His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence [emphasis added].

That is, God has given and continues to give us everything we need to live a life oriented toward Him. We especially need to know Him: to know and to trust Who He is: His power, His majesty, His justice, His holiness, His mercy, His kindness, His faithfulness, His grace. Furthermore, He called us effectually as His own for this very purpose: according to verse 4, we become partakers or sharers [koinonoi] of the divine nature, thus displaying His glory and excellence, thereby fulfilling that calling. Verses 5 to 7 then detail some of the ways we display that divine nature: through faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness (being oriented toward God), brotherly affection, and love.

But many English translations render the last phrase of verse 3 not “to His own glory and excellence” but “by His own glory and excellence.” If this is what Peter meant, he would be saying God’s entire plan of redemption is a manifestation and implementation of His character. He perfectly displays His justice in seeing that every sin is paid for. He perfectly displays His mercy in redeeming guilty rebels. He perfectly displays His kindness in showering us with His goodness for all eternity.

So which is right? Is “by” or “to” the better translation?

Commentaries argue both ways and, as you might expect, the Greek is ambiguous.

It is healthy for seminary students to struggle with such questions and to understand the arguments for one rendering or another.

But as those called to or by His own glory and excellence, we don’t have to choose one or the other. For both truths are biblical; both truths are precious.

God calls us to His glory. He saves us and enables us to fulfill our being created in His image, transforming us through the renewal of our minds into the character of Jesus. We are as He His is in the world (1 John 4:17). We proclaim His goodness and live out His mercy.

And He calls us by His glory. God’s plan of redemption is not an afterthought, not an accident, not contingent, not something that God happened to choose to do. Rather, it flows out of Who He is and thus displays the depths of His character as nothing else could. We could say God’s glory generates the Gospel.

Question, then: Was Peter intentionally ambiguous? Did He – and the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21) – choose to write the sentence in this way so that in one phrase both truths are stated?

Note that great poets do that frequently. They choose a word or a phrase not only for its primary meaning, but also because its secondary connotations communicate even more of the author’s intention.

Why shouldn’t the authors of Scripture do the same?

We can’t know if Peter was intentionally ambiguous in this particular verse. But we nevertheless can and should delight in both truths.

God calls us by His own glory and excellence.

And God calls us to His own glory and excellence.

So live to His glory, confident that His unchanging character assures us that He will fulfill this great plan.

Acts 13:18
And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.

God has patience with you. Once God had brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt, he then “put up with them” for forty years in the wilderness. While this may initially sound strange or even begrudging of God, just consider this from God’s perspective. God had delivered Israel from Egypt with a mighty, uplifted arm and powerful signs and wonders. Psalm 78 provides an insightful recap of God’s manifest mercy to Israel, Israel’s recalcitrant rebellion, and God’s perennial patience toward them,

In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap. In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light (Psalm 78:12–14).

And, once they were on the other side, God gave them a torrent of crisp, cool water to slake their thirst one hundred times over…in the desert,

He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers (Psalm 78:15–16).

And even after all this, they still rebelled against God when he opened the door to the Promise Land and said, “Go up and take it!”

Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert (Psalm 78:17; see Deuteronomy 9:23; Numbers 14:1–4).

And yet, God did not abandon them. Rather, he exercised undeserved patience toward them. God knew that the hearts of the people were haughty and disobedient, and that they would not keep his commands. But they didn’t see their heart problem yet. So, God resolved to patiently humble them in order to lead them to obedience. He did this by testing them in the wilderness for forty years so that they could finally see what was in their hearts,

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not (Deuteronomy 8:2).

And throughout the wilderness, Israel’s proclivity to disobey was on full display,

They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness? He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?” (Psalm 78:18–20).

Why? Why did the people continue to rebel?

Because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power (Psalm 78:22).

And yet, God stuck with them. He miraculously provided manna and meat for them (Psalm 78:23–29). And, he did not withhold the gift of his discipline or provision even when they continued to sin (Psalm 78:30–33).

God’s patience toward Israel and her sinfulness was not God simply indulging sin. God wielded his perfect patience toward Israel in order to lead her to repentance, in order to lead her to him,

When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer (Psalm 78:34–35).

But how could a holy God simply pass over such sin and rebellion. How could he exercise such patience? Because he would atone for their sin,

Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath (Psalm 78:38).

God planned to provide for them a David to be their king and shepherd, who would lead them to obedience,

He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance. With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand (Psalm 78:70–72).

And just as God showed perfect patience to Israel in order to reveal to them their proneness to rebel and lead them to repentance, God extends his perfect patience to you for the same purpose. God showers the “riches of his kindness and forbearance, and patience” on you in order to “lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4). And that patience to pass over your sins was bought by the blood of your King and your Shepherd, David’s Son, Jesus

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins (Romans 3:23–25).

Think of all the indwelling sin that can still breakout of the barren places in your heart as you walk with the Lord through this wilderness of the world. Think of the tendencies for your old flesh to rebel against the God you love, to not believe in him nor trust his saving power. And then think of the fountain of patience that floods your life and fills you like water rising from the rock in the wilderness. God affords you this blood-bought patience to show you kindness and lead you to repentance.

God has patience with you. This is a gospel consolation for you.

Acts 13:17
and with uplifted arm [God] led them out of [Egypt].

God redeemed you from slavery. Just as Egypt enslaved Israel, sin enslaved you:

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34).

You made a practice of sinning like the Hebrews in Egypt made a practice of making bricks. That is, practicing sin was all you could do because you were a slave to it. Sin ruled over and oppressed you in the way Egypt ruled over and oppressed Israel. And just like the Hebrews, who could not deliver themselves by their own power, you could not deliver yourself from your sinful flesh. You were dead in it, and you willingly went along with it,

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world (Ephesians 2:1–2).

Any time you had a mind to stop making bricks, your oppressive task master (your sinful flesh) whipped you into submission. You were a slave to sin, following the ways and orders of the world. Therefore, as a slave to sin who followed the ways of the world, you were also a slave to the false god of this world, Satan (1 John 5:19),

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked…following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2).

Satan enslaved you. Not only were you taking marching orders from your oppressive task master—your sinful flesh—as a slave to sin, you were doing so under the oppressive rule of Satan himself. With every sin, you were doing his bidding and carrying out his desires like Israel did for Pharoah. Or, like an obedient child carrying out his father’s wishes,

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (John 8:44).

Satan enslaved you. And because you were a slave to sin and Satan, there is another who also enslaved you and ruled over you—death,

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death…(Romans 6:16),

For the wages of sin is death…(Romans 6:23).

Death enslaved you. Sin, Satan, and Death are the three rulers who enslaved you. And like the people of Israel who found themselves actually wanting to remain enslaved to Egypt (Exodus 14:11–12)—like a hostage with Stockholm syndrome—you aligned yourself to your slave masters. You were a willing slave and prisoner, happy to do their bidding. You were not strong enough to break the bonds of Sin and Death. You were not strong enough to overcome the strong man, Satan, who held you in those bonds. But Jesus was. And Jesus came to overpower Satan, bind him, and shatter your twin fetters of Sin and Death to set you free from your slave prison (Mark 3:27; Luke 4:18–21; see Isaiah 61:1). How did Jesus perform this great feat of power and strength? Shockingly, through death.

God, with uplifted arm—just he as spared Israel in the plague by the blood of the Passover lamb, just as he parted the chaotic waves of the Red Sea to lead Israel out of Pharoah’s ruthless rule—passed over you by the blood of Jesus on the cross, parting the chaotic waves of Sin and Death, leading you out of Satan’s clutches and into freedom in him,

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Hebrews 2:14–15).

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:22–23).

God has redeemed you from slavery. This is a gospel consolation for you.

Acts 13:17
and [God] made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt,

God has made you his treasured possession. If the reason God chose you was that he loved you (See “God Chose You”), then the purpose in his choosing you was to make you his treasured possession. But what all does that entail? Acts 13:17 offers a clue: “God made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.” The natural implication is that before their stay in Egypt, the people were not great. We observe this much in Deuteronomy 7:7, “for you were the fewest of all peoples.” Before Egypt, Israel was not a nation. Israel was not a kingdom. Israel was not even a people. Israel was one family. But as exiles in that foreign land of Egypt, the family of Israel grew into a great people—a people whom God would make into the nation and a kingdom. And God says this to them in Exodus 19:5–6,

“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’…” (Exodus 19:5–6; cf. Deuteronomy 7:6).

God promised to make Israel his treasured possession among all peoples. As his treasured possession they would be a kingdom. And they would not be just any ole kingdom. They would be a kingdom of priests who pointed the watching world back to God. As his treasured possession they wouldn’t be just a random assortment of individuals. They would be a nation. They would be one people, one nation. And they would not be just any ole nation. They would be a holy nation delighting in God and his ways, not in wickedness and sin. But these even these markers themselves would prove to not be the greatest distinction of God’s people as his treasured possession. The greatest distinction of God’s people as his treasured possession would be God’s presence in their midst:

I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God (Exodus 29:45–46; cf. Exodus 33:15–16).

God’s people would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation with whom he dwells. This is what it means to be God’s treasured possession. And while Israel ultimately failed to live up to this calling, Jesus did not.

Jesus proved to be the King, Priest, and Holy One that Israel never was (Luke 1:32–33; Hebrews 4:14–16; 7:20–25; Mark 1:24; John 6:69; Acts 3:14). In Jesus, God dwelt in the midst of men (John 1:14). Israel was supposed to be God’s treasured possession, but Jesus the Son of God was, is, always has been, and always will be God’s treasured possession,

And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11).

And now God makes you his treasured possession by conforming you into the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). Peter makes this clear. Importantly, Peter addresses us saints as exiles in a foreign land (1 Peter 1:1), when he says this,

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:9–10).

You, saint, are among God’s chosen people from among all peoples. You, saint, are a priest in a priesthood of saints, a royal priesthood, a kingdom of priests. You, saint, are a holy member of a holy nation. Once, you were not any of these. You were not even part of a people let alone a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. You were a lost individual groping around in darkness. You were among a kingdom of pagan priests. You were among an unholy nation. You were among a sinful people who is not really a people at all but a world of sin-indulging gluttons where one has allegiance to no one but self and Satan. You sought after and desired anything but being God’s treasured possession. But now you are among God’s people. And how did that happen?

According to Peter, you were not among God’s people because you had not received mercy (1 Peter 2:10). Now, though, you are among God’s people because you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:10). You have received mercy on the basis of one who walked this earth as God’s treasured possession when you refused. You received mercy through the blood of Jesus, God’s beloved and treasured Son, who called you out of your darkness into his marvelous light, and now all his merits God counts as yours.

Saint, even though right now you may be an exile on this earth, a foreign land of wickedness and sin, a desert of trial and testing—like Israel in Egypt and in the wilderness—, in Christ, God has truly made you into a kingdom of priests to point the world to him, a holy nation who delights in God and his ways, a people for his own possession with whom he dwells. And to be God’s kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, God’s people, is to be his treasured possession in whom he delights.

God has made you his treasured possession. This is a gospel consolation for you.

• A rebel against Him? Surely.
• Someone who is prone to wander? By all means.
• An inconsistent follower, delighting in Him one minute and shortly thereafter acting as if He doesn’t exist? Yes.
• A person who is by nature an object of His wrath? Certainly.

But what else does He see?

Consider how Daniel is addressed three times in Daniel 9 and 10: “Man greatly loved.” Alternate translations include “precious” and “esteemed.”

What was true of Daniel is also true of every person who is in Jesus. God loves you. He loves you yourself, as an individual.

Christians easily slip into thinking of God’s love as solely corporate instead of individual. For we know “God so loved the world” (John 3:16), God set His love on the people of Israel (Deuteronomy 7:7), God’s steadfast love for His people as a whole endures forever (more than forty verses).

Yes, God loves His people, the church, the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ, which He is perfecting. Praise Him for that love!

But He also deeply loves each individual who is part of that Bride. Jesus makes this abundantly clear in the stories of the lost sheep and the lost coin (Luke 15). Indeed, Jesus treats Zaccheus and Nicodemus and Mary and Martha and Peter and the healed leper and everyone He encounters as individuals, sheep who have wandered and thus need a good shepherd to carry them on His shoulders.

Consider especially the rich young ruler. In Mark’s account, he asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus says he already knows the commandments. He replies he has kept them all from his youth. Now, he hasn’t – his response will show that he has not loved the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. But instead of challenging the man’s answer, Jesus looks at him and loves him! Jesus loves this man, who is about to walk away from Him because the cost of following Jesus is everything.

You see, Jesus loves us:

• not because of our obedience,
• not because of our worship,
• not because of our good works

He loves us because He loves us. And nothing in all the world can separate any individual from the love of God that each of us has in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39).

So: When God looks at you and me, what does He see?

Yes, He sees clearly all that is wrong with us. He knows much better than we how far short of His glory we fall.

But if we are in Christ, he sees those He greatly loves. Those who are precious to Him – so precious that He bought them at a price (1 Corinthians 6:20; see also Acts 20:28, 1 Peter 1:18-19, and Revelation 5:9).

So tell yourself: “I am a man or woman greatly loved, precious to God the Father in God the Son. He delights in me! Nothing can stop Him from conforming me completely to the image of His Son.”

Rest in this great love.

Acts 13:17
The God of this people Israel chose our fathers…

God chose you. Why? Paul says ultimately God chose you “according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:5–6). God’s purpose is his glory. But there is a purpose within this purpose here. God’s glory, namely his glorious grace, blesses you. His glory is your good. Deuteronomy 7:6–8 captures this purpose of your blessing,

The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt (Deuteronomy 7:6–8).

There are layers here. Let’s plumb the depths to arrive at the reason. God chose you for a purpose. What purpose? “To be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6). God chose you so he could treasure you. That is the purpose. But why did God want to treasure you? Let’s continue.

Before we arrive at the reason, we actually discover what the reason was not: “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples” (Deuteronomy 7:7). So what wasn’t the reason? You. You were not the reason God chose you. There was nothing loveable, “treasurable,” or “chooseable” about you. Well, that doesn’t sound like much of a consolation does it? Oh but it is.

You see, we’ve finally arrived at the reason. God chose you to be his treasure, the Lord set his love on you and chose you “because the Lord loves you” (Deuteronomy 7:8). God chose you because he loves you! You see in spite of who you are, in spite of what you’ve done, in spite of your unloveliness, in spite of your sin enslaved heart, God loved you. Unbelief often tempts us to think that our unworthiness, our weakness, and our need drives God away from us. But the gospel reality is this: because of your need and helplessness God’s love moved toward you. And in that love, he delighted to deliver you (Deuteronomy 7:8). In that love, God delighted to choose you by setting all of his love and affection on you and choosing you to be his own treasured child. The love of God to choose you when you were not worthy to be chosen, then, proves to be an unshakable, totally secure love. This is not a temporary love that hinges on your performance. This is an eternal love. God saw you, loved you, and chose you from the halls of eternity before creation

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:3–6).

If there was nothing you could have done to earn God’s love, then there is nothing you can do to escape it. Your value to God did not originate in you and is not fixed in your fickle self. Your value to God originated in him, and it is fixed in his eternally unchanging nature and in and through the cross of his infinitely valuable Son, Jesus Christ. And there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can change that. God set his love on you and chose you because he loved you. In that he is glorified. Praise his glorious grace!

God chose you. This is a gospel consolation for you.

As we will see this weekend, in 2 Chronicles 16 when war threatens Judah King Asa chooses to rely not on God for deliverance but upon his own wisdom and the help of foreign armies, namely Syria, with whom he makes a covenant. It may look politically savvy on the surface, but the devil is in the details. To make this happen, Asa plunders the treasure house of the LORD in order to buy Syria’s loyalty. These treasures themselves shined as evidence of the victory God gives when his kings rely on him (v. 2 Chronicles 14:14; 15:18). Now, if anyone in any other circumstance would have plundered the treasure house of the LORD, Asa would likely have their head. These were God’s treasures. And yet because Asa chose to rely on himself, moral confusion sets in. Suddenly what God’s wisdom would condemn, human wisdom permits.

The moral rot continued for Asa even after God via his prophet Hanani admonishes him for his sin. God’s prophet soundly rebukes him for his sin of not relying on God, and Asa, instead of repenting, angrily digs himself deeper by throwing Hanani stock-bound in prison. Then Asa compounds this sin against the prophet by inflicting cruelties upon the people (2 Chronicles 16:7–10). Asa—a king with the right desire to guard and keep the people of his kingdom from her enemies—chose to rely on himself, which led to choosing to rob from God, which led to choosing to silence and persecute God’s prophet, which led to choosing to attack the people of his kingdom. Asa ends up inflicting upon his people the very terror he originally sought to deflect. Such is the insanity of sin. Asa’s single choice to rely on himself rather than God wove a web of moral confusion that Asa found himself trapped like a fly in. He can no longer distinguish good from evil.

Moral confusion is the fallout of spurning God and his wisdom. And judgment awaits the morally confused. Hear Isaiah,

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20).

Again, what leads to such moral confusion that man would call evil good and good evil; darkness light and light darkness; bitter sweet and sweet bitter? Isaiah puts such confusion in parallel with self-reliance,

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! (Isaiah 5:21).

Woe, judgment, proves to be the end game for such self-reliance and moral confusion. But final judgment not only speeds toward the morally confused like a freight train. The moral confusion itself is a judgment from God. Paul makes this clear in Romans 1:28,

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done (Romans 1:28).

So when you see moral confusion in your context or in your own life, you not only see a clear sign and symptom that you and humanity have sinfully chosen to rely on self rather than God, you see a clear sign and symptom of divine judgment.

So look around you. What do you see? In our Western context, particularly our American context, you see a society, a people, that cannot distinguish good and evil, light and dark, bitter and sweet. You see a people that cannot distinguish between a man and a woman. You see a people where men cosplay as women, and invite young children into their lust-driven deviance under the guise of “art” and “story hour”…and you see parents willingly bringing their innocent children to such events to use them as props for their social media virtue signaling. You see a people that subjects vulnerable children to evil, irreversible body mutilation while calling it virtuous under the morally-confused category of “gender-affirming care.” You see school systems subvert parental authority by secretly socially transitioning gender-confused children from female to male, and you see the state back up the school by threatening to remove the children from their parents who do not consent or approve. You see the murderous slaughter of over 1 million unborn children (1.126 million in 2025 to be precise) praised as righteous. You see the virtue of compassion twisted and wielded as a weapon to justify evil acts. You see the sin of “pride” and sexual immorality celebrated in parades made up of “women (who) exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and…men (who) likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men” (Romans 1:26–27).

But don’t stop at looking out. Look in. Look into your own heart. What do you see? Do you see moral confusion in your own heart about even some of the above issues? Do you see within yourself a tendency to call good what Scripture calls evil and call evil what Scripture calls good? Do you see within yourself a propensity to look past your personal sin? Do you often justify your own sin? Do you find you overcomplicate moral categories that Scripture makes straightforward? Do you divorce truth from love and justify your anger or hatred toward others in the process? Do you rely on yourself rather than on God?

When you see moral confusion around you and within you, you see not only a sign and symptom of self-reliance, you see a sign and symptom of divine judgment. But God has a purpose in mind for such divine judgment. He intends it to wake you up and lead you back to him (1 Corinthians 5:5). So what do you do, saint, when moral confusion abounds within and around you? The answer is simple. Thank God for his judgment that leads you back to him, repent of your own sin, and rely on God for determining what is evil and what is good.

Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil (Proverbs 3:7).

Every saint will enter into eternal life because of Christ’s gospel work. Every saint will receive an imperishable crown of glory, as Scripture says (1 Peter 5:4; James 1:12), but like theologian Sinclair Ferguson says, “these crowns will be different shapes”—different levels or degrees of reward. Paul aims to maximize his reward by his works of faith on earth. Now is this selfish? Does this seem an odd motivation? It’s not selfish and it shouldn’t be odd. If works of faith spring from Christ in you, as Philippians 1:8 makes clear, then all your fruits of righteousness come through Jesus Christ, not ultimately through you. That means any reward you receive ultimately glorifies him! So the bottom line here is this: Paul just has a bigger appetite for God’s glory and beauty in Jesus than you or I do. If you want to do works of faith for God, you have to first desire more of his glory. That’s what Paul really wants. That’s his reward. Us? Our pleasure-o-meters are just broken. We settle for lesser pleasures and glories like, as C.S. Lewis says, children who choose making mud pies over going to spend a vacation by the sea! We settle because we don’t actually know what we’re missing. But Paul says, “I run and discipline my body because I want so much evidence of what Christ did for me to pile up that he shines with such beauty and glory…”—And as Paul beholds that greater glory in eternity, he not only receives eternal life, but a more potent draught, a 100-proof reward compared to others.

That final line, “as Paul beholds that greater glory in eternity, he not only receives eternal life, but a more potent draught, a 100-proof reward compared to others” speaks to the idea of varying degrees of reward in eternity. The idea here is that while everyone enjoys perfection of happiness in their beholding of God’s glory and the King in his beauty in eternity, some will have a greater capacity for that glory. Hear Jonathan Edwards,

For all shall be perfectly happy, every one shall be perfectly satisfied. Every vessel that is cast into this ocean of happiness is full, though there are some vessels far larger than others.

Varying degrees of reward that accord with their deeds on Earth mark the saints’ experiences in eternity. There exists a glory hierarchy of sorts in eternity. Some fly further up and further in, treading ever closer to the throne, able to take in more of the glory of God by virtue of their increased Christlike capacity. The remarkable reality is that because of the absence of sin, namely envy and pride, this varying degree of reward, this glory hierarchy actually works to everyone’s greatest joy in heaven. No one I’ve read articulates this mysteriously beautiful reality better than Jonathan Edwards. I commend the following meditation from his sermon on Romans 2:10, “The Portion of the Righteous” which he preached in December of 1740.

There are different degrees of happiness and glory in heaven. As there are degrees among the angels, viz. thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers; so there are degrees among the saints. In heaven are many mansions, and of different degrees of dignity. The glory of the saints above will be in some proportion to their eminency in holiness and good works here. Christ will reward all according to their works. He that gained ten pounds was made ruler over ten cities, and he that gained five pounds over five cities. Luke 19:17; 2 Cor. 9:6, “He that soweth sparingly, shall reap sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” And the apostle Paul tells us that, as one star differs from another star in glory, so also it shall be in the resurrection of the dead. 1 Cor. 15:41. Christ tells us that he who gives a cup of cold water unto a disciple in the name of a disciple, shall in no wise lose his reward. But this could not be true, if a person should have no greater reward for doing many good works than if he did but few. It will be no damp to the happiness of those who have lower degrees of happiness and glory, that there are others advanced in glory above them. For all shall be perfectly happy, every one shall be perfectly satisfied. Every vessel that is cast into this ocean of happiness is full, though there are some vessels far larger than others. And there shall be no such thing as envy in heaven, but perfect love shall reign through the whole society. Those who are not so high in glory as other, will not envy those that are higher, but they will have so great, and strong, and pure love to them, that they will rejoice in their superior happiness. Their love to them will be such that they will rejoice that they are happier than themselves; so that instead of having a damp to their own happiness, it will add to it. They will see it to be fit that they that have been most eminent in works of righteousness should be most highly exalted in glory. And they will rejoice in having that done, that is fittest to be done. There will be a perfect harmony in that society; those that are most happy will also be most holy, and all will be both perfectly holy and perfectly happy. But yet there will be different degrees of both holiness and happiness according to the measure of each one’s capacity, and therefore those that are lowest in glory will have the greatest love to those that are highest in happiness, because they will see most of the image of God in them. And having the greatest love to them, they will rejoice to see them the most happy and the highest in glory. And so, on the other hand, those that are highest in glory, as they will be the most lovely, so they will be fullest of love. As they will excel in happiness, they will proportionally excel in divine benevolence and love to others, and will have more love to God and to the saints than those that are lower in holiness and happiness. And besides, those that will excel in glory will also excel in humility. Here in this world, those that are above others are the objects of envy, because that others conceive of them as being lifted up with it. But in heaven it will not be so, but those saints in heaven who excel in happiness will also in holiness, and consequently in humility. The saints in heaven are more humble than the saints on earth, and still the higher we go among them the greater humility there is. The highest orders of saints, who know most of God, see most of the distinction between God and them, and consequently are comparatively least in their own eyes, and so are more humble. The exaltation of some in heaven above the rest will be so far from diminishing the perfect happiness and joy of the rest who are inferior, that they will be the happier for it. Such will be the union in their society that they will be partakers of each other’s happiness. Then will be fulfilled in its perfection that which is declared in 1 Cor. 12:26, “If one of the members be honoured all the members rejoice with it.”[1]

[1] Jonathan Edwards, “The Portion of the Righteous” Romans 2:10, December 1740.

we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God… (Ephesians 6:12–13).

You must conquer to eat of the tree of life (Revelation 2:7). That means you must not be cowardly, timid, or passive (Revelation 21:8). You actually have to get in the fight and fight with conviction. Consider Paul’s words to Timothy,

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience (1 Timothy 1:18–19).

And of course there is Ephesians 6:10–18, as alluded to above, makes clear  that putting on the whole armor of God is not just to cosplay in front of the mirror.

So you, saint, must enter into the warfare. But what is the way?

As usual, it proves helpful to first answer what is not the way.

Three Wrong Ways of Warfare
Entering in your own power. The first wrong way of warfare is entering in your own power. There is a version of teaching regarding spiritual warfare that casts it as a mustering up of your own power through quasi faith and new-agey spiritualism. This type of teaching is often unmoored from the anchor of the gospel or robust doctrine regarding the Holy Spirit. This type of teaching amounts to nothing more than self-help or self-improvement endeavors at best and unbiblical spiritualism that syncretizes pagan and demonic practices with watered down Christian practice at worst.

Not entering due to morbid introspection. The second wrong way of warfare is actually not entering due to a bad case of self-pity. This case typically involves the morbidly introspective individual navel gazing to the point that all they consider is their sinful depravity and not the magnanimous beauty of Jesus. This individual sits on the sideline and never enter the fight because of their own unworthiness and liability and ironically see this as a virtuous position.

Not entering due to misapplication of God’s sovereignty and misguided eschatology. One may says, “God is sovereign; therefore, I don’t need to do anything. He’ll take care of it! But this is to misapply God’s sovereignty by neglecting the revealed truth that God sovereignly uses means, namely his people, to accomplish his purposes. Another may say, “Well, things only get worse. We lose down here on earth, but God’s kingdom is not of this world. Therefore, I’m not going to waste my energy for that which will not last.” But this is a misguided eschatology because no matter how one’s specific brand of eschatology understands the trajectory of life on earth, the call to the saint remains to enter into the war, period.

In sum, at the center of each one of these wrong ways is the self. “I will fight with my own power through my own spiritualism.” Or, “I won’t fight because I’m useless.” Or, “I won’t fight because I don’t want to waste energy just to lose down here.”

Those are the wrong ways. What is the right way?

One Way of Warfare
The one way to enter the warfare is to recognize who you are in your King.

Notice, in order to recognize who you are, logically, you first have to recognize who your King is.

Consider the result of that famous showdown between David and Goliath. The Israelites pursue the enemy to victory only after being saved by and beholding who they were made to be in their King.

Or, consider Paul’s instructions to the Ephesians. He instructs the Ephesians to put on the spiritual armor only after he reminds them of who they are in Christ in perhaps the most gospel grace-packed two chapters in the Bible (Ephesians 1–2). The thrust is this: forget about entering the warfare. You will not even put on the armor if you do not know who you are in your king.

There is one way to entering the spiritual warfare all around you: Recognize who you are in your King by first recognizing who your King is.

There are three primary fronts and three primary theaters of this warfare.

Three Fronts of Warfare
Front 1: Sin. The first front of this warfare is the battle against sin. You must fight against and kill sin. Hear Paul,

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13).

Sin is a work of Satan, and your King came to destroy those works. It is not for you to go awol and continue in sin as a soldier in Christ’s army,

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8)

Your King’s mission directive on earth was to destroy the works of the devil, sin. And it continues to be part of your mission directive too. Fight and kill sin.

Front 2: Satan. The second front of this warfare is the battle against Satan. You must resist the devil and his lies. Hear Peter,

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).

The ancient dragon has come to make war on the offspring of the woman, you (Revelation 22:17). He has come to earth in his evil wrath desperately trying to take down any he can with him for he knows his time is short (Revelation 22:12). But the mortal blow has been struck. Therefore, heed James encouragement,

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7).

You are on the offensive. Resist him and his temptations and he will flee, like the Philistines. Hate him and hate evil and pursue it to death. Fight him. How? Here in James 4:7, by submitting to God and opposing Satan. Resisting is active, so actively oppose Satan. This manifests itself privately but also publicly. Consider front three.

Front 3: The Lies of Satan through His Agents. The third front of this warfare is the battle against Satan’s lies that come through his agents. Hear Paul,

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete (2 Corinthians 10:3–6; cf. 11:4, 13–16).

Without getting into the weeds of how this works out, just notice the three activities we should participate in against Satan’s lies and his human agents, false teachers, who espouse those lies. (1) Destroy their arguments against God; (2) Take their wayward thoughts captive to Christ; and (3) And punish or work justice regarding their disobedience.

The King’s warriors are warriors of the Word. This is the sword in your hand. Use it to combat the lies of Satan through his false teachers and false systems, and pursue all justice against evil doers and false teachers in biblically authorized ways. The big takeaway is this, we must be courageously active with regard to defending the truth and destroying the lies of Satan with the Word. It’s not an option.

There are three theaters in which this warfare takes place.

Three Theaters of Warfare
Here, I just note three primary theaters for this spiritual warfare.

Theater 1: The home.

Theater 2: The church.

Theater 3: The public square

Fight sin, fight Satan, and fight the lies of Satan through his agents in your home, in the church, and in the public square. The specific means of deploying the “weapons of righteousness for the right hand and left” as Paul calls them in 2 Corinthians 6:7, namely the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, will look different in each context, but it will not be idle.

Conclusion
Saint, you must engage in the spiritual warfare that rages around you. But to even begin to do this, the main point deserves resounding and it is my concluding exhortation: Recognize your King. Recognize who you are in him. Courageously enter the fight.

• In the late sixties in a best-selling book a Stanford professor predicted widespread starvation by 1980, with India highlighted as a basket case that could not be saved.
• Around the same time after a few decades of cooler-than-normal temperatures, some in the media warned of a new ice age.
• More recently the much more widespread view is that humans have caused significant and increasing global warming, which some contend will destroy the planet as we know it.
• The development of nuclear weapons in the 1940s led some scientists to create the “Doomsday Clock,” a metaphor for how close humanity is to “midnight,” when we destroy ourselves. About twenty years ago climate change issues were included in setting the clock. In these last nearly 70 years, the clock has never been set more than 17 minutes from midnight; at present it is 85 seconds from midnight. Such warnings led several high school students in our church in the early 80s to feel like they couldn’t even plan for a future, for there was not going to be one.
• Numerous politicians have claimed that if their opponent is elected, the American experiment in democracy, or the US constitution, or this republic will come to an end.

We could list many more. The development of the internet and social media, with websites’ profitability depending on generating clicks, has incentivized more and more catastrophism.

Given that this country and this planet are still around after decades of such predictions, it is tempting to dismiss all such warnings.

But that would be wrong. It is wrong from a public policy perspective, in that there are genuine issues behind most of these pronouncements. We can pay attention to the issues while ignoring the sensationalism of the loudest voices.

More importantly, to dismiss all catastrophism would be to ignore numerous biblical warnings.

As we saw in Sunday’s sermon, God warned the people of Israel and Judah for hundreds of years that failing to listen to Him would lead to the destruction of their earthly kingdoms and, indeed, of His own temple. With only a few exceptions, the kings, prophets, priests, and people ignored those warnings in Jeremiah’s day. But God did send the Babylonians to carry out His severe judgment.

Indeed, Peter warns us against ignoring predictions of the catastrophic end of the world when Jesus returns:

scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (2 Peter 3:3-7)

So the scoffers say, “The prophecy of the return of Jesus and the end of the present world is just like the speculation of a new ice age! All such predictions are just sensationalism! Ignore them all!”

But Peter points out: There have been predictions of catastrophe that came about. He cites the flood; he could have cited also the destruction of Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s day. We could add the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70AD, so clearly prophesied by Jesus in Matthew 24.

So Peter assures us:

The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. (2 Peter 3:10)

All will pass away. And, as we saw on Sunday, God will sum up everything in Jesus. He will be all in all. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And whatever reflects His glory in this world will be perfected in the one to come – including you, if you are in Him.

So use discernment as one prediction of coming catastrophe follows another. Know that most such predictions are exaggerated. Have confidence that God is in control – and, simultaneously, know that we humans do indeed have a responsibility to shepherd this world wisely.

But know most of all that the biblical prophecies of the end of the present age are not exaggerations. Jesus will return. He will put an end to all rebellion against His authority. The kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. And He will reign forever and ever.

That is, as Tolkien wrote, a “eucatastrophe” – a thorough upending of everything that leads to a much better result. That is where this world is headed. Be ready. Watch and pray. And know that that final catastrophe is the greatest good imaginable.