God’s glory is unique and shared
Another expression of God’s intrinsic and
extrinsic glory is that his glory is both unique and shared. God alone is intrinsically
glorious. He is uniquely and incomparably glorious. As Richard Gaffin points
out, glory is pre-eminently a divine quality; ultimately only God has glory.
And according to Isaiah 42:8, God jealously guards his glory:
I am the LORD; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols.
In the intrinsic sense, God’s glory is unique.
No one and nothing else is glorious. All idols are unworthy of comparison.
But, amazingly, the glorious God extrinsically
manifests his glory and communicates his fullness. In so doing he remains ontologically
unique and distinct from his creatures and graciously shares his glory and
makes glorious many things.
For example, the Bible makes it clear that humans
are created in God’s image with glory, honour and dominion. Psalm 8:4-8 is
instructive. Though humans are minute in comparison to God or the heavens, he
remembers and has special concern for them. Indeed, God has even ‘crowned’
humans ‘with glory and honour’ (8:5), which connotes kingship (cf. 29:1;
104:1).
Further, God shares his glory with Israel (Rom.
9:4). In the same section of Isaiah appear statements such as ‘My glory I will
not give to another’ (42:8; 48:11) and those that refer to God’s calling and
putting his name on Israel (43:1-6; 44:1-5), glorying in Israel (46:13) and,
yes, even making Israel glorious. ‘My glory I will not give to another’
refers in context to God’s unique glory and his warnings to Israel that he
allows no idols and brooks no rivals (cf. 48:11-12). Nevertheless, Isaiah
declares to the people of God that the Lord ‘has glorified you’ (55:5). Even
more, Isaiah 60 shows that God’s glory will rise upon them (60:1) and will be
seen on them (v. 2) and that other nations will see their radiance and glory,
for God has made them beautiful (vv. 3-9; 62:2). God says to his people, ‘I
will make you majestic for ever, / a joy from age to age’ (60:15), and in turn
God himself will be glorified (v. 21).
This hope of the glorious God’s not only
manifesting his glory to the people of Israel but also sharing it with them is
echoed in Simeon’s blessing of Jesus:
Lord, now you are letting your servant depart
in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.
(Luke 2:29-32)
This idea of the uniquely glorious God’s
sharing his glory with his people would appear bizarre, except for the fact
that it is such a prominent theme. The breadth of the New Testament teaching
on this is astounding.
In his high priestly prayer Jesus reveals, ‘The
glory that you have given me I have given to them that they may be one as we
are one’ (John 17:22). Peter refers to himself as a partaker in the glory that
will be revealed (1 Peter 5:1) and encourages suffering believers that ‘the God
of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself
restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you’ (v. 10).
But it is the apostle Paul who most develops
this idea that we share in God’s glory. Because of our union with Christ, we,
in some sense and to the extent it could be true of creates, participate and
share in his glory. As Michael Horton ably puts it, ‘What happens for us is the
basis for what happens to us and in us.’ Paul instructs the Thessalonian believers
that God calls us into his own kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2;12). He also prays
for their faith, ‘so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you,
and you in him’ (2 Thess. 1:12). Paul encourages the Thessalonians to gratitude
because God called them so that they ‘may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ’ (2 Thess. 2:14; cf. Col. 1:27, 3:4).
To the Corinthians Paul also highlights the
shared nature of this glory in conjunction with Jesus’ identity as the new Adam
and his saving work, particularly in the cross and resurrection: ‘[W]e impart a
secret and hidden wisdom of God, which h God decreed before the ages for our
glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they
would not have crucified the Lord of glory’ (1 Cor. 2:7-8). Because of our
union with Christ and his resurrection, our bodies will too be raised in glory
(15:42-58). Later, in one of the most penetrating Christological and soteriological
statements in all of Scripture, Paul explains, ‘[W]e all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from
one degree of glory to another’ (2 Cor. 3:18). He develops this more in chapter
4, where he culminates his argument by stating that ‘this light momentary affliction
is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison’ (4:17). (Christopher
W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, The Glory of God and Paul: Texts, Themes
and Theology [New Studies in Biblical Theology 58; Nottingham: Apollos,
2022], 18-20, emphasis added)
