And Those Whom He Justified He Also Glorified

C.S. Lewis gave a talk which later became a pamphlet called, “The Weight of Glory.”  He begins the talk by stating that Christians have mistakenly come to believe that the highest of the virtues is self denial instead of love. Self denial is a negative ideal based on going without things as opposed to the idea of securing good things for others through love.  Lewis then argues that because we are focused on self denial we are uncomfortable with the concept of being promised rewards and even more uncomfortable with the idea of being glorified. The scriptures are filled with promises for believers and “the promises of Scripture may very roughly be reduced to five heads. It is promised, firstly, that we shall be with Christ; secondly, that we shall be like Him; thirdly, with an enormous wealth of imagery, that we shall have “glory”; fourthly, that we shall, in some sense, be fed or feasted or entertained; and, finally,that we shall have some sort of official position in the universe—ruling cities, judging angels, being pillars of God’s temple.”  We shall focus on the concept of believers receiving glory.

Being glorified was difficult for C.S. Lewis to comprehend and to accept.  He says that he could only think of two possible meanings of receiving glory and they both seemed implausible.  First, being glorified could mean receiving fame and that seems contrary to the Christian call to humility.  Second, glory could mean luminosity and Lewis says no one desires to be a living light bulb.  He needed to dig deeper.

To the rescue came Milton, Johnson and Thomas Aquinas who took the concept of receiving God’s glory quite literally.  But their concept of glory was very different than Lewis’.  He says that what these pillars of Christian wisdom understood with regard to glory was indeed fame, but not fame conferred by other creatures but “appreciation” conferred by God.  But it is an appreciation that comes slowly as the outcome of a process during which we are mostly unaware of the promise of reward.

Imagine, if you will, a young man who decides to learn to play the piano. In the beginning the entire endeavor is made up of following rules and practice.  His entire motivation is extrinsic and his focus is outward and rule based.  At this point he has no understanding of or desire for the reward he will receive when music becomes part of who he is.  The young man just presses on and tries to do the best he can following the lessons that are put in front of him.

Then one day the motivation becomes internal and intrinsic and playing the piano becomes enjoyable because it is who he is not what he is doing.  And as the young man continues to mature in his musical skill and understanding he begins to see the beauty and wonder in music of all kinds including the classics.  As a reward for his early efforts to improve as a simple piano student, refined and matured by being changed from the inside out into an accomplished pianist, the young man is given an appreciation for and an entrance into the glory of music.  His reward is something he never considered when his journey began and he only became aware of its value as he approached its reality.

The Christian life is very much like the experience of the young piano student.  Our walk begins by being acted upon from the outside and focused upon trying to change by following rules.  But just like the student moves from the drudgery of practice to the freedom of music, we move from the constraints of the law into the freedom of the Gospel and at each step as Lewis says, “longing replaces obedience” and we begin to glimpse the promised reward even before we understand it.  But Lewis says “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.  Now, if we are made for heaven, the desire for our proper place will be already in us, but not yet attached to the true object, and will even appear as the rival of that object.  The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”

Lewis then explains what the true longing of our heart is by stating, “when I had thought it over, I saw that this view was scriptural; nothing can eliminate from the parable the divine accolade, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” With that, a good deal of what I had been thinking all my life fell down like a house of cards. I suddenly remembered that no one can enter heaven except as a child; and nothing is so obvious in a child—not in a conceited child, but in a good child—as its great and undisguised pleasure in being praised. Not only in a child, either, but even in a dog or a horse. Apparently what I had mistaken for humility had, all these years. prevented me from understanding what is in fact the humblest, the most childlike, the most creaturely of pleasures—nay, the specific pleasure of the inferior: the pleasure a beast before men, a child before its father, a pupil before his teacher, a creature before its Creator.”

You see just like the lawn in which we are pleased because of the work we have accomplished in it, God will ultimately bestow His glory upon us with the words, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” As we mature as believers we will begin to see that the longing of our hearts is to be invited into the beauty of the Lord in a way in which we cannot be invited into the beauty of literature, or music, or art or nature.  We can worship many created things in an attempt to be fulfilled but none of them will ever be consummated by the words, “Well done my good and faithful servent.”  Only our worship of God will ultimately satisfy the true desire of our hearts and only as we begin to approach God through His transforming work in us will we even be aware of our desire.  But on that day, when we see Him we will be like Him.  We will see true beauty and unfathomable glory and “in Him” we will be invited in and we will be glorified.  As C.S. Lewis says, “It is written that we shall “stand before” Him, shall appear, shall be inspected. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.” And those whom He justified, He also Glorified!

 

 

 

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