“Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God”
(Ps. 87:3).
“Ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of
the living God” (Heb. 12:22).
“Unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ
Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever” (Eph. 3:21).
“...to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he
freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6).
“...to the end that we should be unto the praise of
His glory, we who had before hoped in Christ” (Eph. 1:12).
Our occupation has been with features of Zion; in other words,
features of Christ transmitted to and wrought into His own
people. Now we have come to the glories of Zion, or to glory in
relation to Zion. We saw in the last chapter that this matter of
glory has three main aspects - firstly, glory in the divine
initiations; secondly, the glory in hidden operation; thirdly,
the glory in final manifestation.
In Christ’s Earthly Life the Glory
Largely Hidden
We pass now to the second aspect: glory in hidden operation.
And yet that wants qualifying, for it is only hidden here. Only
heaven sees it, but here the glory is largely hidden. Have you
ever wondered what the shepherds thought and what the magi
thought and what the other people thought who knew of the coming
of the Lord Jesus with heaven’s glory a few months
afterwards, or a few years afterwards? Of course, we do not know
whether the shepherds took pains to keep track of that babe. The
babe went from Bethlehem, moved from this point to that, grew up
through thirty years mainly in seclusion and as year after year
passed it is very probable that those shepherds said: ‘That
was a very wonderful night. It seemed to be very portentous of
marvellous things, but what has happened to it all?’ Those
from the East might well have asked a similar question:
‘Well, we were not mistaken, there was a star right enough,
we found the place indicated and the child. We opened our
treasure and we made our declaration as to this being the King -
but what has happened to Him, we have heard nothing about Him for
thirty years?’ It may be a work of imagination, but even if
it is only that, it helps us to see the point that not only
through the thirty years but through the thirty-three and a half
years all that glory was hidden, or mainly hidden, except for
something here and there being indicative of it, like a miracle
when He showed forth His glory, or on the one and only occasion
when it was literal on the Mount of Transfiguration. But for
these occasional intimations, the glory was not seen by men; it
was hidden. It had not departed, there was no less glory there
than at the beginning, but it was hidden. It was not recognized,
it was not discerned, not perceived by the world and by the great
majority of those in touch with Him; the glory had gone in.
Heaven Was Able to See the Glory
But heaven was very interested, and hell was very interested.
The interest which heaven had shown in the birth was maintained.
After the conflict in the wilderness forty days and forty nights,
angels came and ministered unto Him. Yes, angels are watching,
they know all that is happening, they are tremendously
interested. Angels had proclaimed, “Glory in the
highest!” The thing had not disappeared with them; they
are still seeing, watching. Not once nor twice do angels come in,
and in the end there are the angels at the tomb. They are always
in attendance, they are always concerned with this. Heaven sees
what no one else sees. Heaven knows what no one else knows.
Heaven is watching, taking account.
What did heaven see? Of what was heaven taking account? The
glory! But how? You see, now glory was working in a hidden way;
heaven was able to see that glory in numerous ways; heaven was
concerned about that glory. Every fresh temptation, every fresh
trial, every fresh snare and trap set for Him, every fresh
suffering that came upon Him, every new ordeal, every new crisis,
every point at which one of two things might happen: a triumph or
a failure, at every point heaven was watching to see how the
glory won, to see how the glory would come out, how the glory
would triumph. The glory became something very much more inward,
more real, yes, more crucial than just rays of a halo of light.
It was something now that was a power, that was a determining
factor. I venture to say that the whole issue of the earthly life
of the Lord Jesus was whether the glory would remain or whether
the glory could be taken away, could be veiled, whether there
could happen with Him what happened with Jerusalem of old when,
because of breakdown and failure, the prophets saw the glory go
up from Jerusalem and remove far away. You may feel that you have
ground for questioning my theology, but if you will look closely,
you will see there is some truth in this. It is the question of
how the glory is going to be manifested and maintained.
It was working inwardly, it was working secretly, it was being
challenged and tested in His inward life. The whole thing is
summed up in this, that the Lord Jesus on the Mount of
Transfiguration with the glory full and manifested, was not just
mechanically or automatically glorified. It was because of the
triumph of His faith right up to that point, He Who, instead of
the joy set before Him, came down, endured the cross and despised
the shame. That glorifying of the Lord Jesus was because He had
reached such a point of triumphant moral perfection and it was
that that blazed forth then. It was the condition and state of
His inner life with God that came out on the Mount of
Transfiguration. That is the basis of all glorifying, as we shall
see.
The Glory Hidden in the Church
Let us revert. The glory has become hidden. Passing to the
church, what a day the day of Pentecost was! Again the heavens
were rent, again the glory came down, again it was declared, it
was proclaimed. How long did it last like that? I think it was
not very long before the glory became hidden. I do not mean the
glory departed, that it was no longer there, but the day of
Pentecost was not perpetuated in its outward features for very
long. The church passed on, and many might have asked the
question: Well, what about that tremendously promising beginning?
What about all that on the day of Pentecost? Where is it? Things
have changed. It is not like that now, we do not see that kind of
thing. The features of what happened are not now so discernible.
A change has come over the church, it has gone inward and it has
become hidden. Tell me, as the world looks on the church can it
see the glory in such terms as I mean on the night of
Christ’s birth and on the day of Pentecost? Is the world
able to see that kind of external manifest glory? No! There is
glory to be seen if it had eyes, but it does not see, and to the
world it is hidden. Is that not true of every individual
Christian?
As we said earlier, the initiations of God in the individual
life are with glory. In our conversion, in our new birth, we come
to the Lord, and there are all the marks of glory - joy, peace
and satisfaction. The only word that expresses those early days
of the Christian life is glory. But it just does not go on like
that. Thank God if it does go on unbrokenly throughout life. I am
not saying that there is never any trace of that, but it does not
normally continue just like that. Things change and there arise
all the problems and questions and all the ground for enemy
assault and accusation. He will tell us it was all an illusion,
an emotion, all false; or that we have sinned and grieved the
Holy Spirit and so on, because things change. The glory has not
departed because the glory is Christ. But something has happened.
The glory has become hidden. It is there, it is active,
operative, but it is operative in a hidden way.
Glory Operating in Terms of Grace
How is the glory operating now in that in-between phase
between the initiation in glory and the consummation which is to
be? The glory is here, but how is it operating? Well, our extra
passages at the beginning of this chapter just show us how in the
hidden operations of glory, it is in terms of grace. “The
glory of his grace”. Grace is the basis of the glory. Glory
is bound up with grace. You noticed as we read in Ephesians - “to
the praise of the glory of His grace”. “He chose us in
Him... having foreordained us unto adoption as sons... to the
praise of the glory of His grace... to the end that we should be
unto the praise of His glory”, glory operating in terms
of grace.
Grace as a Divine Attitude Towards Us
As I look at this matter of grace in the New Testament, I find
again that it is divided into three aspects. Firstly, grace as a
divine attitude towards us. That is mainly what we think of when
we speak of grace, the grace of God - God’s beneficent
attitude towards us. Here we are out of our depth. That grace of
God as an attitude towards us carries us altogether beyond our
powers of coping with it. “He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world.” He “foreordained us
unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself”
(Eph. 1:5). There is a Scripture which says, “In thy
book all my members were written... when as yet there was none of
them” (Ps. 139:16 A.V.). Here am I coming to this
world, here are men and women coming to this world, and all their
members were already in his book, and they are allowed to fall
into the most ghastly and awful sin, to do things like David did.
Perhaps some of you will rule him out dispensationally, but the
principle you cannot rule out. To do things such as Peter did,
denying his Lord with oaths and curses three times over, but you
cannot rule him out dispensationally. To do things such as Saul
of Tarsus did, giving consent to the death by stoning of that
young man in whose very face the glory of Christ was manifested,
and persecuting “this way” unto the death,
determined to exterminate the last remnant and residue of Jesus
Christ in the earth. Need we follow it up? What about ourselves -
the sin, the failure, the breakdown, the reproach that you and I
have brought upon our Lord - and He knew all that would happen
before He gave us a body, and when He wrote our members in His
book and thus gave us a body in intention, before we had one? He
knew that would happen, what we would do, the kind of life we
would live. He knew it all. He knew all the sum of Israel’s
defection, He knew that Israel would one day turn from Him,
repudiate Him and burn incense to idols and cause their sons to
pass through the fire in the worship of Moloch. He knew it all,
and He chose Israel and He wrote Israel down in His book before
Israel was.
What is the explanation of all this? We are out of our depths,
we cannot explain that, we cannot understand that. Why should God
have chosen me in Christ, you in Christ, and then let us, by
giving us a body, do what we have done and go the way we have
gone and dishonour Him? These are problems beyond our mentality,
our mental powers. There is one answer in the Bible; here we feel
our knees giving way. We just go down, collapse, “...that
we should be unto the praise of His glory, we who had before
hoped in Christ”. Is there not glory there, but it is
working inwardly? Who sees that but heaven and hell? What does
the world see of it? There may be some kind of traces of the work
of divine grace, but the world cannot appreciate the grace of
God, it does not see the glory. It takes Christ to know the grace
of God, and therefore it takes Christ to glorify God, and
therefore it is glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all
generations forever. Yes, it is glory in terms of grace in the
divine attitude towards us. We cannot explain it. Why did He
choose you and me? Ask yourself. Are any of you prepared to start
on the line of: I know why He chose me, He had a good reason for
choosing me, there was that about me which justified His choosing
me? If you are, you know nothing of the grace of God, and you can
bring no glory to God. The more you are ready to say that it is
by this attitude of God towards me in grace, the more you are
able to say it from your heart, the more you ought to be
glorifying God.
Is it not strange how our miserable, wretched, corrupt,
failing selves are so often made by us the means of hiding His
glory rather than manifesting it? We are keeping it in view, we
are talking about our wretched selves, keeping our miserable
selves in view instead of all the time saying, Oh, the grace of
God in my case is a marvellous thing - glorifying the grace of
God. That is the other side. God help us to do it more! Glory in
terms of grace. So far as the divine attitude towards us is
concerned, inexplicable, unfathomable, but for that very reason
so wonderful.
Grace as Divine Power
Then I find that grace in the New Testament is spoken of in
another category, in another realm, another aspect, and that is
grace as divine power. Not only the divine favour or attitude,
but divine power. Paul speaks of his weakness, his infirmity, and
how he brought that before the Lord and besought the Lord about
this infirmity, this weakness, this thing that caused him so much
trouble and distress, and the Lord did not say anything about
that, but He said, “My grace is sufficient for
thee” (2 Cor. 12:9). And there is a lot in the New
Testament about grace as vital force, as divine power.
God’s Grace Toward Us Demands
Self-exposure
Do you see that these aspects all make a certain demand? If it
is grace as a divine attitude towards us, then there is demanded
a self-exposure. We shall never appreciate that attitude of God
until we ourselves are exposed. Why it is, then, that the course
of the Christian life, from one standpoint is such a history of
uncovering ourselves, laying us bare, bringing up from the depths
the corruption that is in us, making us more and more ready to
say, “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good
thing” (Rom. 7:18)? Why is God trying all the time to
condemn us and bring up from the depths the ground of
condemnation? Is He trying to make us miserable with our own sin?
No, self-exposure is demanded in order that we shall all the more
glory in that attitude of God towards us. He says, You see what
is true of you; nevertheless, I love you. You see how much depth
of iniquity there is in you; nevertheless, My attitude is one of
grace to you. You see what you are capable of; nevertheless, I do
not turn My face from you; My face is towards you, My attitude is
one of infinite compassion, infinite forbearance. My attitude is
still the attitude of grace. Self-exposure is demanded and when
it becomes a matter of grace in the form of divine power, another
demand is made, and that is the demand of trial, affliction and
suffering.
Grace as Divine Power Demands Suffering
There are many sufferings which are the lot of believers which
they would never have were they not believers. Afflictions and
trials are our portion simply because we are the Lord’s,
that He has bought us and has purchased and possessed us, and so
we suffer and are tried and afflicted. We know weakness and we
know adversity and we know what it means to come to the end of
our wits and our tether, and everything, and that is the demand
in order to know the glory of God in terms of grace. I wish I
could always believe that. I wish I could keep that before me
like crystal in that dark hour, that terrible time of affliction.
But I see it in the New Testament, I see it in these men, I see
it in the Lord Jesus. I see the glory now is working in a hidden
way like this. Oh, these people are going through it, but the
grace of God is very wonderful, the grace of God is constantly
lifting them up, bringing them back and keeping them going in
spite of everything. You think they have gone this time but up
they come again. There is the ubiquitous cork ever bobbing up
again; grace as a vital force, grace as divine power.
Look at the Lord Jesus and see if it is not true. Look at the
church and see if it is not true. Look into your own history and
heart and see if it is not true. Glory is like that. It is a very
different idea from angels singing a heavenly song about glory.
It is something gone in, gone under. It is a mighty subterranean
thing at work, and it is going to see us through.
Grace a Matter of Divine Nature
Then the third aspect of grace is in connection with the
divine nature. I find that there are things said about grace
being a matter of what we would call graciousness, that is, the
coming out of divine nature and likeness under provocation. What
a pity the translators were not consistent in translating those
words of Peter - “if, when ye do well, and suffer for
it, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God”
(1 Pet. 2:20). Everywhere else, the word “acceptable”
is translated “grace”, “This is grace
with God.” If ye suffer when ye do well, if you are
buffeted when you do well, and take it patiently, this is grace
with God - and you tell me that is not glory?! When you are
suffering wrongfully, maligned, misrepresented, persecuted,
assailed, and you know quite well that there is no ground for it
in truth; it is something against you because perhaps you are a
Christian and you are not liked for some reason; not because you
are not altogether a likeable person, you know that there is
something extra in this, and you are being made to put up with
things because you are a Christian, so you are suffering
wrongfully, glory to God is in terms of grace if you take it
patiently. Grace is a matter of divine nature.
The Demand for Self-subjugation
And what is the demand here? Well, it can be nothing else but
the demand for self-subjugation. What is the opposite to taking
it patiently? “When He was reviled, (He) reviled not
again; when He suffered, (He) threatened not” (1 Pet.
2:23). It is your reaction to suffering, your reaction to what is
hurled at you, what you are made to go through by other people,
not because you have defaulted, but, so far as you know between
yourself and the Lord, there is no reason for it at all. You have
not been responsible for this. Is your reaction His? He reviled
not again, He threatened not. He showed no resentment, no
revenge, no spirit of getting even. “Father, forgive
them” (Luke 23:34). “Lord, lay not this sin to
their charge” (Acts 7:60). That is grace, but that is
glorifying to God, that is the glory of God, that is the glory of
Christ.
Ah yes, but this is something very hidden. No one knows the
battle that is going on. Oh, how this cruelty, this
unrighteousness, this evil, has stirred all that is in you that
is bitter, and works upon that nature that makes you want to say
some stinging thing, and you have had a real battle inside and
you have got to prayer and conquered - and they see nothing of
that. A quiet, meek spirit where the self-interest has been
brought into subjection, all that self-life has been subjected in
the battle, and you come out, and there is nothing like that
discernible about you. This is grace, this is glory, glory in
terms of grace. But it is in a hidden way, the secret battle, the
history of which no one else knows at all; all that the Lord
Jesus had between Himself and the Father behind all that was
going on and all that was coming upon Him. Yes, the glory of the
Lord Jesus is in the manifestation of divine grace under trial,
under persecution. So with His saints and His servants and with
His church; so with you, with me.
“Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of
God”, but that is the kind of glorious thing that we do
not altogether appreciate sometimes, yet it is the same glory. It
is not a different glory of which the angels sang and spoke on
the day of His birth from the glory that heaven was seeing in
Gethsemane. No, it is the same glory, but God is working inwardly
so that in the end that primal glory shall burst forth as
something which has been inwrought by trial, by adversity, by
affliction, by all these means, wrought in us so that we shall be
partakers of His glory, sharers of His glory, and that now for us
is grace. “The Lord will give grace and glory”
(Ps. 84:11). They always go together just now in the in-between
whiles, but presently it will be all glory.