Believers need to be warned against trivializing or secularizing the glory of the Lord. We must be careful to be satisfied only with God's true glory, and not some pale substitute foisted upon us by society.
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord" is a well-known expression of this wrong. It was used as a battle song, and as an oratorical flourish to connect the causes of war and politics with Christ's glory.
No doubt, many people feel that a great military victory, in which we crush our foes, or the sight of a political upheaval that sets some wrong right, are glorious events, but they must not be confused with God's glory.
Most Old Testament references to God's Glory are connected to great fear and judgment. Isaiah 63 describes God "trampling the grapes of His wrath," but we would be wrong to conflate that event with any military or judicial might mankind can wield. In Isaiah's text, God says that no people were with Him, because the people were being judged by Him, and that no man was His helper, for He Alone wrought the judgment against wickedness.
Indeed, the true coming of God's Glory has nothing to do with anything we do, for God will not share His Glory with anyone!
In the New Testament, God's Glory is seen in His Lamb that was slain. Christ is the manifestation of God's Glory, and His salvation, which He wrought at Calvary, is the pinnacle of His Glory.
Luke's gospel makes it clear: that the promised "coming of God's Glory for all flesh to see" was, in fact, the revelation of Salvation in the life and death of Jesus.
Jesus is the Glory of God revealed in the New Testament! The Lamb is all the Glory in Immanuel's Land! |
