The Glory of Jesus the Christ

1 Corinthians 1:26-31.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Resurrection Sunday, April 5, 2026.

Today we are going to contrast the glory of this world with the glory of Jesus who is the Christ.  You may or may not have anything glorious about you, at least by the world’s standards.  What you are currently doing may never be praised by other people.  But God sees our life like a Father watching over a child.  He helps as needed but also wants us to choose and grow to be like Him.

The glory of this world hits us at a very young age.  Who are the smart kids in class?  Who are the strong kids or the beautiful kids?  Most of us are somewhere in the middle of that experience.  You could say that nothing about us stood out from the rest.

The word glory (as a verb glorying) is synonymous with the idea of a boast or boasting.  At its root, there is the idea of something either worthy of praise or something that is simply praised by people.  Thus, to obtain glory in this world is to obtain something that is praise-worthy by the world’s standard.  A person who glories in their own accomplishment is praising themselves.

Paul challenges us not to boast in ourselves but to boast in the Lord Jesus.  Of course, God is not against our gifts and achievements per se.  He is the God who made muscles, but He did not make them for a muscle-bound man to praise himself and use those muscles only for selfish ends.

I said earlier that most of us are probably average.  However, we are quite innovative when it comes to this area of boasting.  Glory has a sphere to it: global, national, regional, local, my family, etc.  This area can be fraught with a driven pursuit that feeds upon that glory which is not healthy.

When people have a lot of glorious things in their life, it is hard for them to see the glory of Jesus and believe in him.  We might even see that it is impossible with a man, but all things are possible for God.  The problem for a rich man is not that he is rich.  His problem is that he boasts in himself and sees the riches as proof of how great he is.  He will idolize those riches to the exclusion of a relationship with God.

The glory of Rome and empires

Rome represents the glory of this world that is in ignorance of God’s Word.  They were an empire that ruled over a large region of the world.  They were able to project their power long distances from Rome, their capital city.  The Romans may have run into some Jews, but in the end, they did not know God.  They did not know His Word.  This ignorance was due to the rebellion of their (and our) ancestors at the Tower of Babel. 

Those first generations were in rebellion to the truth and knew it.  They purposefully rejected God and so were rejected by Him.  Of course, another generation grows up that begins to listen to justifications by their rebellious fathers.  This continues until a generation arises that is not even aware of the earlier rebellion.  They become ignorant that there was a time in which their ancestors lived and believed differently.  There is also a spiritual dynamic to this justification.  Many false religions have their roots in deceiving spirits that lead men into error and into permission-systems that give them power over whole societies.

In seeking a way different from God’s command, they followed the same path of Adam and Eve.  They (we) listened to the serpent’s lie and follow a path of false hopes and false glory, a glory that ignores and is ignorant of God.

Such a path is precarious.  The Romans were not always the empire.  Before them, there was the Greeks, and the Persians, and the Babylonians, and the Assyrians, etc.  All nations lust after this kind of glory, the glory of dominating others and being the head of the nations. 

The glory of Israel

In some ways, Israel was no different, but it was not as far down the path that the nations had gone down.  God had kept a remnant among them, and His Word was still prevalent if not followed.  Israel represents a glory that arrogates and twists God’s Word to itself.  Thus, many gave lip service to God’s glory, but in the end, they were only concerned with their own glory.

God’s work among Israel was glorious.  Somewhere along the line, the glory of God became mixed up with their own glory.  To arrogate is to presumptuously appropriate to oneself without right or authority.  This is a subtle rebellion that masks itself under a thin veneer of righteousness.  The religious leaders as a whole had twisted the system to their purpose and their glory.  This essentially ignored God’s Word while continuing a sick insistence that they were adhering to God’s Word faithfully. 

The glorious construction of temples and palaces within the people of God was not wrong.  God had told them to build the temple and make it glorious.  However, this was to point to God’s glory.  Even boasting in a temple is beneath our calling.  We can glory in all the wrong things about what God is doing in us, missing the purpose for which He gives the gifts that He does.

Idolatry and the altar of self

This is what Paul is talking about in this passage.  Christians were not generally from the great of Rome or Israel.  Yet, God had chosen them, the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

When our glory is self-seeking, it becomes an idol, idolatry.  Few people obtain the heights of worldly glory.  However, everyone glories in something.  It is because we were made by a glorious God in order to dwell within His glory.  We were made to be in relationship with the ultimate glory, God Himself.  When we cast off God, the glory within in us is simply a mark of His purpose.  Detached from God, this kind of glory is destined to fade and decay, like a corpse without a spirit.

There are pitfalls to glory that Christians must learn to navigate.  It is a mistake to glory in lesser things to the exclusion of the greater.  It is a worse mistake to glory in shameful things.  The only antidote to such pitfalls is to remain in humble relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ.  Another pitfall is to be corrupted by personal glory, thinking that we are its source.  Such vainglory causes people to be entitled, over-protective, immoral, and arrogant.

God’s Word warns against all of these things and shows us that all humanity is in a slavery and a bondage to sin.  We are unable to break free from its tyrannical hold and step into the purpose for which God made us, at least without Jesus.  This brings us to the glory of Jesus the Christ.

The Glory of Jesus the Christ

The glory of Jesus is that he is the only human who perfectly lived in connection to the Glory of God the Father.  He perfectly lived out the purpose of God.  What was that purpose?  It was to restore humanity to its intended place at God the Father’s side.  It is to be His image-bearers, imaging His purpose on the earth through our lives.

Does this mean that Jesus has failed?  Jesus has not failed.  He has and is accomplishing all that the Father desires.

Paul ends this passage (vs. 31) by quoting Jeremiah 9:23-26.  “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.  It pictures a person who understands and knows God the Father.  The knowing here is not a knowing of information.  It is a knowing of experiencing life with another.  Jesus is the only one who truly understood and knew God.  He heard the words of the Father and lived them out, speaking them exactly.  He never gave up believing in the will of the Father, even when it lead to a cross.

In Jeremiah, we are told that such a person discovers some things about God.  He is full of faithful, covenant-keeping love.  His judgments are all just and true, dependable.  Finally, His dealings are all right and good with everyone.  Jesus taught us to trust the Father no matter what.

Such a person also delights in the purpose of the Father.  Jesus delighted in God’s purpose to redeem humanity.  He delighted in the covenant-keeping love of God, not just for himself, but he imaged that love to the world around him.  He delighted in the just and true judgments of God but also imaged such to the world.  He delighted in righteous dealings with all.

It may be strange to think of Jesus delighting in going to the cross.  The Father did not so much delight in the cross as He delighted in what the cross would make possible.  And so Jesus delighted in the joy that was on the other side of the cross, not avoiding it, but going through it.

We can shrink back from difficult paths that God sets before us.  However, such difficult paths only enhance the glory of God and our knowledge of Him.  It is often the price of intimacy.

Jesus laid down his life as a sacrifice to pay the price for our sins.  He did so to make it possible that we could be forgiven and restored to the place intended for us at the Father’s right hand.

Let’s end with contrasting the glory of the cross with the glory of the resurrection.  The resurrection is a glorious and overcoming glory.  It is shocking in its power against an enemy that appears to be invincible (death).  It is similar to the glory of God to bring forth all of creation by His Word.  A part of us wants God to simply speak a word and fix everything.  This would be a fix that doesn’t require me (you) to change.  God will change us, but it cannot happen without death.

The glory of the cross is that Jesus sacrificed his mortal life to save us.  He is not throwing his life away because it is worthless.  Rather, he is laying down something of supreme value.  He was using it for the Father’s good purpose, to redeem humanity, you and me.

Jesus did not cling to the lesser glories that he could accomplish in his mortal flesh.  He did embrace the greater glory of one who knows the Father and trusts Him.  On the other side of laying down the false glories and the lesser glories of this world is the resurrection glories of Christ.

May we go forth and live for the glory of Jesus the Christ alone.  May we understand these two poles of the glory of God.  The glory of the cross involves pain and isn’t desirable in our flesh, but it leads to the glory of resurrection which involves great joy!

Glory of Jesus audio