Just One Glimpse Of Him
In the upcoming New Year's Gospel Meeting at Walnut Grove church of Christ I will be preaching a series of sermons that are outlined by beloved hymns of the congregation. The idea is to reinvigorate the messages in these songs that may have lost some of their meaning to us after years of singing them again and again.
I thought I had all of the songs selected, but I changed my mind on a couple of them last minute and as I was searching for a couple of different hymns to use, I came across a beautiful old hymn that I have enjoyed singing all my life entitled When We All Get To Heaven (in some books it is called When The Saved Get To Heaven). As I was skimming over the song, I was reminded that this song contains one of my favorite lines out of all the songs I know.
"Just one glimpse of Him in glory will the toils of life repay"
In the seventeenth chapter of John's gospel, we find Jesus praying for Himself, His disciples, and His believers. He prayed that His believers would all be united in Him and His Father. He also prayed that through the unity of His believers, the world would know that God had sent Him and that God loved them just as He loved Him. (John 17:20-23)
Jesus continued His prayer for His believers in verse 24:
“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may BEHOLD MY GLORY which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."
F. F. Bruce, in his commentary The Gospel of John, points out that the disciples had seen the divine glory in the incarnate Word on earth (John 1:14). But he says, “They will see it [Christ’s glory] more fully when they live in the presence of the glorified Lord—not, perhaps, because He will then be endowed with more of that glory but because they will be better able to behold it.”
In the short life we live, we experience waves of pain and trouble. The devil will do his best to use your unfortunate circumstances to fill your heart with doubt, but if we outsmart that old deceiver by holding fast to the word of God, one day we will be in the presence of our Savior.
"While we walk the pilgrim pathway, clouds will overspread the sky; but when traveling days are over not a shadow, not a sigh."
With this in mind, "let us then be true and faithful, trusting, serving every day." Let us abide by the words of Jesus, walk in His footsteps, and imitate Him as we journey homeward.
If we love Jesus, we will keep His commandments. (John 14:15) If we call Him Lord, we must do the things which He says (Luke 6:46), and Jesus tells us “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."(John 14:23)
If we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ live in a relentless pursuit of Him, He and the Father will be glorified, and someday we will fall at His feet and worship Him in His presence. Just one glimpse of Him in glory will the toils of life repay. I look forward to that day with great excitement and I hope that you have been washed in the blood and added to the kingdom so that we can be united in our excitement-filled pursuit of eternal life with God the Father and Jesus Christ our King.
-Eric Bullock, Evangelist
