God forbid that I should glory save in… (#64)

“Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23)

Before his conversion, Paul boasted in the same things as other men (Philippians 3:4-6), but when he met Christ it all changed. Those things in which he once gloried were now to him a total waste (3:7), and the things that he once despised were now the things in which he gloried. As we embark on a new week, I would like to consider five things in which Paul gloried and in which you and I can glory throughout the days ahead.

In Romans, Paul glories in tribulations (5:3). To the saints he writes, “we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience.” The patience of which Paul speaks is the not the sort of perseverance that grits one’s teeth through everything and hopes for the best, but rather a patient waiting on God for His will to be worked out in His way and in His time. This patience itself works “experience” because, as we wait on God in our trials, we learn about Him (5:4). Again, in turn, this experience creates “hope” because it brings us to realize that He has a plan in our trials whereby He will glorify himself.

In 2 Thessalonians, Paul glories in the saints (1:4). The Thessalonian believers were living out the truth of Romans 5:4 in the midst of “persecutions and tribulations”. Their patience and faith caused Paul to rejoice in them before God (1:3) and man (1:4). It is so easy to become critical of fellow believers, but how much better it is to rather glory in the grace of God at work in their lives.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul glories in his infirmities (12:9). Three times Paul had asked the Lord to remove his “thorn”, but God said unto him, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (12:9). When Paul heard this he gloried in his infirmities because it meant that the power of Christ would rest upon him. Our weakness calls for God’s strength. The less we can do in our infirmity, the more God must do. And since God is a far greater ‘doer’ than you or I, when He acts for us greater things are done.

In Galatians, Paul glories in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ which has separated him from the world and freed him from its bonds (6:14). There were some in the church to which Paul wrote that were glorying in the flesh (6:13), but Paul gloried in that which God has used to put the flesh to death (6:14). The cross had become a wall between Paul and the world and he rejoiced in the freedom that he had in Christ.

Finally, in 1 Corinthians it is all summed up as Paul glories in the Lord (1:30-31). By nature Paul was foolish and ignorant about God, but Christ was made wisdom to him. He was guilty and unrighteous before God, but Christ was made righteousness to him. He was separated from God by his iniquities, but Christ was made sanctification to him. He was a slave to sin and to Satan, but Christ was made redemption to him.

Why would you or I glory in men? They cannot make righteous or sanctify or redeem, but Christ has accomplished all of these things. As our “righteousness”, he has freed us from the guilt of sin. As our “sanctification”, he frees us from the power of sin. As our “redemption”, he will soon free us from even the very presence of sin. Thus we rejoice and agree with Paul, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”