Musings in Samuel (8)

No Glory – continued

I can think of no better passage to challenge us when thinking of what we glory in, and how we think of glory, than 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31:

“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, Let him who boasts [glories], boast [glory] in the Lord.”

Leading up to these verses, Paul teaches that what the world glories in is not what God glories in; what God values is not what the world values. What the world considers wise, God considers foolish; what the world considers foolish, God considers wise. This is a fundamental premise for Christian living and teaching – God’s ways are not our ways. If we believe this then we will seek God’s wisdom and God’s way and our primary sphere in seeking will be the Scriptures as we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians Chapter 2 – the natural man simply cannot  understand the things of God – they are foolishness to him).

Paul is writing that, for the Christian, life is all about Jesus Christ. Christ is our wisdom, Christ is our righteousness, Christ is our sanctification (our transformation into His image), and Christ is our redemption. Therefore, if Christ is truly all of these things to us (quoting from Jeremiah 9:23), let us glory in the Lord!

If I glory in something, then I will boast about that something. If I glory in a person, then I will boast, I will talk, about that person.

The people of Israel in 1 Samuel thought that simply possessing the Ark of the Covenant meant that they had a relationship with God; it did not matter that the head priests were not living in holy obedience to God and their calling to the priesthood; nor did it matter whether they, the nation, were living in obedience to God – they thought simply having the Ark would ensure victory over their enemies. Having Bibles in our pews, on our smartphones, or on our bookshelves does not mean that we are in a holy and obedient relationship with God in Christ.

All of the elements of a relationship with God were represented in the Ark – mercy, vicarious sacrifice, living bread, God’s Word, resurrection, holiness. That which was physically present, was also sacramentally present for those who were seeking the Face of God – sadly, those people were few.

I have been around Christians for all of my life, and at some point it dawned on me that we do not talk about Jesus Christ when we are together. Yes, of course this is a generalization, but I think it is a fair generalization. I think this has gotten worse with the advent of slick “Christian” marketing and the promotion of marquee speakers, authors, music artists and the like. We make franchises out of how-do teachings, “new” insights into life, special ways to get more out of life, and of course prophecy – we love buying books and DVDs about prophecy!

Yes, this has always been a challenge in our history; heresy has often arisen because of our sinful attraction to the novel, to something which others don’t have, or to things that are centered on us rather than on God and others. Heresy is not limited to erroneous belief, it also encompasses erroneous practices – just because we recite the Apostles Creed and say that the Bible is our authority for faith and practice doesn’t mean our lives reflect the Creed or obedience to the Bible.

How often does God give us insights into life, insights to glorify Christ and to help others, and we take those insights out of the context of Christ and the Bible and make them merchandise, make them our glory, make them what we boast about? When Jesus Christ ceases to be the explicit and unambiguous message and center of our lives then we have exchanged the glory of God in Christ for a lesser glory.

If Jesus Christ truly is our sanctification, our source of transformation into His image, then all teachings on marriage, on family, on parenting, on living in peace versus living in anger, on our faith in the workplace, on prophecy, on forgiveness – ought to be centered in Christ, rooted in Christ, and with transformation into the image of Christ and His glory as their goal. Jesus Christ ought to permeate all that we say and do and His glory should be our supreme desire.

We ought not to look at Jesus Christ in the context of a subject, whatever that subject might be; rather we ought to look at any and all subjects and practices in the context of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is Lord and we do not submit our Lord to our thinking and practice – we submit our practice and thinking to Him and to Him alone. We do not judge Him, He judges us. We do not evaluate Him, He evaluates us.

And so when people excitedly tell me about a new program, a new self-help regimen, a new teaching, a new way to do something, a new way of seeing prophecy, new music…the list goes on…I want to know where Jesus Christ is in it all. Is He its center, its focus, its goal, its glory? Because if He is its glory then why isn’t the person telling me about how they are seeing more of Jesus? Drawing closer to Jesus? Seeing the glory of Jesus?

Also, if people are rooted in an aspect of the past to the point where they are frozen in time, to the point where what has happened in the past is the key to the present – say a practice or an emphasis on doctrine – I want to know the same thing. We often take the good things God gives us and turn them into idols (consider the bronze serpent in the Wilderness).

I think most of us have a propensity to do this – I’ve done it; this doesn’t mean you’ve done it, but maybe you have, maybe you are doing it now. I can see, at least I think I can see, when we’re glorying in sociology because I’ve done it myself. I didn’t realize what I was doing, I was justifying what I was doing, I thought I was on the “cutting edge” in one sense, but now I regret some of my thinking and practice. I’ve done this with a few things, I’m sure I’ve done it with more than I realize (I’ve done it with music too!). Maybe you have too, probably not, but just maybe.

Well, in 1966 when I met George Will he was preaching 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31. The last time I talked with George, just 3 – 4 years ago (I think he is with the Lord now), he was still preaching 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31. Not a bad way to live your life. Not a bad way to preach.

Jesus really is our glory – He truly is.