If I am seated with Christ,  I am accepted. He has granted me a position with Him. Therefore, I no longer need to compare myself with others. The fair and sovereign Lord has granted me my portion. And this is my portion: a degree of intimacy, a weight of glory, and a realm of authority.

Degree of Intimacy

To the degree I have obeyed His commands, to that degree shall I correspondingly inherit intimate friendship with Jesus, for just as I have known Him by His Spirit here in the context of following Him wholeheartedly, I shall correspondingly know Him face to face. He shall confide in me as I have confided in Him. He shall gird himself up to serve me as I have served Him. In this mutuality we shall be one with one another as He is one with the Father, that God might be all in all.

Weight of Glory

To the degree I have suffered wrongs and overlooked offenses (I need not look for them, for that shall come unbidden); to the degree I have forgiven my enemies as well as the friends who have wounded me; to the degree that I have picked up my cross [those logical and loving limitations the Lord lays on me] and followed Him as an obedient bondservant; to that degree shall I also share in the glories that are the justice of God for such sufferings. And this is not an austere glory. This is not an adornment only. This is the very heart of God, where the Lamb, standing as if slain, reveals His self-giving love through the scars He still bears. It is beauty in its purest form. It is a pleasure that does not extract and empty, but a pleasure that heals and strengthens.

Realm of Authority

To the degree I have faithfully carried out what He entrusted to me on earth, to that degree–and ten times more in His generosity–shall He entrust me with the stewardship of purposes, powers, possessions, and projects too vast and glorious for human language to tell: the Creator and the created co-laboring in an ever-expanding Garden City where the Father walks with his sons and daughters in the cool of the day.

All this is by grace, from the one who loved us first, and who is also the First and the Last, the living One. It is Christ in us, the hope of glory, who brings all this to pass through us. He is the beloved inspiring our love.

~ km

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