“The Glory Is Greater”

    “Charity… hopeth all things” (I Corinthians 1:4; 7).

     Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ do not fail to acknowledge the Bible’s plain declaration that “the whole world lieth in wickedness” (I John 5:19).  We see another and greater reality, however, whereby our hearts are kept from despair and filled with hope…

     “The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3).

    We glance, as it were, at the wickedness.  We gaze upon the glory.  “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (II Corinthians 4:18).  No greater challenge of faith confronts us than this determination to view the unseen eternals amid the all too obvious temporals.  Especially in our generation wherein the world foists its notions and commotions upon us by a 24/7 media, we find ourselves constantly faced with the utter necessity of a 24/7 remembrance that, appearances to the contrary, history is His Story.

     The cross of the Lord Jesus provides the clearest insight into this hope-inspiring truth.  Never before or since has the fact of the world’s wickedness been as scandalously displayed as on that dark day at Calvary when the innocent Lamb of God was slaughtered by evil hearts and bloody hands.  Political and religious leaders, representing the entire human race, perpetrated the crime of the ages, and the clearest confirmation that the world  “lieth in wickedness.”  More importantly, however, never before or since has the glory of God been more brightly and vividly revealed than on that same dark day when the Light of the world shone forth with that singular and unquenchable beacon of hope: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

    At present, wickedness and glory coexist in the world.  But glory is greater.  By an infinite measure, the glory is greater, and if we will open the eyes of our heart, we will see the unseen.  Yes, we will remember and believe that a cruel and bloody Cross speaks far more of the love of God than the evil of man.  Again, we do not deny the latter.  We nevertheless emphasize the former, and thus become those in whom the Holy Spirit elicits hope in “all things.”  A sad and dark world awaits such Light as it shines forth from the lamp of our Christ-filled hearts and Spirit-inspired testimony.  May our Heavenly Father send us forth in this day to proclaim that the glory, His glory, is greater.

“Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world.”

(I John 4:4)