“Glimmerings of Glory”

Introduction

The timeless, spaceless God thinks and perceives in far different terms than His creatures, the best and brightest of which know nearly nothing of that which can be known. “His understanding is infinite… If any man think he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know” (Psalm 147:5; I Corinthians 8:2). How an all-knowing God relates to little knowing creatures such as ourselves boggles the mind. Why He defers to do so humbles the heart. More importantly, it reveals the humility of His heart. We seemingly have nothing to offer Him of either intellectual or emotional content. Our relationship with the Lord meets no need in His all-sufficient being. Our prayers cannot inform One who possesses infinite understanding. We can do nothing for Him in the normal sense of reciprocal relationship. Why then does He find interest in us?

I can think of only one answer that, to my mind, begins to offer insight into the enigma.

“God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father” (Galatians 4:6).

God created human beings to serve as the dwelling place of His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When we believe and His Spirit indwells us, our own spirits leap to life – “to live is Christ” – and the process of actualizing our humanity for its originally intended purpose begins – we “live through Him” (Philippians 1:21; I John 4:9). Thus, God the Father experiences His Son as revealed through many sons and daughters, each with their own peculiar and particular facets through which the light of Christ shines forth. “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord… But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (Proverbs 20:27; John 1:12).

The Lord Jesus forever occupies His unique place with God the Father as God the Son, and as “the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Our role as beautifully distinct rays of Christ’s light nevertheless offers to the Father ways of lovingly relating to His Son that never existed until He enacted His creative and redemptive processes in Christ and in humanity. I find this a sublime consideration, that in you and in me something of the Lord Jesus formed in us by the Holy Spirit presents itself to God in a way that is both Him and ourselves. He is the Light and we are the lamp, the personally and individually formed (by God) vessels that present His Son’s illumination in glories heretofore unseen because they are Christ as revealed in and through us.

Such wondrous truth changes everything in our lives. All things become the holy means by which Christ lives in us, we live by Him, and God the Father is blessed by the union of His Son with His sons and daughters. Indeed, every believer bears the potential of absorbing and radiating our Savior’s light in glimmerings of glory unlike any other facet of the jewel that is the body of Christ. Knowing this truth motivates us to grow in our relationship with the Savior in order to discover the countless ways He seeks to shine forth from us unto the Father, and to our particular sphere of influence. Our reason for being is thus vital beyond all imagining, promising that this and every day can be filled by Light within, and fulfilled by Light shining forth from us radiating the beauty of Christ.

“Jesus spake again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12) “Ye are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14)

Monday, Part 2: “Not I, But Christ” – Galatians 2:20