SUFFERING AND GLORY
SUFFERING AND GLORY
It is only as we enter into Christ’s sufferings here that we desire, or apprehend, or are prepared for His glory. Everything connected with the old man is contrary to Christ, for on account of it He died. If I would enter into Christ’s glory I must of necessity die to everything here which is contrary to Him. His life leads me into His glory, but if it does, it also puts me into the sense of moral death with regard to everything [p. 183] against it. So that in proportion as I am able to walk here in His sufferings, in the power of His life, the more I am enabled to apprehend and am prepared for His glory. Wherever or howsoever I am enjoying anything contrary to Him, so far must I debar myself from desiring or apprehending His glory.
If I find everything here as antagonistic as He felt it, the glory is my resource, and as I feel I am a co-sufferer with Him, I am also to be co-glorified with Him, and this light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory!
The beauty and the brightness of the glory in itself do not move those who are not suffering here with Christ, and this explains why many who feel their need of Christ, and use Him to a great degree, have very feeble desires or apprehension of His glory. If I am enjoying what Christ cannot enjoy, how can I truly enjoy what He enjoys? Therefore the school for the glory is suffering with Him - there I must learn, there I must graduate. It is only as I take up my cross daily to follow Him that I can either desire or be prepared to ascend with Him the holy mount. Hence it is that death comes on us in many ways. It is not the same way for all, but following Him will always disclose the nature of the death that each of us has to die.
Death is surrendering that in which I should like to live, and in which I could live humanly; but as I follow Him I find I must surrender it, and as I die to it accompanying Him I find my soul enlarged in desires, in apprehension, and in preparation for His glory. I feel that what I had to die to is against Him, but the glory where He is, is the joy and resource of my heart. When Moses felt the rebellion and hopelessness of Israel, his heart looked out for something beyond anything connected with man; his prayer was: “Shew me thy glory!” (Exodus 33: 18)
[p. 184] When Stephen reached the confines of testimony to Israel as a nation, the glory was presented to him as his home! How blessed! So with Paul in the prison at Rome and John in the island of Patmos. As each was partaker of the sufferings of Christ he rejoiced that when His glory should be revealed they should be glad with exceeding joy.