Grace and Glory Meet

"The Lord will give grace and glory"  Psalm 84:11

“Grace is what we need just now, and it is to be had freely.  What can be freer than a gift?  Today we shall receive sustaining, strengthening, sanctifying, satisfying grace.  He has given daily grace until now, and as for the future, that grace is still sufficient.  If we have but little grace, the fault must lie in ourselves; for the Lord is not straitened, neither is he slow to bestow it in abundance.  We may ask for as much as we will and never fear a refusal.  He giveth liberally and upbraideth not.

The Lord may not give gold, but he will give grace; he may not give gain, but he will give grace.  He will certainly send us trial, but He will give grace in proportion thereto.  We may be called to labor and to suffer, but with the call there will come all the grace required.

What an AND is that in the text—‘and glory’!  We do not need glory yet, and we are not yet fit for it; but we shall have it in due order.  After we have eaten the bread of grace, we shall drink the wine of glory.  We must go through the holy – which is grace, to the holiest of all—which is glory.  These words ‘and glory’ are enough to make a man dance for joy.  A little while—a little while, and then glory forever!"

--Spurgeon

Yes, it is always more grace that we need, even when we would name our need(s) by a thousand other names to satisfy the longings of our hearts.  For God has seen it fitting that we have the very “needs” that lie closest to us.  Do we realize that grace is the name for the very filling up of Christ in us that would satisfy and cause us to be “full”—of joy, love, and hope?

The glory part intrigues me.  CS Lewis, in Perelandra, describes Ransom’s panic at seeing an eldil:  I felt sure that the creature was what we call “good”, but I wasn’t sure whether I liked “goodness” so much as I supposed…how if food itself turns out to be the very thing you can’t eat, and home the very place you can’t live, and your very comforter the person who makes you uncomfortable?  Then indeed there is no rescue possible; the last card has been played…here at last was a bit of that world from beyond the world, which I had always supposed that I loved and desired, breaking through and appearing to my senses: and I didn’t like it, I wanted it to go away.  I wanted every possible distance, curtain, blanket, and barrier to be placed between it and me.” 

Thomas Howard’s comment on this:  “It’s glory that we want eventually, and glory is the very thing we can’t tolerate.  The eldil, so utterly pure, is, alas, a herald from the realm of intolerable purity…”  I would add a thought:  It’s grace we want (need), now, and grace is the very thing we can’t tolerate. 

The Greeks sought glory in immortalizing their name through great feats of valor, art  or accomplishment.  We shun the idea of seeking glory because Christ’s words in the Sermon on the Mount seem to forbid it.  Yet in a strange way we are hardwired for glory – which is why the sacrifice of a humble heart, forgoing glory in this world to share in His sufferings, is precious to Him.  “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory…” II Cor 4:17  “If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”  I Peter 4:14  Seeking His glory becomes our glory. “Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” I Peter 4:13.  We don’t need to make a name for ourselves, accomplish noteworthy things.  We exalt His Name instead, perhaps in the humble and quiet places of surrender.