Father Identity

I keep seeing more and more clearly that this whole chapter of John 8 seems to have a running theme of fatherhood. Let me go back and review it in this light. Of course, the idea of a chapter to start with is a very artificial creation that was introduced many years after this passage was originally written so there may be much more in the surrounding context if I look a little farther as well. But for now I think I will focus mostly on this section.

The chapter begins with Jesus coming back to the temple area after spending the night out on the Mount of Olives. The previous day He had had an intense discussion with these same Jews that was strikingly similar to the one in this chapter. Now He comes back in to teach in the temple and the leaders decide to disrupt His teaching and try to destroy His influence and maybe even His life by plunging Him into a trap designed to discredit Him. They threw a woman caught in adultery in front of Him demanding a decision about her immediate punishment.

Looking at this story in the context of the rest of the chapter, it looks to me like Jesus treats her like a good father which she may have never had the privilege of having growing up. As a good father Jesus chooses to protect her from men with evil malice against her, He shows compassion and forgiveness to her and gives her another chance to experience an atmosphere of love where she can begin to feel safe enough to have her wounded spirit begin to heal. Jesus in this story demonstrates what a real father can look like in practical terms.

Following that, Jesus immediately launches into statements about His own true identity and begins to unfold both the truth about His real Father in heaven and His own relationship with that Father who is also the one who wants to be the Father of each one of us. The Jews immediately take up their challenge of Him from the previous day and openly sneer at the dubious circumstances and rumors surrounding the birth of Jesus. The issue of who is who's father seems to play a dominant theme in this chapter.

My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me. (v. 16)

the Father who sent Me testifies about Me. (v. 18)

So they were saying to Him, "Where is Your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also." (v. 19)

"...the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world." They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. (v. 26-27)

I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. (v. 28-29)

We are Abraham's descendants... (v. 33)

if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. (v. 36)

I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father. (v. 38)

They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham." (v. 39)

You are doing the deeds of your father.

They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God." (v. 41)

If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God... (v. 42)

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. ...he is a liar and the father of lies. (v. 44)

He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God. (v. 47)

I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. (v. 49)

Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be? (v. 53)

it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, 'He is our God'; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him... (v. 54-55)

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad. (v. 56)

Who is My Father?

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.

...He speaks from his own nature.... (John 8:44)

I see Jesus talking here about the core issue that all of us struggle with, at least if we really take salvation seriously. It is the problem of appreciating and grasping our true identity and value.

Each person born on this planet is born into sin. We inherit sin from our parents and we also cultivate it through the many habits we acquire as we grow up. Sin is both a misperception of reality as well as the belief that we can live independently, that satisfaction and thriving and life can be found outside of dependence on our heavenly Father, that we somehow can find life in some other source. All of this is based on the foundational lies that were invented by Satan and there is no way we can escape the effect these lies have had on us except through divine intervention on the part of Jesus.

Having been born in sin we all start out with the devil as our initial father spiritually. Remember, the word spiritual simply means having to do with our spirit, not necessarily religion. Everyone has a spirit and everyone is affected by spirits around them, both other people's and supernatural spirits both good and evil. The spirit realm of our existence is actually where the most intense and threatening conflict is taking place, not in our physical realm as we so often assume. It is in our spirit where the greatest battles take place and is the arena primarily addressed by Scriptures, especially the New Testament. The mistaken idea that truth is only fact-based, left-brained, logical and disconnected from emotions is one of the problems of many religious people. Our emotions are usually the symptoms of the condition of our spirit and while we should not allow them to dominate or control us, we do need to pay attention to what they are revealing about our spirit.

Our fundamental problem is that since we have grown up believing the lies of Satan both by default and through the result of many experiences in our life that were misinterpreted either by us and/or by those around us, we all live life to some degree under the influence of Satan's lies about God, about ourselves and about reality. Satan by default is our first father because he snatched that role from Adam when Adam ceded it to him through disobedience in the Garden. Then as the vicarious father of all mankind, the devil lost no time in infusing his own nature into the very genes of humanity so deeply that it became impossible for any human to escape its effect on their own. Humans simply have lost the capacity to even know what is real and true and life-giving or to live that way because much of their very nature by default reflects the nature of the devil. And since the devil is the originator of sin to start with, then being reflectors of the father of sin and deception means that our nature is going to be hopelessly held hostage by the sin embedded in our very psyche and there is no way we can extricate ourselves from this situation.

Jesus is the only human since Adam and Eve that was not born on this planet subject to this condition. It is true that He took upon Himself the weakened nature and the physical effects of depreciation in the body of humans after four thousand years of the effects of sin, but He did not assume humanity's penchant for sin, the inherent rebellion in our nature that hopelessly traps sinners. This is because He did not come to show us how to extricate ourselves from sin through more effort with help from God; He came to reveal to us the truth about who God really is and the real truth about our identity as heaven values us. In short, He came to relate to us that in His revelation we can perceive our infinite value because we are all viewed as sons and daughters of God, no longer under the tyranny of Satan.

Jesus is stating in this passage another fundamental principle of reality, those concepts we more often refer to as laws. This principle is this: who our hearts reflect defines our real father and in turn determines how we treat others. Our ultimate identity is formed by this relation to our chosen father and determines the attributes that our lives will reflect. A father is the source, according to this universal principle, that each person emulates in their life. A person is generally known by the family characteristics that they reflect, and in the spiritual aspect this is even more true.

But then why is it that these highly religious people who staunchly claimed God as their father were in reality still reflecting the devil so much so that Jesus had to plainly tell them that their father was really the devil? What was the underlying problem that so blinded them that they couldn't even tell who their real father was?

Satan employs this principle as part of his diabolical schemes against us. He has so distorted our ideas about God whom we claim to emulate, so thoroughly infected nearly every concept of God we believe and teach that while firmly believing that we are following the true God we are in fact reflecting an impostor, a distortion of God. These false views so thoroughly saturate our world that we don't even see that many of them are false. We infuse our assumptions about God so much so into our belief systems and teachings about Him that in essence we create a God more in our own image rather than discovering who He really is and what He wants to reveal to us objectively. This is one of the most successful schemes of the enemy that keeps us in his bondage while assuming that we are living in God's favor and are serving Him.

Remember, Jesus was not speaking to heathen here when He identified them as children of the devil. He was talking to the most advanced religious people on the planet, ones descended from chosen men of God that had received some of the greatest revelations about God over many centuries. These men were great scholars of the Word of God and knew it backwards and forwards. Many of them had memorized great portions of the Scriptures and were expert theologians. They had the degrees and were experts with more knowledge of history and religion than anyone else on earth. Many of them were meticulous in their quest for perfecting their lives through obedience to God's commands. They spent countless hours and enormous effort trying to eradicate sin from their lives. In short, they had taken very seriously the route to holiness that many of us are trying to follow all the way to its extreme. And yet Jesus said that from heaven's perspective they were still children of the devil desiring to do what the devil desires to do.

If this is not a wake-up call for me and all who want to take religion seriously, then we are living in darkness. We spend so much time arguing about religion that we have little time left to listen to the words of Jesus warning us of our own blindness. We are just as much in danger of thinking that we are not deceived, that we are somehow more enlightened than they, that we have more truth than they did and that we are not in danger of being deluded like they were. But that very attitude is itself a strong symptom of blindness. If I am not willing to honestly expose my heart and mind to the searching examination of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to continue to expose lies in my soul to be removed and replaced with His truth, then I am still living out the nature of my initial father, the devil.

The good news is that Jesus came to this earth to announce that the devil does not have to remain our father a minute longer. Through the adoption worked out for all of us in Jesus Christ our Savior, each one of us can experience the transforming power in our lives that comes from having a new Father. If we consent to be disciplined and loved and nurtured and healed by our new Father and His family, our lives will begin to reflect our new identity and our old nature will be put into the prison in which our hearts were kept for so many years. When I choose to embrace my new identity living under the authority of a new Father, I not only receive incredible privileges and honor but I also assume responsibilities as I grow in maturity in the family with God as my Father. But I must choose to be a part of this family, for God is not in the business of forcing anyone to live under His authority. God's family is exclusively for those who value the freedom of love and learn to appreciate the inherent power of that freedom. To believe anything less than that is to corrupt and violate the principles of truth and freedom that love encompasses and that would return us to our old father of sin.

A few verses before this Jesus spoke to some people around Him briefly who were so influenced by what they were hearing that they were choosing to engage in true belief. In essence, they were choosing to join His family. He said something to them that is significant from this perspective of who they would view as their true father. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:31-32) Later He explained that it is the Son who must make you free. You see, it really is all about family connections and who you believe is your real Dad. For whomever your heart reflects is the father that your life will turn out to look like.

A father is the person that you allow to disciple you. The word disciple and discipline are nearly identical words, not just phonetically but in meaning as well. When we have a true perception of positive discipline then we can begin to appreciate living as a disciple under the parenting and authority of a loving Father who is seeking to grow us up in maturity in every aspect of our lives as we more and more reflect what He is like.

This whole passage is filled with references to who people claimed to be their true father. Jesus said that God was His true Father but the Jews strongly insinuated that they believed He was born because His mother had committed fornication with some man out of wedlock (verse 41). At the same time, these Jews claimed both God and Abraham as their supposed father but Jesus challenged that claim and exposed their mistaken assumptions by pointing out that their actions spoke louder than claims. From heaven's view, our father is the one that our lives and attitudes reflect, not the one who physically produces us with our mother. Jesus reveals that we actually can choose a new father if we truly desire to do so.

According to the words of Jesus just quoted above, part of making God our real and effective Father requires that we continue in His Word. As we continue to abide in the Word – which in other places is identified as Jesus Himself – our lives will begin to reflect more and more the family attributes that emerge from truly living in the family of God. We are infused with a new nature even though our old nature will rise up in vicious conflict with it repeatedly. We will enter into an intense battle in our spirit between our fallen nature and the new nature born of God. Our choices in each of these battles to embrace our identity from our Father in heaven will strengthen and mature us to look and act and feel more like Christ. It all rests on what we choose to believe and embrace our true identity and how much we are willing to have our ideas about God transformed by the Word of God and His Spirit.

Father, I know how much my heart struggles to believe not only the real truth about You but even more to believe that You are my real Father. My own father here on earth tried his best to raise me to be a good religious person, but he didn't realize the importance of a personal relationship with You. As a result my heart got severely damaged and my concepts about fathers was very distorted.

I passed along the same problems to many others, especially my own children that still view You with suspicion because of my poor example. I invite You by the authority of Your Son who covers all of my sin with His blood, to entice the hearts of my children and reveal to them the real truth about You that I failed to show them. Share with them what You are really like, that You are not abusive and dogmatic and demanding like they think You are. Reveal Yourself to them and to me even more clearly so that our lives will begin to reflect Your heart more accurately and attract others to want to know You for themselves.

This is Your glory – to take messed up, guilty, screwed-up sinners like us who have believed and spread so many nasty things about You and turn us into loyal children living together in love and beauty as Your family. Thank-you so much for the incredible privilege of being Your child. Now, please convince my heart of that truth as well as my head, for Your reputation's sake and for Your glory, Amen.

Who's Your Father?

I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father. (John 8:38)

When I first noticed the difference in this verse a few days ago between Jesus seeing and the Jews doing, I thought that there was something possibly quite significant about it. But upon further investigation this morning I realize that meaning of this verse is much more ambiguous than I first thought based on those words. After looking at several translations and at the Greek I saw that even the NASB is not as accurate here as it usually is and that there may be many other potential meanings or possible applications for this verse.

First of all, on looking up the Greek I saw that there really is no difference whatsoever in these words like there is in the NASB. The very same word is used in both places which means to see or observe. Why the NASB used the word heard in the second instance is not clear to me but there is yet more ambiguity than even that. At first glance it would appear that a more accurate translation might be like this:

I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father. (John 8:38 NKJV)

But then after more research I came across a translation that had a whole different view that made me look even closer.

I declare what I have seen in the Father's presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father. (John 8:38 NRSV)

This potentially puts a completely different perspective on what Jesus might have been trying to say to these men. Instead of assuming that He was referring to their father as being Satan, He may well have been trying to appeal to them to act more in line with their claims that God was their Father.

I began to look around at the immediate context and noticed that on both sides of this verse are references to a different father altogether besides either God or Satan. These Jews were insisting that Abraham was their father and Jesus was challenging that claim, not their biological ancestry but in their spirit. On seeing this I am now leaning more toward believing that the last translation may be the closest to Jesus' intent, except that He may have been appealing to them to have an attitude more in line with that of Abraham who was a personal friend of God rather than having such animosity toward Him.

What is more significant and is another good clue along this line is the distinction that Jesus makes in His choice of words in the verses just before and after this verse. In verse 37 Jesus acknowledges that in fact these Jews could technically be traced back biologically to the sperm of Abraham (the literal translation of the word Jesus used). But in verse 39 Jesus uses a different word, one meaning child, a son or daughter. In this later verse Jesus strongly implies that though someone could be proven to have come from the sperm of Abraham, heaven had reason to doubt that they were really his children. What I hear from Jesus in this passage is that from heaven's perspective the way we act and the spirit we choose to foster has a great deal more to do with what family we actually belong to than the physical lineage we may be able to trace or the denominational identity we claim.

Likewise I also see a reinforcing parallel in these two adjoining verses with the distinction found in verse 38 between what Jesus was speaking in contrast with the actions of the Jews. In this respect the KJV seems to have rendered it closer to the original with both phrases referring to what they see in their fathers. Jesus' distinction is on the speaking that results in His life from what He sees, while the emphasis of these religious leaders is on the doing, the outward performances that results from what they see. Jesus points out that their outward activities betray the fact that they were going about plotting ways to kill Jesus which revealed that their spirit was more in line with Satan than with either Abraham or God as a father. The reason Jesus gave for their condition was because His word had found no place in them. As a result of this deficiency, their lives were more reflective of the attitudes and actions of Satan than with any of the other fathers mentioned.

Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this." (39-40) Clearly Jesus was pressing home the truth that all of us need to hear, that it makes little difference what our lineage may be, what our claims or labels or ancestry may imply. What really exposes us in heaven's eyes is the spirit that we choose to possess, the example we emulate, the source of light (or darkness) that we focus our soul mirror on and in turn reflect to others. While claiming to be loyal descendants of their father Abraham these Jews were in fact not really following his example at all in spirit. They were distorting and misapplying what they had read about Abraham and had established their whole system of religion mostly on false premises and assumptions. They believed firmly that as long as they could claim the right labels, establish the right proofs and maintain an air of piety, all the while using proof texts to defend their positions, that they were safe for God to save.

But Jesus came to this earth to reveal a completely different measurement of worth and identity. Instead of relying on a person's physical lineage to determine their identity or any other such outward labels, Jesus came to show us that real family and heaven's salvation has to do with the values and the words that are cherished in the heart and that result in the outward actions in harmony with their mentor. These Jews, just like most of us yet today, had the mistaken notion that salvation was all about winning arguments and defending labels and keeping up appearances. But Jesus came to show us that real family and real identity is totally based on what is hidden inside, what is cherished in the heart, our disposition and attitudes that result from the choices we make about how we are going to relate to the Word of God that reveals the truth about our real Father in heaven.

Since Jesus was God in the flesh it would have been extremely easy for Him to use that advantage to resist temptation, to live a good life, to satisfy any one of His many needs that He experienced while living on this earth. What I have discovered over the past few years is that indeed this part of Him was potentially His greatest vulnerability, His temptation to tap into the enormous power that was always at His fingertips to use it for His own advantage. None of us has ever faced any temptation even close to what Jesus faced in this regard. And yet in a way we still face a similar temptation. We have the delusion that somehow we can improve our own condition with inherent power that we think we possess and we try to do just that over and over. Then when we seem to have limited success in that way it only reinforces the false premise that God expects us to lift ourselves up, to get rid of sin through a lot of self-effort and with help from God. This is the grand illusion that blinded the Jews from embracing the real truth that Jesus came to show them. And it is still the grand illusion that blinds nearly everyone today who still are trapped under the spell of false thinking about the essence of true godliness.

Jesus lived His whole life on earth not depending for even a single moment on His own inherent abilities to save Himself from any pain or discomfort, but He demonstrated for us a model of reflective response by His intimate relationship with His Father in heaven. In this verse He clearly states that He kept His Father in view, that His words were in response to what He saw with His spirit in His Father and what He perceived from heaven.

This was the example that Jesus gave for us to follow. It is a life of living from the heart, but for us it must be the heart that Jesus gives us, not the deceived, selfish heart that we were born with. As we allow Jesus to give us a new heart, new attitudes, new motives, feelings and impulses, we will find that our outward actions, words and relationships will all begin to be transformed and our lives will begin to reflect more and more the symptoms that are always seen in the lives of those in sync with God. The religious word for that is godliness which simply means looking, acting, feeling and treating others more and more like God does.

The emphasis in the life of Jesus was much more on staying connected with His Father and letting that determine what came out of His mouth. I speak the things which I have seen with My Father... This reminds me of the admonition from the book of James reminding us of our need to pay attention to the same part of our anatomy. The whole of chapter three is a powerful explanation of our need to pay close attention to our tongue and what we say. It is not enough to profess to be a Christian. As James warns us, ...no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. (James 3:8-10)

Toward the end of this chapter James reveals the problem that all of us share with those pious people who resisted Jesus so much. He speaks of two different sources of wisdom and the vast difference they make in our lives. Interestingly the language is strikingly similar to the situation covered here in John.

Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:13-18)

Location

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.

When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. (John 8:3-4, 9)

These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come. (John 8:20)

I want to know what is significant about the identity of the places where these things took place relative to what happened or what was said. It seems clear that John wants to point out for some reason the location of each event and it seems there might be some insights that a Jew might intuitively know that could greatly enhance this passage if we were aware of them. Why is this verse placed right where it is?

What I am noticing so far is a couple of clues. First, the woman was placed in the center to achieve maximum exposure for the setup that the leaders had arranged to entrap Jesus. They wanted to discredit and embarrass Him as much as possible and so they chose the location with the greatest public exposure in which to pull off their cruel stunt. Not knowing the layout of the temple complex very well I am not sure where this may have been, but I would like to learn more about it.

Second, it seems somewhat obvious that the main topic of the following section revolved about judging and witnessing and other such legal type issues. But it seems rather curious to me that legal issues should have such close linkage to the treasury of the temple. I am sure there is something very potent behind this but I just don't yet have enough information to put it together. I am leaving this question up to Father to explain it to me through whatever means He chooses.

But one thing did come out as I reviewed this section. In the verse previous to this the Jews asked Jesus where His Father was. I had not thought of it before, but they were literally standing in what everyone considered the most sacred house on earth. Therefore they were standing in God's house, the Father of Jesus, and not only that they were standing in what humans considered one of the most valuable areas of the house, the place where all the money was kept. And for the Jews the money was far more important to them than the Most Holy Place. But from heaven's perspective the real treasure that God had to offer was in the Most Holy Place, the part of God's model that represented the deepest intimacy with the very heart of God, the greatest gift that He longs for each one of us to embrace.

Immediately after this section Jesus moves into talking about going away. It would seem that the text might imply that Jesus may have no longer been standing in the treasury when He talked about that. Since the narrative often does not spell out some of the details or how long of a pause there was between events or dialogs, the little clues that are there should be taken seriously. If John specifically mentioned Jesus speaking verses 12-19 in the treasury, then it might be valid to assume that the following discussion may well have happened somewhere else. Again, it might be helpful to be more acquainted with the physical layout of the temple grounds to see how this might be significant if it is.

One thing seems clear however. All of the events of this chapter took place on the temple grounds. The last verse of this chapter explicitly states that when things got so hot for Him that they took up stones to kill Him, at that point Jesus left the temple. So from the time where they dumped the woman caught in adultery at His feet until He plainly stated that He was the great I AM from all eternity, everything transpired somewhere on the temple grounds but evidently in different parts of it.

When to Speak or Judge

I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.

...I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. (John 8:26, 28)

Even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me. (16)

What is the underlying reason Jesus chose not to speak and judge?

He came to reflect, not to initiate. However, that did not prevent Him from being able to perceive situations and people's hearts from heaven's perspective and to have the ability to do much more than what He did do. He chose to limit what He said and how much He exposed others to only what He was prompted to do by His Father as an example of how we should relate to others.

We may have insights about situations or motives of others that may be very interesting and even compelling but that may need to remain within our own minds just as Jesus demonstrated here. God may give us insights for our benefit that are not intended to be conveyed to others at that point in time. If we take the initiative and misuse the insights or knowledge that we have been given instead of relying on the Spirit for constant guidance and timing in these matters, we may find ourselves usurping the role of the Spirit by trying to bring conviction to others. But when we try to convict others – judge them – the results are always negative. They will feel condemned instead of convicted and will react defensively instead of with repentance. We can spoil years of work that God has been accomplishing in someone's heart by gentle promptings of His Spirit by trying to convict them ourselves using inside information that should have remained inside us until the Spirit prompted us to share it.

We must also be very careful to check the source of our promptings. Not every prompt is from the Holy Spirit and it is quite easy to confuse where it is coming from if we are not in the constant practice of staying in close connection with God's Spirit and listening obediently. Our flesh can easily imitate the Spirit of God and other spirits can imitate Him as well. That is why God tells us to test every spirit before believing that it comes from heaven. Just because it sounds or feels like a good idea from our perspective does not mean it comes from God.

There are two things here, speaking and judging. I wonder what is significant about that?

Initiator or Reflector

I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. (John 8:28)

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV)

Simply put, Jesus' example on earth was not one where He came to show us how to work very hard to be good enough to satisfy all of God's rules. Jesus came to show us how that humans can be reflectors of perfection, not originators of perfection. By living a life of total submission and dependence on His Father without ever resorting for a moment to self-dependence, Jesus showed us the only possible technique whereby we can be prepared to live in God's presence in heaven.

Righteousness is not meant to be achieved; righteousness for humans can only be reflected. God's glory is His righteousness, the reality of how good He is, not how well behaved He is. Jesus stated explicitly that only God is good. Therefore, if we are to be prepared to enter heaven as good our own lives must be aligned with the goodness of God to prepare us to be able to live in close proximity with Him for eternity. God is not always going to veil His glory from humanity, but His glory is deadly for anyone not in full compliance with the principles of reality which make up His universe and His character.

The solution that Jesus demonstrated for us was simple. Jesus came to win our trust in God and His goodness and He showed us that if we are willing to begin trusting Him enough to allow Him access to our hearts and minds that He can make us reflectors of His glory just as Jesus reflected the glory of His Father. This is an ongoing process noted in the second verse. As we allow God's glory to transform us and cleanse us we experience increased capacity to reflect even more glory and our mirrors glow with more light. Mirrors never work at producing light, they only reflect whatever it is they are facing. So too, we are never to try to produce righteousness, we are to spend our efforts focusing our attention and affections on the One who is already righteous.