Deeper Life #11

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

—Ephesians 1:18

SAINTLINESS IS NOT BUILT ON admiration for Jesus Christ. It is not simply a reflected glory due to one’s nearness to our blessed Lord. It is not refined sensitivity or a subtle religious genius. The stately beauty of a saint is not a reformed edition of carnality.

A saint is the work of our Master Workman, the Lord Jesus Christ. The saint is one who—on this good old mother earth, amid the sordid and sacred days of time—has the glory of the Lord.

Saintliness is the product of Calvary and Pentecost where our Lord

Jesus Christ dug our souls,

From central gloom,

And heated hot with burning fears,

And dipped in baths of hissing tears,

And battered by the shocks of doom,

To shape and use.

The saint is one who loves the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength and loves his neighbor as himself (Mark 12:30–31). Saints tread this earth with human feet while creation “groaneth and travaileth in pain,” waiting for full redemption (Romans 8:22).

If this life is so glorious now, what will it be when our Lord returns?

Prayer Thought: Many times, Lord, I sense my need of more of You, so that I may better understand how to be a true saint of God.

SUGGESTED READING: ¹⁵Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, ¹⁶Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; ¹⁷That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: ¹⁸The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, ²⁰Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: ²²And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, ²³Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

—Ephesians 1:15–23