F. G. Patterson
It is interesting to trace how much, and in what different lines, the practical power of the glory of God is brought before us in the epistles. The glory is the consummation of His grace to us.
In Romans 5:22By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2), where it enters into our hope, we "rejoice in hope of the glory of God." We cannot be more worthy for heaven, because OUT worthiness depends on what Christ has done, but our capacity to enjoy that glory may and ought to grow. The present sanctification has all the elements of the future glory, and the future glory contains all the qualities of the present sanctification. We are formed by what we make our object.
So Paul gives us the result of his experience of Christ: what he had learned. "Yea doubtless, and 1 count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." It was the spring of his devoted path of service and self-surrendering toil! "To me to live is Christ," his chief and only aim, that "Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death" (Phil. 3:8; 1:20-218Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, (Philippians 3:8)
20According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. 21For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:20‑21)). Yet the more he knew Him, he longed to know Him more: "That I may know Him.”
It says in 2 Corinthians 3:1818But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18), "We all, with open [unveiled] face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed [transformed] into the same image from glory to glory." He says "we all" since it is the common joy of every Christian to gaze upon that glory shining in the face of Jesus, and thus be transformed. The first look was on a lifted-up Son of Man dying on the cross for our sins. But He is not now there. He has left the cross, passed down to death and the grave, risen, and gone on high, a witness that the righteousness of God has been vindicated against sin, and is now displayed.
Do I seek to be like Him? What heart that knows Him does not long to be transformed into the same image? How then shall it be? By studying a humbled Christ and seeking to walk as He walked? No, the power is not found there. Shall seek conformity and likeness to Him by occupation with myself, looking into my own heart to produce what is of Him there? No, that will never do it! How then shall! become like Him? By occupation of heart with Christ in glory: by gazing and feeding upon and engrossing my heart with Him in the sphere of God's unsullied light, where He fills all things, and flesh and self can never come. There I find that a thousand things grow dim, which are not suited to that scene, nor to the heart of Him who is there. Flesh and self wither down to their true place of death. The beauteous lines of Christ are written upon the fleshy tables of the heart by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and the moral traits of His glory are reproduced in the deepening conformity of our ways to Him.
Stephen, gazing upon his Lord in glory, meets the stormy waves of a world that hated his Lord before it hated him. The vessel broken by the stones of the multitude only emits the beauteous light of his glorified Lord as he tastes the fellowship of His sufferings. He is delivered to death for Jesus' sake, and the life of Jesus is manifested in his mortal flesh.
Here I cannot pass on without pointing out one feature in which Christ excels—for in all things He must have the preeminence. Stephen first says, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he kneels down and prays for Saul and those who were stoning him, thus setting his spirit free. Not so Jesus. First He says, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:3434Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. (Luke 23:34)), and at the close of the cross He commits His Spirit to His Father. The order is reversed: Stephen was but man—though blessed martyr indeed. Jesus was the manifestation of divine goodness: Man perfect in dependence before God. He was also God perfectly revealed to man.
In Colossians, too, where we are seen passing through the deep, heart-searching circumstances of the wilderness way, the glory of God is again brought to bear on us. "Strengthened with all might" for a scene where all is against us. What is the measure of the strength? "According to His glorious power" (another rendering is "power of His glory"). What wonderful results will be produced with such strength, you may say. But to what are we strengthened? "Unto all patience!" Is not that a new way of making me patient in this scene—patient amidst its sorrows, trials, temptations and heart-rendings?
Strengthened "unto all... long-suffering," the long-suffering that bears without a murmur every evil work, as it can perform every good work through Christ that gives it strength. Then "with joyfulness" crowns the verse. It is not the heart assuming an attitude of submission with sorrow at the core, which is called resignation (a word unknown in Scripture). But it is the heart's joy springing up to Him in glory, in answer to the resources of His glory that strengthen for the same path of peaceful rest in a Father's love and will that so characterized Him.
In James 2:11My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. (James 2:1) you will again find the glory and its principles presented as a motive and power for conduct here. "My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons." If you have faith—the faith of glory, to which you are heading, do not go on with the spirit of the world, which puts the poor man in the low place and a rich man in the seat of honor! Let the principles of the glory form your ways, so that the spirit of the world may be broken in you.
Again in 1 Peter 4:1414If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. (1 Peter 4:14), "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified." When I feel that I have been reproached for the name of the Lord, it is as if the skirts of the glory had touched me! The spirit of the glory where Christ is has, so to speak, touched him who has been slighted for His name.
Take it where you will, the power of the glory of God is brought to bear for present sanctifying on our hearts and ways. Whether for hope, or conformity to Christ, for patience by the way, or to deal with the spirit of the world, or with regard to the reproach of Christ, the glory of God as revealed in Christ is pressed upon the soul as the power for the production of what is of Him in the Christian. (See John 17:1919And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. (John 17:19).)