From Glory To Glory
In 2 Corinthians 3:18, the Apostle Paul says that as “we behold the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.” The life of every Christian is to be animated by the Holy Spirit. Just as God breathed life into Adam’s body of dust, so also Jesus breathed His Spirit into his disciples so that we can me be made alive unto God. The Spirit is the principle of motion and of change in the world, He is the one who takes us from one degree of glory to another. And our job is to keep up with Him.
One of the ways that we fall out of step with the Spirit is by clinging to our past and present glories. Perhaps you just graduated high school at the top of your class, well that is good and glorious, but that glory will fade when you get to college and are just average again. Or perhaps you were the all-star on your little league baseball team. Well that is good and glorious, but that glory will fade when the next season comes around. Who cares about last year’s trophy?
When God crowns us with glory of whatever sort: it might be the job you wanted, the spouse you longed for, the number of children or grandchildren you always envisioned, the house or health or lifestyle or reputation you aimed at, the temptation for creatures is to cling to these things or to boast in them as if their glory will never fade. But the Spirit wants to take us from one degree of glory to another. And the way He does this is through death and resurrection, through sacrifice and ascension, the Spirit bring us low before he raises us even higher.
As Jesus says in John 12:24, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” There is the glory of the kernel, the glory of the seed, the glory of the newborn babe, but there is much greater glory in the hundred-fold harvest, in the man or woman that is fully mature, made priest and king unto God. This is what the Spirit is moving us towards.
So look at your life, your past and your present, what are you proud of? What glories has God crowned you with? What gifts has He bestowed? These are the seeds He wants you to plant. And if you bury them, if you count them as loss for the sake of Christ, then you will by all means attain to the resurrection of the dead, to a harvest beyond reckoning, and to a glorious crown that will never fade.
