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It’s a wonderful thing when we learn that the grace of God has brought us to the place of being accepted by Him based on what Christ did, rather than our performance. No more nagging guilt; no more jumping up for the doggy bone. He approves of us simply because we’ve believed Him and trusted in His grace. He loves us. He smiles on us.

There’s so much more, though! His grace is filled with His glory.

“…to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.(Ephesians 1:6)

His grace is glorious grace, and as such it has a transforming power. Transforming grace. When allowed to do its work in us, it will soak our characters and our consciousness in the nature of Christ, changing us from glory to glory.

“But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2 Cor 3:17-18

Seeing with pure eyes, the One… who has called us from darkness to light, brings us into more and more revelation of Him. We commune with Him, we partake of this Living Bread in the place of revelation. We digest and manifest the revelation of Him.

“seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” (2 Peter 1:3-4)

When I was about seven years old, I remember having a book about magnets. It came with a magnet attached to the inside of the book cover. I had fun experimenting with the magnet and finding out what kind of materials would be attracted to it. Now, if I were to hold a magnet up against a tree, there would be no draw, or attraction. We know that a magnet will only attract certain kinds of metals. And, if we were to leave the magnet attached to the items it attracts, those items would eventually become magnetic, as well. I have a metal sewing pin box and I keep a magnet inside of it. That way, if my pin box gets knocked over as it has countless times over the years, most of the pins will still stay in the box. Over time, the pins themselves have become magnetic.

This is a rather crude illustration of what the glory of God does to us and in us. God has “called us by His own glory and excellence“. This verse actually means that He has called us “to” His glory and excellence, as well as “by” His glory and excellence. In short, this means that we created in such a way as to recognize and respond to the glory of God. This comes about through “the true knowledge of Him who has called us…”

When I open my Bible, I do not read an instruction manual, a history book, or a series of theological lectures. I see the Lord, the Living Word. And I carry that revelation into the place of worship. And so I begin the transformational process.