The Ever-increasing Glory of Graduation

Across North America, for the past few weeks and weeks to come, it is graduation time. Students become graduates and hence ambassadors for their alma mater. They benefit by the reputation of the school, college, university and by their competence and character add (or detract) from the glory of the institution. Each student becomes a living testimony to the value of the institution and its ability to turn-out graduates of worth. Their life going forward becomes an advertisement or letter of recommendation for their college or university. This reality has been with us since the founding of Harvard College in 1636.

Reading my Bible this week in a devotional moment, I encountered once again the words of the Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 3:2-6 & 18). As I read it more than once, I thought of graduating students and their alma mater and specifically about Trinity Western University. Paul writes (the words in parentheses are mine):

You yourselves (graduates) are our (TWU's) letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You (graduates) show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our (TWU's) ministry, written not with ink (as in your degree/diploma), but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone (or parchment), but on tablets of human hearts. . . Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves (as TWU), but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant - not of the letter but of the Spirit.

To the extent that this is true in a TWU graduate's life, it brings glory to the university. It means that our desire that university education be more than a transaction, that it be focused on "whole person development" and transformation, intellectually, socially, and spiritually, and therefore glorious! The Apostle Paul's letter to the Corinthians speaks to this transformation, one that brings glory beyond the realm of the university. He writes:

And we, who with unveiled faces ( a reference to Moses on Mt. Sinai) 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.

Coming down from Mt. Sinai, Moses' face reflected God's glory having been in God's presence on the mountain. He had to cover his face with a veil, but it was a fading glory. Paul says that we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ with ever-increasing glory., one that need not fade. What a difference. What a transformation. What a reality that brings hope for a future of impact on the world and glory to God. The potential here goes far beyond glory to one's alma mater. Yet it is the greatest testimony to one's university possible. It is a witness that the university is a means of grace in students' lives and that through the education the university provides, God is able to get his hands on the clay of their lives and shape students into his likeness if they let him. Glory to God! This is special. This is different. The university exists for education, transformation, and impact on the world. Changed lives become world changers to the glory of the university, but more importantly to the glory of God!