“I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no
other, nor my praise to carved idols.”
This comes in the midst of announcing the Lord’s anointed and it points
us to the reality of the Trinity. This one
who is coming is none other than the Lord Himself. Jesus prayed in the high priestly prayer of
John 17, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify
you…I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to
do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had
with you before the world existed.” We
know from Revelation 5 that heaven worshipped and continues to worship Jesus
with the same praise and worship it has given to the one seated on the throne
in Revelation 4. Here, we are told that
the Lord will not give His glory to another and yet at the mount of
Transfiguration Jesus was glorified and the voice from heaven said to listen to
Him. Later in the high priestly prayer,
Jesus prays, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be
with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me
before the foundation of the world.” He
is worthy of all praise and He has come among us to save us.
Jesus tells His mission was not to judge the world as John
thought. He has come for judgment but He
has come to save. Judgment is based in
our testimony of Jesus. Either He is our
salvation or He is our condemnation. The
most important decision we ever face is who is this person? The Lord could have come in judgment and
destroyed the world as He did in Genesis 6 but instead He came to reveal the
depth of His lovingkindness and it is more than anyone could have imagined. We are saved by faith but here Jesus says
that works matter too. Works, whether or
sin or righteousness, reveal faith, they reveal whether we embrace God’s way or
the darkness. The Jewish belief about
the light that emanated in the beginning, in response to “Let there be light”,
is the light by which may be seen from one end of creation to the other, it is
God’s light and makes relationship with Him possible. Jesus says He is the light of the world. Loving the light is loving Him, loving
God. Rejecting the light in favor of
darkness is rejection of God Himself. Walking
in the light is important. It proves our love for the light.
I am coming to understand, albeit very late in life, that
Paul was exactly right when he wrote, “we do not wrestle against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic
powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly places.” I have expended a
great deal of energy, even as a pastor, in fighting with flesh and blood and I
am heartily sorry for that. I have
neglected this great truth and in the process people get hurt, including me,
but more so the church itself whose witness is greatly compromised by internal
fighting and the wounds that war creates.
How often have I failed to pray and ask God what the truth is in some
little dust-up and instead allowed it to become a great conflagration that
divided the church and caused people to leave angrily. I can’t control how other people fight such
battles but I can certainly control how I do.
Jesus always remembered who the real enemy was and fought with spiritual
weapons and won when it looked like a loss.
Lord, help me to never fight flesh and blood ever again, but always
remember who the enemy truly is. Knowing
that helps me fight like a Christian.
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