Exhortation, Encouragement, and Comfort in Christ.
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The gospel message about what Christ has done for us on the cross is great not only because of what it tells us about what God did for us in the past. It’s increasingly glorious in what it produces in us now and in its promises for our future. [click to continue…]
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There are, on God’s palette, many colors and shades from which He chooses when painting the canvas upon which His glory is revealed. They are not all bright rainbow colors. Among His supplies are earthy browns, dark umber hues, grays, and blacks that, when painted by the master, fall perfectly into His bright design.
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I try to maintain twin objectives in my day-to-day spiritual life. They run parallel to each other, like train tracks. If one or the other is lacking, bent, or damaged, my spiritual life tends to derail. One track is the daily mortification of sin, and the other is actively pursuing the glory of God in Christ. Seeing and knowing God is the positive and ultimate goal, but killing sin is the necessary and often more tangible exercise I engage in. Killing sin does not equal seeing God, nor does success in battle automatically result in a view of the glory of God. But, failure to mortify sin is certainly an effective preventor of seeing and delighting in God’s glory.
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What an amazing sight enjoyed not only by Moses and Aaron but also Nadab, Abihu and the seventy elders. These men saw God. They saw a glimpse into the glory of heaven. They saw God standing upon a clear sapphire foundation. They saw Him with their own eyes–and did not die! What a privilege, what a sight. To see God Himself, to see Him in His glory is the ultimate desire of the human soul and the best result of our entire existence–to see Him (and not be struck down dead) is the successful end of our purpose for living. These men saw it–and then they ate and drank.
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The apostle Paul was blessed with a glimpse into the glories of heaven. He saw and heard things that cannot be uttered. I would think that such an unobscured view of the glory of God in heaven would have the most positive, sanctifying, God exalting, eternity desiring effects on Paul. Indeed, I’m sure it did. Yet, even so, Paul was also in grave danger as a direct result of these revelations. Embedded in his corrupt flesh was the prideful tendency toward self exaltation. In our perfected state – after death – the glories of heaven will only produce perfect God centered joy. But because of our current corruption these same glories carry with them the potential effects of prideful self exaltation. God knew that Paul’s revelations would inevitably lead him to boasting. So for this very reason God assigned him a messenger of Satan. Some form of constant pain, severe enough that Paul entreated God three times for its removal, was given to him. But it was not removed because God knew that should this man, having received such great heights of revelation, would surely fall into the snares of pride and end up boasting.
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I wonder how the gospel was preached prior to the crucifixion? Throughout Jesus’ ministry He and His disciples preached the gospel of the kingdom of God. Whatever allusions to the cross contained in these messages were lost to its hearers. Yet the gospel was preached. Certainly, there are many things that can be said about the gospel without direct reference to the cross. For example: righteous requirements for human conduct, promises for future rewards, hope for peace, and standards for justice. Such facets of the nascent gospel were understood best by Jews – because they had the law and prophets as context. Even so the Jews struggled to comprehend the basic aspects of the non-cross centered gospel – how much more perplexing would a cross exalting gospel be to them.
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The baptism of John was a baptism of repentance, so one could interpret this passage “the people acknowledged God’s justice for they had repented, but the Pharisees rejected God’s purpose for themselves because they had not repented.” Looking to God from a position of repentance causes us to delight in Him and acknowledge His justice. Whereas engaging Him from a position of pride, without repentance, only makes us like the Pharisee, perplexed, suspicious and arrogant, as we ultimately reject God’s purposes, His forgiveness, and His salvation.
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O Poor Pharisee, stuck in your old ways of performing righteousness – making much of your displays of prayer and fasting. You think such efforts will make you acceptable to God. You have drunk your old religion of law for so long that Jesus’ words are impossible for you to understand. Your legalistic ways offer no categories for this new wine of gospel grace. You question why Jesus’ followers don’t act like other religious people? The Lord’s answer comes back in riddles, stories, and parables you cannot understand by your categories of duty and performance.
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How incredibly blessed these unnamed shepherds were to hear the multitude of heavenly host declare the glory of God and the gospel of Christ! This majestic revelation was an unexpected explosion of grace. God interrupted their night with a glorious proclamation about a Savior. How is it that such a display should be presented to but a few unnamed shepherds? Isn’t such a wonderful announcement, made through such an unearthly testimony, worthy of a wider audience? O, but it does have a wider audience, an audience that even includes me; I observe it in the Gospel of Luke. While the testimony of a multitude of heavenly hosts is spectacular, the testimony of God’s Word is far greater. In His Word God reveals the same message to me, 2000 years later, as He did for the shepherds that Holy night.
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Jude 24 is such a hopeful verse, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” I am often dismayed at how rarely and how briefly I glimpse His glory so that I can rejoice in it. The eyes in this earthly body of mine just don’t have the capacity for beholding glory. Even when, in His mercy, God gives me a spiritual glimpse, its brightness fades quickly. Such glances are short refractions of glory, dimmed, and clouded. It is necessary for God to limit my view, because while I live in the body, if I were to get a direct view, I could not stand. I am simply unequipped to look at God. I could more easily stare directly into the sun and suffer fewer ill effects than if I looked directly into the glorified face of Christ. But I have the promise in Jude, that one day, Jesus will change my body, and I will have new eyes that have improved capacities – I will be able to stand in the very presence of His glory and look! I will not be destroyed. I will not shield my eyes. I will look and be filled with great joy!
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Considering Christ