While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. (John 12:36–43)They heard but did not believe. A common response to what God says. So God did not reveal Himself to them because if He did, He would have to open their eyes and understand and be healed — but without really believing, without faith.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)This is why the truth of who God is and who Jesus Christ is has been hidden from those who are without faith and from those who try to earn their salvation by doing whatever they think God wants them to do.
Faith is a gift. Gifts are undeserved, given unconditionally, not earned or paid for. Human pride doesn’t like even a hint of being unworthy. Human greed does not want something that demands their total surrender. The question is often why then do some get the gift and others don’t. Wrong question. Why does anyone get the gift? No one deserves it or earns it. Could it be for the glory of God?
He created humans in His image that we might display His glory. Sin messed up that desire and ability. Whether we realize the impossibility of glorifying God or not, sin wants glory for me. I feel bad that I cannot do it, but realize also that if I am going to fulfill that purpose, I need Him to live in me — because there is nothing much left in me that looks like God.
Being selected to live in His kingdom is an utter marvel. Why me? Being chosen to be like Jesus is the most humbling realization of my life. Recognizing that I am here to reflect His glory could easily drive me into a dark cave so no one could see my failures. But God will not allow that.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)In the past two weeks, two friends told me they lived to glorify God. That is rare. I’ve read “The Purpose Driven Life” and am only just getting it. The NT says:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)How much of life is so ordinary, yet in these ordinary things, I am to glorify God, to be like Jesus, to show the world what He is like and how different He is from humans with all our selfishness and pointless activities.
The writer of that book says that we live here on earth to learn how to live and be like Christ in eternity, and for that reason, I need a greater focus on that purpose than my to-do list, goals and plans. I feel like the OT prophet who said, “Woe is me, I am undone.”
Jesus, You know my to-do lists and plans. What does a ‘keep my house clean’ got to do with eternity except to remind me to keep my life clean? What do the names on my prayer list have to do with heaven except that I might support them in the same purpose of being like You today? And this may take more than the words I send upwards. Guide me today. The to-do list is on my desk. Does it match the one You have written for me, prepared beforehand that I should walk in it?
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