Glory

Glory is to God what style is to an artist – each is so rich with the style of the one who made it that to the connoisseur it couldn’t have been made by anybody else, and the effect is staggering. The style of an artist brings you as close to the sound of his voice and the light in his eye as it is possible to get this side of actually shaking hands with him.

Glory is the outward manifestation of that hand in its handiwork just as holiness is the inward. To behold God’s glory, to sense his style, is the closest you can get to him this side of Paradise, just as to read King Lear is the closest you can get to Shakespeare.

(Buechner, Fredrick. "Wishful Thinking – A Theological ABC." Harper & Row, 1973, p. 30)

_______________________________________________

The glory of God is the beauty and excellence of His manifold perfections. It is an attempt to put into words what God is like in His magnificence and purity. It refers to His infinite and overflowing fullness of all that is good. . . God’s glory is the perfect harmony of all His attributes into one infinitely beautiful and personal being.

(John Piper in sermon, "God Created Us For His Glory", based on Isaiah 43:1-7)

_______________________________________________

God’s glory is not confined to some outward sign which appeals to the senses, but is that which expresses his inherent majesty, which may or may not have some visible token.

The intrinsic worth of God, his ineffable (indescribable) majesty, constitutes the basic warning not to glory in riches, wisdom, or might but in God who has given all these and is greater than his gifts.

(Baker’s Dictionary of Theology. Baker, 1960, p. 237-37 )

_______________________________________________

Glory and worship are two terms which dwell together especially when used as a verb. It is hard to make a distinction between our call to “glorify God” and to “worship God.” They are one in the same. However, the distinction comes as you consider the term as a noun from God’s perspective. God reveals His glory. Glory emanates from God and His majesty. It is important to make the distinction between glory as a verb (what we are called to do) and glory as a noun (what is seen and experienced in the presence of God – see Piper’s definition above). God’s glory (noun) can be seen in us because we are created in the image of God. As we seek to live for God, to make a name for Him (to glorify Him - verb), His glory (noun) is revealed through us.

All that we do, think, feel, etc. is meant to bring glory to God. We are meant to seek to make a name for God so that His glory can be revealed more and more throughout the world.

Finally, there is that interesting phrase we hear at funerals. “He has gone home to glory.” Colossians 3:4 says it this way, “When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” We would understand that to mean heaven. But it is important to recognize the presence of God and therefore His glory. Isn’t that what heaven is? The presence of God and His glory with no veil – no sin – nothing covering/hiding His glory from being revealed. So to be in heaven is to be in God’s unveiled presence which is to be with Him in glory – His glory experienced and seen completely. What a glorious day that will be!