A word that keeps reappearing as part of today's political discussions is the word "transparency." That is, everything is out in the open. If a person has to say it, it probably is not. The definition of transparent is: "allowing light to pass through so that objects behind can be clearly seen; something obvious or evident." On the other hand, anything done behind closed doors is not very transparent. At best, such actions might only be "apparently transparent."
Transparent is closely related to that word apparent. As a spirit, God is not transparent as to His person (Isa. 55:6-7), but His truth is clearly apparent to all who have God's grace to hear (1 Jn. 1:1-5).
The word "apparent" has two meanings that strangely contradict each other. The first meaning is, "clearly seen or understood." The second meaning is, "seeming real, but not necessarily so." One word has two meanings that are quite different. In some cases a thing is clearly seen and in others it is not. That got me thinking about the message the church brings to our world. Are we transparent? And, which meaning of apparent are we seeing in the church today?
The church is transparent if it presents the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the clearest and most truthful way possible. When the Gospel is preached, the person and work of Jesus must be clearly proclaimed and fervently believed. If not, then the message is clouded and the work of Christ obscured. Today's evangelical church has revealed a tendency to focus more on man's own conception of Christianity and how he can use it to become more personally fulfilled, than on the perfect fulfillment of Christ through His blood and righteousness. The cross is often left in the shadows compared to our Lord's finished work of redemption. It is essential to understand that only the Holy Spirit can give us the eyes to see and make clear what great things God has done (1 Cor. 2:10-14).
The Galatian church described by Paul in Galatians 3:1 had a problem with the clarity of the message of Christ. "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?" Paul made Christ's work apparent, but others had obscured it by adding man's works to it. It was a "different gospel" that was not good news (Gal. 1:6-10), but an obscuring of it.
Calvin saw the Bible as the reading glasses by which we are able to see and interpret all things. It is that kind of transparency and apparency that God wants for us. He wants us to see His love, mercy, grace, and truth. His faithfulness to keep the Covenant of Grace must be first and foremost clearly seen and understood by the preaching of the Gospel. Nothing but "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2).
Any message other than the clear message of what we must believe for salvation draws from the second meaning of apparent-"seemingly real, but not necessarily so." As Michael Horton says in his book Christless Christianity, the focus of the modern evangelical church has been more on "deeds, not creeds"; more on can-do than must-believe. When this is the case, the doctrine of Christ's work becomes only "seemingly real" until man completes it. This may sound selfless, but it is very self-centered.
The tendency even in churches with a Reformed heritage is to disparage the importance of the confessions and creeds of the church which are designed to make the truths of the Scripture clear to the church members. If we fail to teach, know, and understand our own creeds-the Three Forms of Unity-the truth of the Gospel will become less apparent to us. The creeds are an authoritative teaching tool to explain the Gospel and make it apparent.
What should be most apparent from the Gospel is that Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many (Mk. 10:45). This does not mean that we are not saved to serve the Lord (as Rom. 6:18-19 teaches), but we do not serve to be saved. Service does not replace true faith (cf. Jn. 6:28-29); it demonstrates it. By the Spirit's grace, we serve the Lord because we are saved (justification). Our good works cannot be a whole or a part of our righteousness before God. Our good works are nothing more than the visible fruits of faith by the grace of God (sanctification). What is uncompromisingly clear in the Gospel is that our righteousness before God is only by true faith in Jesus Christ. If what we do as Christians becomes a contribution to our righteous standing before God, then the Gospel of grace is only "seemingly real, but not necessarily so."
What God has said and done should be transparent-obvious-every time the Word of God is read and preached. "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" must be the message. What could be clearer? 2 Tim. 1:10 says, that Jesus Christ "has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
