Edit: I have put a revisited version of this on my new blog, once again filed under What is Glory?
Over the past week in Dr. Metzger’s class we have talked about glory, and how Jesus speaks of glory. It has been an interesting experience for me, though I fear in writing this blog, my seminary peers will just look at me and say “duh.” However, I will continue to post my thoughts.
I believe Dr. Metzger best summed up the western Christianity understanding of glory as “give God His due.” This is certainly how I have learned of glory: that it is something we give to God because He deserves it. And I’m not trying to be a heretic here. Certainly God does deserve glory, every ounce of glory. That’s not what I’m getting at.
But tied up with our view of glory is the Westminster Confession which states “The chief end of man is to glorify God.” Once again I don’t think that there isn’t truth in this, however I do see a problem if we are to totally follow this trajectory. If glory is something God has created us solely to give Him, and through salvation we are able to give glory, it seems to me that God does not send Christ out of love, but out of self-interest.
Maybe I’m wrong, but that is the logical conclusion I come to over and over. If the chief reason we exist is to give God glory, then salvation is not an act of love from God, but a selfish act, because we are saved to fulfill God’s needs. And even further it almost implies that somehow God needs our glory. And I think that is at the basis of this. Metzger quoted Dr. Terveen as saying “God’s glory is not an issue to Him.” I tend to agree with this.
So what is glory about then? The chief passage in the scripture that has influenced me on this is John 14.
23Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
27“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name!”
For Jesus, His glorification was tied up in self denial. That is how He tells us if we are to follow Him we must hate our lives here. I do want to note this isn’t some sort of nihilistic hate of lives as though it is pointless, but rather that we do not value our lives here moreso than the reward we have in Christ!
What does this mean for glory then? I think that when we tie this in with the idea that we experience a mystical union with Christ, that it means we participate in God’s glory. In fact, when Jesus tells Peter the type of death he will die, Jesus indicates that Peter will glorify Christ through his death. So when we experience trials, hardships and persecutions, we rejoice because in doing so we participate in God’s glory!
I was talking with my pastor about this yesterday, and he said that in his experience it was such. He told me how when he has been threatened to be beat up, or had knives pulled on him or been threatened because he is sharing the gospel, that there is a feeling of identifying with Christ that comes from those experiences.
May it be that we would continue to grow closer to Christ in reaching the maturity where we realize our persecutions as good rather than bad! That is my hope for both myself and you.
AMEN.
This is me having nothing of particular importance in my comment.
But keep up the bloggin!
I find these views interesting because they take one side of the equation and ignore the other.
Colossians 1:3 – For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Romans 8:17 – Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
2 Thessalonians 2:14 – He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 5:1 – To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed.
It ignore the relational aspect that God is really getting at. We’re designed to look like Jesus and as Paul says, “shine like stars in the universe.”
Jonathan,
I find nothing that I wrote to be in opposition to the verses you have cited. The emphasis in all these passages about glory and us is on sharing. It’s not on any of us having any sort of personal glory. No, our glory is derived from the fact that we are united to Christ, as Paul puts it in Ephesians, the two have become one flesh.
And none of this changes the nature of God’s glory. This isn’t a God worried about getting people to glorify Him more. Instead, God glorifies Himself by sending His son to die a sacrificial life, the very opposite approach to what we would have for glory.
And it is the fact that God does not need to worry about His glory that makes Him glorious. Will we share in God’s glory? Yes! We will share in it because we have been united to Christ. I don’t think that saying “we’re designed to look like Jesus” is sufficient. We are designed to live in relationship to Jesus and thus share in His glory.
Bryan, I was agreeing with the basic premise of your post.
Ha thanks for the clarification. The interwebs can wreak havoc on me. After doing some basic reading comprehension, I see that I totally misread you!
Cheers mate.
I do hold up my last bit that I think our language does need to be stronger than just “designed to look like Jesus” to something more along the lines of “designed to be united to Jesus”.
Blessings.
[...] been thinking over one of my oldest posts/ one of the posts that gets me the most search hits here, What is Glory. [...]