Something Tremendous

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

There are aspects of our present experience which indicate that something much greater is coming. There is the daily inner renewal that we experience as Christians. The sharp contrast he draws is between the effects of aging upon the body and the increase of wisdom and love which mark the spirit of one who walks with God. There is a beauty about godly old age of which youth knows nothing. The spirit broadens and grows serene, though the body feels increasing pain.

What is happening? The outer man is losing the battle, the strength of youth falters and fades, the night is coming on. But the inner man is reaching out to light, growing in strength and beauty. This inner renewal is another way of describing the new covenant in action. Everything coming from God, nothing from me. The law of sin and death is destroying the body; the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is renewing the spirit from one degree of glory to another.

Paul stoutly declares that it is our very trials and hardships that actually produce the glory to come! Surely there is a twinkle in Paul's eye when he writes, our light and momentary troubles, in view of what he actually endured (see 2 Corinthians 11:24-27). But he was not complaining. He made light of it simply because he knew that these painful trials were actually preparing the weight of glory which was coming!

Something tremendous is ahead. Not only does daily inner renewal suggest it, and our present affliction is preparing it, but the very nature of faith itself guarantees it. The visible things of this life are but transient manifestations of abiding realities which cannot now be seen. Like a good chef, Paul has been whetting our appetites and stimulating our anticipation by veiled references to some breathtaking experience yet to come.

Paul looked forward with eager anticipation to the day when he would put off his earthly tent and move into his heavenly dwelling. A clear view of the coming glory should mean that our present life is marked with good courage. Surely that means more than keeping a stiff upper lip. It means to be full of encouragement, to be joyful, expectant, confident. There are two reasons given for this. First, in preparing us for the glory to come, God has given us the Holy Spirit as his guarantee. We do not need to doubt that the resurrection of our body is ahead, for the presence within us of the Spirit of resurrection makes it sure. The second reason for confidence is that through the resurrection, life will be mind-blowing beyond description. It is nevertheless true that we are learning how to handle the resurrection body by the way we handle our present body now. Though resurrection will be something new, it will not be entirely new.

C. S. Lewis said that these present bodies are given to us much as ponies are given to English schoolboys — to learn to ride the ponies in order to be ready for the glorious stallions that are even now arching their necks and pawing the floor in the heavenly stables.

Lord, thank you for hope. Thank you that this life is not all there is and that while my body grows old and feeble, my inner person is being renewed each day.