Article April 8, 1996 Issue

The real glory

Hazel Teresa Cook

Christ Jesus did all things well. Yet once, when a young man addressed him as "Good Master," Jesus replied, "Why callest thou me good?" He went on to say, "There is none good but one, that is, God" (Matt. 19:16, 17). By acknowledging only one source of goodness and ability, Jesus was indicating that he knew he possessed by reflection all that is good.

A reflection is governed by and expresses the original. Pointing to man's nature as God's spiritual reflection, Paul writes, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Cor. 3:18). Mortal thought, not knowing God as the one infinite Mind or man as God's likeness, is inclined to worship a little good called "me"—material personality. It bestows upon this idol a personal sense of achievement, self-importance, self-love.

Jesus never indulged any of this; knew there but one real and lasting glory. It is the reflected glory of God. Before his crucifixion, Jesus said in prayer: "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (John 17:4, 5).

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