The Trivial Cost of an Eternal Weight of Glory

Over and over again, the Bible presents salvation as a free gift.  In fact, Paul specifically calls it a free gift in Romans 6:23. Then, in Ephesians 2:8-9, he unambiguously characterizes salvation as a gift from God that is not dependent upon anything we can do or give back. Paul is quite clear that there is no earning of our salvation in any way! But that doesn’t mean that salvation comes without a cost. Obviously, it cost Jesus the price of public rejection, torture and death.  And it will cost you something as well. Whenever Jesus saves us, he does so by turning us into a new creation – a creation that is at odds with the world (2 Corinthians 5:17). Once saved, you will at some point become so at odds with the world that it can possess a violent hatred toward you (Matthew 5:10-11, Matthew 24:9). While you can neither earn salvation nor pay for it, it will eventually result in the crucifixion of your evil, pre-salvation life, and that life will be replaced with a life of righteousness that an evil world abhors. So, in a sense, salvation costs you your life. This is a blessing. 

This process is evident in the gospelized life of Paul. Prior to his salvation, Paul enjoyed a high status when he was still mired in the spiritual muck of the Jewish intellectuals with whom he once rubbed elbows. But notice his encounter in Acts 18 with the Jews at Corinth.  As was the pattern of Paul, he reasoned with them in their synagogue, using scriptural logic and sound thinking to show that Jesus was the Christ (Acts 18:5-6). They did not listen to his new found wisdom, but opposed him and reviled him. It wasn’t that they just disagreed with his position, they insulted him, mocked him, and verbally abused him for it.  He had no status like the one he had before his salvation.  They did not hate Paul because he was Paul.  They hated Paul because of his new alignment with Jesus. Their insulting of him was a kind of blasphemy against the truth of Christ.

Following Christ and doing his will cost Paul status, popularity, social advancement, and the frustration of seeing fellow human beings reject the greatest free gift they could ever receive. But Paul never backed down from living that new life.  He had been utterly changed from who he was before. He knew that what God offered him was far greater than any pain or discomfort he was feeling in his new life. He later famously writes to the Corinthians describing the gospel life as one of “light and momentary afflictions” which are preparing “an eternal weight of glory,” that is beyond all comparison (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).  

If you are a follower of Christ, what was left behind in your old life? In what ways have you changed? With what do you struggle in your new life? How can you remind yourself that your current afflictions are preparing an eternal weight of glory?