THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH IN THE LATTER DAYS
by bro. G. V. Growcott
“We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the Glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as the Lord the Spirit”
(1 Corinthians 3: 18).
A FRATERNAL GATHERING ADDRESS
The Gathering Committee’s outline for this address lists these 5 items:
1. The attitude of the Household in relation to the Signs of the Times.
2. The attitude of the Household in relation to the Gentile world.
3. The attitude of the Household in relation to Israel.
4. The effect the Signs should have on the Household.
5. The glory that will be theirs in the Kingdom of God.
First, then: our attitude toward the Signs. It should comprise these aspects: Awareness, Thankfulness, Deep Interest, Neutrality, Caution, Balance, and Discrimination.
AWARENESS: Jesus severely chided the Pharisees because they could not discern the Signs of the Times. It could have helped save them from the greatest tragedy that ever befell a people. They should have been aware of their location in Daniel’s Messianic 70 Weeks, which culminated in their generation. They should have recognised in Rome the terrible, strange-tongued, eagle-nation from afar (Deuteronomy 28) that was to destroy their city and Temple (Daniel 9: 26), and cast them out of their land.
They should have recognised John as Isaiah’s ‘Voice crying in the wilderness’, and as Malachi’s messenger of the Messiah. But they did not—and all that was foretold came suddenly upon them.
THANKFULNESS: Without the Signs, the whole pattern of our lives would be far less interesting, far more hazy and indefinite. Truly we could live full, godly lives without them: they are not essential to salvation. But they greatly strengthen faith and interest, and give us encouraging bearings and landmarks whereby to plot our position in the outworking of the Divine Purpose. It is much more pleasant and comforting to be travelling in clear sunlight, observing the changing terrain that indicates the approach of our destination, than it is travelling in indistinguishable dark or fog.
The ‘sure word of prophecy’ would lose much of its force for us if we had no way to tie ourselves in, by current events and circumstances, to our specific position in the Plan. The Signs are of God’s love and mercy, for the strengthening of His children. The wise will be thankful for them, and will be stirred to godly action by them.
DEEP INTEREST: It is a remarkable paradox that the true, unworldly, separated people of God are far more interested in the significant events in the world than the world itself is. The vast majority of the world’s 4 billion people—we could say 99%—know and care little or nothing of what goes on outside their own tiny circle of low animal activity and enjoyment. Even in our own supposedly educated and sophisticated countries, we find the weekly newsmagazines are almost entirely petty froth and rubbish: a few meaningful paragraphs in average issues of over 100 pages.
Our position is unique. It is their world, but we are more interested in what is happening and where it is going. We have a programme. We know generally what is going to happen, though we do not know specifically from event to event, which makes it far more interesting.
NEUTRALITY: We must constantly remind ourselves to be neutral: to keep in harmony with the Divine view of things. It is the potsherds striving with the potsherds of the earth: ALL fleshly and evil.
We have natural sympathy with the downtrodden and the oppressed. On the other hand, we have natural, selfish sympathy with the status quo and the preservation of the inequities which favour our own safety and well-being, as the historic dominance and privileges of the White race, which seized as much of the world’s good lands as it could—especially the British—confining the other races to overcrowded conditions in less favourable areas. Canada has 6 people per square mile; India has 490. Australia has 5 people per square mile; Japan, which covets Australia, has 790, and her land is very barren generally.
We have many natural, fleshly sympathies and prejudices which we must examine, try to be aware of, and guard against. Our interests and sympathies in watching the Signs must be on the basis of the will and purpose of God, and not our own national, racial or personal feelings.
CAUTION: We must be very careful about attempting to prophesy, and about over-emphasising passing events. There are many zigs and zags in the development of the Purpose. Just a few years ago, prominent brethren in another group were confidently saying in their official magazine that bro. Thomas was wrong, and Russia could not possibly be King of the North, because of her ‘Pact of Eternal Friendship’ with Egypt. Very soon after, that pact went the way of all human pacts.
Exactly 100 years ago, the Brotherhood had every reason to believe the end was upon them. The temporal power of the Pope had recently ended—the 1260-year period of power to persecute—just when expected. Russia was furiously driving against the tottering Turkish Empire with the full weight of its armed might. Europe was favouring Russia, because of religious sympathy and envy of Britain’s power. Britain opposed the Russian advance, and had drawn a line at Constantinople beyond which it dared Russia to go. Turkey held the Holy Land, where Russian and Catholic interest was strong. The Jews were stirring toward political life, and had begun to return.
But it was not the end. All the Signs they saw were correct, but had to get far bigger and more prominent: Israel, Russia, war, violence, immorality, human knowledge and travel and pride, world turmoil and discontent, etc. Britain and Europe had to be weakened, and shrink tremendously on the world scene: the German and Austrian empires broken up—all fading before the dreadful superpower of Russia.
BALANCE: The Signs are important, but secondary. Some have made shipwreck in over-emphasising them far out of proportion: obsessed with them to the detriment of deeper things—then often being devastated when they did not follow an expected pattern at an expected time. Unbalance concerning the Signs can lead to a shallow and unstable faith: a gospel of political sensationalism.
Character, service to God and the Brotherhood, and an ever-deepening knowledge of the full range of the Truth, must be the principal aspects of our interest and effort. And finally—
DISCRIMINATION: We must distinguish between normal phenomena and legitimate Signs of the Times. We weaken our case if we consider every tornado a Sign. Earthquakes, floods, droughts, violent weather activities only become Signs if they establish a measurable new pattern of greatly increased frequency or intensity or significant location or bearing on current events.
This principle applies equally to human events and activities. We must distinguish between normal variations and repetitions of what has always been, and specific new aspects peculiar to these last days. War has always been, and therefore war is not in itself a Sign (although it is a striking fulfilment of prophecy that, despite all man’s protestations and predictions of peace, and claims of civilisation and culture, war still is with us more prominently than ever).
But war is a Sign in that it has suddenly, in our lifetime, become infinitely more deadly and destructive and horrible and burdensome to the world’s peoples: man now has the actual ability in his hands to destroy all life on the planet, and make it uninhabitable for centuries.
The 100s of billions of $s, and billions of hours of ingenuity and labour, and mountains of irreplaceable natural resources, spent annually on ever deadlier and more diabolical instruments of war, could transform the earth into a paradise for all, and eliminate all cause for men to go to war at all, if mankind had any decency and wisdom. But it cannot be, as long as evil human nature rules the earth.
* * *
The 2nd item: The attitude of the Household in relation to the Gentile world. Jesus said—
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3: 16).
He said again—
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour AS THYSELF” (Matthew 19: 19).
And in illustration, when pressed as to who is ‘thy neighbour’, he showed by the parable of the Good Samaritan that the term has universal application. It is as large and broad as the heart is able to expand and grow up to. He said further, through Paul—
“As ye have opportunity (that is, to the fullest extent ye are able), DO GOOD TO ALL MEN” (Galatians 6: 10).
This is a very important injunction as part of the Way of Life. It requires positive action and effort. It is by context directly connected with the promise (verse 8) that those who sow to the Spirit shall reap everlasting life: that is, it is a required part of the sowing to the Spirit.
Jesus said also, even more searchingly—
“Love your enemies . . . DO GOOD to them that hate you” (Matthew 5: 44).
Do we carefully obey this, or do we conveniently ignore it? —content to feel noble and superior in not returning the evil? The Way of Life is a very special kind of training for a very special Divine position for eternity. Are we big enough for it?
This is one group of commands. There is another group, as—
“Love not the world . . . If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2: 15).
“Come out from among them and be ye separate” (2 Corinthians 6: 17).
“The friendship of the world is enmity with God” (James 4: 4).
“Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5: 11).
These two sets of commands seem contradictory: many in fact use one set to discountenance the other, according as their preferences may be. But we know they are not contradictory. And we know that both sets are vitally important, are commands, and must be obeyed.
Wisdom will humbly and enquiringly discern the true pattern and balance between them. We must have an attitude toward the world that harmonises and fulfils both sets of teachings. Bro.Roberts said, with much discernment, that it is such apparently opposite commands as these that develop our spiritual insight and penetration. We are forced to analyse and discriminate, and perceive the finer lines of instruction. We cannot jump to broad or coarse conclusions. We are forced to the delicate balance of self-control within limited guidelines.
We can have no fellowship or fraternisation with the world. We must maintain all our motives and desires and interests on a higher, purer, spiritual plane: but our feeling and attitude toward them must be kindness and hope and helpfulness. Jesus said—
“I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12: 47).
He will judge, eventually—he plainly tells us so (Acts 17: 31)—but that was not his mission then: nor is it ours. It is essential to the healthy development of our character that we suppress the fleshly tendency to constantly criticise and condemn ‘those that are without’; and rather by study of the mind of Christ learn how to desire to do good unto all men. And the kindness and concern must be genuine, from the bottom of our hearts in wisdom; not a forced, surface kindness.
Christ wept for wicked Jerusalem, in spite of her long and bloody record of wickedness and murder of the prophets of God. He was bowed down with the realisation that wickedness is tragic, self-destructive folly; and he desired to save men from it, not coldly condemn them in it. So must we, sincerely, with heartfelt concern and sympathy.
Primarily, of course, we must be separate. We must feel separate, think separate, act separate. We are not, and cannot be, a part of the world in activities, interests and associations. All we do, all day and every day, must be with the sole motive of pleasing God, keeping close to Him in heart and mind, doing all for and unto Him.
This is first, and fundamental; but it does not stop there. We have obligations to the world; and the importance of these obligations is not so much for the world’s sake, as for our own training and character.
Criticism and judging come cheap and easy. They are natural, and fleshly, and very small-mindedly self-gratifying. But to learn how to put ourselves out, and set aside our own comfort and satisfaction, and take the time and trouble and effort to help and strengthen those we so glibly criticise, is the Christ-like sacrifice God demands—
“DO GOOD TO ALL MEN . . . Do good to them that hate you.”
It is a positive command; a required part of the Way of Life. Some people spend much time in building muscles by lifting great weights: if faithfully adhered to, the results are very impressive. These are the weights that build the essential muscles of the Spirit.
Truly we must discern right from wrong. We must clearly recognise and not obscure the fact that—“the whole world lieth in wickedness”—and that, being of the flesh wherein there is ‘no good thing’ all that it does is sin, being not of enlightened faith (Romans 14: 23). By desiring to help, we do not condone what is wrong. We simply show the more excellent way. Christ, in his single-minded devotion to the work of God, associated freely with publicans and sinners.
We have no reason to believe he especially chose such company although we do know that he especially chose the company of what were snobbishly regarded as the ‘lowest class’ of the people—
“Unto the POOR the Gospel is preached” (Luke 7: 22).
This was one of the special signs that he was the true Messiah, as he sent word to John in prison. There is no especial virtue in the poor; but as soon as men get into any position above that stage, then pride and greed and selfishness and covetousness intensify, so that it is increasingly hard for those who are not poor to enter the Kingdom, or be faithful stewards of the goods God has put testingly in their hands.
It was the poor, zealous Philippians, and not the rich, self-satisfied Corinthians, who were closest to Paul and who helped him the most in material things. The poor live closer to the reality of man’s weakness and helplessness and dependence. We must, by close association with God and Christ and the Word, develop the God-like characteristic of earnestly desiring to do good to others: this is true spiritual living. And it is, appropriately, the happiest way. The natural way is to grasp and hoard. People are always collecting things, and its mostly rubbish. This is fundamental to the flesh. We all do it as children, but if our lives are going to be useful to God, we must mature and grow out of such childishness. Often it’s pretty and attractive rubbish; but it’s still rubbish, and wastes precious time, and gets in the way of single-minded service and dedication to the work of God. Let us unclutter our lives, so we can make them spiritually useful.
The natural way, again, is self-interest; and indifference or antagonism to others: small, cramped, self-centredness. Some even use the glorious Gospel of God to justify this fleshliness. The spiritual way is self-forgetfulness, and deep concern for others. To our shame, many in the animal world could give us lessons in this respect. While we sit back in comfort and smugly criticise, they are out there in self-sacrifice, doing something for others.
We must not let the flesh use the true, necessary, God-required narrowness of the Way of Life as an excuse for self-centredness and unconcern for mankind. Christ, the perfect example, never for a moment forgot or strayed from the narrow way, but still his whole life was an unbroken pattern of selfless concern for all mankind. So must be ours.
* * *
The third item: Our attitude toward Israel. Here special factors come into play. Israel is truly part of the world that ‘lies in wickedness’, but a very special part. Israel is the ‘apple of God’s eye’ (Zechariah 2: 8); although today sunk in blindness and rebellion and ignorant blasphemy. We must have a very special feeling and affinity for Israel:
“He that blesseth thee I will bless.”
But we must not be blind to the characteristic of stiffneckedness that always has and still does distinguish them as a nation. They not only reject Christ himself: they arrogantly reject the very conception of any need for a mediatorial, sacrificial Saviour. They have no conception of their hopeless bondage to sin. Their holy, God-given Law has taught them nothing. They feel they can approach God on their own, without any need for a Christ. They cannot see that their temporary mediatorial Law is ended, and they have nothing in its place. An article in the Detroit Jewish News, comparing Judaism with what they believe to be ‘Christianity’, says—
“Judaism teaches that man can be all-righteous or all-wicked, for his ethical conduct is solely up to his own decision. Christian belief is predicated on the doctrine of ‘Original Sin’. In his daily prayers, the Jew proclaims, ‘My God, the soul which Thou hast given me is pure.’ Christianity teaches that man is sinful by birth. Christianity regards the flesh as the cause of sin.”
“The Jewish interpretation of ethical freedom implies that repentance is the omnipotent cure of sin. The Christian doctrine of ‘Original Sin’ leads to the conclusion that man is too weak to repent effectively. He is too sinful to atone, and so needs the help of Jesus.”
“The Christian finds atonement in the belief that Jesus died for the sins of mankind. This idea of ‘vicarious atonement’—the payment of the penalty not by the sinner but by a substitute for him—cannot be reconciled with Jewish convictions.”
Truly this is a confused mixture of truth and error, in response to the only ‘Christianity’ they know—the sad caricature of Christ exhibited by the Churches: the substitutionary Christ who is punished instead of man who deserves it. But while rejecting the orthodox errors, they also reject the true doctrine of the necessary sacrifice of Christ, though so clearly foreshown in their Scriptures from beginning to end. Their position still is as in Christ’s day among them (John 8: 33)—“We are free . . . we are not in bondage . . . we have no need of your freedom.” Israel is tragically today, as Hosea foretold, ‘without a sacrifice.’
But we must never—in thought or word—align ourselves against Israel, blind and wicked though they be. Their judgment and condemnation and punishment is God’s exclusive prerogative, of which He is very jealous. How bitterly He denounced, and how dreadfully He scourged, those very nations whose natural enmity He used to bring fully merited punishment upon His erring people!
We must never allow ourselves to even appear to side or sympathise with those who despise or defame the Jew; for they are—though greatly erring—‘beloved for the fathers’ sakes’ (Romans 11: 28).
We marvel in never diminishing wonder at the continuous living miracle that they present: a unique and different people from all others—and such a major, out-of-proportion factor in the world’s activities. And today, in their own land, living on the endless raw edge of crisis: 4 times in 25 years viciously attacked on all sides by vastly greater numbers dedicated to their annihilation; and 4 times decisively defeating the attackers. And the hypocritical world sides with the oil-rich aggressors, and tells Israel she must strip herself of her defences.
* * *
And we have mighty Russia: a dreadful, increasingly industrialised, increasingly scientific, cold, rigid dictatorship, controlling 1/6 of the earth, and well over 1/6 of its resources—fanatically devoted to world dominion. It is the world’s richest nation in mineral resources; it has 2 ½ billion acres of forests; over ½ the world’s coal; 2/5 of its iron.
Russia’s gross national product is ½ that of US, but it is all muscle and si8new: not frittered and dissipated in puffy trinkets and self-indulgent pleasures and luxuries, as US’s is. Russia is just beginning to tap its vast resources; US has pretty well exhausted hers by profligacy.
Russia leads the world in steel, coal and oil production: the 3 basics of industrialised power. She leads in largest power-dams, and has almost unlimited water power for many more that she plans. She builds everything on a colossal scale.
Exactly 100 years ago Russia and Turkey were at war, and the Brotherhood thought it was the descent of Gog, and that Armageddon was immediately imminent.
But what was Russia then, compared to now? The mighty British Empire was at its proud peak. Its commerce and navy dominated the world: its industrial production was many times Russia’s. In 1860, British steel production was 10 times Russia’s, and equal to all the rest of the world’s combined. Its coal production was double the total of all the rest of the world: coal was then the only source of industrial energy. Russia was not even a factor in world coal production at all: now it’s first.
100 years ago, the Brotherhood thought the King of the North’s ‘many ships’ (Daniel 11: 40) were the large secret armada of landing boats by which they suddenly surprised the Turks and crossed the Danube in huge numbers, overwhelming Turkish defences and beginning the war.
It was certainly a reasonable application. But today Russia has ‘many ships’ in the full, global, naval sense—several times more, in fact, in actual numbers than US—and they will clearly play a large part in the final showdown. In the past 15 years, Russia has gone from practically no navy at all to the world’s 2nd largest; in many respects rivalling and even surpassing US’s shrinking and aging fleet—including 350 huge submarines: far more than US has; and far more, and more deadly, than Hitler had at his peak when he was sinking a million tons of Allied ships a month and came close to breaking the back of Allied transport. We see how tremendously Russia has developed in recent years.
The Signs are not to be an obsession, to the detriment of deeper, spiritual things; but are to help keep our outlook and awareness broadened from our own petty things to the developing panorama of the great Divine plan with mankind.
* * *
Finally, the last item: The glories that will be ours (if worthy) in the Kingdom of God. What is our conception of ‘glory’? It depends upon our depth of spiritual perception. What would be ‘glory’ for us? The more shallow our perception, the more we perceive glory as external rather than internal. We know the common worldly conception: splendour, magnificence, renown, celebrity, the worshipful subservience and envy of others: power over others (how the flesh loves that!).
Certainly glory, as represented visually, is brightness, brilliance, radiance, effulgence. But this is merely the outward manifestation of glory, as are all the gaudy trappings of power and prestige.
The Scriptures say much of the ‘Glory of God,’ and all true glory must be related to, and part of, that. The Glory of God is His fundamental character and nature: pure, holy, righteous, wise, loving, incorruptible, imperishable. It is to this Glory we are called, and to which we are to yearn and strive.
The first reference to the ‘Glory of Yahweh’ is in Exodus 16, in connection with the giving of the Manna, the heavenly bread.
The 2nd is in Exodus 24: the giving of the Law at Sinai.
The 3rd is the promise in Exodus 29 that the Tabernacle—God’s dwelling-place—should be sanctified by God’s Glory. We perceive the type and significance—
“Ye are the Temple of the living God.”
Then we come to the 4th: a key passage concerning the Glory of Yahweh. Moses asked—
“I beseech Thee: show me Thy Glory” (Exodus 33: 18).
God answered (next verse)—
“I will make all My goodness pass before thee.”
And in the subsequent gracious revelation in chapter 34, God identifies His Glory with His goodness and mercy and love (verse 6)—
“And the Lord passed before him, and proclaimed: Yahweh, Yahweh Elohim, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth.”
This was God’s response to Moses’ request, and this is the true ‘Glory of Yahweh,’ of which the light and splendour and brilliance are but the outward manifestation: “God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1)—and this clearly refers to moral rather than physical aspects, because it is spoken of in relation to righteousness and sin.
Psalm 19 announces that—“The heavens declare the Glory of God.”
Here is wisdom and power, truly, but it is more than that. The vast, majestic, orderly beauty of the heavens declares goodness and benevolence and trustworthiness and purpose, though it is silent as to what the goodness may have in mind, or what the purpose may be.
Psalm 45 says—“The King’s daughter is all glorious WITHIN.”
Modern versions and most commentaries make the meaning much more shallow by arbitrarily adding words, as R.V.: ‘within the palace.’ But we believe this is a reference to the true glory the Bridegroom sees in the Bride—the inner glory of character and substance. This is the natural meaning of the Hebrew as it stands, without tampering.
In harmony with this are several beautiful references to glory in the New Testament. John says (1: 14)—“We beheld his glory . . .”—that was the ‘Word made flesh dwelling among them’—
“ . . . the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
‘Grace’ was his character. ‘Truth’ was his foundation. ‘Full’ was the degree of his Godlikeness—
“I do always those things that please the Father.”
That was the glory they beheld. If we desire the eternal spiritual glory of perfect oneness with God in mind and in nature, this is the glory—portrayed by Christ—that we must strive with all our efforts to develop and manifest. Let us be sure we are not like Israel: seeking a showy, external, flesh-pleasing glory, and never realising that the true glory must be developed within us by the power of the Word, and that now is the time it must be done, if ever.
It is a joyful endeavour: life’s greatest possible pleasure and adventure. But it requires complete dedication, constant attention, and continual constructive self-examination. How much closer are we today than yesterday? How far did we fail of God’s glory today, and what can we learn from it to reduce failure in the future?
There must be a continuous self-purifying confessional of prayer in Jesus’ Name. Prayer is not a periodic thing, but continuous: a state of the heart; a condition of the mind. We must pray in everything: large and small—for God’s guidance in it, and for His acceptance of it. Nothing is too small to be prayed about, for all is equally part of the one single fabric of our life. What cannot be prayed about must not be done.
It will always seem like failure, for the more we learn and overcome, the more we will realise how little we have really overcome. Let us remember that when we have ‘done all’—that is, when we have spent a lifetime trying our hardest—we are still, as Jesus says, ‘unprofitable servants.’ But God in His mercy is going to accept those ‘unprofitable servants,’ if they truly have ‘done all’—that is, all they could: their best. He has assured us that our pitiful little unprofitable best is enough, if it truly is our best.
His mercy through Christ will make up the difference, and He will accept us as ‘perfect and blameless in His sight.’
We know that many will succeed in this glorious race. Though ‘narrow is the way, and few there be that find it,’ still in the end, that relative few is described as a ‘multitude no man can number.’ They can do it: so can we. The prize of glory is well within our ability, IF we will drop everything else and give it every ounce of effort we have.
If we truly value the prize, and appreciate and rejoice continually in the infinite love and goodness of God, we cannot possibly be content with giving anything less than our best and most.
Paul says—
“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3: 23).
Clearly here the ‘Glory of God’ is His perfection of beauty and holiness, and the perfection He requires of those who would be one with Him.
Paul is explaining in this chapter why the perfect God-manifesting glory of Christ was necessary, that a foundation of perfection might be laid, sin repudiated and condemned, and God forever honoured; that God might then be merciful to all weak but loving creatures who seek Him with all their heart.
Paul speaks often of this divine Glory that God is, that Christ manifested, and that man must strive for. The term appears over 100 times in his writings: but perhaps he nowhere expresses it more searchingly and beautifully than in writing to the ecclesia at Corinth. In 2 Corinthians 3 he is led to speak of the Old and New Covenants. He speaks of the tremendous, overawing Glory of God as manifested in the Old Covenant, the ‘ministration of death,’ the dispensation of condemnation.
We have seen that the inauguration of this Old Covenant is where reference to the Glory of Yahweh first appears in the scriptural record. The Law, and its services and standards and requirements, indeed was glorious: ‘holy, just and good,’ as Paul describes it (Romans 7: 12).
What a wonderful, joyful, beautiful people Israel could have been: IF they had lived up to their glorious Law to the best of their ability. That was all God asked. He did not demand impossible perfection. He made merciful provision for constant honest failure, and ever-renewed effort. Let us ponder that thought (for it has very important significance for us today): What a wonderful, joyful, beautiful people Israel COULD have been—what an unearthy manifestation of God’s glory to the world—IF they had lived up to their holy, divine Law to the best of their ability!
But glorious as the Old Covenant was, the New is far more glorious. That is Paul’s point. We know the sad conditions in the Corinthian ecclesia: conditions that Paul warned must lead to disfellowship if not corrected (1 Corinthians 4: 21; 2 Corinthians 13:2, 10). Paul is trying to inspire them to the beauty that could be, the glory that could be—
“If the ministration of death was glorious . . . how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be more glorious?” (verses 8-9).
Is it glory we seek? This is what Paul is offering and exhorting to—
“We all, with open (correctly: unveiled) face, beholding as in a glass (mirror) the Glory of the Lord, are CHANGED into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (verse 18).
So we see clearly what this Glory is, and when it must be achieved. It is the likeness of Christ who is the Glory of God, and NOW is the only time for its development. It will not come wafting down upon us at the last day. There must be a ‘change’ now, and it is the steady beholding that does the changing—
“We beheld his glory, full of grace and truth.”
The urgent question then is—“Are we, while we still have fleeting opportunity, by steadily keeping our eyes on Christ the Glory of God, being changed ‘from glory to glory’—that is, changed continuously from one degree of divine glory to a fuller degree?”
This is the sole purpose and reason for our present life: anything else is tragic waste of precious time and golden opportunity. This progressive change should—must—be discernible: in knowledge, and in character, and in godly action—a continuously closer likeness to the ‘Lord the Spirit.’ Only God can determine the acceptability of the accomplishment in each case, for He alone knows all the abilities and opportunities, all the weaknesses and limitations.
But, certainly, the change—the glorifying process—must be very substantial. We are not here to play games, or to just go through hypocritical, meaningless motions. God is not mocked. He has no patience with half-service or pretence. It must be our best and our all, even though in our limited ability our sacrifice appear relatively but a turtledove, or even just a handful of meal. God knows what our best is: and it is as good in His sight as anyone else’s best. The poor widow gave more than they all. None can despair, and none can be over-confident.
We are reminded of what a wonderful people—what a tremendous witness to the Glory of God—Israel could have been in the earth, IF they had fulfilled to the limit of their ability the requirements of their glorious Law. What about us: who have a far more glorious law?
If we are looking for ‘glory,’ it is right at our hand: and this is how it is acquired—by long, hard, but joyful, labour and study and effort—not by living today in relaxed self-service, on our ‘beds of ivory’ in our ‘ceiled houses’—and then expecting all the glory to come suddenly pouring on us at the final day. Our ‘glory’ is, and will be, just what we are making of ourselves right now: day by day, and effort by effort.
Glorious miracle there will yet indeed be: from weak, erring, human flesh—of such pitifully limited knowledge and power and accomplishment—to glorious divine strength and wisdom: but only for those who have been yearningly straining in that direction through their mortal lives.
Truly there is an aspect of the glory that still awaits us, if we are worthy: the final purifying and perfecting, the physical transformation, the divine nature, eternal oneness with God, the open manifestation in the fullness of life and power: every moment ineffable joy.
Paul says, a few verses on—
“For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the GLORY OF GOD in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4: 6).
The “light of the knowledge of the Glory of God.” God has given us this light, this knowledge, this Glory; and He has offered us the ability to look steadfastly upon it—not like Israel, who drew fearfully back—but in love, without fear: and to be transformed into glory by it, if true, eternal glory is what we desire above all else.
Moses, standing before Israel, had to cover his face, and veil the Divine glory. Israel’s fleshly sight was too weak, their fleshly heart too gross. The glory of the Old Covenant was freely offered to them, that they should be a holy nation of priests, to carry the joy of God’s Glory to the world. How wonderful they could have been! But they failed.
We have been called to a greater Covenant, a better ministry, a more glorious call to glory. Israel failed. They did not realise they were failing. They were quite satisfied with what they ignorantly thought was their success. But the attraction and distraction of the present, and of the heathen world around them, took their time, and effort, and interest—and they failed. They never realised the unique wonderfulness and magnitude of the Divine call that had come to them, and had chosen them for God’s Glory, out of a perishing animal world.
It would be a tragedy if the same must at last be said of us.
Glory is oneness of heart and mind and character with God. There is no other glory. At the judgment seat of Christ, we shall be given exactly that which we have set our heart on, and dedicated our life and energies to. That is pre-eminently fair and just.
It has been the Glory of God, then it will be the Glory of God: oneness with God in mind and substance, in eternal joyfulness. If not then it will not. Now, we have the choice: then, it will be too late.
First published in the Berean Magazine in 1977.
