GRACE AND GLORY
William Mealand

THESE LOVELY WORDS are inseparable. They comprise the initiation and conclusion of God's magnificent purpose. And if we would contemplate their expressive interplay, we must go to the letters of Paul, since he alone fathoms their reach and magnitude.

Wherever we wander in our study of Scripture, if we have learned to love the writings of the great apostle, we come back again and again to those words of his in the Ephesian epistle. How, in the first chapter, he displays the perfect interrelationship of God and the Son of His love. To note this is boon, indeed.

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even such an One blesses us in Christ, and chooses us in Him. He also designates us for the place of a son. What a lofty honor is this, and how rare the niche in the vast realm of His grace!

God lavishes on us the riches of His grace, makes known to us the secret of His will, seals us with the holy spirit of promise, and all these links of divine fashioning are for the laud of His glory. Expressions these, of an exquisite grace, words to store in the memory, language to live with.

Now, if this were all, it might be thought that a partial, selfish strain pervaded such language, for the words are so markedly individual. Not so, however, for God moves from the intimacy of the personal to the magnitude of the whole. He passes from the immediate blessedness of His grace to the yet future effect of His glorious favor.

How like an all-wise and beneficent God! The very universe is to be headed up in the Christ--"that in the heavens as well as that on the earth." How comprehensive is such a statement. If it were the earth only, it might be thought wonderful, as it affects the whole world of mankind. But this divine proposal encircles the universe--all realms in all space. Religiously, however, men are so puny in thought, so complacently selfish in outlook. Many are so earthbound, so concerned with the terrestrial. That which is above is so narrowed down to a "heaven" vouchsafed to merit or service, a goal to be won by effort and sacrifice.

It is not seen as it should be, that celestial realms are to be brought into a wonderful knowledge of God's grace, and through the joyous, unfettered testimony of God's great family--even the body of Christ. Indeed, it is His body which will be the rare complement completing the entire universe.

For this are we saved by grace, even to exhibit its excellency among the celestials. No part of the heavens or of the earth will be untouched. The potency of grace will be everywhere felt and acknowledged. On the earth, with rule vested in Israel, and above, with the church, the body of Christ, as the administrator, grace and glory will abound. And we may rest assured that it will be an all-conquering grace and a fitting glory in every domain. For is it not all in the hands of the Father glorious, the God of grace?

Is it not for this that God highly exalts the Son of His love? God "graces Him with the name which is over every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should be bowing, celestial and terrestrial and subterranean, and every tongue should be acclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord for the glory of God, the Father" (Phil.2:9-11).

Even so. The coming of Christ in grace, His suffering for our sakes, and His merited exaltation, lead in God's own time and way to an expressive glory full and complete. Acknowledgment of God's Beloved as Lord, will most surely bespeak the Father's glory.

And what a name as the sole means of such a glory! A name, moreover, He did not make for Himself. Ah, no! God graces Him with that infinite, far-reaching designation, crowning it with glory and honor. Men have never invested the name with the fullness God will make it express. Instead of being the name superlative, it has been with many but a name comparative. Actually, it is the name which unifies and blesses the whole creation of God.

There is, today, far more concern with the status and power of the "church" than with the excellencies of the exalted and living Christ. That He alone is the great hope of mankind, is not the immediate interest of modern preachers and teachers. Far too much importance is attached to so-called education and science, and a presumed equality of mankind. But that all are equally sinners, yet all saved in the same marvelous Saviour, is not acknowledged. In other words, the power and wonder of God's grace is not perceived.

It would make all the difference if the essence of present day preaching were concerned with Christ as the Coming One, God's radiant Image, Whom one day all shall see. He is not only the Judge. Far too much teaching is tinctured with law, rather than saturated with grace. The mind of man needs to be filled with a vision of Christ as Saviour of all mankind. Even if it is realized now, certainly, and most blessedly, by few. Yet the few, if they know grace, take no credit to themselves for the blessing. It is supremely "of God, in Christ," and they love to think it so.

But what of the many? Grace is not limited to its present rare interlude. God's purpose was conceived in grace, and its consummation shall partake of that rich quality. And the thought is not a figment of human imagination. If it were, the glory would most likely be given to man, as the way of literature so abundantly shows. It is God revealed, as a fitting conclusion to His purpose of grace.

Will He not make life's broken circle whole,
As, working on, He moves to one rare goal--
The love of all His creatures, and praise from every soul?
Now, to our vision, passing interplay
Of good and ill, the bane of life's strange way.
Then, the dawn of God's own cloudless, fairest day.

Fullness of redemption indeed, and not for humans alone, but for all habitants of all realms in the universe. Grace and glory in veriest overflow. Not one being unblessed, for God is All in all. And, as "imitators of God, as beloved children," should we not be eager to sense and pass on this thrilling grace? We need no creedal niche or recognition for the exercise of this wondrous doctrine. On the streets and the byways of life, we can show both by look and word something of this overwhelming love of God.

Is it not true that we reflect in our lives the conception of God and of Christ which we have in our hearts? To believe, therefore, that not only are "all things possible with God," but that He has laid the charge upon Himself as "the Saviour of all mankind," is surely to believe gloriously of Him. But then, God is great, and greatly to be praised. The Son of His love, too, brings Him near to the hearts of men. For is He not God's Image, Firstborn of every creature? And the universe has been created, not only through Him, but for Him. A perfect universe it must surely be, if it is for Him Who gives Himself a ransom for all. His to hold in regal grace, till given up to God, even the Father.

A lifetime here is all too short to sound the praise of grace and glory. But in the on-coming eons we shall have time in richer measure, with thought and action gladly captive to Christ our Lord. His potent grace we all shall see, as with the members of His body glorious we pass from glory to glory transcending.

But even here and now there is given to us a rare sense of God's grace. There is the intense realization it gives of salvation from self, and from the spirit of the world. The revelation to our hearts of the things we are saved from, and finer still, the unspeakable value of the things to which we are drawn.

These, as we contemplate them, and live for them, give us joy and peace. Therefore, whatever the character of our environment in a world at war, "we may be glorying in expectation of the glory of God" (Rom.5:2).

Sunset and evening star proclaim His glory. Yet greater still, His shining in our hearts, that we may be illumined with a knowledge rare, even His glory in the face of Christ.