Of all that C. S. Lewis wrote, one of my favorites is his essay, “The Weight of Glory.” I’m especially interested in what Lewis says in it about the experience of what we refer to as glorification. Glorification is the truth found all through the NT that when Christ returns he will, by the power of the Holy Spirit, utterly eradicate sinful, fallen flesh from us and wholly and completely transform us into the likeness of Jesus himself.

Lewis refers to the glory of glorification as brightness, splendor, or what he calls, luminosity. “We do not want merely to see beauty,” explains Lewis, “though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words – to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it” (37).

In Colossians 3 Paul assures us that “when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4). According to this text, Christ, who is our life, will one day “appear”. That is typically taken for granted among Christians. We refer to it as the Second Coming. But we fail to consider that “when” he appears “then” (note the explicit temporal connection in Paul’s language) we “also will appear with him in glory.”

Let’s put this passage together with another. According to Romans 8:18 we will “see” that glory. Paul says it will be “revealed” to us. But in another sense, we will “be” that glory. But in what sense?

When Paul says we will appear with him “in glory” he’s not referring to a place but an experience. This is the promise of sharing in the glorified life of Christ. It is the promise of the eradication of evil and every fleshly impulse. It is the promise of everlasting deliverance from greed and pride and lust and envy and bitterness. It is the promise that our whole being: body, soul, mind, spirit, and affections will experience and forever live in the power and purity of God himself.

We will not only witness Christ’s glory, we will also be enveloped within it, engulfed by its surging splendor, and made experiential participants of it. One day, oh glorious day, our lives will no longer be “hidden” with Christ in God (Col. 3:3), but fully and finally and forever seen as we glow with the brightness of his glory, for his glory. This is surely what Jesus had in mind in Matthew 13:43 when he said of his Second Coming: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43a).

Lewis does not mean to suggest that the distinction between Creator and creature is blurred, much less obliterated. He will forever be God alone and we will forever be his finite creatures. But the glorious luminosity or majestic brilliance or unimaginable splendor that is God’s will envelop us and permeate us and fill us and flood our hearts and souls and minds and bodies. This glory that will be ours is always derivative, which is to say, it is God’s glory imparted to us.

I struggle to find language and imagery that can adequately explain what it will be like and what it will feel like when Matthew 13:43 comes true: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43a). At no time in this experience, either at its inception or throughout the eternal ages, will anyone ever think or feel or suggest that this glory is anything other than the luminosity of God that has been graciously and mercifully imparted to otherwise hell-deserving sinners. We will always be reflections of that ultimate glory that belongs to God alone. And that is why this event of glorification and the process of never-ending growth and intensification of it will always be grounds for our praise of him, and never praise of us.