How many and how varied are the glories of the Lord Jesus the Son of God. There are the glories connected with His Godhead, the glories that were seen by His disciples while He was upon earth, the glories that now belong to the Lord where He is now on the right hand of God, and the glories that will be displayed in Him when He comes again. Many of the glories of the Lord are spoken of in the Old Testament, where it is written, “His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace”. Among the glories of the Lord in the Old Testament are those connected with His place on the throne of Israel, and brought out so vividly in such Psalms as 2, 24, 45, and 72. On His throne in the coming day the Lord Jesus will not only be the King, but He shall sit as Priest upon His throne (Zech. 6:13), all the glories set forth in Melchisedec, Aaron, David and Solomon, combining in Him the One foreshadowed in them.
Something of the moral glory of Jesus is seen in Isaiah 53, where “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opens not His mouth” (verse 7). Christ’s present place as “exalted and extolled” and very high is before the vision of the prophet (Isa. 52:13), as is also His coming glory, when “the kings shall shut their mouths at Him,” being silent at beholding Him who once was a Man of sorrows, but has now all the kingdoms of this world under Him (verse 15). When on earth, the disciples beheld His glory shining through the veil of His flesh (John 1:14), and the moral glory of the Son of Man shone, for all who had eyes to discern, most brilliantly as He gave Himself to secure the Father’s glory, and our eternal blessing (John 13:31).
It is the privilege of the Christian now to be occupied with the Lord Jesus in the glories that belong to Him at God’s right hand, to see Him where He was seen by Stephen and by Saul of Tarsus, and to learn of the glories portrayed by the Spirit of God through the pen of the Apostle Paul in such Scriptures as 2 Corinthians 3 and 4, Ephesians 1, 3 and 4, and Colossians 1. In Revelation 1 we also learn something of the present glories of the Lord as Son of Man, glories that are seen in relation to the church in responsibility in Revelation 2 and 3.
Luke 9.
In this chapter the glories of the Lord Jesus in relation to the coming day are specially brought before us, and that from His own lips in verse 26, where He said, “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.” In the days of His humiliation the Lord Jesus could look forward to the day of His glory, not only to His present place at God’s right hand, but also to the display of His glory in the world to come.
The glory of the Son of Man
The first glory to which the Lord refers is “His own glory,” that is the glory of the Son of Man, for He had just spoken of Himself in this way. There is His own glory as the Son of God, but here the Lord is speaking of His glory as it had been spoken of in Psalm 8, and also in Psalm 80 and Daniel 7. The moral glory of the Son of Man was manifested on earth; Christ’s glory as Son of Man was seen by Stephen as He looked up to heaven, but the glory of the Son of Man will soon be displayed before men when He comes again to put this world right.
This glory will be seen in Him who secured all the will of God, and who died on the cross to glorify God in regard to sin and to bring into being a world where righteousness would reign, and from which the rebellion and corruption of man would be expelled. It will be seen in that day that God has not put this world under angels, but all things have been put under the feet of Man in Christ, the Son of Man, and that He has received this place as God’s appointed Heir, and also as the One who secured the redemption that made this reign of peace possible.
Adam had been made head of the lower creation, but had grievously failed, but what was seen faintly in Adam has been fulfilled in Christ, and shall be displayed in Him as Head over all things. Indeed, every thought of God regarding man will be seen in Christ in the coming day, whether Headship, Governorship, Priesthood or Sovereignty. Man has failed in every position of authority in which God has placed him, but God’s purposes have not failed, for in Christ every thought of God concerning man will be seen to be fulfilled in the Son of Man, who is not only Head of the lower creation, but Head over all things in heaven and upon earth.
His Father’s Glory
This glory will display Jesus as the Son of God, the loved Object of the Father’s heart. When Jesus was on earth He was rejected, and in Him the Father too was rejected, for He came in His Father’s Name, and the world would not receive Him. This was true in a special way in relation to Israel. Coming in His Father’s glory, Israel, and the world, will see that the One they refused was none other than the Son of the Father, and that the glory in which He is displayed marks Him as loved by His Father. This glory is brought before us also in John 17:22-23. There the Son desires that His own might be with Him in the glory that the Father has given Him for the display of the coming day, but in Luke 9 it is not what His disciples shall have that is before the Lord, but rather His own personal place before men as having the glory of the Father in the day of His kingdom.
The Glory of the Holy Angels
The angels are presented to us as the greatest of God’s created beings, for they “excel in strength” (Ps. 103:20), and man, so wonderfully made, has been made “a little lower than the angels” (Ps. 8:5). When the Lord Jesus comes in His glory, the divine command will be, “Let all the angels of God worship Him” (Heb. 1:6). All the glory of the holy angels will be brought to the feet of Him as Man, the Son of Man, yet the One who is the creator of the angels as also of the vast universe and all things in it. How wonderful it will be to see Jesus in that day, the Son of Man in His own rightful glory, in the glory given to Him by His Father, and in the glory brought to Him by the holy angels.
Philippians 1.
The Lord Jesus will not only be glorified personally when He comes, He shall also “come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe” (2 Thess. 1:10). This is also shown in John 17:22-23, as already mentioned. We learn from Philippians 1 how the saints are being prepared for this day of Christ’s display in glory. In verse 6 the Apostle writes, “Being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun in you a good work will perform it until (or unto) the day of Jesus Christ.”
God has His plans for the glory of His Son in the coming day, and while His saints are passing through this world He is working in them that which He will display with Christ. Everything that will be displayed in the saints will show what Christ is, and will call attention to Him. Each saint in the glory will owe his place there to the work of Christ upon the cross, and the glory that will be displayed is the workmanship of God. It is the sovereign grace of God that has brought us into this place of association with His Son, Jesus Christ, and it is His sovereign working that has made us suited vessels for the display of Christ’s glory.
Left to ourselves we would have been “vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,” but God in His sovereign mercy to “make known the riches of His glory,” has chosen us as “vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory” (Rom. 9:22-23). In the days of this preparation unto glory, God is continuing His good work that will not only display the features of Christ, but will manifest the kind of Workman He is, for we are not only “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Eph. 2:10) for His testimony here, but also His workmanship for His pleasure and Christ’s glory in the coming day.
This good work was begun in us when first God took us up, and God will complete the work He started. If we apprehended this we would understand better God’s ways with us, for He is working in the details of our daily lives what suits His own purpose in view of the coming day, and we can well rest assured that what suits His purpose will be best for us. How good it is to rest in His hands, knowing the infinite wisdom and eternal love of Him who is working with us, and in us, in view of the delight He has in forming us for the display of the glory of Jesus Christ.
There are many aspects of Christ’s coming glories, and of the day in which His glory will be displayed. Sometimes that day is called “The day of the Lord,” for then all will be under His authority, with all under His feet. In that day the Lord will deal with evil. At the beginning, He will break the nations “with a rod of iron,” and “dash them into pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Ps. 2:9); during the millennium the Lord will suppress any evil that rears its head, and at the end will destroy the nations that are deceived by Satan (Rev. 20:7–9), the heavens and the earth passing away at the end of the day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:10).
In Philippians 1:10 there is another aspect of that day, “the day of Christ,” and connected with this is the exercises of the saints of God. With the day of Christ in view, the Apostle prays that the Philippian saints’ love “may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment,” so as to “approve things that are excellent,” and to “be sincere and without offence.” Our whole life down here is to be lived in view of the day when we shall be glorified with Christ. God has not left us in this world to please ourselves, or to be occupied with the things that engage the men of this world. The flesh is not to be encouraged, but we are to allow the divine nature full expression in all things.
The full knowledge of God and of the Son of God has been made known to us in the divine revelation found in the New Testament, and we are to be occupied with this revelation, so that the divine nature might be nourished by it. This will enable our love to be expressed in an intelligent way, for the pleasure of God and for the benefit of His people. Without the full knowledge of God and divine intelligence, we can never judge matters properly. If we are influenced by nature, the things of the earth or the things of the world, our lives cannot be right in the sight of God. Being left here to live in view of Christ’s day, God would have us to be pure and without offence, for what is wrought in us now through our spiritual exercises will come out in display when we are manifested in glory with Christ.
It is a blessed thing to know that God is preparing us for the day of Jesus Christ, preparing us in His sovereign grace and mercy, so that His purpose might be accomplished, but it also blessed to understand that nothing that we do for Christ will lose its reward. Every exercise of heart that has Christ as its object is taken account of by God now, and He will bring it out when we have our part with Jesus in the day of Christ.
Now we are to be “filled with the fruits of righteousness,” for these precious fruits will be displayed in Christ’s day. These fruits, which are for God’s glory even now, are produced by Jesus Christ, for we could not do anything for Him of ourselves. All the grace necessary to bring forth this precious fruit comes from Jesus Christ, whose eye is ever on us, and whose resources are available for us. Dependence upon Him, by abiding in Him, brings the divine supply that yields the fruit for God’s glory and pleasure now, and for display in Christ’s day.
R. 4.12.70