Do you have your eyes on what is happening internally? Do you know that in all of the circumstances of life, all of the things you go through, God is renewing you inwardly? He is building within you a new character. He is building a new life, one that is going to exist for all eternity in His presence. That is why all this is so important. If you and I were just creatures of today, that is, if our life began at birth and ended at death, as the world thinks of it, then thinking about the future is just absurd. As Paul had expressed it in 1 Corinthians 15, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (v. 32). But if we are eternal creatures, and are going to live forever in one state or another, then what is happening to us now makes all the difference in the world. We are being renewed day by day, and then comes our resurrection.
You might say, “Well, that’s all very good for the apostle Paul, but I must admit that there are times when I do lose heart. I am certainly perplexed. I’m certainly struck and knocked down. And it’s hard when I’m lying there on the canvas not to be discouraged.” Well, Paul has one last thought which I think in some ways is the most glorious of all. He says in verse 18, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
In Greek there are different words for the idea of looking. The one that Paul uses here denotes a fixing one’s eyes upon something, such that one is so concerned about that particular thing that you do not want it to get out of your sight. The way we get through the struggles of this world is because we fix our eyes not on the things that are seen, which are threatening but which pass away, but on those spiritual realities which are unseen. Isn’t it interesting? We are to fix our eyes on what we cannot see, but which are truly more real and lasting than what we can observe.
Can you see how the Holy Spirit moves to regenerate a person? No, you cannot see that. In John 3 Jesus likened that divine activity to the wind. You cannot see the wind, but you can certainly see its effects. Paul says to fix your eyes on that. Can you see how an individual man or woman is being transformed daily, made increasingly into the image of Jesus Christ? No, you cannot see that. You cannot even know what is going on inside them except to the extent that they tell you. But Paul says to fix your eyes on that. Focus on what God is doing in you and in those around you, and do not lose heart.
I think of that great picture that John Bunyan creates of Christian on the way to the Celestial City, where he has to walk down a path where he is threatened on both sides by angry animals, ferocious beasts chained on either side. Up ahead, there is the guardian of the gate. This guardian holds up his torch and says, “Walk toward it.” Fixing his eyes upon the torch, Christian walks straight down the path, even though the animals are clawing at the air to the right hand and the left.
The world is filled with ferocious men and women who would tear the servants of Jesus Christ apart. But Jesus holds the light of the Gospel before us. He tells us to fix our eyes on that and live for Him. And if you do that, you will not regret it. The world will say, “Oh, what fools they were to throw away all the things they could have obtained.” But they do not understand that we fix our eyes upon what is eternal because we are creatures of eternity by the grace of God. That is what we want and press toward, because that is the greatest thing in all the world.
