GOSPEL GLORY

The Fall refers to the event when Adam and Eve sinned, bringing about a curse with dreadful consequences. We inhabit a world filled with bad news due to the fall.

Yet, God had an eternal plan for redemption of sinners--Christ, the Lamb slain "before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God," (1 Pet. 1:19-21). That is the good news--the greatest news. It is Gospel glory!

There was THE GLORY OF THE INCARNATION. John said, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, (John 1:14). No wonder the angels declared at Christ's birth, "Glory to God in the highest...!" (Lk. 2:14a).

Then, there was THE GLORY OF THE TRANSFIGURATION, "and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light," (Matt. 17:2). For that brief time, the glory of what Jesus was veiled in flesh was seen on the outside.

Further, we read of THE GLORY OF THE CRUCIFIXION, "But 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," (Gal. 6:14 KJV). We most often associate the cross of Christ with His agony--and rightly so--but Paul says that in its accomplishment it is glory! There is glory in the person of the cross, "the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ"; glory in the purpose of the cross, "by whom the world is crucified unto me"; glory in the power of the cross, "and I unto the world."

Yet, there would be no glory in the crucifixion without THE GLORY OF THE RESURRECTION, "God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory," (1 Pet. 1:21). The glory of God overwhelmed the darkness of the tomb, as up from the grave He arose! The angel who bore witness at the tomb radiated that glory--"His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow," (Matt. 28:3). If the messenger was so brilliant, how much more the Master who had risen! Paul was blinded by the light of the Risen and Ascended Christ (cf. Acts 9). It was a light "brighter than the sun" (Acts 26:13).

We shall behold that glory someday--THE GLORY OF THE CONSUMMATION, "the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and glory," (Mark 13:26). We will be glorifed as we see Him as He is, (1 Jn. 3:2). We will dwell with Him in heaven's glory! Here is the promise:

The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. (Rev. 21:23-26).

Glory! This is Gospel glory!

Have a Blessed Holy Week,

Dennis Thurman, AMS