THE BELIEVER’S OUTLOOK

C. A. Gray

1 Corinthians 15: 51, 52; 2 Corinthians 3: 18; 4: 16–18

We should all have before us what comes in our first passage. We need it continually and distinctively. We are in a privileged moment, as having the gain of all that has gone before, and the anticipation of the Lord Jesus coming to take the assembly to be with Himself. That is—or should be—our objective. The exercise and concern is—What is really governing us?

What we have in the second epistle would help us in relation to that—“But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord ...”. In the original the expression “looking on” only occurs in this place, and it implies that there is an effect—a formative effect in those who are looking. And it is that formative effect in those who are looking which is the exercise at the present time. The rest of the section brings in what is on the basis of transfiguration; but it certainly takes us off the earth in spirit and occupies us with the Lord where He is, and where we shall be with Him. I believe we need to have this much more distinctively before us, and not to be diverted by things relating to the present, provisional conditions in which we are.

This view of His glory makes way for what we have at the close of chapter 4. This expression is remarkable—an eternal weight of glory. It is not just a symbolic expression; it means that there is substance in the weight. There is what is substantial in the glory. If we are amongst those of whom it speaks in chapter 3, “We all, looking on the glory of the Lord ...”, we shall not be found amongst those who are looking at the things that are seen. Our eye is to be on the Person of Christ, and in relation to what God has in mind in purpose for us. Giving place to His thoughts in purpose should be more and more definitely before us. So it says, “We look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen”. Now that needs the consciousness of the presence and power of the Spirit, and the Spirit as given place to, the Spirit as not quenched and not grieved, but made way for, according to what we have so often referred to in 1 Corinthians 12.

The passage goes on, in a sense, to qualify these expressions; it says, “For the things that are seen are for a time”—they might end, as far as we are concerned, at any moment. Are we ready for it? Are we morally suited for translation? We need to be that. I believe it is to be a continual and constant exercise with us. Are we morally suited if the Lord Jesus came tonight and took the assembly to be with Himself? We should be looking at the things that are not seen, and not on the things that are seen. We have, of course, obligations here by way of fulfilling responsibility, which is a different matter. The thing is, what is our outlook? As these eternal things are our outlook, and are really governing us in all our movements, we shall enter more consciously into what new creation is, and what new creation relationships are. There is nothing greater; these things will abide eternally, and will abide not only for our pleasure, but for the pleasure of the heart of Christ and for the satisfaction of the Father. May the Lord help us to enter into them more realistically, for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Helston
10 June 1980