“…Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory…” James 2:1
Beyond definition, the resplendent beauty of God’s glory stretches from eternity to eternity, permeating throughout God’s Word from the opening curtain of Genesis to the climax of Revelation. Our transcendent God displays His glory by proclaiming His Name, the Name that embraces the totality of His divine attributes and the perfections and excellencies of His ways. The Lord manifests His glory in creation as the sole Creator (Ps. 19:1; 139:14; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:2) and in His redemptive work as the only Savior (Isa. 45:21; John 6:68; 17:3; Titus 3:4), His eternal purposes worthy of both our praise and worship (Rev. 4-5). The visible manifestation of God’s presence, often referred to as the Shekinah glory, typically appeared in a cloud or in fire (Ex. 3:2; 13:21; 24:16-18; 33:9; 1Kgs. 8:10-13) because no creature had the capacity to behold the radiance of His glory (Ex. 33:20; Matt. 17:1-2; John 17:5; 1 Tim. 6:16; Heb. 1:3). He is a holy God; there is none like Him (Ps. 113:5; Isa. 45:6). We may reverently summarize that the glory of God is all that He is and all that He does because of who He is.
Having found grace in God’s sight, Moses besought the Lord for His presence to continue with them after Sinai. After God granted that request, Moses implored “please, show me your glory” (Ex. 33:18). In this he conveyed his fervent desire to see God and for a deepening experiential knowledge of Him. In response, the Lord passed by, proclaiming His Name while He hid Moses in the cleft of the rock (Ex. 33:12-34:8).
Many years later David would similarly pine, “One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple” (Ps. 27:4). In the upper room Philip expressed humanity’s same innate thirst, “…Lord, show us the Father… (John 14:8). Christ responded, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Our thirst for God is eternally quenched in Christ (John 4:14). The beloved apostle John testified, “And the Word became 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…No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:14, 18). Only One who is God, only One who shared the Father’s glory could fully make Him known. In manifesting His Father’s Name, Christ, the eternal Son of God, glorified His Father by revealing His Father’s glory (John 12:28; 17:4, 6).
Where does God’s glory and grace dwell so that we can experience the blessing of salvation and fellowship? It dwells in Christ. “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:3-4, 6).
The gospel is the good news of Christ’s glory (John 12:23-28; John 13:1-12; 17:1-5). John 17:3 says, “…this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” It is through Christ that one may enter into a relationship with God. And as the believer abides in Him through His Word, the Spirit inwardly transforms us into His likeness, so that we reflect the exquisite glory of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). Eternal life is the “Lord Jesus Christ from beginning to end” (1 John 1:1-3; 5:10-13). In John 17, Christ prayed that believers would behold His glory; that we would see His face. In fulfillment, someday “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (John 17:24; 1 John 3:2). To the praise of His glory!