The Glory of Christ in Us
This humility topic is still swirling around in my mind - partly because that’s the season I’m in, partly because I’m still in Philippians 2:1-11 and there’s still so much there.
I just continue to see ways I’ve hidden my gifts and tried to stay quiet in the name of humility. And for good reason: the Bible has plenty of examples of humility made manifest by being quiet and lowly.
But…I think sometimes we forget that glorification is part of the Christian life too.
See, part of being human is that we will always live in the paradox between humility and glory. The Bible says that we are dust, but dust formed into the very image of God. It says that our life is a vapor, but also that we will live forever. It calls us to humble ourselves and suffer like Christ, but also that we will be glorified together with him.
And yet somehow we manage to run off the road in both directions. One minute we’re boasting in our own strength, seeking our own glory, and filled with self-made self-confidence, and the next we’re groveling in the very dust we’re made of, beating ourselves up and unable to even raise our eyes to heaven. Somehow we manage to suffer from selfish pride and low self-esteem all in the same breath.
Meanwhile, the way of Jesus is right down the middle, where humility and glory collide. Philippians 2:5-11 tells the story of the Savior who was already equal with God, but chose to go all the way down to the level of humanity, to the point of dying the most shameful and humiliating death imaginable. And THEN he gets glory above every other name in the universe.
To be sure, this is Jesus we’re talking about and we’re not meant to be exactly like him in everything - but he is the pattern for everything we do. And we talk a lot about humbling ourselves like Jesus, but not so much about being glorified like him.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a good reason for this: self-glorification is all too easy to fall into and no one is immune to it. And the promise of glorification, for us, mainly comes in eternity. None of us should be expecting glory and exaltation in this life.
But maybe our future glorification needs to have a little more of an effect on our lives now.
Think of it this way: if Christ’s humiliation is the guardrail on one side of the road keeping us from getting too full of ourselves, maybe his glorification (and eventually ours) is the guardrail on the other side of the road keeping us from getting too down on ourselves.
There is a fine line sometimes between humbly acknowledging our shortcomings and stubbornly clinging to guilt and shame that were supposed to have died with Christ. And the enemy loves to blur this line. If he can’t get at you with all the sneaky forms of pride, he’ll pull you the other direction into shame, making you believe that you will never be free of the stain of sin.
But the truth is that you are washed clean, a new creation, being made into the likeness of Christ, and destined for unimaginable glory. If you live in that reality, the enemy’s lies don’t have a chance of sinking in.
So…how do we think about the glory of God in us without doing the very human thing of making it all about us and our own glory? The answer, as usual, is Jesus.
Look at Jesus. Think about Jesus. Abide in Jesus. Study the way he lived in the tension of humility and glory. And when your eyes are fixed on him, everything else will fall into place.