A couple of verses in Isaiah (42:8 and 48:11) say that God does not share his glory with another, and those verses have been used to beat any sense of glory out of his people—to keep us in our place, spiritually speaking. But most people who wield those verses as weapons seem to forget what "our place" was intended to be. As those created in God's image, there’s an innate glory in us that, though shattered in the Fall, is being restored.
God doesn’t share his glory with other rivals, to be sure. And that’s what those Isaiah verses mean. But look at what Jesus prayed for his followers: “I have given them the glory that you gave me” (John 17:22). In the regenesis, we are being re-conformed to his image. He fills us with himself and joins himself to us as one.
Spend some time thinking about that. Learn to live from that identity. It’s an amazing, mysterious truth that few of us really comprehend. But as we gaze at who he is, he transforms us to be like him. And there’s glory all over that transformation.
