Falling Short of HIS Glory

I begin with three (somewhat) interesting facts. Fact 1: 17.5 million Americans spend 16.5 billion dollars on cosmetic (plastic) surgery each year.  Fact 2: 2.75 million Americans have cosmetic dental surgery each year.  Fact 3:  382 Billion dollars a year is spent annually in the world on cosmetics, make-up as it is most commonly referred to. The term cosmetic refers to something applied to the body to restore or improve its appearance, while make-up implies that there is a deficiency, failing or shortcoming that needs to be compensated for or corrected.

These “facts” provide an example of the dire and desperate condition of all mankind as a result of our sin, of our rejection of God’s purpose for and rule over our lives.  The Apostle Paul states this most pointedly in Romans 3:23 when he writes “all (mankind) have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”, meaning that we are cut off from the relationship with the infinitely glorious God for which we were created to enjoy, no longer imaging in our bodies, minds and souls, the magnificence, beauty and splendor, the righteous nature and character of God, all of which has been corrupted, distorted, and diminished in us by our sin.

Mankind was to  be the most significant and thus most glorious of all of God’s creation in that we alone would image in our being the nature and character, the beauty and magnificence, the ingenuity and creativity of the eternal God, such that we could enjoy and be enjoyed by God and one another.  Psalm 8:3-9 tells us that God crowned man with a glory and honor that made us worthy of being called the children of God. Adam and Eve were endowed with the perfection of being necessary for intimacy with God, to bring glory and honor to God, to receive glory and honor from God and to give and receive glory and honor from one another as His beloved children

Although a remnant of that glory remains, the gap between the glory of who and what we are today in the corruption of our sin, and who and what we were created to be in the glorious image of a Holy God is so wide – so great – so immense, that it is impossible for us ever to bridge it through our own efforts. Yet, that will not prevent us from trying.

In our rebellion against God, in our suppression of His glory, and in our unwillingness to honor Him as God (Romans 1:18-25), we seek to make up for – even restore, through our own efforts, the beauty, excellence, goodness, splendor – the joy of living – that has departed from us because of sin.

And in doing so we exhibit the fatal character trait of the devil – namely pride (Isaiah 14:12-15), a trait hated and condemned by God (Proverbs 16:5) (Proverbs 6:16-17).  It is so because as St. Augustine noted, it is the “heart of all sin”, the motivation behind man’s first sin and every sin since as we seek to  lift ourselves above any dependence on or accountability to God, believing that we can function as good as God in bringing about human flourishing and our own individual happiness (Genesis 3:1-4).

Pride is essentially the glorification or deification of self.  We value and boast in our self-determination and self-sufficiency.  We strive to develop self-confidence that we may obtain self-satisfaction, self-gratification, self-exaltation, our own personal and private happiness through our self-centered (rather than God-centered) lifestyles. It’s my life, my body, my desires, my opinions, my future that matters, and thus it’s all about me.

In seeking of our own glory, we are essentially glory thieves. We want to use God’s good gifts (James 1:16-17); our intellect and ingenuity, good looks and charm, riches and talents, achievements and accomplishments, to inspire others to make much of us, to admire us, praise us, love us, to see us as valuable and in some way meaningful, even necessary to their lives instead of God.

But God, the eternal God – who created us for His glory (Isaiah 43:7), will not tolerate our thievery (Isaiah 42:8), and will hold all glory thieves eternally accountable (Isaiah 2:11-17) (Revelation 18:7-8). 

The Bible tells us in Romans 2:4-11, that God gives the good gifts noted above to a sinful mankind to lead us to repentance – that we would turn from seeking the fading glory of a self-centered lifestyle, to seeking the eternal glory of a God-centered lifestyle, and warns that our failure to do so will result in our remaining under God’s wrath and judgement forever.

But for those who do humble themselves and repent (James 4:10), God has made a way for His glory to be restored in them and revealed through their lives, and that is through faith in the King of Glory, Jesus Christ (Psalm 24:7-10).  He is the humble King who left the glories of Heaven to come to this world as a man, that in our union with Him and Him alone, God’s glory would be restored in us (Colossians 1:27-29).

Grace and Peace ×