One of God’s attributes is that He is glorious. This daily devotional looks at what that means and how we compare.
Nuggets
- The gloriousness is dependent on God.
- Mankind was made to glorify God.
- The gospel itself is glorious.
- Being glorious, God is worthy of our praise, honor, and thanksgiving.
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Devotions in the Finding Our Center series
It is sometimes hard for us to wrap our heads around what is exactly meant by God’s glory. It is an attribute – one that really can’t be parsed out from the other attributes.
I had originally hooked beautiful along with glorious. None of the verses I pulled addressed that. So, we may come back and pick that up.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
Previously, we took a scenic route to get to the meaning of glorious.
- Glorify: to make glorious by bestowing honor, praise, or admiration
- Glorious: possessing or deserving glory
- Glory: worshipful praise, honor, and thanksgiving
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Yeah, I know. It is another chicken-and-the-egg deal. Which comes first?
To me, they are all intricately connected, so they can’t be parsed out. We can’t have one without the other.
What Is God’s Gloriousness?
“His brilliance is like light; rays are flashing from his hand. This is where his power is hidden” (Hab. 3: 4 CSB)
The gloriousness is dependent on God.
And God is indescribable. That means His gloriousness is indescribable, also.
Piper tried describing it by contrasting it with holiness. Holiness is more than a character trait; it is purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. He explained the set apart as God being in a class by Himself.
I think Piper did come up with a good definition. He wrote, “the glory of God is the manifest beauty of his holiness. … the glory of God is the infinite beauty and greatness of God’s manifold perfections.”
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What Habakkuk tried to do here was to use common substitutions to describe God’s unknown gloriousness. The Homilist pointed out, though, “that God’s glory transcends all revelations.”
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I think the nugget of the verse is the last part. “… This is where his power is hidden” (Hab. 3: 4 CSB).
We may describe it a couple of different ways.
- God works behind the scenes.
- He disguises His work.
- He shrouds His work in secrecy.
Harris described this power. He wrote, “There is power sufficient in the Gospel to evoke a spirit of faith and Christian heroism that will lead a million martyrs to the stake.”
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We don’t need to know everything that God does. We don’t need to have figured it out, and we don’t need to fully understand.
Hellman contended there was a purpose for these concealments. He argued that they advance God’s glory. “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out” (Prov. 25: 2 ESV).
Let’s dig into that.
- God can’t conceal everything from us, or He wouldn’t get the glory.
- We say God has all these attributes and virtues, but we really don’t know His nature.
- God doesn’t explain why everything happens as it does.
- We don’t want others to be secretive with us because we distrust silence.
- God is silent because He is self-sufficient.
- God can’t conceal everything from us, but He has to have some mystery to receive glory.
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If we are to seek God, it can be puzzling to know that God conceals things. Bevis argued that if we are not His children, it is better for us to remain in the dark.
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Keen takes a different viewpoint. He felt it would be disastrous and deadly if God revealed everything. That would be cruel of God. Cruel, God is not.
Instead, God leaves things as a mystery. But Keen made a great point. What might be a mystery to me might not be to you — and vice versa.
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Macfarlane reminded us that we have not fully seen God’s omnipotence. So when worldview people try to tell us God isn’t powerful, tell them they haven’t seen anything yet!
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Created for His Glory
“everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isa. 43: 7 ESV)
Mankind was made to glorify God.
Our sole purpose is to worship God. We were created for His glory.
Now, think about that a second. Before the beginning of the universe — before God created us and the world we live in — God knew we would disobey Him.
Let that sink in.
- We were created for His glory.
- God knew we would disobey Him.
- He created us anyway.
Raise your hand if you feel inadequate and inferior? Raise your hand if you wonder how God could forgive you of the sins you have committed.
I have messed up big time so many times. But God knew that, and He created me anyway. And He created me for His praise, honor, and thanksgiving.
So, God is going to be glorified even in my faults.
No, that does not give us license to continue sinning. It just means that God has found a way to use even our mess ups to glorify Himself.
The Glorious Gospel
“in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted” (I Tim. 1: 11 ESV)
The gospel itself is glorious.
Scriptures call all of mankind to God, so that He may save us. God doesn’t pick and choose who is offered salvation. He doesn’t change the entrance requirements depending on who is standing at His door knocking.
It is up to each of us to accept the gift of salvation His way.
King noted that the gospel is called both the glorious gospel and the everlasting gospel. The two terms are not mutually exclusive. In, fact, when combined, they do paint an accurate picture — everlasting glory.
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The Good News is all about Jesus crucified and risen. All of Scriptures show us the character of God.
Maclaren had a fit when he saw it translated to as the glorious gospel. He was adamant that it should be translated as the gospel of the glory.
I can see that. The gospel isn’t just a good book. Glorious doesn’t modify gospel.
Instead, the gospel story is all about the character and glory of God. That needs to be reiterated again and again and again.
Instead, the gospel story is all about the character and glory of God. That needs to be reiterated again and again and again.
From His introduction in the manger to His final curtain at the ascension, Jesus pointed everyone to God’s glory. He taught us to praise, honor, and thank Him for salvation.
Jesus showed us what it would look like when we see perfected. The perfected state indicates the combination of the graces which, when all are present, form spiritual wholeness or completeness.
Making the Connections
Being glorious, God is worthy of our praise, honor, and thanksgiving. That makes Him higher than we are.
We need to keep that in mind when we think God has to clue us in on everything. Hall wrote, “His purposes and designs cannot be adequately scanned by the wisdom of men.”
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Remember, we said God was self-sufficient. He doesn’t need anyone to help Him run the universe.
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By keeping the mystery, God is getting us to faith and trust. Faith is the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all. Trust is assurance that the promises of God are true.
God is getting us to the submission part. Submitting to God is actions by humans that obey God and keep His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, follows His purpose for us, or does not follow Satan’s promptings.
What this is all about is God wants us to depend on Him. He wants to provide for us. We just have to let Him.
How Do We Apply This?
We just have to trust God. We can look forward to seeing His glory, without trying to replicate it here.
Father God. We put our faith and trust in You. We don’t need to know everything You do. We need to know enough to make the informed decision to put our lives in Your hands. Help us to submit to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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