The Nature of Glory
The theme of glory is both wide and extensive in Scripture, so, in this article, the surface of this wonderful subject will only be lightly scratched. The failure of the human mind to appreciate the nature of glory was particularly evident in the days of the Lord’s ministry upon earth. The majority of men would say, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary…?” (Mk 6.3). In accordance with Isaiah’s prophecy their attitude was “he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Is 53.2). Consequently, we read at the end of Mark 6.3, “And they were offended at him”. On the other hand, how beautiful is John’s testimony; “And 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” (Jn 1.14). An unbelieving and cold-hearted nation equated glory only with open splendour, unparalleled might and the magnificence of majesty, and had no concept of, or desire for, the quiet, dignified display of moral excellence and devotion to the will of His Father that belonged to the Lord in the days of His flesh.
Glory is the outward manifestation of qualities and attributes that are otherwise unseen. Every expression of the divine heart is glorious, and God (who alone is intrinsically glorious) thus displays His character in many different ways. Whether, and in what way, those manifestations of glory are perceived by men is determined by their condition of heart before God. The Psalmist says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Ps 19.1), and the believing heart exults in this display and gladly exclaims, “How great Thou art!”. The response of the unregenerate heart, however, is solemnly recorded in Romans 1.23; “(they) changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things”. How can the glory of God be changed? Clearly, the intrinsic glory of the eternal God is totally unaffected by the wicked rebellion of men, but that which expresses His glory and would teach men of God and His ways is rejected, despised and polluted.
Glory seen in both Splendour and Lowliness
The first time we read of “the glory of the Lord” is in Exodus 16.6-7 where Israel murmured against the Lord because of their hunger: “And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord”. As they looked toward the wilderness they saw the glory of the Lord in the cloud, “and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat” (Ex 16.13-15). How wonderful were these two different displays of the glory of the Lord! We might say that in the one was the splendid demonstration of supreme power and awesome majesty, and in the other…? It would not be long before the people would loathe “this light bread” from heaven (Num 21.5) and count it a common thing, but was the “small round thing” not also a constant miraculous reminder of the supreme power and awesome majesty of their God? The cloud and the manna were both manifestations of divine glory, but human perception of them differed greatly. Was this not also true when the true Bread from Heaven graced this scene? The first mention of “the glory of the Lord” in the NT is in Luke 2.9: “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid”. The occasion, of course, was the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, and immediately we read, “And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Lk 2.12). Once again the shining glory of the Lord in the heavens gave way to a “small, round, white thing” lying upon the dew of the earth, and the true Bread from Heaven would reveal the glory of the Lord in a way never seen before. Initially, He “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Lk 2.52), but it was not long before the soul of the nation began to loathe Him. Nothing men could say or do would ever affect His intrinsic, personal, glory, but they took the “Lord of glory” and put Him to an open shame. How dearly men wished to deprive Him of His dignity and holy deportment, raining their blows and vile spittle upon Him! But, as the centurion watched the perfect Man upon the cross, and witnessed the manner in which He died, he was moved to say, “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mk 15.39).
Glory Conferred by Another
As the Psalmist contemplates the smallness of man against the backdrop of the infinitude of God’s creation, he says of man, “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” (Ps 8.5-6). Such was man’s dignity and standing before the Fall. God made man to have dominion over all that He had made, and with that headship God conferred glory and honour upon Adam as well. The three things, glory, honour and dominion are linked. His exercise of dominion as a divinely appointed steward entitled Adam to be honoured by creation, and he, in turn, would both reveal the glory of God to creation and glorify God on behalf of the creation over which he had been appointed head. The various glories that God had given His creatures (1 Cor 15.39-41) would be directed and focused through Adam unto God. (The same principle of glory and headship is clearly taught in 1 Corinthians 11, of which we cannot speak now.) When Adam sinned, he not only lost his dominion by surrendering it to the Devil, but he himself came under the dominion of sin. All creation fell with him and became subject to suffering and shame instead of glory and honour. Hence we read in Romans 3.23 that “all have sinned [in Adam], and come short of the glory of God”; that is, all mankind and creation with him now lacks that glory that God intended him to display.
The Lord Jesus, the perfect Man and the last Adam, has won back that dominion by virtue of His sacrificial death at Calvary, His glorious resurrection and His ascension to the right hand of the Father. The Lord Jesus has taken humanity into Heaven and, as Man, has had glory heaped upon Him. Surely no fuller statement of the glory of Christ can be found than that recorded in His prayer in John 17. That God has conferred glory upon this Man is undoubted for He says, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me” (Jn 17.24), but, wonder of wonders, He also said, “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them” (v.22). The Father has heaped glory upon His Son who, as Head of a new, redeemed, order of man has conferred that same glory upon those who are linked with Him by new birth! Thus we are to “the praise of his glory” now, and, very soon, “the Lord Jesus Christ…shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil 3.20, 21).