DIGGING DEEP NO: 995 JULY 25, 2023 THE GLORY OF GOD

The glory of God is the beauty of His spirit. It is not an aesthetic beauty or a material beauty, but it is the beauty that emanates from His character, from all that He is.  The glory of man is the beauty of man’s spirit, which is fallible and eventually passes away, But the glory of God, which is manifested in all His attributes together, never passes away. It is eternal.

Isaiah 43:7 says that God created us for His glory. In context with the other verses, it can be said that man “glorifies” God because through man, God’s glory can be seen in things such as love, intellect, prowess, heroism, and so forth—things belonging to God that we are carrying “in jars of clay” 2 Corinthians 4:7. We are the vessels which “contain” His glory. All the things we are able to do is through his glory. Nature exhibits His glory. His glory is revealed to man’s mind through the material world in many ways, and often in different ways to different people. One person may be thrilled by the sight of the mountains and see God’s Glory in it, and another person may see his Glory through the beauty of the sea. But that which is behind them both (God’s glory) speaks to both people and connects them to God. In this way, God is able to reveal Himself to all men, no matter their race, heritage, or location. As Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands;
Psalm 73:24 calls heaven itself “glory.” It used to be common to hear Christians talk of death as being “received unto glory,” which is a phrase borrowed from this Psalm. When the Christian dies, he will be taken into God’s presence, and in His presence will be naturally surrounded by God’s glory. We will be taken to the place where God’s beauty literally resides—the beauty of His Spirit will be there because He will be there. Again, the beauty of His Spirit (or the essence of Who He Is) is His “glory.” In that place, His glory will not need to come through man or nature, rather it will be seen clearly, just as 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

In the human/earthly sense, glory is a beauty or vibrancy that rests upon the material of the earth Psalm 37:20, Psalm 49:17, and in that sense, it fades. But the reason it fades is that material things do not last. They die and wither, but the glory that is in them belongs to God, and returns to Him when death or decay takes the material. Think of the rich man mentioned earlier. The verse says, “The rich man is to glory in his humiliation because like flowering grass he will pass away.” What does this mean? The verse is admonishing the rich man to realize that his wealth and power and beauty come from God, and to be humbled by the realization that it is God who makes him what he is, and gives him all he has. And the knowledge that he will pass away like the grass is what will bring him to the realization that God is the one from whom glory comes. God’s glory is the source, the wellspring from which all smaller glories run.

Since God is the one from whom glory comes, He will not let stand the assertion that glory comes from man or from the idols of man or from nature. In Isaiah 42:8, we see an example of God’s jealousy over His glory. This jealousy for His own glory is what Paul is talking about in Romans 1:21-25 when he speaks of the ways people worship the creature rather than the Creator. In other words, they looked at the object through which God’s glory was coming, and, instead of giving God the credit for it, they worshiped that animal or tree or man as if the beauty it possessed originated from within itself. This is the very heart of idolatry and is a very common occurrence. Everyone who has ever lived has committed this error at one time or another. We have all “exchanged” the glory of God in favor of the “glory of man.”

This is the mistake many people continue to make: trusting in earthly things, earthly relationships, their own powers or talents or beauty, or the goodness they see in others. But when these things fade and fail as they will inevitably do (being only temporary carriers of the greater glory), these people despair. What we all need to realize is that God’s glory is constant, and as we journey through life we will see it manifest. here and there, in this person or that forest, or in a story of love or heroism, fiction or non-fiction, or in our own personal lives. But it all goes back to God in the end We will find the very source of all beauty in Him.

Let’s start by understanding that God is our Creator and that we are a part of His creation, created in his image and his Glory is seen in us By considering creation’s vastness, complexity, beauty, and order, we can have a sense of the awesomeness of God’s Glory.


God is eternal, meaning He had no beginning and His existence will never end. He is immortal and infinite Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalm 90:2; 1 Timothy 1:17. God is immutable, meaning He is unchanging; this in turn means that God is absolutely reliable and trustworthy Malachi 3:6; Numbers 23:19; Psalm 102:26, 27. God is incomparable; there is no one like Him in works or being. He is unequaled and perfect 2 Samuel 7:22; Psalm 86:8; Isaiah 40:25; Matthew 5:48. God is inscrutable, unfathomable, unsearchable, and past finding out as far as understanding Him completely Isaiah 40:28; Psalm 145:3; Romans 11:33, 34.

God is just; He is no respecter of persons in the sense of showing favoritism Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 18:30. God is omnipotent; He is all-powerful and can do anything that pleases Him, but His actions will always be in accord with the rest of His character Revelation 19:6; Jeremiah 32:17, 27. God is omnipresent, meaning He is present everywhere, but this does not mean that God is everything Psalm 139:7-13; Jeremiah 23:23. God is omniscient, meaning He knows the past, present, and future, including what we are thinking at any given moment. Since He knows everything, His justice will always be administered fairly Psalm 139:1-5; Proverbs 5:21.

God is one; not only is there no other, but He is alone in being able to meet the deepest needs and longings of our hearts. God alone is worthy of our worship and devotion Deuteronomy 6:4. God is righteous, meaning that God cannot and will not pass over wrongdoing. It is because of God’s righteousness and justice that, in order for our sins to be forgiven, Jesus had to experience God’s wrath when our sins were placed upon Him Exodus 9:27; Matthew 27:45-46; Romans 3:21-26.

God is sovereign, meaning He is supreme. All of His creation put together cannot thwart His purposes Psalm 93:1; 95:3; Jeremiah 23:20. God is spirit, meaning He is invisible John 1:18; 4:24. God is a Trinity. He is three in one, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. God is truth, He will remain incorruptible and cannot lie Psalm 117:2; 1 Samuel 15:29.

God is holy, separated from all moral defilement and hostile toward it. God sees all evil and it angers Him. God is referred to as a consuming fire Isaiah 6:3; Habakkuk 1:13; Exodus 3:2, 4-5; Hebrews 12:29. God is gracious, and His grace includes His goodness, kindness, mercy, and love. If it were not for God’s grace, His holiness would exclude us from His presence. Thankfully, this is not the case, for He desires to know each of us personally Exodus 34:6; Psalm 31:19; 1 Peter 1:3; John 3:16, 17:3.

Since God is an infinite Being, no human can fully answer this God-sized question, but through God’s Word, we can understand much about who God is and what He is like. May we all wholeheartedly continue to seek after Him Jeremiah 29:13.