Radiance: The Weight of Glory

Reading: Matthew 7:13-23

Click here to listen to the Sunday sermon on Sardis

Prefer listening to this message?  Click here for the audio version

Today’s passage assures us that there will be surprises on judgment day.  Some, who think they are going to heaven, indeed will not.  But before you get anxious about your own salvation, let’s take a look at the context.  Jesus is warning the crowd about false prophets and teachers, and when He says, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven,” He’s referring to false disciples.  But the part I want to draw our attention to is the last phrase of today’s reading – the part where Jesus says, “I never knew you.”

In 1 Corinthians 8:3, Paul writes, “Whoever loves God is known by God.”  Known by God?  Doesn’t God know everybody?  The Greek word used in both of these passages is ginosko.  While it can mean knowledge, it can also mean an intimate relationship between a man and a woman.  For example, Adam knew Eve.  The idea isn’t that God knows about us but that He has an intimate relationship with us.  There is a connection between us and God.

After Adam and Eve’s sin, Genesis tells us the premier couple went and hid, which prompted God to ask, “Where are you?”  Sounds like something the Omniscient should not need to ask, doesn’t it?  But God wasn’t wondering where Adam and Eve were physically; he was calling into account their spiritual state.  You see, a terrible travesty happened that day.  The second they chose to not follow God, they relinquished the opportunity to have an intimate relationship with Him.

Paul would later write to the church at Corinth, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17).  A weight of glory?  What does that mean?

In C.S. Lewis’ book “The Weight of Glory,” he writes:

In the end that Face which is the delight or the terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or with the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised… 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.

So what does it mean to be known by God?  It means not merely to have a relationship with Him but to be delighted by Him.  So often we focus on how we respond to Jesus.  These three passages are reflecting on how Jesus responds to us.

In the promise to the Church at Sardis in Revelation 3, Jesus says, “[To him] who overcomes, I will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.”

Have you ever been in a social situation where there was a prominent individual, and just as you were wondering if they would know who you were, they came up and shook your hand and called you by your first name?  Have you ever been in a meeting or a dinner, and you were acknowledged in front of everyone for some accomplishment you did, even though you weren’t sure anyone noticed?  It feels good doesn’t it.  You feel valued and appreciated.

The weight of glory is that we are known by God.  In some cultures, the Parable of the Prodigal Son is actually called the Parable of the Running Father.  For them, what stands out isn’t the returning son, but the father who runs out to embrace his repentant son.  Think of the Parable of the Talents where the first two employees were congratulated for their work and rewarded with more responsibility.

I’ve often wondered why it is that God entrusts so much of His Kingdom work to us.  Why not make sure it’s done perfectly and do it Himself?  Perhaps it is because He delights in us.  He delights in watching His creation discover Him, love Him, and embrace His work.  Then He delights in rewarding us.  It truly is an eternal weight of glory.