Develop Eyes to See Glory

Summary. When Christians have a hard time recognizing revealed glory, they should evaluate their sight and work on development.

God's divinity and power, his glory, is proclaimed by what he has made. This is the baseline. For those who trust Christ, there is more. The Spirit gives insight into the meaning revealed in creation and Scripture, and he increases our understanding of this meaning. Engaging Nature and Scripture in partnership with the Spirit hones our capacity to recognize and understand reflections of God's glory.

Living amidst this clarified revelation, the more the more we engage the reflections of glory the more we know God. And the more we know God, the more we develop our perception of his revelation. Even with this clarity, though, reflections of God's glory can be difficult to discern. His glory is not always flashy. Sometimes it is subtle. There are, of course, instances of God's blinding brilliance, but these are rare. If we are only looking for magnificence and grandeur, we will entirely miss the understated beauty of God.

God shines his splendid, unmistakable goodness all over: it is the space in which we live and move and have our being. It is our task to develop eyes to see, for missing his evident glory is a problem of perception not revelation. If a believer has a difficult time perceiving reflections of glory in creation, she must evaluate her capacity to see and take steps to develop the theistic assumptions that properly underpin such perception. Engaging more deeply with God's creation and Word in community can form these assumptions develop our spiritual eyesight.

Pondering Glory and Community

As the church matures, she becomes an ever more clear shining of God's glory and proclamation of his splendor.

Questions I'm Pondering
• What does it look like to be a community in the context of God's glory?
• What does glory look like in the context of community?

Concept Outline
• Glory is the magnificent splendor that is the exuding of God's essence, embodied in the people of God. It is the relational web of glory-reflectors, always shining God's essence. It is the working, living, and trusting of the One whose magnificent splendor is made safe by love.
• Glory shines in the people of God to the world in glorifying ways. It shines through a family of teachers, models, and exemplars of God's glory. It shines through a family of doers, followers, and proclaimers for and of God's glory.
• The people of God shine God's glory like Jesus in order to please the Father and be conformed to the Son. We shine it as a family that refracts and disperses God's glory, thereby doing his mission and becoming like Jesus. We shine it as a family that lives like Jesus for God's pleasure.

Glory-ology Definition Model

Everything God has made or communicated reveals his glory. It cannot be otherwise, for that which is made always bears the mark of its maker. Therefore, since glory is the expression of God’s being, then all he has made is marked by it. According to Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words (2006), kavod, the Hebrew term usually translated “glory” in the Old Testament, carries the ideas of the dignity and respect. The parallel term in the New Testament, doxa, carries the ideas of honor and splendor. Glory is an internal quality, externally expressed by its possessor. Like any expression, it can be distorted or misunderstood, but expression persists. Since God’s glory is necessarily expressed through all he has made and communicated, humanity, as created in his image, necessarily engages that glory. How does this engagement take place?

A Proposed Model of Glory-ology

I propose that human engagement with glory runs along three vectors: within, in, and out. Along the within-vector, humans live as images of God's glory (Gen 1:26-27), though the choice to sin (Gen 3) has damaged this imaging in a way that no mere human can repair. Humanity in Christ is called and enabled to live each moment of life--interior and exterior--as an engagement within God's glory (1 Cor 10:31). Even in those outside of Christ the shadowed reflections remain. The in-vector and out-vector equip Christians to live within and proclaim God's glory.

Along the in-vector, humans engage God’s glory as it is reflected in his self-revelation. Most Christians will think first of the Bible (Ps 19:7-14), God’s written revelation, as reflecting his glory, but there is much more. God has also revealed his glory in nature (Ps 19:1-6) and in humanity (Ps 8). Learning to see and understand God’s glory in creation and in humanity is just as important as learning to see and understand it in Scripture. These three avenues of God’s self-revelation--Scripture, nature, and humanity--are incomplete; none gives the whole picture. The one ultimate avenue of God’s self-revelation remains: God incarnate, the Son, Jesus (John 1:14-18). Jesus, as described in Scripture and as known in personal and communal relationship, is the final, norming revelation of the Father (John 14:6-7). The meaning and significance of all other avenues of revelation are understood only and always in relation to Jesus. Humans bear God’s glory within and perceive his glory in his revelation. The out-vector tells us what Christians are to do with the glory engaged on the within-vector and the in-vector.

Along the out-vector, humans engage God’s glory as they ascribe glory back to God (Ps 29). To “ascribe” is to give credit or to think of a characteristic as belonging to someone or something (dictionary.com). It is an expressed intention of the mind, a way of thinking and speaking about someone or something. The worship gathering is the first context most Christians will think of, but the act of ascribing glory to God fills all of life. Each floor cleaned, each paper written, each product produced, each idea created, each hug given, each reprimand spoken can be an act of ascribing glory. Whole-life worship is the true expression of humanity’s delegated glory.

Along these three vectors, all humans encounter God’s glory and along these same vectors Christians are called to engage God’s glory. The quality and results of this engagement will vary according to each person’s motive and relationship with Christ, but the engagement is required nonetheless. God’s glory is obvious and there is no acceptable excuse for missing it (Rom 1:20). We need only learn to see and understand.

The Persistence of Glory

I think I can imagine glory, but I am probably wrong. After all, how can one imagine glory in this land of stain and shadow? Yet we can, for even here, glory leaks out all over. It leaks in constant declaration. Everything that was spoken into being, every art of the human viceroy, the whole of it has no choice but to shout. The wordless proclamation continues however contorted the received message.

The one who spoke everything, who crafted the viceroy, is glorious beyond imagination. Indeed, for the unveiled soul, his glory is an undoing. The power of glory cannot be contained; its persistence cannot be hindered. It continues despite humanity's best efforts to ignore it. Glory leaks through every moment and all with ears to hear and eyes to seen will perceive the message.

Glory speaks as the sun glows amber at the horizon. It speaks in the slow elegance of the snail. It speaks in the simplicity of craft. It speaks in the wonder of a child. It speaks in the sorrow of loss. It speaks in work done well.

Creation cannot help but speak God's glory. It remains for us to learn to hear.