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3/4 Reading Portions: Exodus 15; Luke 18; Job 33; 2 Corinthians 3
Luke 18:13
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”
INGLORIOUS
There have been occasions when I have uttered that I couldn’t wait for the coming of the Lord; or that I can’t wait for the day when I’m in Christ’s presence. This has been the sentiment of many of us; it’s true, we should have a great expectation for the Lord; and to look for His coming. Nevertheless, there is, at the same time, the truth of our inglorious condition. There was a moment in time when my ailments took me right to the threshold of death. I had difficulty breathing. I was weak. My mind raced. I imagined Christian, from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, when the main character crossed the river before the Celestial City and fear overtook him. His wretchedness halted him and he began to sink in the waters. I, too, experienced the same wretched, inglorious reality of my flesh remaining. How, I wondered, could I enter His glorious presence? The tax collector, from the Lord’s parable, expresses the same truth. When we really, truly consider the exalted glory of God’s presence, if those thoughts do not cause us to tremble, or at least stir our souls with the sorrow of our condition, we have not fully apprehended two truths in our salvation: first, Christ is all-glorious; and second, the flesh still remaining in our mortal bodies is corrupt and inglorious. In Romans’ seventh chapter, the apostle did not say, “O wretched man that I was!” No. He cried,
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Romans 7:24, emphasis added
Our justification is in Christ Jesus alone, and we should never move on from the blessed, grateful, and glorious utterance of our wretched, fleshly, and inglorious condition: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Hallelujah! What a Savior!
The tax collector said it right
When he, in humble plea,
Did seek God’s mercy, for his sight
Glimps’d God most gloriously.
