May 03, 2011
His Glory
It seems like every time I turn around lately someone is heading into a crisis and even believers struggle a little as they come to grips with their situation. Recently one of my retired pastors was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. I know he will handle the situation well and I expected nothing less than a stoic response as he got his latest test results and prognosis. However, even from a faithful servant I find it thought provoking to hear, “To God be the glory.”
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Gail;
-----God created this universe to sequester in it the evil of imperfection for processing its defeat. Surely, it is the small context within His glorious context of perfection. Yet it remains just as surely His context.
-----Context is major to understanding. We recognize this in dealing with Scripture, but we are less apt to recognize it in grasping situations. When something bad happens to you it hurts, and the more it strikes your base the more it draws your attention. Something bad happening to someone close to you also hurts but consumes less of your attention. And the further a problem is from your acquaintance, the less attention it receives. But this is not so with God. Every problem gets His attention. That is why we are here; we are a part of His fixing the problem.
-----God’s context is His perfection and limitlessness. For God to be perfect His unlimited ability must effect perfection in all things everywhere, in heaven and on earth, throughout time forward, backward, and present. The mayhem localized to this physical universe would seem to be the fly in the ointment ruining God’s perfection by existing in spite of His ability to effect perfection anywhere anytime. Things are perfect in His heaven, but they sure are not here. But if you don’t wrap your mind around His whole context, you fail to notice the fallacy of that reasoning.
-----Imperfection existed before the foundation of the earth, that is, the creation of the universe. Since the Lamb was destined for sacrifice before then (I Pet 1:18-21), there was a problem requiring the sacrifice. His creation of a context for mayhem was systemic to His sacrificial nature for maintaining perfection in the face of imperfection. More simply stated, the sacrificial love involved in perfection always processes out the lack of love involved in selfish error, and He made a place for doing just that. He sequestered error to its own context for dissipating its power by subjecting Himself to that same troubled context while living all aspects of perfect love. He did it so all His creatures who desire perfection, those made in heaven and those born on earth, can forever enjoy perfection. That is quite glorious.
-----But as processes begin and end, this process began and is not yet ended. That we are born again while still in it does not mean we are taken out of it (John 17:15). But it does mean we are kept from the Evil One while in it. His error’s temporary mayhem becomes a backdrop for the accentuation of God‘s love in securely maintaining our spiritual necessities to the end, if not our physical comforts for now. We are of His eternal context, being born of that same love, and must stretch our minds around it (Col 3:1-4) to see His glory showing against this yucky backdrop. As He stepped into the mayhem to bring us out of it, we must mentally step out of it to see His glory amidst the pains of it. Our pains, problems, and even errors accentuate His sacrifice when viewed from heaven’s context. Our walking in spite of them in the good works prepared beforehand glorifies it.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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