Weight of Glory

(In response to C.S. Lewis article titled "The Weight of Glory")
In my philosophy class we've been reading an article by Russell Bertrum titled "Why I'm not a Christian." In it he states that one of the reasons he is not a Christian is because he doesn't believe that there is a hell. This popped into my head when I was reading Weight of Glory. On the first page Lewis says that "marriage is the proper reward for love." It got me thinking, God already loves us, and when we love we we are rewarded with a marriage to him. Reformed Doctrine says that baptism is the courtship and public profession of faith is the wedding ceremony. Heaven therefore would be a realization of this relationship. In the same way we are rewarded with marriage out of love, the lack thereof for Christ produces the opposite reward, hell.

I felt that Lewis's analogy of the schoolboy was again right on point. He goes on to elaborate on the topic of the schoolboy relishing in English poets before he comes to the realization of his love for Greek poetry. I believe this would perfectly describe the Christian walk, not only of one from atheist to Christ, but of a Christian born into faith. We as humans has been created un-whole, with a void to fill. There is only one thing that will fill that void, and no matter what we try nothing can substitute for a personal relationships with Jesus Christ. Even then we will still find ourselves struggling in this foreign world waiting for our trip to our eternal resting place. Lewis describes the irony of those trying to convince us that earth is our final destination. They try to convince us falsely how we can make heaven on earth.

"The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God...to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son--it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is."

Lewis makes some excellent points in this quotation from page 6 of the article. The words that I bold-ed are words/phrases that really stuck out in my mind as I was reading the excerpt. It seems impossible that us in our infinite sinful nature can please God. That God will not merely feel sorry for us. No, rather he will delight in us as an artist delights in his work. This seems something incomprehensible but this is a reality.

Lewis goes on to describe many different interpretations and explanations of glory. We all know what glory is, and when spoken in a humanistic sense has a negative connotation. However, we seem to be confused by this word when we use it in reference to God, because in that sense it cannot have a negative connotation. Image a being perfectly humble yet is worshiped by millions, one who can do anything he wants, yet does good. Our God is glorious in every sense of the word.

Finally, I realize sometimes it's kind of hard to comment on other people's posts, let me pose a question from the piece to elicit conversation. "Perhaps it seems rather crude to describe glory as the fact of being 'noticed' by God." What are your thoughts on this statement?