The Glory Now RevealedSample

Day Three: A Continual Discovery

I once thought of glorification as immediate completion in every area of humanity, including knowledge. That would mean it would be impossible for a glorified person to learn anything at all, as if at glorification we receive an instantaneous and infinite download of all possible information and then remain static for all eternity. 

We will never be God, not even in glory. So, we will never be omniscient. There will always be something new to learn. But God does not learn. As I’ve heard one pastor put it, “Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?” For all eternity, new things about God’s glory will occur to us! And that will make heaven a very exciting place. 

If we accept the concept of a continual discovery of the glory of God, then our conception of heaven becomes incredibly appealing. It also helps explain Isaiah 9:7: “Of the increase of his government . . . there will be no end.” Since there will be no babies born in heaven, this endless increase must consist in an ever-deepening sense of the glories of Christ’s kingly reign. If the redeemed will be continually learning new aspects of his glory, and if Christ is appearing increasingly amazing through studying him and his works, then the inhabitants of his kingdom will become wealthier and wiser for all eternity. 

In Ephesians 2:6–7, Paul celebrates God’s grace in the lives of all Christians: “[God] raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 2:7 tells us one day we will see the infinite dimensions of God’s grace in Christ. In other words, our education in grace has barely begun in our brief time on earth. The phrase “in the coming ages” points to eternity in heaven. It implies an eternal expansion of our understanding of God’s grace and kindness to us in Christ. 

God, how good you are to call us into a relationship with you that is always changing, always growing. I never want to stop learning about who you. Amen.