The glory

The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the Face of Christ Jesus.

That's what God says He reveals to us (2Corinthians 4:6).

I love cultures. Paul, too. In his concise statement, he includes all the cultures of his day. He starts with light, as we saw in this post. He continues with knowledge. He ends with the glory of God.

The Glory of God, because that’s the reason God created us: to glorify and enjoy Him forever. It’s the very public secret of the Gospel that has been shouted from rooftops for 2,000 years, but that each one of us needs to embrace for ourselves. Our quest today.

Paul ends with glory, which was the quest of the Romans. That’s why they built Rome, and the Coliseum, and all their statues. That’s why their Caesars were enshrined as gods. Insignificance was the greatest of evils; to be forgotten, the greatest of failures. Our culture today echoes the Greco-Roman premium placed on knowledge and glory. We are their descendants, even as we seek status in our faltering fame from Facebook followers.

Where do you find light and knowledge and glory, says Paul? He names the goal of all these quests, regardless of culture: the Face of Christ Jesus. Through it all—light, knowledge and glory—Paul states that Jesus transcends cultures. It means Jesus is your quest today too.

The Face of Jesus. The Face of Christ is both the path and the destination of our quest. Jesus is the light and the knowledge and the glory of God. Nothing matters more than growing in our knowledge and understanding of Christ.