Glory: An All-Governing Object and End of God (continued)
"The Father of Glory"
So each title has its own significance - "The Father of Glory." Well, fatherhood means that there must be children, or else it does not have any meaning at all. And true fatherhood means that the children take the character of the parents. This is the Letter to the Ephesians, as you see, "The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... the Father of Glory ... the Father in Whom every family is called" (Ephesians 3:14-15). You see, the idea is a family now, God's family taking the character of God, deriving the very Life and Nature of God, and expressing it. I need not dwell upon that in the natural realm. So often it is so easy to see the family likeness, as we say, the family likeness and to say of a son, 'Well, we know whose son you are,' not always, but often. And in this case there is no question about it, or there ought to be no question about it of whose children we are. It ought to be possible for it to be said, 'We know who you belong to,' meaning: 'We know who your Father is, there is a family likeness.'
Now if there is a real partaking of the Divine Nature, if there is here the expression of His Fatherhood, in the measure in which that is true, it will be Glory. He is the Father of Glory. That is, the children partake of His Nature, and the Nature of God in expression is Glory. Well, that is capable of being submitted and subjected to tests, is it not? Again, in the way in which I said just now, if there is something not like the Father about us, something ugly; something that is a contradiction to the likeness of our Heavenly Father, well there is no Glory. But get that cleared up, some bit of un-love, something about us that is really not the Lord; get it cleared up and out of the way and what happens? Well, the only word is "Glory" sensed inwardly, and enjoyed with others. Glory comes in. Take it between two Christians: get that ugly thing dealt with and removed and what Glory comes between them. That is so simple, but that is the Father of Glory, the Divine Nature displayed in children.
"The Lord of Glory"
Then coming to First Corinthians, chapter two, and verse eight: "The Lord of Glory," I think this has a double meaning. First of all, it clearly indicates Christ's place, Christ's rightful place: "The Lord of Glory." It is a title given to Him, that He is the Lord of Glory. Meaning in this sense, the Lord from Glory, the Lord whose place is in Glory, the Lord whose rightful inheritance is Glory, He is the Lord of Glory in the utter and absolute sense.
And, again, it is only when Jesus is really Lord that we know the Glory. Oh, this long-drawn-out battle of His Lordship, what a miserable thing it is! What a miserable thing it is! You know the most miserable people on this earth, who are they? Who are the most miserable people in this world? They are not the worldly. They have a good time in the world. And they are not the-out-and-out Christians. They are the people who are half-way between the two, who are trying to mix up the two; they have the two, something of the Lord, and they are just trying to, somehow or other, reconcile the irreconcilable, and they are miserable people. Oh, be one thing or the other! That is not the Lord of Glory you see. Now, if He is really Lord, then there will be Glory.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 6)
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