Glory
Let’s say someone walks up to you on the street and asks you to describe the glory of Christ. What would you say?
For me, trying to explain the glory of Jesus clearly is sort of like trying to get my 8 year old boy to comprehend the vast distance of the sun. Imagine I told him, ‘It would take you 59,615 days or 163 years to drive there. That’s at 65 miles per hour of course (according to Google). It's about 93 million miles away.' His response would probably be, ‘Yeah, but how far is it?’
Even a good description of the long distance to the sun really doesn’t give him, or anyone for that matter, the true perspective. It's way too far to comprehend!
Moses had the same problem in the Old Testament. Because of the incomprehensibility of the glory of God, when Moses asked the Lord to show him His glory, God said, ‘You cannot see My face, for mankind shall not see Me and live!' Then the Lord made Moses hide in the cleft of the rock while His glory passed by. God’s glory was so powerful that the Lord had to cover Moses with His hand so Moses wouldn’t get consumed by it. [Exodus 33:18-23]
Throughout the Old Testament, the specific glory of Christ was invisible. You could only see sign posts pointing to it through the actions and words of God.
But then Jesus, the Son of God came in the flesh, fully God and fully man - and then things changed. The glory of Christ was made evident for mankind to behold.
Imagine someone telling you that one day you will be able to get as close to the sun as you can to your fireplace. You’ll be able to walk up to it, see into it, lay and sit by it, even touch it, and not get burned. You would probably think the person was a bit crazy. As would a Jewish person living during Old Testament times if you told them you could see the glory of God, ‘face to face, as with an unveiled face, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, and being transformed into the same image from glory to glory…’ [2 Corinthian 3:18] They would say you were either spiritualizing, apostatizing or in need of counseling.
As crazy as it sounds, this is what Jesus did for us. Through Him we can come close to God. When He died at the cross for our sins, rose again and ascended into heaven, through the Person of Jesus all of God's glorious attributes came rushing to the surface of reality for all who believe to see. God's glory became radiant, powerful, magnificent and completely accessible in the Person of Jesus Christ.
We know the scriptures tell us that God sent His Son to die for us so we would not perish but have everlasting life. Everlasting life means abundant life now continuing unto the eternal age to come. Jesus came not only to rescue us from sin and death, but also to be in loving fellowship with us now. He came to show us how to experience and see God, as we join Him in His redemption project of the entire creation.
God’s intention for saving His children is for them to truly glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. This enjoyment can only come from seeing and experiencing the glory of Christ. And we have complete access to behold it!
When we do, it changes our life. One glimpse at the glory of Christ can make every beauty or pleasure of this world seem stale and worthless. Beholding the glory of Christ not only sanctifies, but can change someone’s whole perspective of the Christian walk.
But why does it seem so difficult to apprehend? How do we go about beholding it and being transformed by it as promised in the scriptures? More importantly, how do we avoid losing the sight of the glory of Christ once we find it?
These are the topics John lays out for as we read about how Jesus prepared His disciples for His glorification. Our passage, John 13:31-38 contains some of the most packed verses regarding Christ’s ’glory’ in all of the gospels.
Jesus promises that once we fix our eyes on Him and see His glory, our mind can then find true joy, rest and peace (Isaiah 26:3). I'm praying the Lord will open these verses to us so we can experience these promises and more.
Listen to the sermon on John 13:31-38 below
