Al Ngu    October 16, 2023

Ever since I read the verse seek after glory, honor, and immortality offered by God, it suddenly struck me that we are not just seeking after eternal life in our journey on this earth, and serve God only.

Roman 2 ⁶ God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”^[a] 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

But the context of serving God is so much more enunciated and emphasized in a stronger and telos way or purposeful way when you incorporate this verse. The idea is to not just to seek God for your own problem-solving, live direction, or any challenges and tribulations that you and I may face in this world, and there are plenty of them. But just to know that we don’t exist in this world only but we live in this world for a purpose and we all know that purpose is to serve God and walk with God, to love God and enjoy God and eternal life.

But the glory of serving God, and seeking God in this world is something that that needs to be really inculcated into our minds, our children and ourselves and grandchildren and everyone. Because glory and honor must go with immortality. It is very interesting that Paul uses the word immortality because there’s always written as eternal life, but in this time around, he calls it “immortality”! Which is also more in sync with a scientific language.

What does it mean to seek out the glory, honor on top of immortality? To meet to seek out the glory and honor means you live in an honorable life, but not just in a passive way, but in actively pursuing the goal of God, the call of God for our lives. How can you reach the glory and honor that God gives to us without knowing there is such calling of God for such? And its not just eternal life, going to heaven, but while on earth God desires and requires us to be actively seeking glory and honor and immortality.

I remember in The Patriot movie, Mel Gibson was the main actor for the war between England and America, in which British soldiers got every person in that small town into a church, mothers, children and man, and they locked the door. Then the commander gave the command to burn the church down with the people trapped in there. In response,  there’s a line that one of the British soldiers questioned the command saying, “Why burn down the women and the children in there? There’s no glory in it.”  That line stuck with me for the longest time. Even unbelievers in Christ and their savagery mindset senses the meaning of glory. Do you know why? Because it is a very in-bred DNA, and that God has ingrained into our being when He created us in his image. I know that that image has been considerably depraved and lost because of the fall of the original man Adam, however, we still retain certain amount of that image of God. And also by the common grace, not the special grace, many today whether believers in Christ or not have what is called ‘conscience’ in this world and that is by the common grace, or the original DNA of God. And that’s why there’s such words like when a man, behaves such cruelty, he’s like a beast animal, therefore it is our inbred calling to seek glory and honor. ‘Honor’, I will consider to be at the lower level compared to ‘glory’. Honor is doing things to be honorable to be commendable, to be praise worthy. But seeking glory, there’s a level of this as the highest I will consider, that is, the highest level one can reach between humans and God. Because that glory is totally reserved for God and he shares that glory with us. Because Jesus said “I have glorified you just as my Father is glorified me.”

Romans 8:30

³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

And if I pull right in his epistle that we are in the process of being sanctified and glorified!

My main thesis for this chapter is that we must not live for eternal life in this world only. We must live for glory and honor and eternal life or immortality. That’s the whole package deal. You can’t just go for, eternal life but neglect, glory and honor. And that’s why we cannot just be a Christian just preparing to go to heaven one day. Wow well enjoy the prosperity and the blessings of God in this world as much as possible without any sacrifice without any pursuit of the call of God. Now, to seek out the glory and honor is literally seeking after the calling of God and moving to it, and serving God in your utmost ability as the Holy Spirit empowered you for his calling in your life. Just like Paul say, “I worked harder than all the other apostles, but it’s not me, but it’s the grace of God inside me working through me.” (1 Cor 15:10)  He sought glory, honor and immortality beyond all we can imagine. That’s a high call, and a high bar.

If Christ gives you that desire to seek out the glory and honor , it must come through in your life in your walk with God in this world before you meet him in the eternal life he offered and promised.