THE GLORY OF GOD

The glory of God is the display of His attributes in His works, in the carrying out of His will in spite of all difficulties, opposition and enemies. The greatness of the difficulties and opposition only serves to bring out the greatness of His glory. The display of His attributes in connection with man and this world is based upon the work of redemption. Christ came into death in order that the Father might glorify His name, John 12.

The work of Satan and the breakdown of everything in connection with the first man has become the occasion for the display of God’s glory; as the Lord said in connection with the sickness and death of Lazarus, “This sickness is not unto death”; that was not to be the end, “but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby”, John 11: 4. A man may have certain attributes, but having them is not his glory; but the display of them in achieving some great work—that is his glory; he waits the opportunity to display his ability, and if he can accomplish his purpose, the greater the difficulties the greater his glory. It may be in accomplishing some work of art, some great engineering feat, some military victory, &c. The manifestation of his abilities is his glory. Creation first of all displayed something of the glory of God, His power, His wisdom, His skill, His divinity; and though, as far as this world and man is concerned, all has been marred by sin, nevertheless, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handiwork”, Ps 19: 1.

I believe that the next mention of the glory of God is in connection with Abraham. Stephen said, “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham” (Acts 7: 2)—that is, God appeared to Abraham as the One who was able to make good His promise in spite of all natural improbabilities and impossibilities, and Abraham’s faith answered to this revelation of God; he found strength in faith, giving glory to God—that is, he accorded to God the glory which belonged to Him, accounting that God was able to carry out what He had promised. The natural difficulty on the part of Abraham and his wife only served as the occasion for God to display His glory.

Of Pharaoh it says that God raised him up that in him He might display His power, and after God had overthrown him and all his hosts at the Red Sea, the children of Israel in their song (Exod 15) celebrated the glory of God as displayed in deliverance of Israel and in the destruction of the enemy through the waters of the Red Sea, typical of the death and resurrection of Christ. The difficulties of the position and the power and opposition of Pharaoh only served as the occasion for the display of the greatness and glory of God.

In connection with the giving of the law there was a display of the glory of God in measure—that is, of His greatness and majesty. When Israel had broken down and God threatened to destroy them, Moses pleaded that He would spare them for the sake of His own glory, or the nations might say that God had brought them out and was unable to bring them in. Then God said, As I live, saith the Lord, the whole earth shall be filled with my glory, Num 14: 21. The breakdown of man gives the occasion for the display of the glory of God, as will be fully seen in the coming day, when God will have triumphed over every enemy, and in spite of all evil will accomplish the whole mystery of His will, so that His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In the presence of the breakdown of Israel, Moses prayed that God would shew him His glory. But that could not be at that time; apart from the work of redemption, it would mean the destruction and removal of all that was not in keeping with God’s glory—of man universally, and of the creation which God had put under him. Therefore God put him in a cleft of the rock and covered him with His hand while He passed by, and allowed him only to see His back parts. That was all that was seen of God’s glory in Old Testament times; there could not then be the full display of His glory. When the glory of God came down and filled the tabernacle (a figure of heavenly things), Moses even had to go out. It was impossible for man in the flesh to stand in the presence of the glory of God. So when the prophet Isaiah saw the glory of Jehovah, he said, “Woe is me, for I am undone” (Isa 6: 5), &c. He could not stand in the presence of the glory until his lips had been touched with a live coal from off the altar;—figuratively, until he was justified in the righteousness of God. In Old Testament times the effect of any manifestation of God’s glory was to repel men, because they were made conscious of their incapability of meeting its requirements, and their own unsuitability to it.

Now that redemption has been accomplished, God having been glorified in it, His attributes of righteousness, holiness and truth being manifested and vindicated in view of sin, and now that the Man of God’s pleasure who had thus glorified Him has entered into glory, the heavens are opened and the glory of God is now thrown open to man. Stephen saw the glory of God and could say, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God”, Acts 7: 56. This was more than seeing the God of glory; he saw the glory of God. It was not only believing in God as One who was well able to perform what He purposed and promised, but believing in Him as the One who had already triumphed over every enemy and every obstacle, and had already accomplished in the one Man all that He had purposed, and in doing so had revealed His purpose in regard to those whom He has called in the present time (2 Cor 1: 20); the fact that He has accomplished His purpose in the one Man is the guarantee that He will accomplish it in every one who is the subject of His purpose and grace.

Thus we see that all that came into this world by the first man, sin, death, Satan’s power, has been through the work of Christ the occasion of yielding glory to God. The resurrection and glory of Christ is the evidence of God’s absolute triumph. For a short moment, while Christ was in the grave, it seemed as if the enemy had triumphed, that evil had triumphed and that everything was lost. God could well afford to allow this, because in the end it only made evident the complete superiority of God over all evil. God displayed His attributes, His righteousness and His power, and Christ was raised from the dead. He was “raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father”, Rom 6: 4. Thus the glory of God today is manifested in the face of Jesus Christ; as we gaze upon that blessed Man in the glory of God we see displayed in Him all the attributes of God in complete triumph and in harmony with His nature, all the will and purpose of God in regard to Him accomplished in spite of all that could oppose and in spite of all difficulties, sin, death, Satan; nothing could stand in the way.

Then it is important to remember that this display of God’s glory has been in view of the death of Jesus. He could say in view of His death, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself”, John 13: 31. That is, His being glorified by God is made conditional upon His having glorified God. All the claims of the glory of God in regard to sin have been perfectly met, and the man that could not possibly stand in the presence of God’s glory has been removed in the death of Jesus to make room for the Man that is altogether suitable to His glory and who has already entered into it, the beginning and representative of a new race all of His own order, so that if He could enter in those who are of Him can also enter. This Stephen saw and he was not afraid to enter in. He said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”, Acts 7: 59. So the apostle says, We all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, 2 Cor 3: 18. That is the holiest. We have liberty in the presence of the glory of God, because it is set forth in Jesus Christ, and is the witness to the perfection of His sacrifice and death and to the perfect acceptance of the One who is our Head, the One who now appears as our representative in the presence of God, so that His acceptance is the measure of our acceptance. In His death all that in us which was unsuitable to the glory has been removed from before God. He appeared once in the end of the age “to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”, Heb 9: 26. In Him we have righteousness and life ministered to us, so that in Him we are made suitable to the glory of God. A man in Christ could be caught up into paradise.

The glory of God which has been displayed in putting Christ as Man in glory will be displayed another day in putting the church there with Him as the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. The church is the masterpiece of all God’s works, the taking up sinful ruined creatures such as we were and putting us in glory according to the mind of God, in perfect suitability to Him, so that when the church is manifested in glory she will display the glory of God; in so doing God will make the fullest display of His attributes, hence it says, “unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages”, Eph 3: 21. This is the object for which God has taken up the church, the end to which He is now working in the saints. We are His workmanship. The future manifestation of the glory of God is our hope, we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God”, Rom 5: 2. We are looking for the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. God has called us to His kingdom and glory by Christ Jesus. We know what the appearing of His glory will bring about. It will bring about the resurrection of the saints or the changing of the living into perfect conformity to Christ. It will bring about the suppression and removal of all evil, the overturning of all the glory of man, of all that opposes itself and exalts itself against God, and on the other hand the establishment of all that is good and holy, all that is of God and according to God, the final accomplishment of all His will, a condition of things in which God will have divine complacency and in which He will rest eternally, when God will be all in all, and in which everything will declare His glory.

This is the great consummation for which we wait, and which will be brought about by the Man whom God has made strong for Himself, and whose glory will be manifested in this perfect accomplishment of the will of God.

From Helps for the Poor of the Flock vol 15 (1910)