We must always remember the origin of any good work: it is God’s work in us, not our own autonomous achievement. Both mercy and workmanship come from the same Light that shines upon us. We reflect His work in us and upon us. The differences [in glory], then, are not quantitative or hierarchical, but distinctive. One glory. Many stories.

Having done a survey of church history using Logos Bible Software on the question of degrees of glory in heaven, the majority report is that some have higher degrees of glory based on their faithfulness here on earth. You can see the survey results in an article I will publish later called “A Survey of the Degrees of Glory in Church History.” From Calvin to Jonathan Edwards to the church father Jerome, they all teach some form of unequalness of glory in heaven. Others in the survey have used the phrase “some stars shine brighter than others,” to argue that the Bible teaches graded glories in heaven.

How does this square with being saved by grace alone—sola gratia? How can effort here be currency for reward there? For those of a Reformed persuasion, they know that any effort here is by grace alone too. There are no autonomous works. We must abide in the vine as Jesus taught or we can do nothing. Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

If even our works are His workmanship, then we are left with God electing some saints to be higher than others—a sort of elect of the elect. If our works are not originated in us and are by His grace, then He works in some more grace than others. This working of grace then produces a greater glory in some. Some may attribute the working more from man’s efforts and some may attribute it to God’s working in man greater obedience. These greater works then are either synergistic or monergistic, but the result is the same either way. Greater works yield greater glory.

Soli Deo Gloria

The Bible teaches and the Protestant Reformation confirms that God alone gets the glory. We may display His glory but never possess it. An AI summary of what the Reformers taught is as follows:

For the Reformers, Soli Deo Gloria meant that God alone is the author, actor, and finisher of salvation, so that no part of redemption — not entry, not progress, not inheritance — can be attributed to human effort without robbing God of His glory.

With this understanding then, degrees of glory are from God—He makes the distinction. It is by His grace and His sovereign will. As I see it, this is the only available option for those who hold to sola gratia and monergistic salvation. This leads to an election within election. God elects some to be higher than others, but it is by His grace not by the performance of the believer. Does not Paul say in Romans 9:21

Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

or in 2 Timothy 2:20-21

A large house contains not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some indeed are for honorable use, but others are for common use. So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work.

Now the context of these two passages is not talking about the same thing: Romans 9 is talking about the distinction of the elect and non-elect and 2 Timothy is talking about distinctions in the vocation of pastoral ministry. The two passages, however, do share a common grammar of honor and dishonor which is exactly the issue with degrees of glory—some are honored more than others.^[1]

Those who affirm greater degrees of glory in heaven are therefore left with only two possible mechanisms by which such distinctions could exist:

1. By human effort, either alone or in cooperation with divine grace;^[2] or
2. By God’s sovereign choice alone, apart from human performance.

The first option compromises sola gratia. The second preserves it—but at the cost of introducing a hierarchy within the redeemed that Scripture nowhere clearly defines. It effectively results in elections within the elect, producing multiple tiers of heavenly standing. Heaven is thus imagined as a graded realm, resembling Dante’s Paradiso more than the biblical vision of one undivided inheritance in Christ.

What is Glory?

Before we talk about degrees of glory, we must carefully define what exactly glory is. According to scholastic distinctions there is an essential glory belonging only to God and accidental glory which can be shared with creatures. When in Isaiah, it says: ^“I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to idols,” this would be God’s essential glory. It cannot be shared with the creature—it belongs to Him alone. When Moses went up on the mountain, He partook of the glory of the Lord because his face shined.

“The Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end.” (2 Cor. 3:7)

This would be a case of accidental glory—a glory that can be shared with the creature. It is a glory that all believers will one day share in fullness as it says in Corinthians: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.”

Glory and the Attributes of God

When we look at the attributes of God, He is infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, goodness and truth, we do not find glory listed as an attribute. The classic definition of God also includes that He is simple and not made of parts or composite. He does not ever change. Immutability and simplicity cannot coexist with the way the Bible describes God’s glory. In Ezekiel it says that God’s glory departs. It can also fill the temple: “Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east… and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.” It can be manifested upon Moses and Jesus says in John 17:22 that we too will share the glory: “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.”

Thus, glory does not behave like an attribute. It can be localized, shared, withheld, increased and decreased. It appears to be mutable and not simple. When glory is described in the scholastic categories of essential and accidental, this terminology reflects real biblical distinctions but does not really explain them. These terms seem to simply be operating in the creator-creature and the communicable and incommunicable attribute distinction register. When glory is described as essential, it does not mean to imply that God in His essence is glory. He is glorious but not in the same way that He is all powerful or immutable.

Glory as the Revelation of all His Attributes

If we think of Glory as God’s work of revelation to us, then we have a grammar that explains how the Bible uses glory language. Revelation is not who God is in himself—His essence, but who He is as revealed to us. God speaks to us in an accommodated way that we can understand.

Calvin referred to this principle as accommodatio, teaching that God, like a gentle Father, stoops to our weakness and speaks to us in ways we are able to grasp. Such language does not describe God as He is in Himself, but as He makes Himself known to us.^[3]

This revelation of God’s nature would then not be an attribute of God but a work of God. It is a revealing of who He is, but in an accommodated way for us to understand. This is why it can be increased, decreased, seen, hidden, and shared. It is not an essence; it is an action.^[4]

Glory can be seen as a revelation of all of God’s attributes as He makes Himself known to us. It is not an exhaustive revelation because of our creaturely limitations. This is why theologians speak of God’s incomprehensibility. We can see analogically aspects of God’s being–His power, goodness, holiness and justice, but we can never know God as He is in His essence.

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