FROM GLORY TO GLORY
2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:16-18; Matthew 11:28-30 ;
I want to speak about these verses in Corinthians, “But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed”. I wonder how much that is going on. We know that we will be transformed at the rapture, we shall take on new bodies, but I think that the setting of this scripture is that we are being transformed now, “from glory to glory”. It means that there is no going back; it is an onward, upward, precious way, “looking on the glory of the Lord”. What an object to have! We are apt to think of looking at Jesus as He is in heaven very abstractly, but I have read these passages to suggest that it is something that is taking place now. It is not only what we will be. In one sense, what we will be is dependent on what we are now; our place when the Lord comes in His appearing will be very much dependent on what we are now. That is seen in the parables of the men that were given something. One wrapped it in a towel (Luke 19:20) but the Lord says to others, “Well done, thou good bondman; because thou hast been faithful in that which is least, be thou in authority over ten cities”, Luke 19:17. So the transformation is now; something is being formed now. The word “transformed”, as it says in the footnote (note ‘e’), means that there is no going back. We have been taught that it is like the butterfly; it changes from something very unseemly into something beautiful and it never goes back. There in its beauty and the colour of its wings and the way it flies, it is entirely changed; that is like “looking on the glory of the Lord”.
I read in Matthew, “Take my yoke upon you”; that is where we learn it, by taking the yoke. It says of Enoch that he “walked with God” (Gen.5:22); he was in the yoke. He would have had plenty of family concerns, he had children with all the day-to-day concerns which that involves, but it says “And Enoch walked with God”. It does not say that God walked with him. No doubt that happened, but the way it is put is that he “walked with God”; God was in the lead. I feel for myself that I am very conscious of asking God to walk with me. We make plans for holidays and other things in the future, and then we ask God to help us about them, but that is not what Enoch did. He walked with God; God was in the lead. There was a brother here who once was giving a word on Enoch in the local meeting, and he said that it was as if Enoch walked with God, and one day God said ‘You do not need to go back, just keep with me’. He was so near to Him, he “walked with God”. Enoch was in principle in the yoke. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”; we can learn many things of Him and that is right, but here the Lord Jesus says “learn from me”. In a yoke you cannot go anywhere else. You cannot be in two yokes; that would be confusion. That is what we are facing in many ways, but in the yoke there is no confusion.
‘That way is upward still,
Where life and glory are’. (Hymn 12)
That is in the yoke, where the Lord is going and He leads us in. It says that we “are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory”. Our sins are forgiven, we know the Redeemer and His wonderful grace and love towards us. That is one transformation and one step on the way, but “from glory to glory” is something that is going on day by day. The final glory will be when we will be with Him and we will be like Him, but in the meantime it is “from glory to glory”, week by week. We are tested about that. We often say that the Lord comes in at the Supper. He would leave something to impress our hearts and to change us, but how quickly we go back. How quickly we return to the routine of life and our own way of living, but this is “from glory to glory”; that is what God is looking for. It says “even as by the Lord the Spirit”. He is the Companion, the support and the power; “by the Lord the Spirit”.
That was in principle the power that Enoch knew. That is the power in the yoke which we have proved. It says “for I am meek and lowly in heart”. That is a wonderful transformation. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart”. There was never another man like that, who could say “I am meek and lowly in heart”. I think that meekness and lowliness is very much needed, and it is another glory, transforming us from our own ideas and thoughts and wants and goals. We all have goals, I suppose, but you are transformed from it all. It says “for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls”. These are beautiful things in God’s sight. See Him through the gospels; in Pilate’s hall or wherever you like, you see the meekness and lowliness of Jesus. What a glory to take on! Whatever troubles we face, whatever exercises we face, I believe the answer is in meekness and lowliness. A brother once said that he was troubled and he was trying to justify his own ideas about things; he said that there was no way out. A brother said to him, ’You can always die’. There is always a way out at the bottom; that is true in life too. You may aspire for great things that are hard to attain, but there is always a way out at the bottom. That is the meekness and lowliness of the One who was “meek and lowly in heart”. It means the end to ambitions and zeal of human nature and life. The Lord says “ye shall find rest to your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”.
That is what Paul is also saying to the Corinthians; “Wherefore we faint not; but if indeed our outward man is consumed …”. We do not tire in the yoke and we are encouraged day by day, “yet the inward is renewed day by day”. Think of Paul speaking about “our momentary and light affliction”! He had been in a shipwreck, a man who was imprisoned for years, a man who was maligned. He had “received forty stripes, save one”, 2 Cor.11:24. Here he writes about “our momentary and light affliction”. That is what you learn in the yoke; is that not a glory? There it was in Stephen; what a glory shone in his face as he was stoned and saying “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”, Acts 7:60. What a glory that must have been. He took on glory, lifted up his eyes to heaven, another good thing to do; “he saw the glory of God, and Jesus”, Acts 7:55. He saw the One who had finished the race. So Paul says “our momentary and light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory”. I used to wonder about that reference to a weight of glory; it is showing the value of it, the quality of it. It is an “eternal weight of glory”.
John saw it too; he says “we have contemplated his glory”. That is in addition to being in the yoke; you are contemplating. John writes, “(and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth”; that is another feature of taking on glory. There was never a man like that before. It says that Jesus was “full of grace and truth” and “for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given by Moses: grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”. Mr Darby’s footnote to that section is very beautiful. It says that the commencement of grace and truth in Jesus ‘supposes its continuance’ (John 1:17 note ‘e’). It is continued in persons who are contemplating the Lord’s glory. That is a transformation, a transformation to something solid – grace and truth. That is a wonderful feature; it is a glory of divine grace shining in persons. “For the law was given by Moses: grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”. May we take on these features, dear brethren; lowliness and meekness and grace. These are features that connect with the passage I read in Corinthians about being transformed “even as by the Lord the Spirit”. It shows the power the Spirit has to do such great things.
Where I read in 1 Peter 4, it says “If ye are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed are ye; for the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you”. That is another way of taking on glory – the reproach of the Christ. It reminds me of Ruth; in principle she took on the reproach of the Christ. She said “for whither thou goest I will go” and “where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried”, Ruth 1:16,17. She was, as it were, taking on glory, the reproach of the Christ. I have seen that in many of our brethren. You see it in the martyrs, you see it in some of these persons who are suffering today, the reproach of the Christ and it says “blessed are ye; for the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you”. What a beautiful suggestion it is, dear brethren, to be taking on glory and to be exercised about it that there may be some change in our lives, that there is something divinely formed. We will finish up in glory.
It speaks in Revelation 21; “Come here, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit, and set me on a great and high mountain, and shewed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God” (v.10). What an end! This page in Revelation is very beautiful; there are seven references to the Lamb in it. That is a feature of glory. You get the lion and other things in national emblems, but what nation has a lamb as an emblem? So here is this city coming down, having taken on glory. It has been said it is reflected, but it is substantial. It says “Her shining was like a most precious stone, as a crystal-like jasper stone”, Rev.21:11.
May we be encouraged, dear brethren. We will finish in glory, but it is being formed now, it is being taken on now and it helps us to rise above the confusion and the exercises and the problems of the day. Here is the end; “coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God”. May we be encouraged and exercised to take it on.
Word in meeting for ministry, Kirkcaldy
17 November 2015
R Taylor