“We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). We behold Christ’s glory, but that leads us then to being changed from one degree of glory to the next. We will one day be glorified fully, yes, but right now, we are being changed, becoming more and more glorious.

We as Christians have largely forgotten the goal of our glory. We emphasize bringing glory of God. “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). We do not, however, talk positively about us getting glory. In fact, I think we’d agree that if the idea of us receiving glory were spoken of a hundred times, ninety-nine uses would be negative (if not all hundred). We all know it well: We do not seek our own glory, praise, recognition from people; we seek God’s glory.

In this sense, this is certainly right (1 Thessalonians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 10:31). But if we stop here, like usual, we do not deal with the full (and helpful) biblical picture of our seeking glory in the Christian life. For the Bible does talk about us getting glory—about us getting honor, praise, and recognition. And we desire this because we were made for this. Such glory-getting certainly is subordinate to God’s glory; our glory is never ultimately of us or for us, especially since such me-focus the essence of pride and sin. But still the Bible does talk about our glory.

C.S. Lewis and “The Weight of Glory”

This in fact is what C.S. Lewis was discussing in his essay “The Weight of Glory.” This essay is deservedly famous for Lewis’s apt remarks about how “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak…We are far too easily pleased,” for in Christ we are offered “unblushing promises of reward” that “appeal to desire” while we instead choose “to go on making mud pies in a slum.”

But what, we may ask, are these “unblushing promises of reward” that “appeal to desire”? What is the “holiday at sea” compared to “making mud pies in a slum”? According to Lewis, the weight of our glory. That’s what we don’t emphasize enough (and rather choose mud pies). Our own receiving of glory, according to Lewis, is that which is full of “weight.”

What Is Our Glory?

Now, such an idea may be a shock to us. It may even seem unappealing. Yet the Bible gives an “unblushing,” as Lewis says, appeal to our glory as a reward.

So, what does this mean? Just as the idea of God’s “glory” is hard to define, so ours is too. But we may try: Our getting glory is a receiving of transformational praise, honor, and recognition from God. The words “praise, honor, and recognition” are fitting because this, by definition, is a large part of what constitutes glory. We cannot say we receive “glory” and ignore these ideas. But so the word “transformational” is needed as well. For, as we’ll see, the glory we receive is something which changes us, and especially will do so forever. And in both cases—in the praise and the change—it is glory we get from God.

In brief, then, there’s two aspects to our glory: 1) we receive recognition from God, and 2) we receive glorious change from God. Let us see these two aspects from the Bible.

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