PATIENT CONTINUANCE OF GOOD WORKS

G. C. McKay

Romans 2: 1–11; Luke 9: 28–32; John 12: 26; 1 Corinthians 15: 50–58

The verse in Romans 2 that has largely borne in on one’s mind, dear brethren, is verse 7, “to them who, in patient continuance of good works, seek for glory and honour and incorruptibility, life eternal”. We have been speaking of God arriving at His end in the saints in perfection according to His own thoughts and His own heart. This chapter brings out another matter, that there is going to be another end arrived at, and that is an end in God’s judgment—a very solemn matter. Paul in chapter 2 pleads with man as to his course, and while he brings in the thought of the judgment of God, he brings in also the thought of God’s goodness and forbearance and long-suffering; how He looks for repentance from man. And from that there develops in the section the two lines, and one of them, the one that we would covet to be in fully and morally is “to them who, in patient continuance of good works, seek for glory and honour and incorruptibility”. There is another line, those who are contentious’ and disobedient and so on, and there is an end to that also. What an expression that is, “patient continuance of good works”. I think there is a need for it, dear brethren, that we go on, not only in patient continuance but in patient continuance of good works. God honours that line with life eternal.

Also it says later, “glory and honour and peace to every one that works good”. It is a question of what we work. There is another line of truth, of course that Romans brings out, how we are justified by faith, but that is not this section. This section is that God has regard for works and brings every matter into judgment, and for the believer He brings matters into the side of reward. We often think when an older brother or sister is taken of their long life and their patience, that they continued in good works until the end. I thought that this verse might indicate to us that the secret of patient continuance of good works is that we seek for glory and honour and incorruptibility; not only that we are occupied with these things but we actually seek them. We seek them in present exercises, no doubt bearing on what is future and final, but presently we might seek for glory and honour and incorruptibility.

So I seek grace to speak just a little about these great matters of glory and honour and incorruptibility. These are matters that are known to us; they are not strange to the believer.

They are wonderful and so full of divine thought and import that it is a thought to speak about them but still they are known to us. In the midst of this world of corruption, this world of rebellion and man’s thoughts and man’s glory, there are those who are going on in the light of God’s world, they have these great elements before them and they are seeking them; they are seeking them because they know them. Dear brethren, we know what glory is; I think we can understand too in God’s world what honour is; and surely too we have some thought in our souls through the gospel of what incorruptibility is. These things are to sustain us, we are to seek them and go on in patient continuance of good works. Each of these thoughts is very extensive in scripture and have a great bearing, but I would just like to speak suggestively of them from the other scriptures read, and first of all then as to this thought of glory.

It might be hard to define it but I understand that the believer becomes acquainted with glory. In fact it is not too much to say that he becomes familiar with that thought. The future for us is glory. It is not going to be strange in a day to come. We are going to be glorified and we are going to be in circumstances of glory, but it is not strange to us even now. In the midst of all the degradation that is around, and what we find in our own hearts too, there is such a thing before the believer as glory. Of course, glory really belongs to God. He says, “my glory will I not give to another”, Isaiah 42: 8. I think we have learned these things in the Lord Jesus, we certainly learn glory in Him. We have understood what glory is in that blessed One who came in and declared God; He came in and displayed glory for us to take account of. We thought earlier of these beautiful features of glory that shone in Jesus, His moral glory. Our first hymn reminded us that we contemplate His glory, the One who stooped, the moral glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful thought that is that we can understand such a thing as moral glory; not outward splendour, not what the world would regard, but the moral glory of the One who descended; it shone in every aspect of His life here. In every word and deed there was a moral glory shining because there was perfect manhood there, and it was all reflecting glory to God too. He was glorifying God in everything that He did. What a contemplation for our hearts, the glory of our Lord Jesus! We cannot say we do not know the glory set before us in Him, that One who went outwardly on a downward path, that involved for Him humiliation and suffering and scorning too. In it all His glory shone.

And not only, was there His moral glory, but at times there was something else to be taken account of, His personal glory; it came out who was there. These things are known by us but what we can say about Godhead glory, the glory of Deity, no doubt would be limited. We are confined as creatures to what is revealed to us, but yet how wonderful it is that the glory of God shines in Jesus. It shines in His face. It says, “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”, 2 Corinthians 4: 6. That blessed Man who went into death to glorify God is now ascended and glorified and God’s glory is shining in His face. We come into the gain of it through the glad tidings. These wonderful things are available to us, dear brethren. We can say something about His Godhead glory, the One who could say, “I am” and they went away backward.

Then He has official glories too. We said in the reading that we cannot resort to what is official now because of the completeness of the breakdown of the church but that has not affected Christ’s official glories. He is installed on high, made Lord and Christ. He fills out wonderful offices, but He is greater than them all and what He is morally sustains them all.

The official glories cannot be affected by Satan or by anything else—the official glories of Jesus, Lord and Christ. What titles He has, the Head of the Church, how great and how glorious He is! My thought is that we should have glory before us and understand it, become familiar with it. We are said to be persons who look on the glory of the Lord. That would be characteristic of a believer, that is where his eyes are set.

So you can understand that persons going in patient continuance of good works have glory before them and they seek it. It has been well said that there is only one future for the believer and that is glory. Much else might enter into the present but the future is glorious. We know that universally in this world it will be—“we boast in hope of the glory of God”, Romans 5: 2. It is going to fill this earth, God’s glory is going to shine and we boast in hope of that.

Indeed, I would like to bring out this other matter too, that we are actually going to share it. The saints are going to be glorified too; we know that morally, in principle, they are already through the gift of the Holy Spirit, but we shall be manifested with Him in glory. There will be a time when God’s glory will shine and Christ’s glory will shine, when Christ is manifested, “then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”, Colossians 3: 4. So this is something to have before us. Surely it sustains the soul in the light of difficulties, helps us to persevere in good works because we have such a matter before us.

I read in Luke 9 because of the allusion there to glory on the mount of transfiguration. I think perhaps it bears out something of what one is saying that we are to become accustomed to glory. In this account of the glory that shone on the mount of transfiguration, it says, “And lo, two men talked with him, who were Moses and Elias, who, appearing in glory”, persons, men already appearing in glory, and they are not abashed in the presence of this great One, the Lord Jesus, they are talking with Him. It is a remarkable statement of scripture; it does not say that He was talking with them, but they were talking with Him, in circumstances of glory.

In other words they did not feel out of keeping in that scene and, dear brethren, we are not going to feel out of keeping in that scene. Now is the time that we learn glory and, I think, no doubt the time that we take on glory. The assembly will come out having the glory of God, but I think it is taken on now. These features are wrought out in the souls of the saints, moral features and spiritual features, and it can be said then that the saints partake of glory. Then it says of Peter and those with him, “having fully awoke up they saw his glory”. I thought that might be an encouraging thought for us to sustain our hearts, something that would enter into our experience. We were speaking in the reading about things being confirmed in us, and it is wonderful to see a thing in scripture, but then to see right through to that matter actually coming into your experience by the Spirit so that you can apprehend something of such a matter as divine glory.

We also read about honour, and I must confess having considerable difficulty as to which scriptures to read. I am speaking of honour in God’s world, not honour in man’s world, what the believer seeks in patient continuance of good works. The thought of honour runs through scripture more than perhaps we might think. It belongs to God for you find it in the ascriptions of praise to God in the epistles and in Revelation; it belongs to Him that He should be honoured. That marks the life of a believer—he understands through piety, the knowledge of God in his soul, what it is to honour God. Then above all we learn it in Christ.

He speaks about how He honoured His Father. Everything He did reflected honour to God. How much with us dishonours God and how much have men done so. The idolatry of the heathen dishonoured God, even the fact that they made their images that they worshipped, images of men and beasts and reptiles. It was dishonouring to God, even to have such a thought.

The Lord Jesus says of Himself, “I honour my father, and ye dishonour me”, John 8: 49. That blessed Man was dishonoured here, and I do not suppose the saints of God who are true to Christ can expect anything different from the world but to experience dishonour here. He honoured His Father, and we know that now He is crowned with glory and honour. These thoughts often go together in scripture. He honoured God in what He did and glorified God, and the answer to that is that He is crowned on high with glory and honour. These thoughts should be in our minds, dear brethren, and everything that is of God should be honoured by us. Every feature indeed that is of God and in His system should be honoured by us. We honour the saints because they are of God, as it says, “of him are ye in Christ Jesus”, 1 Corinthians 1: 30. We honour everything that is of God, even the government and the authorities that are set up by God. We honour them because God has set them up. The saints know how to honour one another too, to speak of one another rightly whatever the circumstances. read in John 12 because there is a suggestion there that the saints are going to be honoured for these matters that we seek to have part in. What a privilege! The Lord Jesus says in this scripture, “And if any one serve me, him shall the Father honour”. There can be no greater honour than that conferred by the Father, by God Himself. It is greater than any worldly honour, which adds nothing to the believer. This is an honour divinely conferred. If you read the section you can understand something of what the Lord is pointing to as to the kind of person that might be honoured. No doubt the saints, because of who they are, are worthy of honour but there is also this thought that something is worked out morally in them and spiritually that is worthy of honour. You find, for example, one man who ventured his life even to death for Paul’s sake and for the testimony—he is worthy of honour (see Philippians 2: 30).

But here it is open to any of us to be honoured, not only by the saints but by the Father. The context is what the Lord Jesus says as to the grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying and bearing much fruit. That blessed matter has been before us, the death and resurrection of Christ, and the great result from it. Then in verse 25 there is a certain moral follow-on from that, “He that loves his life shall lose it, and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal”. There is a moral road which really involves death, and so the Lord Jesus says, “If any one serve me, let him follow me”. I think that involves that morally we accept death to be with Christ where He is so that we might serve Him. “And if any one serve me”. These ‘ifs’ that come into John’s gospel, how touching they are. He leaves the matter open; it is not exactly a claim or a demand but it leaves the matter open to affection that we might love the blessed One who went into death and rose again, and we might be prepared to follow Him even at the cost of hating our lives, and really knowing death to everything here so that we might be with Him, “where I am, there also shall be my servant”. Then the Lord Jesus says, “If any one serve me, him shall the Father honour”. We would not have known that if the Lord had not disclosed it. There are persons who so follow Christ and so serve Him that the Father Himself honours them. Whether He does it now or in the future I do not know but the matter stands. They are persons who become worthy of honour.

The third of these great matters that are to be before us, dear brethren, and that we are to seek, is incorruptibility. Again that is something that the saints know. It says as to the Lord Jesus that He “annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility” by the glad tidings (2 Timothy 1: 10), so incorruptibility has come to light on account of the death and resurrection of Christ; in the annulling of death He has brought to light such a matter as incorruptibility.

We are in the midst of this corrupt world, and we are in mixed conditions too and know the weakness of our bodies and our condition in the flesh, yet in the midst of it all there is such a thing as incorruptibility; a state of things and an order of things that sin and death have nothing to say to. We have to do with incorruptible things, things that are going through into eternity. That is what Christianity involves. Practical and material things enter into the lives of the saints, and how they use them is governed by their spiritual life no doubt, but what we have to do with essentially, dear brethren, are things that are incorruptible. In its fulness I suppose it lies ahead as 1 Corinthians 15 indicates to us. What a thought that is that there is such a thing as incorruptibility brought to light through the glad tidings, meaning that it is something that is going to enter our souls through the gospel. There is such a thing beyond death and sin, untouched by them.

Again we learn it in the Lord Jesus, ever the incorruptible One. In fact it says of God Himself that He is incorruptible. The Lord Jesus could not see corruption, it was not possible. He lay in the grave and there was no corruption but He rose again. He had to die and rise again that incorruptibility might be known by us, and in the end that we might enter into that blessed matter of incorruptibility.

What a stay that is for the soul, in the patient continuance of good works. You might say much else is happening, much to dismay, to disappoint, but you go on in patient continuance because you see right through to incorruptibility. Already I believe, morally if we lay hold of that thought, there are things presently that are incorruptible, not only in the future. I know the actuality of it involves our bodies being changed. This scripture brings out the dead rising incorruptible; that is what it involves, but we are to understand that blessed matter now, that there is a realm of things and an order of things that cannot be touched by death, cannot be affected by it at all. That is what we have to seek, not corruptible things, not things that are going to pass anyway and are going into decay. Peter speaks about corruptible things such as silver and gold. So much is corruptible, that will go into decay, but we have things that will go into eternity, dear brethren.

And so Paul tells them a mystery. How beautiful that Paul was given disclosures by the Lord Jesus and he brings them in at appropriate times, whether it be the truth of the rapture which he brought in for the troubled Thessalonians, or here for the Corinthians where so much pressure had been brought to bear on the saints, he brings in this great encouraging matter as to the resurrection. Many of these things that we have been speaking about enter into this chapter, the thought of glory and the thought of honour too, for the body is sown in dishonour but raised in glory. What an encouraging section it is, and then “in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet”. The trumpet shall sound, it is military. The Lord Jesus will act in a military manner at this time. He will act in power, in the final overthrow of death, death being swallowed up in victory. “For this corruptible must needs put on incorruptibility”.

These bodies of ours are not sufficient in their present condition for what lies ahead. There must be the change, so that in resurrection we put on incorruptibility, the dead being raised incorruptible and the living putting on incorruptibility, and this mortal putting on immortality.

Then it says, when that shall have happened, “then shall come to pass the word written—Death has been swallowed up in victory”. Death is going to be dealt with. It was dealt with at the resurrection of Christ, it is going to be dealt with in the resurrection of the saints. It says the Lord Jesus has already annulled death, having annulled him who had the might of death, and in the end it is going to be finished and completely put away. The chapter ends with something akin to what we read in Romans 2, “So then, my beloved brethren, be firm, immoveable”. I suppose that is something like patient continuance—“abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord”. We know it is not in vain because these things are before us. They are in our affections and we are seeking them.

It is a test; persons can see what you are seeking. What you are after in your life, what are you seeking? I think we would show that we are seeking these things as we go on in patient continuance of good works. I believe it comes out presently; in fact Ephesians helps to amplify that and emphasise it, for that epistle ends with a reference to incorruption; how touching that is that there is such a thing as incorruptible affections, “Grace with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption”, Ephesians 6: 24. There is nothing to mar, nothing to spoil or allow the affections of those who are loving our Lord Jesus Christ in this way; “with all them”, not just one or two that are such. May we be encouraged by these things, and seek to be confirmed in them, and prove them in our own souls, for His name’s sake.

Address at Kirkcaldy
15 November 2003