GLORIES AFTER SUFFERINGS
R.W.Flowerdew
The preaching of the glad tidings, as believers will understand and rejoice to know, concerns Jesus Himself. It concerns, therefore, Jesus in the place where He is. It has reference to Jesus where He was, assuredly, and most instructive that reference can be - I trust it may be so as we are together now – but it has reference to Him where He is, and the gospel is illuminated, therefore, by the brightness of the present shining of His glory. What a fine thing to appreciate! The gospel has a radiancy about it which is distinct from all else that can be heard or seen in this world in which we are, and because of that it is altogether distinguished. We can rejoice in the fact that Christ is no longer here but, having suffered and died, He has been raised by the glory of the Father. What a display of glory that was! And He is ascended and is seated at God’s right hand. He is in the place of glory. He has entered upon and is the centre of “the glories after these” of which we have read.
But we are to remember that there was that which preceded His present exaltation. Indeed, we are never to forget it! And I think that those who believe will never forget the cost, the price paid by Jesus, to secure their blessing. For that is what has happened. He has paid the price: “For the redemption of their soul is costly, and must be given up for ever” (Ps 49: 8), but He has paid the price. He has paid it in full. It was not a price that could be reduced. It was not a “cut price”. It was the full price. He has paid it in order that there might be the knowledge on your part and on mine of salvation. The apostle Peter speaks of, “the salvation of your souls”. What a great matter that is and how essential it is, the salvation of our souls! The apostle runs on to speak of even more in what awaits us, what we speak of as “the redemption of our body” (Rom 8: 23), “salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” There is what awaits the believer. What a bright prospect it is, the change that will occur physically, and that not simply a change for the better but a change so that there might be entrance into what is most blest, what is beyond comparison in its brightness and attractiveness and, to use the word that is found in the plural in this section, its glory. We are to reflect upon the price that has been paid and the cost that has been met.
Now there is much in this section to look at but I would just like to mention one or two things that perhaps are topical but which might strike a chord in us. In this month of the year there is remembrance of those that have suffered and died in conflict. It is a time of remembrance and there is good reason for such a remembrance. Many have suffered and died to secure what they thought was liberty in this land. Of course, the believer can see far more than that. The believer can go back even further than the Second World War or the First World War. The believer can go back to remember the martyrs in this land, who have suffered, in many instances who have died. How final that sounds! They have died for the sake of the truth they loved and the Lord they honoured. They honoured Him in their death. And the believer can go back even further. He can go back to the time of general persecution, which occasioned the dispersion of which we can read in this section. The apostle was writing to the “sojourners of the dispersion”. What occasioned the dispersion was persecution which very often resulted not only in suffering but in death. The testimony - which has continued in life, one can be thankful to say, and has been divinely supported – has been continued at great cost and it has been continued very often because there were those who were prepared to give up their lives for the sake of it, for the sake of the One who instigated it, Christ Himself. Of course, the believer in his or her mind and heart, is able to go back to the Lord Jesus who was the One above all others who suffered and died. How full of meaning, how full of consequence, the suffering and death of Jesus was and is, for the efficacy of His work remains. That means it is available for you and me as much now as ever it was when the apostles preached or when the martyrs continued perhaps in secret or when there was general conflagration and conflict in this land and there were those who through sheer terror called on the name of the Lord and found salvation. The consequence of His work is as much available now as ever it was and we can rejoice in it.
In connection with remembrance, in the town in which I live that is particularly poignant at the moment for two reasons. One is that it is a military town and there are those in it who have endured conflict and to whom the act of remembrance is very significant. Of course, the believer has his act of remembrance and we acted upon that this morning. That is of prime consequence and significance to the believer. But there are those, and we are not unmindful of them, who remember the suffering that they and their friends endured and sometimes it meant a painful loss of friendship. Quite a number in our area remember these things and attendance at ceremonies is often interestingly full and, as we might say, well supported. This shows there are feelings in men’s hearts which are touched by the work of sacrifice, whatever that might mean to them. To whatever extent it is appreciated, to whatever extent there were results consequent upon it, there are those whose hearts are touched by sacrifice, by loss of life.
The second reason why remembrance is poignant in our area is that just over a year ago there was a severe accident which was reported widely in the local and the national press, when two young people, teenagers and sweethearts, were knocked off a motor bike by a car that went out of control, and they lost their lives. They lost their lives in an instant. Now, that is a solemn matter and it immediately raises the question with us whether we are prepared to enter upon eternity, a question which God would have us to address in our minds. It would have us understand that He has provided a means by which we can be assured as to our eternal condition and position before Him, our eternal salvation, the salvation of our souls and the salvation of our bodies. This occurrence evidently had a profound effect in the locality. You can understand it. Families, friends and neighbours, school friends and schoolteachers, were all distraught, and to this day fresh flowers are placed at the point where those young people died. There is therefore continued in the hearts of some an act of remembrance. They provide fresh flowers to be put there. The old are cleared away and the next day or the next week fresh are placed there. It is over a year since these young people lost their lives.
Now, these things are affecting, but what remembrance is there generally - and what remembrance is there in your heart - of the sacrifice and the death of Jesus? Of what consequence is it to the world at large? Of what significance is it to you? The One who did not deserve to die, the One in whom there was no reason in essence, in actuality, for death to intervene, laid down His life – we have used these words already – that He might take it again. He who did not deserve death has laid down His life and at the same time it can be said that His life was taken from the earth. He was in control but there were those who moved against Him. There were wicked men and wicked hands that were active in crucifying and in slaying the Lord Jesus. What were they doing? What were they thinking? What remembrance was there on their part of what they had done? Of what significance is it to you that He has laid down His life? The fact is that He laid down His life even for those evil men who were maltreating Him. He laid it down for Jerusalem that had excluded Him. The glory, the grace of it, is that the glad tidings were preached from that very point. Think of it, the grace of God! These things are to mean something to us, they are of significance: I trust they mean something to you. The grace of God in Jesus over-abounded in the face of rejection, in the face of rebellion on the part of Israel, in the face of ignorance, and enmity – He was delivered up through enmity, this we know – in the face of the suffering that was put upon Him, which He passed through and endured without any deviation from the will of God which He had set Himself to accomplish. He endured these things for the sake of those who were enacting them. He endured them for the sake of those who were prime and prominent in rejecting Him. He endured these things for Israel. He endured these things for all men. He endured them for you and for me. How poignant these things are! I wonder if we compare one thing with another. We are moved in our hearts about the incidents that occur and we might be stirred enough because of catastrophe and calamity to give money to one cause or another – I do not raise questions about that for there are people in very great need – but what stirring is there in our hearts towards Christ, the One who has given His all? What readiness is there on our part to honour Him and to accord Him the first place?
Now, the great thing is that He has not been forgotten in heaven, and we can rejoice that in the hearts of many He has not been forgotten here. He has been accorded the first place in heaven. He has been given the place at the Father’s right hand. It is not only that the Father remembers what He has done but the Father has Him in His very presence and rejoices in Him. He has been put in the place of greatest favour, the place where there can be, and undoubtedly is, communion between the Father and the Son. There is therefore an answer to the sufferings of Christ. There were the sufferings of Christ but there are the glories after these.
Now Peter was writing to the “sojourners of the dispersion”, those who themselves were in suffering. I suppose not only was suffering their cause of the dispersion but they endured suffering personally at the time. The scripture seems to bear that out because they were “put to grief by various trials, that the proving of your faith, much more precious than of gold which perishes, though it be proved by fire, be found to praise and glory and honour in the revelation of Jesus Christ”. I would like to suggest as to this that God delights in the presence and in the exercise of faith, in the use of faith on the part of those who hear the glad tidings and respond to it. He delights in it because He has put it there in the first place, but He delights to have us use it.
Repentance is a sign that faith is beginning to work, “repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ”, Acts 20:21. He is the One in whom our faith is to be centred and fixed, “towards our Lord Jesus Christ”. What an object of faith He is! But even when faith is beginning to stir within us God observes it and marks it. I think it is right to say that He treasures it because the scripture here says that there is what is “much more precious than of gold”: “the proving of your faith, much more precious than of gold which perishes, though it be proved by fire, be found to praise and glory and honour in the revelation of Jesus Christ”. You wonder at the sacrifice that has been made by so many as to which there are various memories and memorials and remembrances. You wonder what the outcome is. But God is acting deliberately. God has acted deliberately in Christ in what He has accomplished in answer to His will and to secure our blessing. He is acting deliberately with you and with me that there might be an outcome to the trial, however severe it is or however light it might seem to be, an outcome for His pleasure. “The proving of your faith, much more precious than of gold” is to have this result “be found to praise and glory and honour in the revelation of Jesus Christ”.
And He is coming. He is coming again. There is no doubt about that. It is an aspect of the gospel, an aspect of the truth, in which the believer rejoices and I hope you rejoice. He has already come to this scene. He said, “I am come” (John 10: 10), which is most interesting expression, not simply that I have come, but “I am come”, as if the whole scene has been affected by the coming of Jesus and the effect of it even now is as if He has only just come. In coming to this scene, He has made an entire difference to it and, though that might not be acknowledged by men at large, it is acknowledged by believers by virtue of the fact that they repent and believe. It would not be possible for them to do that, it would not be possible for the Father to look on and treasure that which is in the heart of one and another, were it not that the Lord had been to this scene. He has made an entire difference to this scene in coming to it. He has made an entire difference to it in leaving it. How much He accomplished in leaving it! But He is coming again. What a prospect it is! There are those who will reign when He comes, whom He will acknowledge. There are those in whom God’s work is proceeding and I trust it is proceeding in you and in me. Remarkable and impossible though it might seem, there are those in whom God’s work is coming to perfection, such that they can come with Him and they can reign with Him. There is a beauty, there is a glory, a radiancy about the work of God in the divine eye - and I trust increasingly it is in your eye and in mine - which is unmistakable, which is durable, which will go through into the eternal day for God’s pleasure.
Now, there is what needs to be pressed in the glad tidings, “the salvation of your souls”. Once again you wonder about those who have suffered and who have given their lives for this cause or that, for those who have suffered accidents and so on. You wonder what they knew about the salvation of their souls. Solemn consideration! But what do you know about the salvation of your soul? Have you discovered that there is One in whom it is assured? We have spoken of God speaking in the Person of the Son. We have spoken of Christ as the light, as the door and as the shepherd and many other references. It is not simply a case of saying that these are the terms of the truth. They are to be accepted if we are to make any progress. The preaching concerns Christ Himself and the blessing that is available from God. It is available in Christ and in no other. Let us be assured of that! There is no-one more attractive than the One in whom the blessing for man that is in God’s heart is available. How attractive is, “the salvation of your souls”!
Now, prophets “sought out and searched out” that salvation. There was much enquiry beforehand as to that which would be introduced when the Messiah came to this scene. The fact, of course, is that when the Messiah came He was cut off and He had nothing. What a solemn thing that is! But by that very act, by that very fact, the blessing has become available to Jew and Gentile alike. Think of the grace of it! We can rejoice in the grace of God. The ultimate crime in the rejection of Christ has been met by the fulness of grace, and what grace it is! It is a measure of the fulness of grace and the richness of supply which comes from the Father’s heart that, in spite of utter rejection on the part of men, grace should still be flowing, and it flows ‘o’er the barren place where Jesus died’ (hymn 13). Think of it! What a flow it is! When you begin to see the flow of grace, the barren land means less and less to you. It is unproductive Godward. But there is what is productive in the acceptance of grace that is still flowing in the glad tidings, that in which God rejoices and in which you and I can find blessing.
So there were those who looked into the question of blessing. I suppose they strained their minds to do so. They made diligent enquiry. They looked up all the references they could find to see what this salvation might be. They were inquisitive and they were determined if at all possible to find what would occur when the Messiah came. You do not have to do research of that kind. You do not have to move heaven or earth, as the expression is. You do not have to look up or look down. You do not have to look here or there. You do not have to labour because the work has been done by Christ and all that you need to do, as was indicated earlier if Israel were ready to realise it, is to look and to live. You will recall the time when the serpent bit and the toxic effects were felt and there were those who died. A serpent of brass was made by Moses. It was raised up and the exhortation was to look and to live. And it is open to you to look and to live, to see Jesus, not only Jesus where He was on the cross, where He was lifted up so that He became visible to all. That is one of the meanings, perhaps the essential meaning, of Jesus lifted up in John’s gospel. He could be seen by all and the benefit of His work could be found by all. But He is now lifted up and has ascended. Where faith has begun to operate within, where there is readiness to look up away from this scene, away from self, away from the attractions around, to see Jesus, we can do so and can find our life in Him. We can look up and we can live: that is the great result of the sufferings of Jesus.
Just contemplate what is meant by the serpent of brass, Jesus was made sin. He was made that very thing. The serpent was active in seduction and deceit at the outset and to some extent he was successful in it. I say ‘to some extent’ because no doubt he wished for even greater damage. That is what is in Satan’s mind, as much damage as possible to attack God who caused him to fall because he lifted himself up in pride. But there was that which Satan was successful in bringing about in the character of the serpent, its seduction, its persuasion. And there are those in this scene who would persuade us into another way, another path, another manner of life. There are siren voices that can still be heard, persuasive, attractive. I wonder if we are prepared to refuse them if we hear them. There is the appeal in the glad tidings and there is the injunction still which lives on from the Old Testament. The instruction given when the serpent was lifted up was to look and to live. Christ was made the thing from which He shrank. He was made the thing that God abominated. Think of the enormity of it! He in whom there was no sin, in whom it was not, was made that very thing “that we might become God’s righteousness in him”, 2 Cor 5: 21. That has its fulfilment in a day yet to come but we can come into the gain of His work even now and come to appreciate not only the sufferings of Christ but have some entrance into the joy that was consequent on those sufferings. There was what lay before Him, which He has now entered upon. There is joy in His heart. There was sorrow in His heart when He was here and in particular when He suffered. There is joy in His heart now. There may be sorrow in your heart. There may be good reason for it. We have spoken about the sorrows that are endured by humanity and we can understand the way this and that calamity, difficulty, loss, bereavement, restriction and so on all bear heavily upon man. There is what is concentrated on man to cause him to be occupied with himself. Satan is adept at causing us to be focused upon ourselves, unable to lift our eyes up, to look and to live, to lift our eyes up to Christ where He is, having accomplished all, having been given the place of glory.
How liberating a view of Christ is! I commend it to all who are here and all who can hear, that we are to look up, look away from the scene in which we are. There is some gain in looking back, I would accept, because we can learn from history. There are those who seem to be entirely unaware of history. The view of history has changed as time has passed, but there is profit in looking at history as recorded in the Bible, in looking in particular at the way it all pointed on to Christ. The fulfilment of God’s mind was by Christ Himself. These things are of great “historical” interest, and I use the word “historical” in inverted commas. But the incentive in the glad tidings is to look up. As doing so, we can see Jesus where He is and see something of “the glories after these”.
Now, just as Christ has suffered and has entered into the glory there is shortly to be an end to that which we are enduring here. It may be that you are burdened; it may be that you are bowed down by the difficulties. I say, not only look and live, but look up to Christ where He is. That is the advantage for the believer now. It is not only a view of Christ, One who suffered, who was Himself made sin. Surely that is full of meaning and full of result. But we are now able because of the work that Christ has completed to look up to see Him where He is in glory and that itself brings practical salvation and deliverance.
I wonder whether we have laid hold of the fact – it took me some years to do so - that salvation is in Christ. It is in Christ. It is not in repetition of scripture. It is not in learning it by heart. It is not by good conduct. It is not by familiarity with the terms of the truth, however well we may know them. All that is available to the believer is available in Him and it is open to us now to look not only at Christ where He was on the cross, but at Christ where He is in heaven at the Father’s right hand. There were the sufferings that preceded, the sufferings were essential, the sufferings were deep and unutterable; and the Lord Himself knows what it means for you and for me to go through any suffering. There was an outcome for Christ in glory and He is in the place of glory. There is the fulfilment of the word of scripture, “the glories after these”, but there is to be an outcome for you and for me; there is to be what is wrought in your heart and mine which is of this character, soul salvation and before long the redemption of the body; but there is to be an outcome now in the sense that you perceive, you see the glory of Christ, and that has an effect upon you.
We have been affected - although it is not my intention to preach an emotive gospel – by some impression of the sufferings of Christ. But what about the effect of the glories of Christ? What about that effect? Have we considered that? Is our eye upon Him? Are we in the gain of His glories as much as we are of His sufferings? We give thanks for His sufferings. We have every reason to be thankful for them. We will be eternally thankful for them. But are the glories of Christ having an effect upon us? Do they brighten us? Do they quicken our step? Do they enable us to continue in our walk here in newness of life? Of course, we know that entails identification with Christ in His death and His resurrection, but “the glories after these”, speak of what lies beyond. He has entered into the place of glory assigned to Him by the Father and there is a place in spirit for you and for me there. We speak of the glory to come, which is actuality, but in spirit it is open to you and to me to have part in that now, to be affected by it, to be illuminated by it, to be fully in the gain of it so that we can walk in a different manner in this scene. It is for us to come to the light and to remain in the light, but let us recognise the greatness of the light that shines. It is a light shining in and from Christ in heaven and it is available to us that it might shine into our hearts, “for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”, 2 Cor. 4:6. What comes to the surface in that scripture, I think, is not only the knowledge of the truth and the way God has enunciated it in the Person of the Son, but the fulness of glory.
I wonder if we have thought about light and glory. Light shines in the glad tidings and it is intended to shine in your soul and mine, but the fact is that Christ is in the place of glory and the radiancy in Him is shining out. The light into which you and I come is not a cold light; it is not a clinical light; it is not a light which merely exposes evil and helps us to distinguish good from evil, necessary though that it is: it is a light that warms, a light that is calculated to have and does have an effect upon the innermost part of us. There is to be with us that “the hidden man of the heart”, 1 Pet 3: 4. What does that mean? That refers to Christ where He is. We treasure His pathway here, His sufferings and all that He has done; they are to be of increasing value to us. But “the hidden man of the heart” is that which is treasured in the heart as to Christ where He is in the light and radiancy of the His glory. We can see that there is a kind of overlap of meaning of light and of glory. The radiancy of His glory is to strike us and, if I am not using too extreme a word, to inspire us, to move us towards Christ. The glory of Christ is to enable us to move in a way that pleases Him in the scene that is contrary to Him. These things are very blessed but they are open to us. They have been made available to us at great cost, which we are ever to remember. But we are to rejoice in what is available in Christ now, Christ as He is and where He is.
Do we rejoice in our hearts in His present place, in His present glory, in His present attitude, His disposition which is as much gracious now as it was when He was in this scene and manifested grace to all around? His grace is available to all. It is available to you. It can be appreciated as the heart is open to Him. We can come into the gain of it; we can be expressive of it; we can be those in the gain of the present place of Christ in glory with features of that glory coming into in us. That is what the Father treasures. There is what is far more precious than gold.
Men will go to great lengths to secure gold. We remember from history – not necessarily very profitable history - the gold rushes which occurred in the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries and perhaps at other times. Men will travel vast distances across sea and land. They will suffer all kinds of indignities and illnesses and attacks and so on to secure one nugget of gold. What will you do to secure for yourself in faith what God values, which is far more precious than gold? What will you do? I say, look at Christ where He is, not only One who was lifted up as the serpent was on the pole, but Christ where He is in His present place of glory with the Father and you will find nuggets aplenty, you will have that which is for your enrichment, both for time and for eternity. May we prove these things for His Name’s sake!
GILLINGHAM
26 November 2000