THE NATURE OF SPIRITUAL LIFE -- Tomorrow:
"But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor 3:15-18, KJV)
Devotion 29 of 33
" . . . changed . . . from glory to glory . . . "
Other versions read, "with ever increasing glory" (NIV), "from one degree of glory to another" (NRSV), "with ever-increasing glory" (NIB), "brighter and brighter glory" (NJB), "We become more and more like Him" (NLT), "with one glory after another" (IE), "from one degree of radiant holiness to another" (WEYMOUTH), and "from one degree of splendor to another" (WILLIAMS).
The "change" of reference is not an instantaneous and total one! It begins instantly, but it is consummated gradually – "from glory to glory." This gradation is not like something that simply grows bigger and bigger – like a balloon that is being filled with air. This is an increase like the rising of the sun that grows brighter and brighter. It is an increase in which the Lord becomes more and more prominent in our character and its expressions. It is increase as in maturity – moving forward to an appointed objective and fulfillment.
Each successive "degree of glory" complements and prepares the way for the next. There is no degree that is at a variance with another. Nor, indeed, is there a stage that can be eliminated, like taking a sort of spiritual shortcut. The larvae cannot simply sidestep the cocoon, sprout wings, and fly away. The tadpole cannot simply be moved to a water lily and suddenly become a frog, instantly spouting feet and a long tongue. Nor, indeed, have specialists in nature been appointed to wave a wand over the larvae like Moses held his rod over the sea, suddenly changing it into a butterfly.
This is a change than does not come by human intervention. There are not members of the body of Christ that have been gifted to work transformation. This is something that requires the attention of the one being "changed," and the activity of the only One who can bring genuine, lasting, and increasingly better change.
Here is the mode of the kingdom: "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear" (Mark 4:28). That is being moved from one stage of glory to another! Peter states it in yet another way, "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you" (1 Pet 5:10). That is moving from one stage of glory to another.
Yet another way of depicting this "change" is found in a personal acquaintance with the Lord: "increasing in the knowledge of God" (Col 1:10). Stated another way it is fulfilling the admonition, "walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more" (1 Thess 4:1). The Philippians were told much the same thing: "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment" (Phil 1:9).
Where salvation is genuine, and is not neglected, the change of reference takes place. There is a progressive change form one degree of glory to another – a change in which the individual is conformed to the image of God's Son, becoming more and more like Jesus. Where this change is not taking place, either salvation was never experienced in the first place, or it has been neglected.
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank You for the appointed progression in the change initiated by regeneration.