As Christians we want to please God. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Our desire to please God is synonymous with living a life that glorifies God. “So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20). But what does it mean to glorify God? Since I often use common biblical words like these without thinking too deeply, I concluded that I need to clarify their meaning.
The Glory of God
To understand glorify, we first need to consider its root, glory, which will have a fundamental bearing on what we do to make that glory known. Biblical scholar, Augustus Strong defines glory as “magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, grace, or majesty as belonging to God or Christ.” But what is that excellence that God possesses? Consider several encounters that biblical characters had with his glory.
God’s Glory in Moses’ experience. When Moses descended from Sinai after receiving the ten commandments from God, he wore a veil to cover his face. His face was glorious, too brilliant to look at. Like a mirror, reflecting the sun, Moses proximity to God must have reflected some of God’s radiance.
Moses experience of proximity to God, led him to appeal for more understanding of God’s glory. “Show me your glory. And the LORD said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But, he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Ex 33: 18-20). God then put Moses in a cleft in the rock, covered him with his hand as his glory passed by. This passage indicates that glory is a reflection of God’s attributes including his goodness, mercy, and compassion and those implied by his Name. It also reminds us that the full revelation of God’s being is beyond our ability to absorb—hidden behind blinding light. For example, we can’t see God’s omnipotence, eternity, omnipresence, or omniscience. They are unique to God. Perhaps these attributes are implied by God’s name, LORD, I am that I am. God can only be compared with himself.
God’s Glory in Isaiah’s experience. Isaiah describes another instance in which glory from God is seen as a blinding brilliance. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted … Above him were seraphim, … And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty’” (Isaiah 6:1-5). In this passage, glory may be defined as the magnificence of God’s holiness, a revelation of God’s holy otherness.
Might God’s glory be a synonym for all of God’s indescribable attributes? Let’s continue our study.
God’s glory and the shepherds
In the Christmas story, an angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds outside Bethlehem announcing the birth of a “Saviour … who is Christ, the Lord” and “the glory of the Lord shone around the shepherds and they were terrified” (Luke 2:9). Then a choir of angels appeared “praising God and saying glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:13,14). The shepherds went to see the newborn Christ after which they returned “glorifying and praising God” along the way back. (Luke 2:20).
Here glory is used in several senses. It was a unique, brilliance that was so unnatural to the shepherds that they were terrified. They recognized it as having come from God. This is not unlike the brilliance that stunned Isaiah. In this record, both the angels and the shepherds glorified God, one through their message and the blinding brilliance that surrounded them and the other by what they told each other on the way back from visiting the newborn Jesus. Firstly, the glorious light seems to symbolize the unfathomable greatness of God. Secondly, the message of both the angels and the shepherds glorifies God by praising him for this amazing birth-event. So glorifying God can occur through blinding light or through celebrating what God does. Glorifying God can mean praise and worship as we join the shepherds in singing about Jesus.
God’s Glory in Creation. In the Christmas narrative the angel cried out, “the whole earth is full of his glory.” Psalm 19, verse one, explains, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Paul writes, “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood by what has been made so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). The stars, the sun, the moon glorify God. The tides, the weather, the lakes, the trees, the flowers—all things declare the glory of God. God is invisible but the things he has created and sustains demonstrate his attributes. Just as a great building displays the brilliance of an architect. As Bach’s musical compositions tell us something of his genius. A beautiful painting shows the skill of the artist. Just so, the whole universe displays God’s creative attributes. But that display is limited to certain attributes without displaying truth about his person.
God’s glory in the Son of God’s incarnation. God wants to be known. To demonstrate that purpose, in the fullness of time, God sent his Son, to most uniquely reveal God’s glory. During Jesus’s transfiguration on a high mountain, the glory he displayed was blinding. “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light” (Matt. 17:2). In this brief instance, Jesus reflected in human form something of the glory of his pre-incarnate deity. During the rest of his time on earth, his deity was veiled but attributes never before seen were revealed..
John makes it clear. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:14,18). Revealing God’s glory was Jesus’s mission.
As Jesus contemplated his coming death, he was troubled but knew he must not shrink from the coming humiliation. He prayed, “Father, glorify your name!” upon which a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again” (John 12:28). Clearly, the Father had glorified Jesus during his incarnation but there was another part of this glory-mission yet to be fulfilled. “Have glorified it,” indicates that by demonstrating divine qualities such as moral holiness, love, mercy, and truth Jesus revealed during his lifetime much about what God is like.
In his high priestly prayer Jesus prayed, “Father, the time has come, glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you” (John 17:1). His embrace of death for our sins was an indispensable step in manifesting God’s nature. In his passion, Jesus glorified God in ways never before revealed. Jesus manifested God’s infinite, sacrificial, unselfish love, and grace.
God wants to be known! God had been revealing truths about himself down through history. Moses glorified God. Isaiah glorified God. Creation glorifies God. Jesus’s life, death and resurrection was the ultimate message from God revealing what God is like. What about us? How are we to glorify God?
In the final part of this study, we’ll apply this to our lives.
(Let me know your thoughts on this subject. If you appreciate this blog, please pass it on. If I can help you spiritually, let me know. Further articles, books, and stories at: Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ; Eric’s books are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Eric-E.-Wright/e/B00355HPKK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share)
Country Inspiration 