beloved children, and our relationship with Christ as His church-bride. This thought can be expanded and more examples found for sure.

The other thought Dave left me, concerned a specific allegory Jonathan Edwards used over and over again in his book. In looking through the book recently I encountered it in at least 8 different places. Here is the picture:

The OT reflects the light of the glory of Christ and the gospel much like the moon reflects the light of the sun. At first the OT only has brief glimmers here and there of Messianic prophecies and gospel teachings. But the moonlight of OT revelation grows and grows until it reaches its zenith in the period of David and Solomon. David is the greatest personal type of Christ, Edwards argues (pg. 104). The Psalms written at this time, display the glories of Christ in unparalleled fashion in the OT. The building of the Temple and the reign of peace experienced in Solomon’s reign represent the greatest epoch of Israel’s history.

But then the moon begins to wane throught the less glamorous reigns of Solomon’s heirs and the exile and post-exilic periods of Israel’s history. Edwards explains, “As the moon, from the time of her full, is approaching nearer and nearer to her conjunction with the sun, so her light is still more and more decreasing, until at length, when the conjunction comes, it is wholly swallowed up in the light of the sun….If the Jewish church, when Christ came, had been in the same external glory that it was in, in the reign of Solomon, men would have had their eyes so dazzled with it that they would not have been likely joyfully to exchange such great external glory for only the spiritual glory of the poor despised Jesus.” (pg. 129, 131-132)

The incarnation of Christ and His ministry are represented by the dawning of the sun. Edwards argues that after redemption has been purchased on the cross and specifically upon the resurrection of Christ, the sun actually rises over the horizon. “Thus the Sun of Righteousness, after it is risen from under the earth, begins to shine forth clearly, and not only by a dim reflection as it did before. Christ, before his death, revealed many things more clearly than ever they had been revealed in the Old Testament; but the great mysteries of Christ’s redemption, and reconciliation by his death, and justification by his righteousness, were not so plainly revealed before Christ’s resurrection….Thus we see how the light of the gospel…is now come to the light of perfect day, and the brightness of the sun shining forth in unveiled glory.” (pg. 282)

We are thus now living in the age of daytime. The sun is rising in the sky slowly and steadily. The glorious noon-day shining of the sun in unparalleled glory will be the consummation of the eternal kingdom of Christ (which we experience already, but not yet in its fullness)!

That allegory by Jonathan Edwards in a succinct and vastly helpful way sums up the history of redemption (and revelation for that matter). It should help us see the glory of the Sun of Righteousness. And it should make us realize anew the incredible grace we have to be living on this side of the cross. May the light of Christ shine ever brighter and may we be ever entranced and pleased with His light alone!

Pictures above from top to bottom were accessed from these 5 sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

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∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7