Altar
Call – Opelika-Auburn News
Walter
Albritton
May
29, 2016
How can we explain the Glory of Jesus?
The culture of America is much like that
of the first century. It does not welcome testimony about Jesus Christ. In fact
such testimony is resisted to the extent that most Christians remain silent
about their love for Jesus, speaking of him only in “comfortable” settings.
This was not the case in the first
century when the church was born. Early Christians spoke boldly about Jesus and
were willing to suffer, even to die, for the honor of speaking his name in
public. So today we ask ourselves the question: How can we find the courage to
boldly tell others what Jesus means to us, and what he can mean to others who
will trust him?
Like many others my wife Dean has
struggled with this question. In a study of chapter one of the Book of Hebrews,
Dean expressed some of her insights in both prose and poetry. Her observations
may be helpful as you ponder how to share with our post-Christian world “the
Glory” of Jesus:
“My
mother took me to church when I was an infant so I have been in the Church for
84 years, but I have not been ‘in Christ’ for that long. We can come to church without coming to
Christ. We can even sing, ‘The Church’s
one Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord; she is His new creation by water and
the Word,’ without having a clue what that means.
“When we ‘join’ the Church we are asked
some questions. ‘Do you confess Jesus
Christ as your Savior?’ (Hebrews 4:14 reads ‘Let us hold fast to our
confession.’) (The Living Bible reads ‘never stop trusting Him.’) ‘Do you put your whole trust in His grace?’ We promise to serve Him as Lord and live as
faithful members of the church. Church membership, however, is but the
beginning of our search to understand the glory of God that we never discover
until we fall in love with Jesus.
“Here is my poetic attempt to describe
the glory of God that I found by falling in love with Jesus:
Pictures
cannot describe or frames fully hold
Your
marvelous love for us to see.
How can
mere books your story unfold
Or how
can I tell what you mean to me.
My
words fail to express
The
thing I know you to be,
My
stammering tongue must confess
That I
am overwhelmed by your love for me.
When I
think of new life you give
To
those who heed your call,
My
greatest wish is so to live
That I
give you my life, my all.
My
heart aches when I look around
To
those who never speak your name.
I pray
for a language profound
So I
can tell other why you came.
Oft
when day is o’er and work is done
I wish
for your face to behold,
Then I
would know if the victory’s won
When
your story I have told.
“Explore with me what the gifted writer
of Hebrews says in chapter one. He reminds us that while God ‘spoke’ his plan
for his people through the prophets, he has now spoken to us through his Son.
What follows are some of the most profound words about Jesus ever penned:
1. God has appointed Jesus Christ His heir. He is Heir to all things. He is the firstborn heir of God. Paul says that we are joint heirs with Christ
and if we suffer with Him so then we also will be glorified with Him. That means Christ shares his glory with us.
2. Through Jesus Christ God made the universe. He created all things. Before anything else existed, Christ was with
God, sharing in the creation of the world.
3. The Son is the radiance of God’s Glory. God’s Glory is like a great beacon light The Son is the radiance, the rays of light,
that shine out from that beacon. Let me try to express this ‘revealing light’
in poetic terms:
As the rays of sunlight
Come shining into a darkened room,
So God’s light frees the soul from night
That we may not walk in gloom.
The glimmering light spills
Over our innermost parts
To show us what God wills
For our sinful hearts.
The rays search out every shadow
That lingers still to lure,
But God is ready to bestow
His love to make us pure.
Slowly the sins that we concealed
Are laid at the throne of Grace.
There the Holy Light revealed
The radiance of His face.
4. Jesus Christ is the exact representation of God’s
being. The Son himself is God. The Son is the perfect picture of God. When we want to know what God is like, we
look at Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said, ‘He who has seen me has seen the
Father.’
5. Jesus Christ sustains all things by His powerful
word. It is He who holds everything together. When we study the atom we find that there is
a force that holds it together. Jesus is
this ‘force’ and much more. He holds me
together! He is the great ‘glue’ of the
universe! During many ‘long nights’ in my life Jesus has held me ‘together,
helping me deal with sin and death. Here is how I have tried to express my
gratitude poetically in a piece I titled ‘Long Night’:
As I
crouch with covers
O’er my
head,
I
ponder my fears and
The
things I dread.
In my
tomb of darkness, no light
Filtering
in,
I come
to grips with death and sin.
Things
look so grim in the middle
Of the
night.
You
wonder if the sun will ever
Shed
its light.
So the
soft breathing of my child
Comes
into my coverlet cave.
What
devil caused these covers piled
As if
they alone could save?
Where
is the strength for which
I long?
There
are those who need me strong,
Not
hovering like a coward
And
weak.
Where
is the faith for which
I seek?
With
Christ within I need
Not
fear,
New
strength I gain with Him
So
near.
He is
with me in
The
night.
He
covers me with His Light.
6. Jesus Christ saves us from our sins. Through His redeeming death on the cross
Jesus paid the price for our salvation.
I took Jesus as my Savior. He is
the One who provided a way out of my sins.
The Son’s purification for sins includes both forgiveness for past sins
and a heart-cleansing that empowers Christians to live a life of holiness. Jesus willingly gave himself to God to die
for our sins – The perfect sacrifice!
7. Jesus Christ sat down at the right hand of the Majesty
in heaven. Having sat down He indicated that the work of
redemption is complete and He is ruling with God, the Father, over all. His enemies are being made a footstool for His
feet. He is our perfect sacrifice, our
perfect Savior, our perfect Priest. He
has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities
and powers made subject to Him. What a Savior!
“There is a power that is beyond our
imagination, so great, so wise, so wonderful, yet so close, finger-tip close to
us, that we can reach out and take hold of it by faith. We can receive it and become brand new. His divine power gives us everything needed
for life and godliness. He calls us by
His own Glory to live glorious lives – and to explain as best we can his Glory
to those who are still living in darkness! Let us find ways to do it so that
others can with us be blessed by the radiance of His face!” + + +