Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
2 Corinthians 3:7-11
Have you ever wondered to yourself, where is the miraculous? You read about it in the scriptures, but you haven’t seen any evidence that God still works in those ways. The text above sent me into a crisis of faith in my early twenties. As I read the passage, I knew that I craved to see the glory it spoke of. The text didn’t just promise glory; it promised that there would be “much more” glory. I had never seen glowing faces or thunderous lightning like in the days of Moses, and I felt like something must be wrong with me or with my faith tradition. Is that what is going on here?
As I wrestled and prayed about these thoughts of confusion and doubt, I believe God opened my eyes to the “much more glory” I was blind to. My pastor extended an invitation to salvation on a Sunday morning during this season of doubt. He did this occasionally, but that day he didn’t simply invite a raised hand in a room of bowed heads; he asked people to come to the front of the sanctuary. I then watched four or five people come to the front of the room for prayer. Three or four people were middle-aged men who to me looked to be successful. I remember seeing them in their nice suits walking up front. They looked clean-cut and put together, and I remember thinking, this is the “much more glory” of God.
The context of the passage we have read tells us something about what glory looks like in God’s mind. The text says glory is when the word of God is written on the heart rather than on stone. Glory is when the spirit of God changes a life, not just when a face glows. Glory is when a human is humbled by the goodness of God and gives their entire life up to follow Jesus from the heart. Glory is shown in a man who is told to be strong and self-reliant, yet walks to the front of a church to say, I need Jesus because I can’t do this alone.
Where might you have seen the much more glory of God recently and missed it? When have you seen someone humble themselves or repent? When have you seen what looked like a supernatural change of mind or heart? God is not always as flashy as we want him to be; he wants transformation more than he wants a light show.
by Aaron Bjorklund
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