God’s glory is not limited to God; it can be experienced by and obtained by those who know him, as far as they do. God’s glory comes from what he does, why he does it, and how he does it. So does yours. The only way to gain more of God’s glory is to learn more of what he does, why he does it, and how he does it, and to do the same.
All of God’s creations can experience and possess some measure of his glory. Of all God’s creations, only humankind possesses a form capable of coming up to the understanding and implementation of how he is. Man was not created to be a lesser example of something sort of like God, but to actually become like him. We are not types and shadows of God,1 but “made in his image,”2 or made in the likeness of God, with the same potential he has. To be made in the image of God means that a path from how we are to how he is exists. God is the demonstration of our ultimate divine potential.3 Human potential is denominated in God’s actuality.4 Our potential is defined by how God is, not how we presently are. He cannot reveal anything about himself to us without simultaneously giving us power to believe, do, and become more than we would have before.
Every aspect of our being is susceptible to improvement toward how God is in that aspect. Improvement is the root mechanism of all miracles in the body, advancement in the mind, and accomplishment in the world. Everything about us tends toward God if we but believe it is possible.
As you learn more about and live more like Jesus, you will increasingly glorify him by demonstrating his goodness more fully to others. To glorify God is to make the divine qualities or their effects more apparent or to bestow them upon someone or something more fully. You cannot glorify God except through thinking, feeling, and acting more like him, or helping others to do the same. Nothing glorifies God more than a person who becomes like him.
God’s glory is demonstrated by men who rise up to become more like him. Jesus lived so fully in emulation of the Father that he said if people knew him, they knew the Father. He commanded us to live in the same way!5 Jesus said that while he remained on earth, he was the light of the world, but after he was gone, his disciples would be the light of the world.6 He charges us to be as he would be in our place, to demonstrate to others what he would do if he were here.7 None of us are interchangeable with Jesus, but all of us can live so that we become indistinguishable from him to those who are less like him than us.8
It is not sinful to strive to be like God—it is the very purpose of God, the reason for which he gave himself for us, and a necessary prerequisite for others to learn more about him than they presently know.
Footnotes
- 1. The word type in Greek (hupodeigma, Strong’s 5262) does not just mean an example of, but conveys a sense of being a lower-detail or less accurate version of the original. A shadow, in the Greek sense, is a lesser but lower intensity and more easily visible version of what is greater. ↩
- 2. An image is not a low fidelity impression, but an exact copy. Consider Paul’s juxtaposition of the two concepts: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” (Hebrews 10:1) ↩
- 3. They who dwell in his presence are the church of the Firstborn; and they see as they are seen, and know as they are known, having received of his fulness and of his grace; And he makes them equal in power, and in might, and in dominion. (D&C 76:94-95) ↩
- 4. He quite literally calls us to obtain the same end: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) Here, the word translated “perfect” is teleioi, which means to completely fulfill the potential of something. It was to this end that the disciples were sent out: to immerse all people into the character of Christ, insofar as they were willing to receive it. ↩
- 5. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Matthew 5:16) ↩
- 6. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. (John 9:5) Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. (Matthew 5:14) ↩
- 7. Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do.... (3 Nephi 18:24) ↩
- 8. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. (John 14:7) But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. (John 5:17-20) ↩