The Weight of Glory (7) Finally, It’s Just Above and Beyond

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison”  2 Corinthians 4:17

Far beyond all comparison – Well, it actually doesn’t say this.  Here we have a Greek idiom.  So, the translators have given us the thought behind the words, not the words themselves.  Literally, it says, “surpassing by surpassing”.  The word is hyperbole.  We have the English derivative meaning “exaggeration”.  The imagery is more explicit.  This word is a picture of casting (ballo) beyond (hyper).  Think of the Olympic shot put competition.  No matter how far you can throw that sixteen-pound ball, God can throw it above and beyond.  God can throw it right out of sight.  The weight of glory is so far beyond anything we can ever imagine that Paul has to use hyperbole twice.  It is “above and beyond and again, above and beyond.”  It’s twice as much as your imagination can conceive.

Did you think you had some inkling about heaven?  Is your imagination about His presence stretched to the limit?  Well, it’s not enough.  It will never be enough.  Human minds cannot conceive what God has in store for those who love Him.  All we can do is throw one surpassing word after another.

What has happened to our myopia about today’s difficulties?  Have we experienced metamorphosis?

Have we moved from those burdens to hard to bear to the easy load yoked with Jesus?  Have we reset our clocks from this-world time to eternal daylight savings?  Have we put an exclamation point behind the compound interest of heavenly investing?  Have we felt the unbearable lightness of His being?  Are we ready to throw one word of splendor after another?

Every word in the Bible, every single word right down to the prepositions, lets God display His wonder in our language.  He comes clothed in human speech.  The words of my life become the windows for His arrival.

Come, Lord Jesus.  Come.