Having defined and explained
what glory is, it becomes necessary and imperative to take notice
of how serious and solemn the glory is.
God is "the God of
Glory"; therefore, to meet the glory, or to be where the
glory is, is a very serious matter. It can - as the Bible shows -
work both ways. It can be the occasion of much joy and blessing.
A real sense of joy, peace and satisfaction can abound when the
glory of God is present; that is, when the nature and the
requirements of God are satisfied. "When the burnt offering
began, the song of the Lord began" (2 Chronicles 29:27). The
burnt offering was inclusive of all God's requirements, and, as
in the Old Testament type, so in the antitype, when Jesus offered
Himself as the whole burnt offering in which God's will
was "once for all" and wholly satisfied, the ground was
laid for all the joy and peace that God can give to believers to
be their experience. All our blessing and blessedness rest upon
the Father's nature being fully and for ever satisfied in and by
His Son. Faith's appropriation and resting on Christ as God's
satisfaction is the only, but sure, way to present and future
glory. Hence, it is "Christ (what He is) in you, the hope of
glory". "He was raised by the glory of the Father"
means that His being raised is the attestation of the Father's
perfect satisfaction with Him and His work.
This is a truth and theme upon
which our hearts and minds should much dwell.
There is, however, another
aspect of the glory. If things - in particular or in general -
are other than according to the Divine nature, the glory may mean
judgment. Judgment may mean correction, discipline, chastening,
frustration, confusion, strain and unhappy conditions. It may
mean destruction. We have instances in the life of Israel when,
because of some positive opposition to the Divine nature, the
glory appeared in the gate and very serious were the
consequences. In a less but still imperative way, on the Mount of
Transfiguration, when Peter, "not knowing what he
said", impulsively sought to take charge of the situation
and manage things, the voice from Heaven said: "This is my
beloved Son... hear ye him." The glory will not allow the
place of God's Son to be usurped by man, even with the best
intentions. It was only the sovereign grace of God in eternal
purpose that did not allow the imperious Saul of Tarsus to be
destroyed on his Damascus journey. John said, concerning the
incarnate Son of God, "We beheld his glory". For those
simple, honest and unprejudiced men the glory could be present to
blessing. But for the Jewish nation as such, embodied in their
ruling and official classes and hierarchy, the presence of the
same Son, because of the blindness caused by pride and prejudice,
meant destruction and the "outer darkness" of these
many centuries. "Blindness has happened to Israel"; the
blindness of not seeing who Jesus is, and that is a terrible
judgment.
Wherever God, in Christ, is
present or presented, He is there on the ground and terms of
God's satisfaction, and the issue of blessing or judgment is in
the balances. That is the inner meaning of "Wheresoever two
or three are gathered together in my name, there I am". The
Name is what He is in nature, perfection, glory, God's
satisfaction. That is the ground of His presence; no other. It is
not location, geography, assembly, but characteristic as to
Christ.
The "Crown of Glory"
will be God's attestation that things have been according to
Christ as to God's good pleasure. Because Christ is God's Horizon
of all things for eternity, glory is God's horizon for His
faithful ones in as much as Christ has been everything to them
both from God and to God.