The Lord in Glory (1)

…Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls...Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1.7-9, 13-16

The upward call
The Venerable Bede (672-735) concisely captured the focus of our current study, “We Would See Jesus,” in this excerpt from his “A Hymn”:[1]

May our affections thither tend,
And thither constantly ascend,
Where, seated on the Father’s throne,
Thee reigning in the heavens we own!

If we want to “own” Jesus as Savior and Lord, we need to see Him. To see Jesus, we’ll have to look, look through the veil that separates the seen and unseen worlds, and look with the eyes of our heart, to see by faith our Lord exalted in glory at the Father’s right hand. We must consider Jesus, taking the time to study relevant texts, meditating deeply and often, and looking to other believers for help.

We want to see Jesus, exalted in glory, to set the Lord always before us, and to fix our eyes on the things that are above, where Christ is seated in heavenly places, so our affections – our love – will always “thither tend”.

This challenge has been faced by Christians in every age. We may expect, as we consider Jesus in this way, that our love for Him will grow, and He will take more shape within us, forming us into His own likeness, increasing in us day by day. This is the life of the “upward call of God” as Paul put it (Phil. 3.14), and if we want to see Jesus, we’ll have to press on, letting our affections soar into the heavenlies as the light of Christ illumines our souls from on high.

We have to believe
Jesus is holy, and He dwells in radiant glory, which will be fully revealed to all the world at His coming. This revelation will be so strong as to raise all who believe to join the Lord as He returns, and to strike such fear in those who do not believe that they would wish the mountains to fall on them, and conceal them from His sight.

We cannot see Him now, not with our physical eyes, though one day we shall, and then we will be like Him (1 Jn. 3.1-3). But we can see Him with the eyes of the heart – the eye of faith – where we see the glory of the Lord in His radiant face (2 Cor. 4.6). By looking to what we know of Him from the Word, and by gathering glimpses of His glory from creation, then combining and clarifying these increasingly as the Spirit enables, we may see Jesus in all His radiance, strength, loving kindness, glory, and power.

What’s even more surprising, we have been seated with Jesus in heavenly places (Eph. 2.6), so that we may not only see Him, but may look with His mind (1 Cor. 2.16) at our lives and times, and drawing on His strength, pursue our callings in His holiness and for His glory.

We want to see Jesus, seated in regal splendor, clothed in light, dazzling in royal colors, speaking the upholding Word of power, His scepter of uprightness on His lap, and a two-edged Sword in His hand. We want to look in His eyes, dark with mystery but warm and illuminating as we see Him looking on us. His hair flares with purest white fire, and under His shining feet a growing pile of enemies grovels. Angels crowd around Him, awaiting His every command, to serve His people and creation according to His will.

He is beautiful beyond description, holy without peer, and stronger than all creation. And He lays on you His strong right hand and says, “Don’t be afraid.” Rejoice and be at peace in Him!

Peter understood that we cannot see Jesus now, not with physical eyes. But he also understood that we can love Him, and that we will love Him more to the extent that we look to the Spirit to open the aperture of our soul and let in the light of glory from the face of Jesus Christ. But we must believe we can see Him thusly, or else we will not see Him at all. As Peter might put it, when it comes to seeing Jesus in His glory, believing is seeing, and not the other way around.

The beginning of His glory
The glory that is and that emanates from Jesus began at His ascension. We don’t hear much about the ascension of Jesus. We read of it in Acts 1.9-11, and then we move on to more earth-bound matters.

But the ascension of Jesus teaches us how to see Him in His glory. Scripture contains a rich gallery of images of Jesus, seated on His throne, and doing from heaven all that is necessary for the progress of His Kingdom on earth. But we cannot understand the scope of Jesus’ power, and we cannot fully appreciate the hope and inheritance which are ours in Him, nor the power of mercy and grace available to us daily, until we understand what it means when we confess in the Apostles’ Creed, “He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”

In this part of our study, therefore, we will take a more careful look at the order of events by which Jesus ascended into glory and took His place at the right hand of God. We must believe that what the Scriptures teach about the ascension of our Lord is important for us as His followers. For if we believe what we see in the Scriptures, we will believe in the power of Jesus to make all things new, and, believing, we will realize more of that newness in our own lives day by day.

For reflection
1.  Why do we say that “believing is seeing” when it comes to Jesus exalted in glory?

2.  What do you understand about Jesus’ ascension? What “order of events” do you see with the eyes of your heart?

3.  Why should we expect to have our love for Jesus increase as we see more clearly the events of His ascension?

Next steps – Preparation: Memorize the excerpt from Bede’s “A Hymn” and use it as part of your prayers for the next few days.

T. M. Moore

Check out the special on our book, A Mighty Fortress. Learn how this great hymn works to draw us closer to the Lord. Order copies for yourself and your friends by clicking here. With your order, we’ll also include a free gift book.

At the website
You can also now listen, each Lord’s Day, to a weekly summary of our daily Scriptorium study, which is presently working through the book of Jeremiah. Click here for last week’s summary of Jeremiah 26-28.

Two new resources are available at our website to help you grow in the Lord and His work. Our new Personal Mission Field Workshop offers weekly training to help you shepherd the people to whom God sends you. And The Ailbe Podcast will introduce you to The Fellowship and how its resources and Brothers can be of help to you in your walk with and work for the Lord.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[1] Bede the Venerable, “A Hymn,” Elizabeth Charles, tr., in James H. Trott, ed., A Sacrifice of Praise (Nashville: Cumberland House, 1999), p. 25.