Lifted Up to His Glory

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God but all are declared righteous through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24)

Glory can be defined as "Great honor," to honor means to value. We fall short of God's value. Sin devalues us who were originally created in the image of God. So since "all have sinned" all have been devalued, they take on the value of sin. "The worker deserves his wages." The worker's value determines his wages. The value of sin is so low that its payment (wage) is nothing but death.

The only way to regain value is to be separated from sin. God makes us righteous in our spirit which also makes us righteous in the eyes of the law (the power of sin is the law). He makes us one spirit with Him  (1 Corinthians 6:17) & even goes so far as to hide our life in Himself (Colossians 3:3-4). So we are completely separated from sin as Christ is (Hebrews 7:26) thus death has no sting because the sting of death is sin & our sins have been eradicated. So in spirit we never sin and we never die because He has given us the overabundant value of His Son. The value of His Son is so high that His payment (wage) is life. "The wages of the righteous is life" (Proverbs 10:16).

Redeem means to "restore honor, value, & worth." But He not only regains our value by separating us from sin but in His love He gives us the maximum value of Jesus! So redemption is just the beginning because in Him we are also justified (made righteous) & glorified (Romans 8:30). No matter how much we had fallen short of His glory He much more raises us up to His glory!

"All have sinned and are worthy of death because of it. All fall short of the value of God, He is worthy of life. However God freely makes us righteous & lets everybody know it. Through Christ Jesus He freed us from the death penalty for our sins. He gives us His value because of His love for us."

I take God "declaring us righteous" to mean that He not only convinces us of our righteousness (John 16:8-10) but that He shows His kids off to the angels & our family in heaven.