“The heavens declare the glory of God; the
skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where
their voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:1-3).
A picture of Andromeda was taken by the Hubble
Space Telescope. Andromeda is a twin to our Milky Way galaxy, except it is more
than twice as large, with one trillion stars. Light, traveling at 186,000 miles
per second, must travel for 220,000 years to get from one side of Andromeda to
the other. Yet, Andromeda is like a speck when compared to the entire universe.
How does that make you feel? No wonder David
prayed, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and
the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).
Before you start feeling insignificant,
however, remember that the vastness of the universe is not designed to make us
feel small. The universe is not about us. It is about God. It reveals his
glory. Few things are more awe-inspiring than looking up at the stars and
planets on a dark, clear night.
“The Lord made the heavens. Splendor and
majesty are before him. . . Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations, ascribe
to the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name” (1
Chronicles 16:26b-29a).
God’s Glory Is also
Seen on Earth
Who can watch the morning sun glisten on the
majestic Grand Tetons above Lake Jackson without feeling a sense of awe? Or who
can watch the moon rise over Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, with its
mile-high granite cliffs, and not be moved by God’s glory?
The prophet Isaiah had a vision of God in the
temple. Around God’s throne, angelic beings called to one another saying,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory”
(Isaiah 6:3). God is a God of glory, splendor, radiance, and honor.
Human Beings Reflect
God’s Glory
The face of Moses was radiant when he came down
from Mount Sinai having been in the presence of God (Exodus 34:33-35; 2
Corinthians 3:7-18).
Human beings were created to reveal God’s
glory. God said to Isaiah, “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the
ends of the earth–everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my
glory” (Isaiah 43:6b-7).
The apostle Paul wrote, “So whether you eat or
drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians
10:31). We were made to behold God’s
glory and to reflect it.
But there is a problem among human beings. The
problem is that many people have ignored God. God has revealed his eternal
power and divine nature in the things He has created (Romans 1:20). Yet, some
people neither glorify Him as God nor give thanks to Him (Romans 1:21).
Instead, they have “exchanged the glory of the immortal God” for idols of their
own making (Romans 1:23).
Idolatry comes in many forms. Self-worship is
idolatry. So is greed. Untold billions of people worship money and spend their
entire lives trying to acquire it. Others worship fame, power and pleasure.
Anything that consumes our thoughts and pulls us away from God is an idol –a
false god.
When people push God out of their thoughts,
they become fools (Romans 1:28). Their foolish hearts are darkened (Romans
1:21-22). They give themselves over to sinful desires and sexual impurity.
Their depraved minds lead them to all kinds of anti-social behavior:
wickedness, evil, greed, depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice,
gossip, slander, God-hating, insolence, arrogance, boastfulness, disobedience
to parents, heartlessness, and ruthlessness (Romans 1:21-32).
As a matter of fact, “all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We need someone to lead us back to
God and to show us His glory.
Jesus Brings Glory to
God
The night Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a great
company of angels appeared to shepherds in a field praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor
rests” (Luke 2:13-14). The birth of Jesus brought glory to God.
The elderly prophet, Simeon, took baby Jesus in
his arms and praised God saying, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised. . . my
eyes have seen your salvation. . . a light for revelation to the Gentiles and
for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32). This infant that Simeon held
in his arms would become the “light of the world”. He would reveal God’s glory
to mankind (John 8:12).
While Jesus and his apostles were across the
Jordan River east of Jerusalem, they received news that Lazarus was ill. Jesus
said to His apostles, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s
glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it” (John 11:4).
By the time Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus
had been dead four days. His corpse had been wrapped in linen and laid in a
tomb, and a stone had been rolled across the entrance. Jesus said, “Take away the stone” (John
11:39). Martha, the sister of Lazarus,
said, “But Lord, by this time, there is a bad odor” (John 11:39). Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if
you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40).
Then Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus,
come out!” The dead man came out wrapped in his grave clothes. Jesus said,
“Take off the grave clothes and let him go” (John 11:43-44). By raising Lazarus from death, Jesus and God
were glorified.
Jesus Shares the Glory
of God
The apostle Paul warns that Satan, “has blinded
the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of
the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). The gospel
of Christ is about the glory of Jesus.
At the same time, it is about the glory of God.
God has “made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). God’s
glory is seen in Jesus.
Jesus Has Had Glory
from Eternity
On the night before his crucifixion, Jesus
prayed, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with
you before the world began” (John17:5).
Jesus was divine, but He emptied Himself of His
divine prerogatives and became a human being. He was obedient unto death, even
death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him. Ultimately, people,
angels, and demons will all bow before Him and confess Him as Lord “to the
glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11). Worshiping Jesus brings glory to
God the Father.
Jesus and God Share
Names
In Revelation 1:8, God says, “I am the Alpha
and the Omega...who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty”. Alpha
is the first letter in the Greek alphabet. Omega is the last. There is no
letter before Alpha, and there is no letter after Omega. No one came before
God, and no one will come after Him. God is eternal.
In Isaiah 44:6, God said, “I am the first, and
I am the last”. Yet, Jesus made the same claim when he said, “I am the Alpha
and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation
22:13). These words were NOT spoken by God Almighty. They were spoken by Jesus
(Revelation 22:16).
How can God Almighty and Jesus Christ both be
“the Alpha and the Omega?” How can they both be “the Beginning and the End?”
The only logical answer is that they are ONE. They are two divine persons who
constitute one God, not two.
Jesus and God also share the name, “I AM”. God
told Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Exodus
3:14). God is the eternal, self-existent
one. Yet Jesus also used the name “I AM” with reference to himself when he
said, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I AM” (John 8:58). With
these words, Jesus claimed to be the eternal, self-existent One.
John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God (Greek, ton theon, meaning ‘the God’), and the Word
was God (Greek, theos, meaning
‘God’)” (John 1:1-2). John makes a distinction between “the God” and “the Word”.
Both are divine, and the two constitute one God, not two. John continues, “The
Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the
glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”
(John 1:14). The Word (the divine Logos) came from the Father and became flesh
when Jesus was born.
Again John writes, “God the One and Only, who
is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (John 1:18). Jesus Christ is
called “God, the One and Only”. He is at the Father’s side, and He has made the
Father known to us.
Paul wrote, “God was pleased to have all his
fullness dwell in him [Jesus]” (Colossians 1:19). Therefore, “we wait for the
blessed hope–the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ”
(Titus 2:13). Paul calls Jesus “God and Savior”. Peter, too, calls Jesus “our God and Savior”
(2 Peter 1:1). Though distinct from the Father, Jesus is our divine Savior.
Similarly, the writer of Hebrews says, “The Son
is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being”
(Hebrews 1:3). The scriptures about Jesus’ divinity stack up. Jesus is the
glory of God. He is the divine Word who became flesh.
Conclusion
Jesus showed us how we can be sons and
daughters of God who see and reflect His glory. We see God’s glory in His
creation, and we see God’s glory in Jesus Christ who has shared the Father’s
glory from eternity.
