Ever Increasing Glory

2 Corinthians 3:18 " And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

Isn't it great that God accepts us the way we are, cleans us in the blood of Jesus, tells us we are a new creation, and then lets us know he wants to keep changing us into the likeness of His Son?

The verse above describes being transformed into his likeness, with ever-increasing glory. Other translations use the phrase "changed from one degree of glory to another." But wait. Don't we believe that whatever we do in this life as a Christian is done to bring all the glory to God?  We do, or at least we should. But now we have verses from the Bible telling us as God changes us, it is done in phases as we become transformed into the likeness of Jesus with ever-increasing glory.  That's what the Paul was talking about when he said we "reflect the Lord's glory."

To help understand we look back to the Old Testament book of Haggai where there is another usage of this idea of "increasing glory."  The prophet of God is instructed to speak to the leaders, the high priests, and to the remainder of the people and ask , "Who among you is left that saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now?" Later, the prophet's message from God is that God is going to shake things up a bit and make the heavens, the earth, the sea and the dry lands tremble.   God says, "I will shake all nations and the desire and the precious things of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with splendor."  Do we see the prophetic message of the coming Lord, or some prophecy about the church?

Let's make an application from our perspective. Do you think God received the glory of another addition to his spiritual family when you were born again? Sure he did. And while we may stumble and make mistakes and commit sins in our lives, we Christians still bring glory to the Father when we grow to overcome the stumbling blocks of Satan.  From the biblical sense, especially our knowledge of God's plan spoken through Haggai, as the process of being changed from one degree of glory to another is experienced, we take another step toward the likeness of Jesus. 

However we interpret those verses, the truth is the same. God is not one to leave us where we are, even after we become Christians. He desires for us to grow and mature in Christ until the glory we reflect is just like that of Jesus.  And according to the reference from the book of Haggai, each future glory will surpass the previous glory.

Satan tells us we are not worth saving. He wants us to believe that God gave up on us years ago. These feelings are the devil's tools to slow us down and keep us focused on our worthlessness. The truth of the matter is that God loves us, and through the cross gives us the privilege of redemption. His grace that brought us to this point continues with us as we mature in ever increasing glory and become transformed into the likeness of Christ.  Praise God for the person we can become through our commitment to Him. 

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