The Hope of Glory
Christ In you the hope of glory.
Col. 1:27
IT was the delight of Paul’s heart that he was the apostle to the Gentiles. He was indeed a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and more than once, in burning language, he declares his deep and intense interest in the salvation of his own people. Yet, though reluctant at first, it was a joy to him that God had sent him to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to the Gentile world. He had caught the world-embracing spirit of the Master, whose he was, and whom he served. It was the spirit of a universal religion. It warmed the heart, fired the imagination and flowed out in the life of this great evangelist. As in all of his epistles, so in this, the preaching of Christ to the nations is the pervading thought. The prevalence of some fatal errors concerning Christ among some teachers who had influence with the Colossians led Paul to dwell on the majesty and glory of Jesus. He sets forth, in strong and glowing terms, the exalted worth and dignity of his blessed Messiah, his own Lord, Jesus, the Son of God. He is the head of all things, first-born of all creation, through whom all things were created and in whom all things subsist. Head of the Church, he is in all things preeminent, making reconciliation for man in his blood shed upon the cross. For the nations of the world this atonement had been made, and Paul himself had become a minister of this world-wide gospel. In the discharge of this high mission he regarded not his own suffering that he might fulfill the Word of God. The secret which had been hidden from ages past was only partially made known to God’s chosen people, but now was proclaimed and manifested even to the Gentiles. He calls this a ”mystery,” but we must remember that he used that term not as we do now, to signify an unsolved problem, but in its proper significance of a secret communicated to those who were initiated into some order or circle. So it was an open secret, a thing kept in the mind of God until the proper time should come to make it known to the world.
Now it has become known. It is the plan of redemption for all the world. God has now been pleased to make known among the Gentiles the riches of the glory of this revealed secret, ”which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” How rich is this expression of the gospel! It is a body of divinity and a code of life in one sentence. Let us carefully think what is meant by ”the hope of glory” and how Christ in us constitutes that hope.
I. WHAT IS THE HOPE OF GLORY?
We need not dwell upon the strength and beauty of hope as a quality of our human nature. Thousands of beautiful utterances about it, in both prose and poetry, are found in all languages and literature. No words can be too choice nor too glowing to picture its beauty and its charm. Schiller has sung in immortal verse how hope is born with our infant life, plays about our growing youth, comforts our manhood, and cheers declining age, and even then, when the grave closes down upon the journey’s end, we plant above it the fadeless blossom of hope. Other poets and writers have sung and told of its preciousness, yet it is not a sentiment only. It is a strong principle, in well-known Scripture phrase, ”An anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.” Of all the hopes we men cherish, and they are many, the noblest and best is that brought to us in the gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus,’’ The hope of glory.’’ If we can get clearly before our minds what Paul means by ”glory” we can then fill and rejoice our hearts with the thought of ”the hope of glory.”
Glory is a great word, both in the Old Testament and in the New. We cannot here attempt to point out and unfold its various uses in different connections, but it is plainly here used in the somewhat general sense. It is not the glory of any particular person or thing that is here meant. Not exclusively the glory of God, or the glory of Christ, or the glory of the saints, or the glory of heaven. In some sort it embraces all these, indicating a state of things that is supremely good, exalted, brilliant, splendid, and enduring. ”The hope of glory” then is the hope of attaining a state of being which is complete and supreme in every excellence. Of course this is itself a very general statement, and we may try to make it clearer by considering some of the elements which go to make up that glory.
1. For man, glory is to catch up with his nobler tendencies, his best longings after the highest good. It is aspiration achieved. Man is full of outlooks on the better, of stirrings for the higher. His very consciousness of imperfection makes him yearn for the perfect. His sins, when duly considered, make him thirst for holiness, and his limitations, even where no fault is involved, press him with a quenchless eagerness for freedom and power. If we are anything at all we want to be more. Intellectually, a man who prizes mentality, and conscious of ignorance and weakness, longs for fuller knowledge, for clearer light, has a longing that nothing on earth can satisfy. A great teacher once said, in a glow of rapture, ”Oh! to sit at the feet of the Master forever, and learn and learn and learn.” Morally, a man who sees in himself the capability of being good, and yet looks, with infinite pain on the marred wreck of his own life, feels an unspeakable and unquenchable desire to be good. Even when only dimly conscious of moral fault, he knows there is something better for him than he has ever reached. The glory of man lies in his intellectual and moral nature. The distress of man is that these, his noblest powers, are limited, and his soul made for the best is hindered, sometimes crushed, by failure and fault. The shame and disgrace of man is that these noblest powers are often thwarted and debased by his own suicidal neglect or perversion. Now show him a state where all these hurts are healed, all these perversions are corrected, all these drawbacks removed, and he can find himself perfectly pure and good forever. That is glory. It is to be all that a soul can be, intellectually and spiritually. It is a state where there will be no more fevered cries, ”More light, more light”; no more despairing groans, ”Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me.” Oh! then to us, clouded and darkened as we are, enveloped in mists of ignorance, fetterd by painful weakness, forestalled by hills of difficulty, burdened with thoughts of conscious fault, how bright a word is this, ”The hope of glory.” Sickness and weakness gone, pain banished, sin forgiven and blotted out, death abolished, and the life joyous and triumphant, liberal and free, unfettered and fine, endowed with perpetual youth, and crowned with everlasting delight. This is glory. The hope of it is itself ”a joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
2. The glory which the Apostle had in mind is not individual and selfish, but is social. The communion of the saints is glory, the association of the perfect is the perfect state. Utopian dreamers have imagined some earthly paradise, where human beings live in love and justice. Every reform, every note of human progress, every widening out of human interests has pointed to the consummate goal of a social state where all men should be good, and none should suffer or bring suffering. The accumulated evils, the festering sores of the body politic, the shameful sins, the inhuman cruelties, the foul vices which have marred the social life of mankind on earth have themselves created sorrow and loathing and the yearning for their removal. If we can conceive of a state where material things, where gross temptations, where rank injustices find no place; but where love and perfect purity have triumphed and shall be forever maintained that is glory. The rapt Seer on Patmos was vouchsafed some vision of this exceeding excellence, and in the wonderland of the Apocalypse has given to it immortal expression. Golden streets and pearly gates, beautiful trees of life-giving fruits, crystal streams, ringing harps, unfallen angels, redeemed and sanctified spirits, songs that cease not, harps of melting melodies and trumpets with triumphant notes of victory, pageants of splendor these are some of the notes of prophetic suggestion.
”Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blessed,
Beneath thy contemplation, sink heart and voice oppressed.
I know not, Oh, I know not, what social joys are there,
What radiancy of glory, what bliss beyond compare.”
3. Glory is the vision of God. ”Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” ”And his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face.” This is the crown of all. The old theologians talked of the beatific vision, the sight that makes happy. To see the king in his beauty this is indeed the vision splendid. We know how a beautiful sight delights the soul beyond words to tell. It may be the majesty of spring, the warm light of summer sunshine, or the gold and purple splendors of setting day, or the simple grace of a fair and fragile flower, or the beauty of a human face, lit with purity and love and peace. We have seen things that make us glad. But who shall say that anything can make a soul so glad as to see God? This is the vision promised in the gospel of Christ. Our human language stumbles and fails in its poor endeavor to express the glory of that vision. Theologians have discussed whether we shall see three persons or only one, whether we shall see only Jesus in his glorified form, or even whether we shall see anything that corresponds to the material sight. All such discourses are futile. There is no need to try to analyze by our poor process of reason, or to express in our weak and imperfect language all that can be meant by seeing God. Surely we know that the vision itself will far surpass in beauty and in joy every image of it that we now can form. To the thinker, puzzled with problems, the ultimate good will then appear. To the artist, striving for the ideal, perfect beauty will then appear. To the simple soul that knows naught but to look and love, the face of infinite love will be seen. That is glory.
Are these mere imaginings? Is the hope of such a glory as this a mere phantom of the brain, a mere wish of the longing heart? Is there any solid basis for such a hope as this? Yes, it is found in the gospel of Christ. The things of which we have been thinking are embraced in that gospel. The Apostle Paul was a mystic, but withal a very rational and practical man. The hope of glory to him, both as a present experience and as a message of cheer to his fellowmen, was not the baseless fabric of a dream, but a reasoned and joyful expectation. This is involved in the other great thought of the text.
II. HOW IS THIS HOPE REALIZED?
The answer is emphatic and profound - ”Christ in you.” Surely this is one of the most comprehensive of all sayings. If we consider well what it means, it will be easy to see how the hope of glory may become and remain a fadeless possession. Perhaps we may catch the profound meaning of the Apostle by saying that it is Christ known in you and Christ felt in you known as a historical fact, felt as a personal conviction. The person and work of Christ apprehended among you, as unfolded in the narrative and doctrinal statements of the New Testament, the spirit and influence of Christ felt within you as the experience of your own heart and life.
1. We observe then that ”Christ in you” means Christ known by you as a historic person. Let us remember that the reception of the facts of history is always an act of faith. Other things being equal, the further removed the facts are from our own time and observation, the more difficult are they to believe. To the modern mind accordingly, the historic apprehension of Christ is more difficult than it could have been to these Colossian Christians to whom Paul was writing. He himself may possibly (if one brief allusion may be so understood) have seen Christ in the flesh, but if not, he had received his historic information at first hand from those who had been eye witnesses of the life and deeds of Jesus. Hence any apprehension of Christianity as a system of doctrines and code of morals could not have been to them so distinct from a knowledge of the personal Christ as it is to us. But though it be difficult for our generation to image clearly the historic Christ, it is not impossible. It is the distinct function of what we call the historic imagination to reproduce from the literature concerning any great character such features as are possible. We can never, of course, reproduce perfectly any historic personality. The fullness of the picture depends upon the amount and kind of records available. These records are always of two kinds - descriptive narrative, and more or less analytical presentation of character. In the case of our Lord both kinds of historic evidences are available. The facts of his wondrous life are portrayed in the Gospels, and the impression made by his person upon those who knew him, either immediately or at second hand, are given in the other New Testament writings. Allowing the utmost to that unhappy, destructive criticism, which has been so ruthlessly applied to the New Testament writings, there is abundant material left to make sure the Christ of history. The main features of his character, samples of his mighty works, transcripts of his notable teachings are ours. Rationally, to accept him as presented in the sources of our information about him is to know him historically.
This knowledge is, of course, incomplete, as all such knowledge must be, but it is very real, and the weight and value of it incomparably great. ”We know something, and that immensely important, concerning the facts of his life and of his own consciousness. Jesus of Nazareth is one of the most vivid and telling of all the outstanding personages of the past. The knowledge we may obtain and cherish concerning him, though fragmentary, is sufficient for the main and essential facts of his character and career. This knowledge will include the tracery of his character. The man in his purity, his dignity, his strength, his kindness, his love, is revealed to us. The teacher and preacher in his force, his simplicity, combined with depth, his earnestness, his profoundly serious view of life and its meaning, his conviction of the future life and its glory, stands clearly before us. This knowledge will include the facts and significance of his life work. It deals with his deeds in their mercy and power; in their didactic and exemplary glory. Chiefly it will take in and emphasize that special feature of his work which stood out so clearly in his own consciousness, and is reflected with such tremendous power in the teachings of his authorized spokesmen - that is, his work of redemption. The Christ of history is consummately the Christ of the cross. Let us reflect how valuable is this historic apprehension of Christ as a basis for the ”hope of glory” of which we speak. That hope is enwrapt in the historic reality of Jesus as man, teacher and redeemer.
2. ”Christ in you” means Christ felt in you as a personal conviction, realized as a personal experience. This, it appears, is the main thing in the mind of the Apostle. Founded in the knowledge of his life and character, it is a deeper and more personal realization of the present living Christ who has thus been brought to our knowledge. Here is something so personal and intense that it cannot be understood by those who are strangers to it. The historic Christ may be the subject of study, but the personal Saviour is that, and more than that. A man can indeed tell others that Christ is a personal experience with him, but he cannot thereby make him a personal experience to others. He may even tell how Jesus became a personal experience to himself, but at least he will only be describing very imperfectly in language a vital experience that no language can fully express.
There are several aspects in which this great experience must be viewed. First of all, it is the acceptance and constant relation of the personal Christ as a Saviour from sin. This is the first thing, and in some sense, the main thing. In Christ’s own lifetime, this already began to be felt by some. But even by these it was only fully understood after his death and resurrection. Peter, speaking for the others as well as himself, acknowledged him as the Christ of God, but in his Pentecost sermon and other addresses, he presented Jesus as the Saviour, accepted by himself, and proclaimed to others. In his epistles also, the historic reality of Jesus mingles with the personal relation to his Saviourhood. Thus it has ever been in the history of God’s saints, in sermon and song, in story and treatise, through the centuries the saints have told the story of his love and of their enthronement of him in their heart of hearts as the one only and sufficient Saviour. This is to have Christ in you, and this is to cherish the hope of glory.
”Christ in you” also means Christ as a rule of life and conduct. Jesus is not only the way, but he is also the truth; not only the Redeemer, but the guide of men. To know his life and teachings is to accept him as model and lawgiver. Knowing his life, and that it was the best the world has ever known, we have an incentive to make our lives like it. They should be like that life, in its superhuman unselfishness, in its high-souled consecration to duty, in its beautiful purity, in its lofty consciousness of its mission. This is what Paul meant when he said ”to me to live is Christ,” this is what Jesus enjoined when he said, ”Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” He in us, and we in him. This is the expression and the condition of a true Christian experience. The more conscious we are of this indwelling Christ, the more real does every hope connected with him become. Thus realized in the life of faith and trust, Christ becomes indeed to every soul so possessing him the hope of glory. The wonderful presentment of Jesus in the Gospel of John makes this more distinct. Jesus said, ”I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He said to Martha, ”I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” So Paul assures us that Jesus brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. So an accepted Saviour, tested by life, becomes ”the hope of glory” hereafter. From no other lips have fallen so sure and sweet assurances of the life beyond. Through no other helper have come so clear and strong the promises of help and happiness. It is but commonplace to say that the more we realize Christ in our thought and life, the more sure we are of the glory that he came to set before us.
Thus in every way is Christ in us the hope of glory. Whether apprehended within us as a living principle, or apprehended by us as a historical fact; in the former view persuading us of our own immortal destiny, of God’s unspeakably precious fatherhood to us, of his own sure Kingdom of truth and love; in the latter view establishing these concentrated hopes on the sure foundation of a faultless character, the peerless gem of all human history.
Let us now recur to the apostle Paul and his thought. He has spoken of his joy in proclaiming to the Gentiles this Christ in them the hope of glory. Observe how this joy seems to show itself in what immediately follows our text: ’’Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.” Yes; no doubt his great soul was stirred within him at the thought that it was his privilege to announce to his fellowmen a hope like this. Did he not feel that it was the highest and noblest of all things men could do, to tell with all the earnestness of his nature how they might be the possessors of this hope? Ah! yes, it was a delight to him to preach this Christ the hope of glory, yet he failed not to be impressed also with the earnest labor necessary for even so delightful a work. He speaks here of warning and teaching every man, he tells elsewhere of his tears and prayers and labors for the promulgation of this gospel. Furthermore, he deeply felt the awful responsibility thus resting on him and cried out in conscious weakness, ”Who is sufficient for these things?” But the secret of his power, and of his calm assurance of a noble success he tells us in this, ”I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Also in almost every letter is expressed his craving for the sympathy, cooperation and prayers of his brethren, ”Pray for us, that the word may have free course and be glorified.” And thousands of Christ’s heralds since Paul have felt - perhaps not so deeply, but yet have felt as he did - the sublime joy and the weighty care of preaching Christ, having in them, too, that trust in Christ and leaning on the brethren which he had. God help them ever so to feel, this being their life-aim - ”Christ in you the hope of glory!”