What is the glory of God?

kabod, 'weight, honour, glory' (the word commonly used). It is frequently applied to God, as in 'the God of glory,' Ps. 29:3; to Jehovah as 'the King of glory,' Ps. 24:7-9; 'the glory of Jehovah' that appeared on Mount Sinai, and that filled the tabernacle, Ex. 24:16-17; Ex. 40:34-35, and will fill the future temple, Ezek. 43:2-5.

Glory belongs to God: He is the God of glory. Acts 7:2; 2 Cor. 4:6, 15. In Him all the divine attributes shine in infinite perfection. Christians in acknowledging this, and owning that from Him come all their blessings, joyfully ascribe unto Him "Praise and honour, glory and power, for ever and ever."

This thought of glory hidden brings us to the glory of God, which, in its full expression, is the effulgence or display of Himself in the accomplishment of His counsels, in hope of which Christians rejoice. These counsels hid in God constitute, as one may say, His glory; and in their result they fully display His wisdom, love, and power. Meanwhile they have come to light through Christ being at the right hand of God, and the Holy Ghost given. We have now the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The glory of God is the manifestation of Himself. His glory fills all creation. "The heavens declare the glory of God." Wherever His works are seen, there His glory is. Wherever God's creatures are, or there is a heart to appreciate His glory, there you will have that glory manifested. But beyond the outermost limits of space, beyond all created things, reaching off into the infinite, which God alone can comprehend, you have still the glory of God transcending the universe even as God Himself is beyond it all. But Christ is the brightness, the effulgence, or outshining, of that glory.

He is also the very impress, the very image of God's being, of His substance, so that the Lord Himself has said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." … All that God is — not merely in His ways, but in His being — is expressed absolutely by the Son.

What does the apostle mean by "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ"? It is clear that a bright knowledge is intimated, and of the highest value, not only for the present time but for all eternity.

When I look at the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, far more glorious than in Moses, does it alarm me? No, on the contrary it is the proof that I am brought to God; it is the testimony that I am saved, because I see it in the One who bore my sins on the cross. I see the love that He shewed in dying for us, and I see the efficacy of His work in His being there, because He is there and glorified as the Man who died for me and bore my sins.

"We all with unveiled face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit."

In that death God has been perfectly glorified in all that He is, and, at the same time, man's need has been met. If God had merely manifested His hatred of sin in the destruction of the sinner, it would have been righteous surely, but where then His love? If on the other hand, sin was passed over, men allowed to keep sins, and no more about it, there would be no righteousness.

It is a conception worthy of the blessed God that He will one day have the whole universe filled with love and light and glory in and through the MAN of His right hand.

This inner glory is the source from which all the publicly displayed glory in the millennial kingdom will flow; all the splendour of the celestial and terrestrial glory must take character from this.

The glorious blaze of Christ's day in which He was seen as the centre of the throng of worlds will have passed away, but this deeper, calmer, fuller and everlasting joy and glory will continue. This must, as standing in the Father's love, abide for ever for the Father's eternal delight, it is the fruit of the Father's counsel which alone is the true manifestation of the Father's heart.

The visible manifestation of glory seems connected with light: it was so on the mount of transfiguration. Matt. 17:2. God dwells in "light which no man can approach unto." 1 Tim. 6:16. In the new Jerusalem the glory of God lightens it, "and the Lamb is the light thereof." Rev. 21:23.

Different rays of that glory had shone out in these outstanding men of God in Israel's history, but now all are eclipsed. The heavens are open now — there is a Man in the glory, and that Divine Person, the Holy Spirit, has come down to dwell in our souls, uniting us thus to Christ in glory. He reports to us that every ray of the glory of God has been gathered up and concentrated in the Man of His pleasure.