Glory

“ God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. ”

Did you ever want to be famous? Dream of screaming fans, adoring followers who hung on your every word, grew excited just to have you come near them? Be honest. Did you think of arriving in a Bentley, having others open doors, walk a red carpet, paparazzi flashing away and a bundle of microphones at a podium? Everybody wants to hear you, see your designer clothes, get a shot with you, share your glory.

No? Sound too grandiose? So, why not have such a moment, be caught up in the wonder of praise and, well, worship ? It must be nice, or there wouldn't be so many contestants for American Idol, or for our next President, for their one big break in Hollywood or Broadway. Glory is the goal of many remarkable people—now what's wrong with it?

St. Paul talked of those who were seeking to divert his church into their own cult following, a throw-back to Judaism that added Jesus afterward rather than have an entirely new Covenant of grace meant for Gentiles as well. Circumcision was their badge of superiority. He denounced these attempts to steal the church and claim it as their own glory. “ God forbid,” he said, “that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Galatians 6:11 Paul didn't shun glory, but the glory he wanted wasn't of his own making. He had tried that, hunting and arresting Christians for execution, he shined as the chief bounty hunter for the Temple in Jerusalem. Now humbled by Christ, he was far more glorious in his brave missionary journeys, and his glory was that of Christ crucified. Here was glory enough for any man.

But is glory for any of us? Are we not merely to sit in the glow of Christ's light, as did Peter, James and John on the mount of Transfiguration, when “ He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.” Matthew 17:2 John would introduce Christ in his Gospel account: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 Jesus prayed at the Last Supper that He might return to the glory He shared with the Father from before the worlds began. But He was God. Glory is native to God. So what is glory? And are we never to share in it also?

Glory, in Old Testament terminology, is the weighty importance and shining majesty that accompanies God's presence. It has weight, it's heavy, so much so that to see God is to be pressed to the ground by the weight of His glory. Our response to God's glory is honor, worship, praise, awe and holy fear. But men also reflect this glory, as Moses shined after his audiences with God. A nation may be said to have glory due to its collective values, armies, shining cities, or world power. We give glory to things we find worthy, like ‘Old Glory', our flag.

God's glory is revealed in the power of His creation. David sang, “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars; yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon… The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness… The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.” Psalm 29:3-11

We have no divine glory in ourselves, but was it there in the beginning? We were made in the image and likeness of God. Was it glory that departed from us when our first parents sinned? Will we meet with some kind of godly glory when we are restored? C. S. Lewis explored this in a sermon he gave during the war, entitled The Weight of Glory .

‘The promises of Scripture may very roughly be reduced to five heads. It is promised, firstly, that we shall be with Christ; secondly, that we shall be like Him; thirdly, with an enormous wealth of imagery, that we shall have “glory”; fourthly, that we shall, in some sense, be fed or feasted or entertained; and, finally, that we shall have some sort of official position in the universe—ruling cities, judging angels, being pillars of God's temple... The first question I ask about these promises is: “Why any of them except the first?” Can anything be added to the conception of being with Christ?'

After some discussion on other points, Lewis turns to the idea of glory: ‘There is no getting away from the fact that this idea is very prominent in the New Testament and in early Christian writings. Salvation is constantly associated with palms, crowns, white robes, thrones, and splendour like the sun and stars. All this makes no immediate appeal to me at all, and in that respect I fancy I am a typical modern. Glory suggests two ideas to me, of which one seems wicked and the other ridiculous… Either glory means to me fame, or it means luminosity. As for the first, since to be famous means to be better known than other people, the desire for fame appears to me as a competitive passion and therefore of hell rather than heaven. As for the second, who wishes to become a kind of living electric light bulb?

‘Perhaps it seems rather crude to describe glory as the fact of being “noticed” by God. But this is almost the language of the New Testament… Does not God know all things at all times? But it is dreadfully reechoed in another passage of the New Testament. There we are warned that it may happen to any one of us to appear at last before the face of God and hear only the appalling words: “I never knew you. Depart from Me.” In some sense, as dark to the intellect as it is unendurable to the feelings, we can be both banished from the presence of Him who is present everywhere and erased from the knowledge of Him who knows all. We can be left utterly and absolutely outside—repelled, exiled, estranged, finally and unspeakably ignored. On the other hand, we can be called in, welcomed, received, acknowledged. We walk every day on the razor edge between these two incredible possibilities… And to be at last summoned inside would be both glory and honour beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache.

‘And this brings me to the other sense of glory—glory as brightness, splendour, luminosity. We are to shine as the sun, we are to be given the Morning Star… For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry… may be very near the truth as prophecy… Some day, God willing, we shall get in. When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch…

‘It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare… There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours… Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ… the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.' The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis, Preached originally as a sermon in the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, on June 8, 1942: published in T HEOLOGY , November, 1941, and by the S.P.C.K, 1942

Glory belongs to the human race, as a gift from above. We see it occasionally in the coronation of a noble king, in the face of a brilliant musician, in the words of the true statesman, in the life of a saint. But we run from that glory ourselves, should someone even suggest we share in it. Our cars are more glorious than we are—brightly colored and polished, chrome gleaming, engine purring. While we wear tee shirts and jeans. I think there is something peaking out here. We hide our glory, a glory that is trying to be expressed elsewhere, maybe in our homes or possessions. We, who are filled with the bright and glorious One, know somehow that glory is in us. He is in us. He was crucified so that we might glory in Him. That manifestation shouldn't look anything like pride, but what we call humility is so often mere cowardice. Embarrassed by what we believe, we hide the Lord of light under a bushel. We hide the wounds of Jesus under our sins. We believe humility is being dull, ordinary, unremarkable, and very quiet. Is that what Jesus gives you His Body and Blood for: so you can blend into the crowd?

God said to Isaiah, “This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” Isaiah 29:13 Jesus said to the disbelieving Jews, “The Father who sent Me, He has borne witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. And you do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent… I do not receive glory from men… How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” John 5:37-45 We, too, should not seek glory from men, from one another, but the glory from God is ours if we are obedient to the call of Christ. Isaiah believed it, and he wrote: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” Isaiah 60:1

Glory: it may be given only posthumously for dying as a hero. It may not be given at all in this world. It may be acknowledged by God alone, and no man mourn your passing. We aren't here to please one another or to seek the praises of men. That's true. But glory is ours nevertheless, if we seek the glory of Christ crucified, and we crucify this world to ourselves, and then in His glory we truly, brightly shine.

PFH+