Blog # 386 The Honor and Glory of God

Blog # 386   The Honor and Glory of God

          Outside of Christmas Day, when almost all of the Christian world goes  in spirit to Bethlehem and kneels before the manger to thank God for the gift of a little newborn baby, a good number of those  who follow Christ think of Him almost always as the performer of miracles, the Prophet of the Most High God, the King of Nations, the Savior, a full-grown man between the ages of thirty and thirty three.

            But if we think the question out for ourselves, we know from  the Scriptures and from reason there was more to the life of our Savior than the first days of it and the last three years.  There was a time in the life of Jesus when He was  not a man, but a wonderful hope in a mother's heart.  There was a time in the life of Jesus when He did not appear as teacher or king, but as a boy who learned to speak and sing at His mother's knee, and who learned to use carpenter's tools, and make benches and chairs in the carpenter's shop of Nazareth.

            Do you ever think of Jesus as a boy, playing games with His friends, chopping wood for the fire, sawing a board, praying and singing with His neighbors in the local synagogue?  If  we have not done so, we have missed something valuable in the life of Jesus and something of the goodness and happiness the whole life of our Savior can and was intended to bring into the world and into the lives of each of us.

          Jesus is our Savior. He came to save us, to make it possible for us to enjoy the eternal happiness of Heaven. Our personal salvation is important in the sight of God and must be important in ours, but it it not all there is to the life of Jesus nor of our Christian life. Jesus redeemed us on the Cross and became the Savior of the world for a purpose, and that purpose was in God.

          Jesus often and consistently talked of the will of God, His Father. Even in the  garden of  agony the night before He died all that He was  doing He was doing because it was the will of the Father. "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by.  Still. let it be as you would have it, not as I."  (Mat, 26: 39).

          The same is true of our personal salvation. If we fail to save our souls, all else we might do,  whether it be to build churches, schools, or hospitals, no matter what we do, without the salvation of our soul, all is meaningless forever.

       Jesus came to save us. But that is not the only thing He came to do. And so when we decide to follow Jesus, we  must seek the salvation of our souls, but that is not the only thing we seek.

       Jesus came to save us first of all for the greater honor and  glory of God, and then for love of  us.  So,  if we are true followers of Jesus, we must seek even our salvation for the greater honor and glory of God, and then for our own sakes.  We don't hear that very often, and that fact  may be a large part of the reason various Christian congregations are not as disturbed as we should be by the division of the Church.  The first question we should be asking is what did Jesus teach, and then the question are we saved.  Both goals are attainable as the will of the Father. Otherwise Jesus would not have prayed they both would be realized for all people in every corner of the world. (Mat. 28: 19,20;  Jn. 17: 11,22,23).