What is Glory? part two

Further thoughts on suffering and glory (see below):

A Bible teacher I know once said that he observed that the epistles Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, and 1 and 2 and 3rd John all have the theme of addressing Christians who were experiencing difficult times coming through sufferings and persecutions exhorting them to persevere to obtain a positive outcome.  As James 1:2-4 says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  And let perseverance have perfect work, that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing."

How does this sanctification of becoming "mature and complete," as James says, work?  The New Testament clearly states in many places that it is through and in the Spirit, and through  the Spirit of Christ and of God, whose Spirit we are connected to by our "spirit." I will show this in the following verses: One way of describing the Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, and the Spirit of Christ and of God, is God's agent at work here on earth in people to help them grow spiritually and come to know Jesus and the Father.

I've heard a well-known radio preacher say that what the letters are calling the recipients of these epistles for, is: 1 Peter,--to love; 1 John, to hope--with all the reasons that they should; and for James, to have faith, made perfect through works. . . . There are other places that talk about how the goal of our endurance of persecution is to be like Christ and the gaining of His glory. "After all, the word "Christian" means "little Christ."

For instance, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 says "But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you first for salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and faith in the truth.  And it was for this He called you through our gospel, to the gaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

2 Corinthians 1:5 says, "For just as our sufferings are to us in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ."   It is this comfort that we can share with others.  And it is these experiences that "equip" us to be "priests" to those around us.  As 1 Peter 2:9 says, we are "a royal priesthood."  To be a "kingdom of priests" (Revelation 1:6), is God's will for us, especially in the last days because priests are those who seek to comfort and counsel and meet people's needs, and have supreme comfort and reassurance from God, just as priests in the Old Testament did not have land allotted to them but rather were told that they had God as their inheritance.  And it is God's will that people know Him as the One who meets their needs and who doesn't abandon them, because this is who He really is. . . .

Romans chapter 8, (one of my all-time favorite chapters) says, starting in verse 2, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, wherein it was weak through the flesh, God: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the thing of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace."  So the main point of Romans 8 is that since we have the "Spirit" we don't have to give in to sin, but can live and "rise above" it. It is also important that we not only have the Spirit, but that the "Spirit has us,"  (quoted from a Charles Ringma Reader, Regent College Publishing--Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Jacques Ellul, not sure which) meaning we are responsive to His leading and obedient to how He leads us.   As Ephesians 4:22 says, "That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lie aside the old man/woman, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man/woman which according to God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.  An excellent book that talks about the Holy Spirit and all of His functions and ministries is Flying Closer to the Flame by Charles Swindoll.  It was this book being taught that helped me "come back to God" after a time of straying.

I'll end with this: being full of grace and truth is what believers need to work toward in becoming like Christ.  As Ephesians 4:15 says, "But holding to (or walking in) the truth in love, we may grow up into Him, who is the head, Christ."  This is the new man/woman we are able to attain to in this life, through God's grace and unity of other believers, as it talks of the "whole building (Ephesians 2:21-22), [is] being fitted together, and growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit."--to be Christ's and having the characteristics of Christ. . . . As Colossians 1:27, speaking of believers, continually called in the New Testament--saints--says "to [the saints] God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles [non-Jews], which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

What is Glory?

What is True Glory?


Such a variety of creatures,

You've made in this world,

We celebrate all You have made,

How You share Your glory--

You've made it for us to protect and praise.


What a wonder is the earth!

The earth You put together--

Wondrous in all Your ways,
 
We give You thanks for all You've made.


There is a glory of nature, a beauty that is undeniable.

"Looking down from the Falls"

There is glory of rebirth, which the seasons teach us about.  There is a sense of returning to the eternal in fall, with the harvest and the changing of colors.  This has been my favorite season, typically, because things die before being reborn again.  As Jesus said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit"(John 12:24). 
So there is the glory of what was lost being found, of what was damaged being restored.  The church father St. Augustine said that is the best kind of story in his book "Confessions."

I read in Charles Ringma's reader "Resist the Powers with Jacques Ellul" that the good is always a gift and sometimes fragile victories are enough to give thanks for, considering what could have been the case.  In the Greek, the word for glory is "DOXA," which means what is very apparent, and is always good in the New Testament (Zondervan New American Standard Bible Exhaustive Concordance, copyright 1940, Fleming H. Revell and Co) ... and comes from the word, meaning, "to seem" in other words, it is reality that shows and is undeniable.  Technically speaking, everything living has glory, if you define glory as "greatness" or "definition." But there are degrees of glory. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 talks about the glory of the Old Covenant (the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai), and how the Israelites couldn't bear to look "intently" at Moses after he came down the mountain because of his glory.

As it says, starting in verse 7, "But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came in glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading it was, how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?  For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory."  And this is what God does, as it says in Hebrews 8 (quoted from Jeremiah 31), "After those days, 'declares the LORD,' I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts.  And I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

This is what the apostle Paul gave his life to. . . .  It says in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 18: "But we all, with unveiled face beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." 

C. S. Lewis wrote in his essay "The Weight of Glory," that we are all immortal creatures.  Thus everyone we live, work, or rub shoulders with is someone with a unique destiny and gifts (paraphrase of Lewis).  Thus we cannot pass over anyone out of disregard because they are just as important as us.  1 Peter 4:10 says "As each one has received a gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." A pastor of mine once said that this is a unique way of showing God's glory: everyone has something to contribute, to share, and as we give through God to others, we see God's varied glory among His people.  Thus, everyone's "glory" is something we need to appreciate, and thus it also gives impetus to witnessing, for, as it says below, God is "bringing many sons to glory,"--and in all manners obeying the mission Jesus started and passed on to His disciples, because, as He showed, "everybody matters."

And the good news is that God desires a relationship with us.  He speaks to us in ways that are rational.

John 1:14 says "the Word [Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among [the disciples], and [they] beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." So this is a glory that was especially known by those close to Him.

This is the glory of God, which if we believe His righteous works, we know Him and have a correct opinion of Who He is, and thus see His glory.  And that is what Jesus continually said the Father wanted throughout the book of John, so that "believing we may have life in His name"(John 20:31).

There is the glory of believing and persevering.

So I want my life to glorify God.  How about you?  

Romans 2:6 "[God] will render to each one according to his/her deeds: eternal life to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor, and immortality . . ."  This is what the theological term "sanctification" means.  It means becoming more and more holy and conformed to the image of Christ, which is always God's goal in bringing us through hard times.  This is what it says in Hebrews 12:7, "It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?" And as it says in 1 Peter 4:12 "Beloved, don't be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation."  This is how God and life work, just like a tree grows less distance but-stronger during the winds of winter, it says in Hebrews 2:10, "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings" (italics mine).

Some good words to meditate on.

It also says in Romans 2:10, "[There will be] glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good."  This is a general law.

"Awake sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." (Ephesians 5:14)