The glory of God is displayed in the purpose, character, and results of Christ’s redeeming work, as well as in the message and messengers of Christ, the Church. This short two part series explores how these expressions of the glory of God help us understand the pain and problems that Christians may experience in this life.
“For you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10 NAS).
Imagine the task of introducing the history of the Christian church to a group of students that know nothing of Christianity. Perhaps you could begin with ancient Rome and recount the experience of believers burned as torches in Nero’s garden, living in the catacombs, or thrown to the lions in the coliseum. You might survey accounts of Reformation martyrs burned at the stake for the Gospel, or tortured at the hands of the Roman Catholic Inquisition. For contemporary history you could interview survivors of North Korean concentration camps, or visit secret churches in the Middle East where Christians meet under the threat of death, or are butchered by Islamists in Syria and Iraq. You could go to China, where believers can be jailed and even tortured for their faith, or sit in an American university classroom to see what happens when you say that faith in Christ alone is the only way to heaven.
In concluding your lesson, you could ask your students if the brief history fits the status of a people chosen by a God of infinite love and power to be His special children. Admittedly, our small sample of hardships does not represent the experience of every Christian in every age; many believers live relatively peaceful lives. Nonetheless, the history of God’s people raises an important question: Is God’s glory more likely to be found in stadiums filled with people rejoicing in the hope of earthly health, wealth, and prosperity, or in coliseums awaiting the release of the lions? Or put another way, are weakness, trials, and profound suffering consistent with our status in Christ as “a royal priesthood” and “holy nation,” appointed by God to proclaim His excellence?
The importance of the question cannot be overstated. The correct answer will deepen and strengthen a right understanding of the Gospel and nurture a faithful, joyful, and God-honoring life in any circumstance. A wrong answer will miss the meaning and purpose of the Gospel, mistake the ways of the world with the ways of God, confuse the present age with the age to come, and lead to disappointment and frustration in the trials of the Christian life.
To answer our question, we must first identify that which constitutes the glory or excellence of the One we proclaim, the head of the Church, and then look at how His excellence appears in His body, His chosen and beloved ambassadors. The latter will be examined in Part Two of the series, while we turn now to that which constitutes the greatest display of God’s glory, namely, the purpose, character, and result of Christ’s suffering in redeeming unworthy sinners.
To begin, God is glorified in the purpose of Christ’s suffering. His humiliation and agony in life and death accomplished God’s ultimate purpose to display and communicate the excellence of His perfections. His glory radiates from the infinite love that purchased eternal happiness for the unlovable, and that at infinite cost to Himself. The beauty of His righteousness appears in His unwillingness to save a single soul without the perfect satisfaction of His holy justice, including the perfect love, honor, and obedience owed to Him by those He created, and payment of the penalty for our sin. God’s power shines in the defeat of death and the Devil, in the wisdom that saved the unsavable, and in the goodness, mercy, and grace that sent the One who freely volunteered to be our substitute and purchase our eternal happiness.
Second, God is glorified in the character of Christ’s suffering. In His temptation in the wilderness, in His earthly poverty, as treated as a common criminal, in His composure before Pilate as He endured the humiliation of spitting, lashing, the mocking of ignorant soldiers, and the taunts of an evil crowd, such that Pilate was amazed. And greater still, in the face of immeasurable agony He would experience in bearing the infinite wrath of the Father on our behalf, He resolved to drink the bitter cup to the full that we might drink from the chalice of His eternal happiness.
And third, God is glorified by the results of Christ’s suffering. Covered in His righteousness, we appear as trophies of God’s grace and excellence when the life of Christ shines in and through us. And when we join Christ at the right hand of the Father as the reward for the infinite merit of His perfect life and death, our presence and praise in heaven will forever speak of God’s infinite excellence. But until that great day, we “tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised” (Psalm 96:3-4 NAS). Amen.
In Part Two, we will examine the glory of God as displayed in the church.
In Part One we saw the glory of God displayed in the purpose, character, and results of Christ’s redeeming work. In Christ we see the infinite excellence of God on display in His purchase of unworthy sinners for an eternity of happiness in heaven. We turn now to a brief look at God’s glory in the message and messengers of Christ, the Church.
“For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). Regarded as foolish by those blind to its excellence, the Gospel is, nonetheless, perfect in its glory. To disdain the greatest message, the greatest love and mercy, and the greatest gift, purchased at the cost of infinite suffering for the undeserving, speaks volumes about the nature of unbelief, but impugns nothing of the Gospel.
Consider the crowds in the Praetorium watching Christ before Pontius Pilate as the Gospel played out before their eyes. Craving the glory of Christ’s power to heal and deliver them from the rule of Rome, they saw no glory as He stood bleeding and humiliated under Rome’s iron fist. Seeking the glory of His strength to realize their earthly interests, they saw no glory in His weakness and suffering to achieve eternal blessings. And in any age where the Gospel is preached and reviled, crowds inwardly cry “crucify” as they adore the crown of gold, but despise the crown of thorns. Thus, we need not be surprised at the world’s response to the Gospel, even as it grieves us, neither should we change the message to suit a world hostile to its excellence.
Many contemporaries of the Apostle Paul, especially in Corinth, viewed him as “unimpressive” and his speech as “contemptible” (2 Cor. 10:10). Yet, Paul intentionally avoided “cleverness of speech” and worldly wisdom, resolving “to know nothing” among the Corinthians but “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” In deference to God and the Gospel, he preached “in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” But why would he not “do as the Corinthians do” among a people that revered great rhetorical skill? In short, he wanted his worldly audience to trust the power of God, not human wisdom as they were so prone to do (1 Cor. 2:1-5). He also did not want to make the Gospel “void” or powerless to change hearts by drawing attention to the messenger and away from the message of the cross of Christ (1 Cor. 1:17). Preachers in every age are most effective when they shine the light on Christ and away from themselves.
To ensure a proper humility in Paul following his remarkable visit to the third heaven, God gave him a “thorn in the flesh.” Whatever it was, it bothered Paul enough to ask God three times to take it away. But God said no, adding, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Reconsidering his ailment from God’s perspective, Paul concluded, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me” (2 Cor. 12:9 NAS). And God calls us to view our troubles the same way.
Further, we miss a critical aspect of a fruitful and joyful Christian life if we think Christianity is all about being healthy, prosperous, and formidable in the eyes of a fallen world. “God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong” that we might boast in Him alone (1 Cor. 1:27-31). Indeed, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Cor. 4:7 NAS). The more we understand this, the more God will use us as part of His purpose to display His glory, and the less perplexing to us will be our difficult circumstances. “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation” (1 Pet. 4:12-13 NAS). Suffering is neither a “strange thing” nor outside the purpose and plan of God for His children. God uses it for our good and His glory as He molds us into the image of Christ.
Consider the experience of the most faithful saints throughout the ages. Can we really say that the early church was not victorious because they were thrown to the lions or lived in the catacombs? God certainly did not view them that way, “For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:36-37 NAS).
Therefore, while we wait for our ultimate transformation in heaven, “momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18). We need not confuse the present age with the age to come by the mistaken idea that God does not want us to suffer, or by an incessant boasting of the impending success of the church in numbers and worldly influence prior to Christ’s return—we stand victorious in Christ even when small in number, marginalized, or persecuted. Therefore, we faithfully serve God’s purpose by showcasing His infinite excellence in our weakness and troubles, as we look forward to the glories of our heavenly home: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2 NAS). We will enjoy Him in perfect glory forever. Amen.