The common experience of God's glory...
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Our text deals with both the glory of Christ (3:18) and the freedom He brings (3:17). We need encounters with these visions of God's glory to help us in our struggles with doubt. Social critic Alain de Botton notes that in settings where religion provides stunning beauty (like the vision of the Transfiguration) to our shared experience, doubt and anxieties occasioned by our insecurity about our place, significance, or importance in the community tends to vanish, as we all experience our Lord in awe, regardless of our social standing (Status Anxiety, pp. 250ff). The millionaire, the assembly-line worker, and the welfare client all enter the Sistine Chapel and are awed by its beauty and in sharing that common experience there they are put on the same "level playing field," none better than the other.
The common experience of God's glory not only frees us from self-doubt occasioned by social status in relation to those of higher position. It also frees us for service. Such a vision of magnificence of the love of God gives "ethical diarrhea," significant social commentator Cornel West says. God's magnificent love flows through and from our bodies with no effort, sometimes against our wills.
The common experience of God's glory not only frees us from self-doubt occasioned by social status in relation to those of higher position. It also frees us for service. Such a vision of magnificence of the love of God gives "ethical diarrhea," significant social commentator Cornel West says. God's magnificent love flows through and from our bodies with no effort, sometimes against our wills.
