Broken Part 3 Glory Hidden, Glory Restored

If we can allow the Lord to circumcise or reunite our hearts, our heart can begin to operate as it was designed to. When the foreskin is removed (by Christ) the glory of God is revealed. We are not merely sinners born broken, we were created in God’s image. The design of our physical body reveals the glory of God in which we were created. The design of our spiritual heart, our soul ALSO reveals the glory in which we were created.

Even the lost crave justice and truth. It may be a perverted sense of justice. The lost may seek the truth in the wrong places, but at their core they desire the LORD. They desire to find the truth. We can even see mercy in unbelievers who are driven to do charitable things.

I see the lost everywhere who feel empty and incomplete. They seek that truth out in so many ways. Deep in their heart they know what is right and what is wrong. This is the part of their heart that desires to be reunited with their God… the part of their heart that knew God at the beginning of time. The veil of sin perverts the truth and justice and mercy that their hearts desire.

I love what John Eldredge says in Waking the Dead about the glory hidden in our hearts:

Your story does not begin with sin. It begins with glory bestowed upon you by God. It does not start in Genesis 3, it starts in Genesis 1.

That very idea blew me away! I never thought about that before. Why is it that teachers focus on sin nature and yet fail to remind us that our ORIGINAL nature was created to reflect the glory of God? Why do we do that? Why do we default to thinking our story begins with the fall of man, when the creation story is our true beginning?

I believe teachers teach this incomplete doctrine out of a pure desire to reach those who are not broken over their sin. Yet for years I believed that I was hopelessly broken and there was nothing redeemable in me. Why save me? What good would that do, if I am just a bundle of wickedness?

I like to imagine the world before sin came into it. Sometimes my family sits around the living room and discusses this. We ask questions like, “Do you think mosquitoes and fleas came after the fall of man?” or “Why do you think man lived longer in that day? Was it because of the ‘canopy’ or because he was the ‘original design’?” Sometimes we talk about “the curse” on man and woman and the differences between them. We talk about animals and their role in man’s life.

I also like to point out that God made man special for a reason. The bible says that God was pleased with all the things he created but he did not state that it was “very good” until he created man. God even went out of his way to make woman so that man would not be alone.

Can you imagine what it would be like to walk in the garden with God? I mean, Moses got to walk in the presences of the glory of God and yet even he could not look directly at God. The very first man got to walk with God and because (at the time) man was perfect, it was the most natural thing.

What a tragedy to be separated form that original perfection! What a glorious plan God has for us. Don’t you think man was thinking: it’s just not ever going to be “right” again? Well, God had in mind all along, to make it “right” again, to be reconciled to his most beloved creation.

Colossians 1:21-22 says Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. (22) But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—

When you think of the wondrous provision of Christ for our reconciliation, do you know that we are restored to the original state of being “holy and without blemish?” We are then like the very first man and woman, able to walk and talk with God face to face. Our hearts are made whole, they are no longer divided. Yes there is a process of being perfected and washed but the provision enters our life the moment we accept Christ. We only have to walk in it.

You should know that all of this chapter I have struggled with these concepts and I have bounced my perspective off my husband. I have a hard time believing there is ANYTHING good in my heart and yet I have had the Holy Spirit whispering to me for a long time. My husband pointed out to me one day that just the word “reconciled” indicates that there was an original state that we are being restored to. That miraculous restoration has nothing to do with our own glory it only has to do with the glory of the one in whose image we were created.

Did you know it says in Genesis 1 God decided to make man in his image? I think that is why God has such a problem with people worshiping the likeness of a created being, a movie stars or famous people. God knows that these things bear his likeness and we should be worshiping the One who created the likeness, not the likeness itself.

Imagine how much more offended God was when his children decided to worship the image of one of the lesser creations, the creation that was not even made in His image. What a slap in the face!

Psalms 106:120 says: At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal. They exchanged their Glory for an image of a bull, which eats grass.

The children of Israel traded in the beauty in which they were created and the glory in which they were brought up out of slavery for a cow. God sees, yet again, that what floats to the top, what comes out of a man’s heart is (in my opinion) pure folly. These people should have been on the high of their life! God did so many miraculous things for them and yet they wanted to worship something else. They forgot that they were walking around bearing the resemblance of the Holy One. They forgot that they were the ones in creation that were given the privilege of looking like their creator.

I think this is the reason so many other people are stuck in sin. They forget that they were created for glory! We were not created to wallow around and bow down to created things. We were meant to walk in truth and to do great things.

We must fix our eyes on Jesus and what he created us for. We should desire to do great things and impact the world for him. We cannot make an impact with our head hung low. We should shine our light on others. Bearing the image of God and having his spirit in our heart comes with some responsibility.

1 Peter 5:10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

God promises to restore us. See here: we have been CALLED to glory. We are restored. Our hearts are reunited. The work is not something we do ourselves, it has been done for us. We don’t have to be a slave to sin because God’s plan was that those who are in Christ will once again walk in the glory we once walked in the Garden of Eden.

Isaiah 43:6-7 I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth— (7) everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

I feel the urgency described in this verse. I say to the earth give back to the Lord those who have been bound up in shame. You were called by name. God wants you to remember that you were created to reflect his glory. It is not a glory of your own. It is a reflection of the glory of the one in whose image you were created! The power of sin nature has no hold over those who have come to Christ. Forget that you were broken! Remember that you were created for glory!

I don’t think that being made in God’s image is simply a physical resemblance. I believe that we have, inside of us, the character of God in our hearts. Being made in God’s image, we have justice and mercy in our hearts but the tragedy of sin created a veil over that heart. The great division in our hearts served to separate us from the truth.

Read 2 Corithians 3:4-17

I love the way this passage begins with confidence because for so long I did not have confidence that there was anything worth-while in me. I was like the people in verse 1. I wanted someone to give me a “letter of recommendation” to go into ministry. But ultimately my competence is not from any glory I myself have but in my competence is from God.

The rest of this passage may seem a little cryptic to you since the “ministry that brought death” is referring to the law of Moses, in which we have already stated that the purpose of that law was to make us conscious of sin, and “ministry of the Spirit” is referring to the saving grace we received from Christ. This passage is explaining that if the law that made us aware of sin was glorious then the grace of Christ should be even more glorious! But yet we cling to the condemnation of the law (the identity of being broken) and reject the glory of the ministry that sets us free from condemnation!

I love the way the Word gives us yet another illustration of our natural condition. In this passage we are described as having a veil. Sin is like that foreskin, like a veil over our hearts. Shame seeks to keep us veiled and we retreat into dark corners to allow the enemy to beat us with lies. Christ came to remove the veil. “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold.” Is it bold to say that I have a justice and mercy and goodness and glory in my heart? Yes it is! This verse clearly says that whenever anyone turns to the Lord the veil is taken away.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (18) And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

When the veil of sin is removed we are able to fully reflect the glory in which we were created to reflect. Not so that we can take any glory for ourselves but so we can bring glory to God through our lives. I like how the author here describes “with ever increasing glory.” That means that the more we are washed… the more the veil is removed the more the glory hidden in our hearts is revealed, the more we begin to love like our Daddy, the one who created us.

We reflect the Lord’s glory while we are being transformed. Some times we think: “Yes I will reflect God’s glory, after I am transformed.” We are not going to be fully transformed until heaven! So we have to reflect his glory now. The fact that we are submitting to the transformation process is glorious. Is that not why we rejoice loudly when we hear of another person receiving Christ? All that they have done at that point is understood that they were a sinner and acknowledged their need for a savior.

We have to be washed continually in the Word. When we do so, we are transformed and the more we are transformed the more glorious the story becomes. The more reflect the image of God. The mirror is cleaned.

There is a challenge to being a bible teacher, a teacher of the law, if you will. The bible is meant to be seen as a whole and since the Well is Deep we must rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal things to us in Scripture. I believe that it is very easy for us to misinterpret things in scripture and instead of freeing people from their burdens we end up creating burdens. Jesus warned us against doing what this kind of teacher does.

Matthew 23:4 says: They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

There are some teachers that rather than freeing people, serve to place heavy loads on men’s shoulders. I know that the intention is good but the result is often damaging and creates a spirit of condemnation in the lives of believers. When I seek to help free people from the burden of sin in their life I have to ask myself if this is a truth that will set them free.

Here is the truth: “where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom!”

In John 17:22-23, Jesus says: I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: (23) I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Christ did not die on the cross for us to retain the identity of “sinner” or “broken.” He set our hearts free from sin. Right here Jesus says that he has given us his glory… the glory that God gave him… He has lifted the veil of sin off of our hearts so that we can shine with His glory the glory that we were created to reflect. He desires for us to be bold and stand with unveiled faces before the world and allow our light to shine before men, with ever increasing glory.