One of the blights of the theory of evolution is that it not only devalues God and attempts to ignore him, but that it also devalues human beings — looking on them as mere animals driven by desire and instinct. One of the glories of the Christian faith is that it not only exalts God, but also has an exalted opinion of men and women. It understands that we are the creation of God and are important in his design. God has placed value on us. We have been given honor and glory by our Creator. The problem is that we fail, and some refuse, to believe it. Freud and others have complained that we have talked ourselves into the illusion that we are immortal beings — a glorious, but misleading dream. But we now live in a culture that no longer dreams of immortality and believes that we are mere mortal beasts. We have believed the opposite lie. Peter Kreeft describes our present culture saying: “We are immortals dreaming the terrible dream of mere mortality.”
The Bible tells us that God has destined us for glory, in spite of our weaknesses and momentary problems. It says, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17). Something inside of me jumps when I read that. We will not just be living in the glory of heaven, but we will be a part of heaven’s glory — now that is an exalted view of humanity!
C. S. Lewis, in his essay “The Weight of Glory” says, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship. . . . It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
How do we understand our glory, and what does it have to do with the role we are to play in the world? First of all, if you are going to realize your full potential as a child of God, is: You have a vision to receive. We usually see ourselves as the world sees us. We see ourselves as either smart or dumb, poor or rich, beautiful or plain, successful or unsuccessful, according to how we compare with other people. But we fail to see ourselves the way God sees us. We need a biblical vision to do that. Our lives can bring glory to God, for Jesus said about his followers: “glory has come to me through them” (John 17:10). But our lives also share the glory of God. It was Jesus who prayed in the Garden about his followers, saying: “I have given them the glory that you gave me” (John 17:22).
I often hear some Christians say, “Well, I’m just a sinner like everybody else.” I understand what they are saying. They mean that they make mistakes like everybody else. And occasionally they may fall into a sin and have to repent of it, but we are not, or should not be, “sinners just like everybody else.” We are not in the habit of sinning. We do not carelessly and casually sin. We have stopped our sinning in that way. We are in love with God and we obey him out of that love. We used to be sinners, but God has taken that from our lives and freed us from that bondage. As the Bible says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
The problem with thinking of ourselves as sinners is that it can become a convenient excuse to sin. But, most of all, it gives us an identity that is so far below how God sees us. And that kind of vision limits us and keeps us from becoming all that God knows we can be. It is like calling someone a moron. Call them that long enough and they act like a moron and believe they are a moron — even if they are actually quite brilliant. Call yourself a sinner and you will not rise above that. You will not believe you can do any better. But call yourself a child of God who shares his glory and see the difference it makes in your attitude about yourself. I’m not just trying to pump up your self-esteem, I’m trying to get you to see the reality of who you are.
Here is God’s design for us: “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you” (Titus 2:11-15).
Rather than condemning us, God exalts us. We will be invited to reign with him, for Paul wrote to Timothy: “If we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:12). Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
That God would share his glory with us is an incredibly amazing thing. Here is how God sees us: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10).
You are not who you think you are, and you are not who others think you are. You are who God thinks you are, and he has infused your life with glory. You are the crown of his creation and the joy of his heart. He is preparing a place just for you in his kingdom where you will rule with him. The Bible says you will wear a crown and sit upon a throne (2 Timothy 4:8; Revelation 3:21). There is a glory to your life that God has placed on you. God has a plan for your life, and it is not only different from your plan for your life, it is greater than your plan. God always sees something different about us than we see — something more. The Bible says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
But what does all this mean? Am I just to bask in the glory God has given me and continue on as I have all along? No, there is a purpose to it all — a greater purpose than you can imagine. The second thing that is important, if you are going to realize your full potential as a child of God, is: You have a job to perform. We have been talking the last couple of weeks about the fact that we are engaged in a spiritual battle and that things are not what they seem. Now I want you to realize that you have a part to play in all of that. As I read the Scriptures, I am more and more impressed that every time God decides to do something, he always uses people. When God decided to bring about a godly race of people who would be a blessing to the earth, he called Abraham. When God decided to deliver his people out of Egypt, he used Moses. When God decided to bring his people into the Promised Land, he used Joshua. When God decided to establish a kingdom on earth made up of his people, he used David. When God wanted to take the message of his Son to the far places of the earth, he used Paul.
If God wanted to bring a spiritual awakening to Mount Vernon, how would he do it? Would he just shout from the sky, or put notices on telephone poles? I should say, “Since God has decided to bring the Gospel to Mount Vernon, Ohio, what method do you think he is going to use?” He is going to use people. And who do you think he is going to call to do that? He wants to use you! The Bible says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). It is important to stop thinking you are a nobody with nothing to offer. God has a job for you to do and he is calling you to do it.
So often people want something done, but they want someone else to do it. We are like Moses, who, when God called him to lead the people out of Egypt said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it” (Exodus 4:13). We are upset with the way things are, and the fact that no one is doing anything, but at the same time we are unwilling to do anything ourselves. It would take us out of our comfort zone.
There is an Old Testament story about a young woman named Esther. She was a beautiful Jewess and had been brought into the king of Persia’s palace as a part of his harem. A plot developed to kill all the Jews in Persia. The only thing standing in the way of the plot was Esther, but she realized that for her to intervene might cost her life. She thought it might be possible to remain silent and not be discovered. She could continue to not only live, but live in comfort and luxury. But her uncle Mordecai said to her, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). She came to realize that God had placed her in the position she was in for a strategic purpose. She had an important role to play. Fortunately, she had the courage to perform that responsibility and saved countless lives.
You have a job to perform as well. You have a role to play. What is it that God is asking you to do? Are you going to remain in your comfort zone, or are you going to be faithful and accept the responsibility God is laying before you? Who knows, but that you have come to this place for such a time as this!
But there is more than just performing a job — as important as that is. The third thing that is important, if you are going to realize your full potential as a child of God, is: You have a person to become. Most of us realize that the Christian life is about doing good things and working for God’s kingdom. We may be reluctant, but we know our lives should be making a difference and we should be doing something. Mostly we get that. In fact, we think that is what it is ALL about. But the longer I walk with Christ, the more I realize that Christ is more interested in the person I become than the work that I do. If I am going to serve Christ, I cannot avoid work and fulfilling his purpose for my life in that way. But if I failed at everything I ever tried, after faithfully giving it my best, it would not matter. However, it would matter enormously if I failed at becoming the person he has called me to be. Character counts. It is everything with God. If I fail to live up to my glory, I have failed completely. God is calling us to be men and women of faith, courage, moral integrity, authenticity and hope. We can witness to every person we meet during the day, but if we do not have the character to match our witness, it will not only have no effect, it will have a detrimental effect.
Jesus said, “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” (John 15:6-8). God has given you glory in order to bring him glory. And if you are not remaining in him, remaining in his Word, and bearing the fruit of a character that has been transformed by God, then your life will not bring God glory.
So often, people have boiled the Christian life to “not sinning.” But that is the wrong focus. Of course it is important to keep our lives free from sin, but that is not what we concentrate on. Let me use an example. If you are in a math class, what is your focus — not making any mistakes on the test, or learning the principles of math? Of course you don’t want to make any mistakes, but the mistakes will take care of themselves if you continue to learn the principles of math. Sin will take care of itself as long as you are longing to be like Christ in your character. Your focus is not on not sinning, but on him and the grand privilege you have of being transformed into his likeness. Your focus is “being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). You can work very hard and keep yourself from the obvious sins that everyone thinks of, but if your character is not being transformed, you have missed the point. You have a person to become. God is interested in who you are.
You have a role to play. David would have never dreamed he could be the king of Israel, but God saw him as more than a shepherd boy. Daniel did not understand how God saw him until the angel came and said that he was “highly esteemed” by God (Daniel 9:23). Mary, the mother of Jesus, would never have guessed how God saw her unless the angel had come and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). Peter did not see his glory, and neither did most other people. They saw him as an impulsive hot head. But Jesus called him the Rock. You have thought of yourself as insignificant far too long. It is time to receive your glory.
I recently read an article by Jill Carattini where she told this story: “A nurse named Melanie was on her way to work when something in the trash bin caught her eye. She was immediately taken with the possibilities in the discarded treasure. It was a cello, slightly cracked in several places, but nonetheless a discard of character, a piece charming to the eye. Her boyfriend, who is a cabinetmaker, also saw the cello’s potential. Together they thought it could be turned into a beautifully distinctive CD holder. The discarded cello was indeed old and it had been abandoned, though authorities are not sure why or how it ended up in the trash that day. But a most shocking revelation to the nurse (and arguably to the thief as well) was the fact that it was not merely an old cello. It is one of only 60 like it in the world made by master craftsman Antonio Stradivari in 1684. The 320-year-old masterpiece, valued at 3.5 million dollars, was stolen from a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra just weeks before it sat rescued in Melanie’s apartment with dreams of becoming a CD holder. In the music world ‘Stradivarius’ is an untouchable description. Neither scientist nor musician understand the difference between the ‘voice’ of a Stradivarius versus the voice of modern violins and cellos, but the distinction is real — and costly. They are the most sought after musical instruments in the world, works of art in their own right, coveted by collectors and players alike. To be in the presence of a Stradivarius is to be in the presence of something great — whether it is recognized or not.”
The thief put it on the trash pile, and even Melanie did not see the splendor of what she was holding. That is the way your life is. It has enormous value. The spiritual thief and enemy of your soul wants to dump you on a trash pile. Perhaps you don’t see your value either, but your life is especially precious to the One who made you. His kingdom is described in Scripture as a “treasure hidden in a field,” and he is described as a “merchant looking for fine pearls” (Matthew 13:44-45). God is a treasure hunter and you are God’s treasure. You have a glory. You have a role to play. Play that role with abandoned joy.
Rodney J. Buchanan
May 23, 2004
Mulberry St. UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
