The
Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ
The Glory of God is “the highest of all topics and the grandest
of all subjects.” To display God's glory was God's purpose in creating the
entire universe and its people. And in the process His grace is central so we
sing praise to His glorious grace “That in the ages to come he might shew the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:7
The Glory of
God is who He is in His
essential Being and
all that He has done and is
doing. The visible
manifestation of the Glory of God is the glorious light that surrounds Him. God
“alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light. .
. .” 1 Timothy 6:16 ESV
Moses and the children of Israel saw the glory of God
as the Shekinah Glory led them through the wilderness. The glory of God was in
the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. It showed itself as the Glory Cloud
during the day and as a pillar of fire at night. Moses saw the Glory of God in
the burning bush and on Mount Sinai when God gave “the Law of
Moses.”
The Hebrew and Greek words for glory are both
weighty and beautiful. That's precisely what scripture says:
“For our light affliction, which is
but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory;” 2 Corinthians 4:17
And there is no greater majesty and splendor and inherent beauty
than the glory of God.
Used of man, glory speaks of radiance and praise,
reputation, and wealth. Vanity and pride is associated with it. It is finite,
transitory, and fickle, dependent on the whims of the crowds and the image
makers. “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The
grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains
forever.” 1 Peter 1:24-25 ESV
And so does the glory of God in His absolute perfection. His
holiness, his majesty, his character, His power, His works all contribute to His
glory.
And the glory of God was demonstrated in the Person of
Jesus who is the highest revelation of God. He is “the image of the invisible
God,” Colossians 1:15
“the
brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and
upholds all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our
sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high.” Hebrews 1:3
In the Incarnation “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father,)
full of grace and truth.” John
1:14 They all saw the excellence of His character, and Peter, James, and
John saw the visible manifestation of His glory in the transfiguration.
He
“was transfigured
before them: and his face did shine as the sun,” “and his raiment became
shining, exceeding white as snow. . . .” Matthew
17:2 and Mark 9:3 Years later Peter wrote, “We were
eyewitnesses of His majesty.” 2 Peter
1:16
There is also the glory of God's beautiful creation.
“The heavens declare the glory of
God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” Psalm
19:1 ESV
“There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the
glory of
the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the
earthly
is of another. There is
one glory
of the sun, and another glory of the
moon,
and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in
glory.” 1 Corinthians 15:40-41
ESV
Does man have intrinsic glory? Well, yes, he does! God
gave it to him when He created man in His own image, to reflect in a small,
finite way, SOME of the things God can do though infinitely different, still man
can think, feel, act, love, make moral and ethical judgments, be creative, love
beauty, accomplish worthwhile projects, build, improve. All of the things God
gave us to do in the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:26-27. That is the dignity
and worth of mankind.
“For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast
crowned
him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things
under his feet.” Psalm
8:5-6 So man created in the image of God should be accorded
the deference and dignity that God has conferred upon him. That's why we should
treat everyone with dignity and respect, because we know who they are!--created
in God's image.
But fallen man's conception of “glory” is quite
different from that. And to describe it we need a Greek word quite different from
doxa which means glory. For this we must
use kenodoxos which means man's desire of praise,
being conceited and boastful. Man wants to be the center of his own universe and
claims to be autonomous or independent of God. When the truth of the matter is
that we cannot even breathe our next breath without
God.
In the Graeco-Roman world of Bible times
fame and
glory were among the most important values in life.
And the Jewish rabbis also highly esteemed the honor and praise of
man—characteristics that Jesus warned against. In contrast the apostle Paul told
the Thessalonians, “We were not
looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.” 1 Thess.
2:6
The Glory of God and
the Beauty of God are so closely related they could almost be used
interchangeably. Here's how Sam Storms expressed it, “God’s glory is the beauty of God
unveiled. Glory is the resplendent radiance of His power and His personality.
Glory is all of God that makes God God, and shows Him to be worthy of our praise
and our boasting and our trust and our hope and our confidence and our
joy.”
“Glory is the external elegance of the internal
excellencies of God. Glory is what you see and experience and feel when [you see
the beauty of the works of God in creation.]
“Understanding God is but a means to enjoying God. We
tell others of this glory and [thus increase our joy and theirs] at what we have
told. . . .
“Treasure God. Prize Him. Delight in Him. Enjoy Him. In
doing so you magnify Him, you show Him to be the most wonderful and sweet and
all-sufficient being in the universe.
“. . . Enjoying God is not a means to a higher end. This
IS the end. Enjoying God is not a pathway to the pinnacle. It is the pinnacle,
the purpose for which you and I live. As such, it is the solution to our
struggle with sin. The antidote to apathy is the enjoyment of God. It is the
divine catalyst for human change.”
“And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the
same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is
the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV
--Sam Storms,
One
Thing: Developing a Passion for the Beauty of
God.
Christian Focus Publications
“What is the chief end of man?” “To glorify
God
and to enjoy Him forever.”
–Westminster Shorter Catechism,
1643
“One thing have I desired of the
Lord,
that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the
days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord. . . .” Psalm
27:4
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