the Third Week after Easter
Daily Devotionals
Bowen's Daily Meditations
" The glory which shall be revealed in us." - Romans 8:18.
In us; in me, in you. Sin, not satisfied with the manifestation given of itself in the angels that left their first estate, not satisfied with the degradation into which it has caused the devils to sink, came to you and me, that it might obtain a fuller exhibition. You and I dwelt in a world the soil of which had been moistened with Christ’s sweat of agony, with the drops of Calvary, in a world where the Gospel of God’s amazing grace is preached to every creature. Sin said, " It is one thing to make a creature ruin itself by sin; it is another thing to make a creature, so ruined, daily and hourly treat with contempt the proffered love, the Calvary-bought grace of the Lord of the universe." The very fabric of our minds tells frightful tales of what sin has wrought within us. Had our aim been to make ourselves so vile that the Spirit of God should be utterly and eternally repelled, we could not have gone further than we have done. Sin reveled in its victory over us; but this very victory only becomes the occasion of a greater triumph on the part of grace; and the glory of God is to be revealed in us more illustriously than it ever has been revealed in any order of beings. And we shall then be kept from self-glorification by the thought that it was our excessive sin which became the occasion of this excessive glory. " The glory which thou hast given me, I have given them," said Jesus. See Christ as Isaiah saw him, surrounded by the Seraphim’s; and as Peter and John, Moses and Elias saw him on the mount of transfiguration; and as the angels saw him when he ascended up on high, leading captivity captive; see him as John saw him when he fell at his feet as one dead; see him as all shall see him when he cometh in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory; and consider that we shall be like him. He is glorified in us.
No wonder that an angelic host encamps around the sleeping-place of the believer. The believer is an emigrant from the region of the shadow of death, bound to a country where he is to be clothed with glory like that of the King of kings. Christ is to be admired in us, honored in us, blessed in us, glorified in us. It is in gifts to us, in dignity, honor, and splendor, enjoyed by us, that God is to make manifest to the universe how beyond all estimation he appreciates the merit of the death of Christ.
Help me, God, in the presence of my brother or sister, of thy son or daughter, to look with intense interest upon one who is to walk hereafter in the lustre, beauty, and excellency of Christ, to receive dominion over kings, to be clad in glory that shall make the brightness of the firmament to pale. Let me make haste to love those whom thou so lovest, to honor those whom thou deignest so to honor.
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