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Glory |
Rev. Langerak
is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan
The primary meaning of glory is
derived from the Old Testament word kabod, as in Ichabod, the child so
named after the glory of God departed with the ark (I
Sam. 4:21). Its New Testament equivalent, doxa
(as in doxology), originally meant opinion or view, but biblically has taken on
the same meaning as the Old Testament kabod, which refers to a thing of
heft or weight, i.e. massive, important, substantial, abundant, or
considerable, thus honorable, splendid, magnificent, and awesome to see,
experience, or contemplate. The opposite is something slight, trifling, vain,
and lacking, thus lowly, dishonorable, contemptible, and shameful (Ps.4:2; Is.
23:9; Prov.
3:35; I
Cor. 15:43).
In Scripture, glory
is attributed either to God or to something God makes glorious by His presence
or as His handiwork. God is glorious in His being. He is the God of glory,
which is the splendid, magnificent, and awesome weight of His substantial,
considerable, even infinite and eternal, perfections (Ps.
29:3). He is glorious in power (I
Thess. 1:9), greatness (Deut.
5:24), wisdom (Ps.
104:24), righteousness (Is. 62:2), holiness (Is. 63:15), love (John
17:24), and mercy and grace (Ex.
33:18-19). And wherever God dwells, in heaven, His temple, or with His
people in the new creation, that glory radiates as holy, shining light (Rev.
21:23; Ex.
40:34; II
Chronicles 7:1).
God reveals this
glory in all His works (Ps.
104:31). One such work is creation. The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps.
19:1). The God of glory thunders, is upon many waters,
and above all the earth (Ps.
29:3; 148:13). As creatures of His wisdom and power, He gives glory to the
flowers of the field (Matt.
6:29), to forests and fields (Is. 60:13), to bodies terrestrial and
celestial (I
Cor. 15:40), and to kings and kingdoms of this world (Matt.
4:8). But it remains His, that the
whole earth be full of His glory (Is. 6:3). The wickedness of fallen man is
that he robs God of His glory. Man, once crowned with glory, but having sinned
and come short of the glory of God, shamefully changes that glory into an image
of himself and attributes its substantial splendor to the mere chance of
evolution (Ps.
8:5; Matt.
6:2; Rom.
1:23; 3:23).
The thievery does
not end there. Man robs God of His glory in the redemption of fallen sinners
and creation, by attributing some part of it to the will, worth, or work of the
man. God will have none of it. His glory is great in salvation (Ps. 2 1:
5). He creates the church, places salvation in
God most perfectly
reveals His glory and glorifies us by His presence in the Spirit of Jesus
Christ. As the express image of God, Jesus is the brightness of His glory and
was glorified with Him before the world was (Heb.
1:3; John
17:5). Though He entered into our shame, we beheld His glory as of the only
begotten of the Father and manifest in mighty miracles (John
1:14; 2:11). Not seeking His own glory, He was raised from death by the
glory of the Father and received into heaven, the King of glory, who comes
again with great glory (John
8:50;
Our calling is to
give God the glory due unto His name (Ps.
29:2). We glorify God by worshiping Him reverently with the saints (Ps.
96:8); by declaring among the heathen His marvelous works, including
creation (I
Chronicles. 16:24); by attributing to Him alone the strength, wisdom,
grace, love, and mercy of His work of salvation, including election (Rom.
9:23); by believing and confessing that Jesus alone is the Lord of glory (I
Cor. 2:8; Phil. 2:11); and by patiently rejoicing in hope of the glory to
be revealed in the perfected kingdom of Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:2).
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ (II
Cor. 4:6). To Him be glory forever.