The Transfiguration

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5 ESV).

Today’s picture comes from the Grand Teton National Park. It is the Chapel of the Transfiguration near the community of Moose, Wyoming. The chapel was sited and built to frame a view of the Cathedral Group of peaks in a large window behind the altar in 1925. It has become a favorite spot for photographers, sightseers and weddings. Services are still held there from May through September depending on the weather. Visiting this little chapel is certainly a highlight of anyone’s visit to the area. It reminds me of how the Apostle Paul reminds us to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” God created the world for his glory. God did not create out of need. He did not create the world out of a deficiency that needed to be supplied from outside himself. He was not lonely. He was supremely happy in the fellowship of the Trinity. He created the world to put his glory on display, to communicate his glory for the fullest satisfaction of his creatures. We are forced to ask why did he create a world that would become like this world? It is a world that fell into sin; it is a world that exchanged the glory of God for the glory of images. Why would God permit and guide and sustain such a world? the answer is evident in the Scripture: For the praise of the glory of the grace of God displayed supremely in the death of Jesus. This means that the ultimate reason for all things is the communication of the glory of God’s grace for the happy praise of a redeemed multitude from every people and tongue and tribe and nation. All things are created and guided and sustained for the glory of God. And that glory reaches its final goal in the praise of the glory of God’s grace, which shines most brightly in the glory of Christ, and comes to focus most clearly in the glory of the cross. We ought to ask today, is the glory of God the brightest treasure on the horizon of our future? Do we join the apostle Paul in saying, “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God”? Is the glory of Christ our own personal experience of the grace of God? If not, look to Him now!