The Bible speaks often about the glory of God. It can sound like a big church phrase that’s hard to define. But what is it? Is God’s glory something that he gets from our worship? Or is it something more? God’s glory is central to our understanding of who God is and what His plans and purpose are. Here we will explore God’s glory. In order to understand it, we can think of God’s glory in two ways, 1) His intrinsic glory and 2) His displayed glory.
God’s Intrinsic Glory
God’s intrinsic glory is the totality of his divinity in all his attributes and perfections. God speaks of himself as the “I AM” which is holy, eternal, unchanging, and immortal. His glory as revealed in Exodus is a declaration of His character as it is apart from anything and everything he has done or made. His glory is His attributes as an infinite being who is holy, wise, powerful, and beautiful God. Psalm 115:1 tells us; Not to us, O Yahweh, not to us, but to Your name give glory because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth.” The Psalm directly attributes the glory to His character, to his lovingkindness, to his truth. This is not glory that we give to God but is intrinsic to God’s nature.
Moses retells his experience in seeing God’s glory. He had asked God to display His glory to him. Exodus 34:6-7 records; “Then Yahweh passed by in front of him and called out, “Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” Notice how God answers Moses requests to see His Glory. Not only did he show Himself in passing by, but He also declared to Moses his character. God’s glory is intrinsic as glorious because of who He is and who He declares himself to be.
The challenge in grasping God’s intrinsic glory is that we are finite beings. In fact, in order to describe who God is we have to describe His attributes in the opposite of our own nature. For example, God is infinite, we are finite. He is holy, we are unholy. He is immutable we are changing, all-knowing vs learning, omnipresent vs singular, the list goes on. Isaiah 55:8–9 says; “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares Yahweh. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Psalms 50:21 also states; …You thought that I was just like you…” We are incapable of truly grasping the totality of God’s glory and person. Despite the difficulty of the task, it does not mean we shouldn’t try to understand God’s character and the glory that is His.
God’s Intrinsic glory is an important aspect of the Christian’s understanding. What we know of God will affect how we think about God, how we live, and speak of Him. If we think little of God then we will care little for His glory and do little for His glory. If we think highly of God then it will be reflected in our worship, our praise, what we say, and how we live for God. We will care much for His glory. Like Jesus, we will seek to glorify the name of God through our lives. Soli Deo Gloria!