The Cross and the Eternal Glory # 1

Glory: An All-Governing Object and End of God

1 Peter 5:10, 11

I want to place over this time a fragment out of these verses, and it is this, "His Eternal Glory." His Eternal Glory that indicates An All-Governing Object and End of God. Whenever, and wherever, there has existed a state which has answered to God's mind there has been Glory. Glory is always present when things correspond to the mind of God, because Glory is the mind of God. Of course, sometimes we have instances in the Scriptures of the appearance of the Glory that has been unto judgment, but even so, it was a testimony against that which did not correspond to the Lord's mind. Do you remember when Moses, the divinely appointed servant of God, was challenged by some as to his position? We are told the Glory appeared in the door of the tabernacle and judgment followed (Numbers 12:1-10). Then at the commencement of the last Book of the Bible, the Book of the Revelation, we have the Lord Jesus presented in Glory, and it is again to judge things (Revelation 1-3). But it is always whether it is in blessing or in judgment, a setting forth of God's mind. God's mind is a glorious mind, it is a mind of Glory, and Glory is timeless. It is His Eternal Glory!

Now seeing that Glory is An All-Governing Object and End of God, a definition of glory is called for which will just fit into every occasion when the word is used. And, of course, that is a very big job. You have only to look at a concordance and you will find that you have on hand hundreds, more than four hundred occasions in the Bible, for the use of this word glory. And, yet, there is a definition that will fit  into every instance. What I mean is this, when glory is mentioned, you ask the question, "Well, what does that mean, what does glory mean?" Then, if you define glory, you will see how the definition or the word truly understood just fits into every situation. The definition, which we have given before, according to what the Scripture makes perfectly clear, is that GLORY IS GOD'S NATURE. And a state of Glory is a state which corresponds to God's Nature.

Glory, therefore, is the Divine Nature in expression. If you have Divine Love in perfection: you have Glory. If there is a state of love, Divine love, among the Lord's people, then it is Glory. Not necessarily something like a blaze of light which you see, but which you sense. You sense it. When there is a state of Divine Life in fullness, there is no death at all, but it is all Life, the river is flowing in fullness, it is a state of Glory. And faith is free from all questions and doubts and mistrusts, it is perfect faith, then it is a state of Glory. When holiness, Divine holiness, is present without any jarring contradictory element of sin, then it is Glory.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 2)