God’s Glory

God’s glory is the outward manifestation of His perfection and the expression of the weight, value, and importance of His being and character. God’s glory is manifested in His works of creation, providence, and redemption. The glory of God is revealed in the display of His wisdom, power, and goodness in creation and providence. In the history of redemption, God’s glory was revealed in numerous types and shadows that pointed the Old Testament people of God to the coming of the Savior. In the fullness of time, God’s glory was revealed in the incarnate Son of God and the work of the triune God at the cross for the redemption of the elect. Since He is the glory of God, Jesus will ultimately glorify all those He came to redeem. The Gospels give a glimpse of Christ’s eternal divine glory at the transfiguration. The book of Revelation presents a vision of the eternal glory of God in the new heavens and new earth.

The English word glory is a translation of the Hebrew word kabod in the Old Testament and the Greek word doxa in the New Testament. These terms convey the recognition of the “weight,” “value,” or “importance” of God’s being and character. Scripture further refers to the light of God’s glory. Accordingly, God’s glory is His inestimable greatness displayed in a manifestation of His attributes—the weight or value of His perfection—both as they are found in Himself and as they are displayed to His creation. In Scripture, the glory of God is the outward display of His perfections. Later theologians have provided helpful expositions of these ideas. Jonathan Edwards defined glory as “the shining forth or effulgence of [God’s] perfections, or the communication of His perfections, for effulgence is the communication of light.” Herman Bavinck suggested that “the ‘glory of the Lord’ is the splendor and brilliance that is inseparably associated with all of God’s attributes and his self-revelation in nature and grace, the glorious form in which he everywhere appears to his creatures.”

God has displayed His glory in all that He has made. Creation reveals the glory of God’s wisdom, power, and goodness. This is the case in a special sense in the creation of man in His image. At creation, God conferred His glory on Adam in a manner befitting creatures. Thomas Boston suggested that Adam would have reflected the glory of God in his person in the garden: “Man was then a very glorious creature. We have reason, to suppose, that as Moses’ face shone when he came down from the mount, so man had a very lightsome and pleasant countenance, and beautiful body, while as yet there was no darkness of sin in him at all. . . . The Lord made him a very glorious creature.”

Although creation was subjected to futility because of the fall and man has fallen short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23), creation continues to reveal the glory of God’s invisible attributes (Ps. 19:1; Rom. 1:19–23). Additionally, God has subjected creation to futility as it awaits the glorious revelation of the sons of God in the resurrection on the last day.

In redemptive history, God gave certain individuals a special revelation of a visible manifestation of His glory. Theologians have commonly referred to the Old Testament appearances of God to individuals as theophanies. Many Reformed theologians have understood these appearances to be a revelation of the eternal Son of God in preincarnate form. This is especially so in the case of the “Angel of the Lord” who appears throughout the Old Testament. God revealed His glory also in the pillar of fire and cloud and in the cloud of glory that descended on the tabernacle and temple. God made His glory visible as well in visions that He gave to His prophets (e.g., Isa. 6; Ezek. 1–11).

The New Testament reveals that Christ is the glory of God incarnate (2 Cor. 4:6). At the transfiguration, the divine glory of the eternal Son of God momentarily broke through the veil of His humanity (Matt. 17:2). What occurred at the transfiguration was a prelude to the resurrection glory of Christ. The eternal divine glory of the Son was manifest to those who were with Him on the mountain. The glory in the cloud that overshadowed Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, and John was the same glory that shone in the face of Jesus (Luke 9:34). The writer of Hebrews states that the Son is “the radiance of the glory of God” (Heb. 1:3). The glory of God is most fully displayed in the saving work of Jesus on the cross and in His resurrection. In those events, we see revealed plainly the divine attributes of power, love, justice, holiness, goodness, truth, and wisdom.

Through His death and resurrection, Christ secured a resurrection unto glory for the elect (1 Cor. 15:43). All those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ will dwell secure for all eternity in the new heavens and new earth. The book of Revelation teaches that the new heavens and new earth will be full of the glory of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 21:10–11, 23).