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John Piper defines God’s glory like this: “The glory of God is the infinite beauty and greatness of God’s manifold perfections. The infinite beauty—and I am focusing on the manifestation of his character and his worth and his attributes — all of his perfections and greatness are beautiful as they are seen, and there are many of them. That is why I use the word manifold.”

His radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays flashing from His hand, And there is the hiding of His power.

Habakkuk 3:4

Ligonier.org writes this about the glory of God: “When we think of the glory of the Lord, the image of brilliant light often comes to our minds. That is certainly appropriate, as Scripture often describes the glory of God in terms of a light that shines brighter than anything that we experience on earth.”

The glory of God is of course, inseparable from his other attributes, so God is eternally, infinitely, unchangingly glorious.

    • His radiance and beauty emanate from all that his is and all that he does.
    • So, our whole existence and purpose is to glorify him, as we are created in his image and do the good work he has prepared for us to do.

Isaiah 43:7 says that man was created by God for his glory.

    • Inevitably, man will try to find glory in other things, or to try and make himself an object of glory.
    • And when those things do not bring us satisfaction, we must decide to humble ourselves and turn our gaze back to the only one who is worthy of glory.
    • Jesus the Messiah’s beauty, radiance and splendor reflects the glory of the Father. It is both revealed to and reflected in the lives of believers.
    • We hear about the glory of God a lot in both the old and new testaments. I think of it as the stunning and the amazing nature of God. It should overwhelm me. I should stand in awe.

Glory — It Existed in Jesus the Messiah Before His Incarnation As the Son of God, the Messiah possessed glory in God’s heavenly presence before His incarnation. That is awesome to think about. Consider this from Hebrews (1:3)

And Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When Jesus had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

This concept applies the personification of God’s wisdom in creating the world to the Messiah. It also presupposes a development in Jewish thinking that regarded this wisdom as “a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty … a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness” (Wisdom 7:25–26).

My role is to recognize the utter beauty and brilliance of Jesus. May I see the glory of Jesus. May I fall on my face at His stunning glory.

    • John 17:5 — 5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”
    • John 1:14 — 14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
    • John 17:24 — 24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”