Friday, December 23, 2011

"Glimpses of Goodness"


If we have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall one day arrive in Heaven to discover that in our best earthly moment of realizing His goodness, we barely caught a glimpse of the glory.

"Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!" (Psalm 33:19).

Even eternity won't be long enough to exhaust the love of God expressed unto, upon and within His trusting sons and daughters in Christ. The Apostle Paul taught that our Lord's love "passeth knowledge." He furthermore declared that the knowledge of such goodness was the basis for being "filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:19). Forevermore we will discover that some new experience of our Lord's wonder is no end in and of itself, but rather prelude to further illumination and revelation of "the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8).

Although limited in comparison with heavenly glories to come, this life nevertheless offers ongoing opportunity to "taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Psalm 34:8). We should expect to partake, not because of our meriting a place at God's table, but rather because like Mephibosheth of old, our place at God's table of bounty rests upon the merits of another: "Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face, and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant! And David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?" (II Samuel 9:6-8).


As the acronym proclaims, grace provides God's Riches At Christ's Expense. In both time and eternity, we shall know that our feasting upon infinite goodness graces us because and only because "for Christ's sake" the kindness of God comes to us in ongoing favor, provision and fulfillment. There will be no end to our reception and experience of such goodness. And in this day, there must be no failure to expect that before we close our eyes in sleep, they will have seen some new glimpse of glory, revealing that...

"The Lord is good, and His tender mercies are over all His works."
(Psalm 145:9)

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