“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.” – 2 Cor. 3:18.
The first glory
The old-order or the Old Testament of the Law has glory in it from God. It is the first glory that God ordained for mankind. By it, we were to recover our lost glory from our bad fall in the Garden of Eden – Rom. 3:23. But it is an initial or first glory.
So, when you live by this first glory now, you will have a certain degree of supernatural results following you. Even today, when you minister according to the Old Testament, your ministry will have some glory of God – 2 Cor. 3:7-8.
But, it is the first glory that does not please God now, although it is still glorious before men and by religious man’s standards – Heb. 8:7-13.
The second glory
So, when the Lord Jesus came, He introduced us to a second glory that God wants mankind to move into from the initial one. Its arrival demands that we reverently move away from the religious glory we are used to and that has blessed us all in times past.
It is easier to write this than to actually leave the old that has blessed you. Yes, it is always difficult to say ‘bye-bye’ to what has served you before.
But, this second glory is not just from God like the old-order, but is of God. It is not based on the weaknesses of mankind due to our bad fall in Eden – Matt. 19:8.
It is even greater than the one from the beginning that we fell short of later in the Garden of Eden, because it is Jesus, the best image of God who procured it for us.
Kingdom and religious glory
This is Kingdom glory that excels above the religious glory of the Law and Prophets – 2 Cor. 3:9-11, 14. You know, the Law and Prophets constitutes the Old Testament, and is mainly a focus on one’s person and performance for God.
So, this Old-order was a temporary arrangement or system from God, until the reintroduction of God’s original and eternal arrangement by Christ, called the Kingdom of God – Gal. 3:17, 19, 24-25.
God accepted the glory of the temporary for a while, but now He does not – Acts 17:30. So, the Law and the Prophets are the opposite of the Kingdom system that Jesus re-presented to us – Lk. 16:16.
From grace to grace
Similarly, the Old Testament had a form of grace with it.
We can see this in the dealings of God with mankind, who were represented by Israel after they came out of the Egyptian captivity.
From their exodus from Egypt till they reached Mount Sinai, God was gracious with them in spite of all their murmurings and unbelief.
When Jesus came how-ever, He introduced man-kind to a new kind of grace that exceeded the grace Israel enjoyed under Moses – Jn. 1:14, 16-17.
Beloved, God wants us to move from the first grace of ministry to the second grace that now pleases Him.
Remember the aim of ministry is to please God, not just to do something for God. I know you have a measure of glory and grace in your life and ministry, but is it the one that focuses you on the revelation of Jesus?
The new glory and grace
This ‘new’ glory and grace of God comes only when you recognize and focus on Jesus, specifically on His Person, Principles and Performance – 2 Cor. 3:16; Gal 5:4.
In other words, when you recognize Jesus, His teachings and what He did for you, then they are activated in you.
I call the ‘new’ glory and grace Kingdom glory and grace because they came to man with the re-introduction of the Kingdom of God by our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the treasure of God within which is His excelling power – 2 Cor. 4:1-7.
The place of the five-fold ministry today
Dear Servant of God, it is when you put Jesus at His rightful place in your life and ministry that you will find your rightful place in this life and in ministry.
In the Kingdom system, the position of the five-fold ministry gifts is like that of the twelve apostles when Jesus was physically on earth.
All believers are posited as the rest of Jesus’ disciples, when Jesus was physically on earth.
The religious-order is to see the five-fold ministry gifts as standing in Jesus’ ‘vacated’ physical place on earth; with all believers being equated to both the twelve apostles and other disciples of Jesus. This is not the spiritual arrangement in the kingdom system of Jesus.
In the kingdom system of ministry, the five-fold ministry gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are in the status of the twelve apostles of Jesus, when He was physically with them on earth.
So, current believers are to be equated to the other disciples of Jesus, i.e. apart from the twelve apostles.
Jesus is in His Own Class, and should not be put in the same bracket with the fivefold ministry gifts. As I mentioned earlier, the church of Corinth mistakenly did that, and the apostle Paul had to correct it.
And he did that in the very beginning of his first letter to them, because it was a violation of kingdom order – 1 Cor.1:12.
The church of Corinth seemed to have broken all the kingdom-order of God. “Now I say this, that, each of you says, ‘I am of Paul’ or ‘I am of Apollos,’ or ‘I am of Cephas,’ or ‘I am of Christ’.
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”
Apostle Paul went on in the spirit of correcting this ‘equating’ of himself with Jesus. He referred to his comportment when he first preached the gospel to the people of Corinth.
To him, by the way he presented himself the church of Corinth should not have perceived him as being in the same bracket with Jesus – 1 Cor.2:1-5,
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling… that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men (or Paul) but in the power of God (or the Cross of Jesus).”
It is possible for people today to still see the five-fold ministry gifts as representing an ‘absent’ Jesus; for them to put men of God into the same bracket with Jesus.
Actually, Jesus should not be seen as ‘absent’ in the church now. Jesus is so much with us as when He was with His twelve Apostles on earth – Matt. 28:20.
He will manifest Himself to all who obey His kingdom-words out of love for His Person, and not because of any other benefit from His kingdom-words – Jn. 14:21.
Jesus wants to be as real to us as when He was physically on earth.
