We Beheld His Glory # 48

What the Glory of God Is

John 10 and 11

"Jesus sayeth unto her, Said I not unto thee, that if thou believedst, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" (John 9:40).  And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified" (John 12:23).

Chapters eleven and twelve have to be taken together, for they are part and counterpart. From the above citations from each it will be seen that, once again, the governing factor is the glory of the Son of Man as the Son of God.

Before we can rightly understanding the subject-matter of the chapters we need to understand the meaning of glory.

The glory of God is the expression of the satisfaction of His nature. When and where God's nature - His very being - is satisfied, that satisfaction emanates, and there is a spirit of inexpressible joy, peace, rest, beauty, wonder, harmony, and life. All these elements are the components or constituents of what is called 'Glory." When any person is filled with this spirit and experiences something of these elements, almost the only suitable and adequate exclamation is "Glory!'

"O, what a foretaste of glory Divine!"

If our whole life was gathered up into one particular object and concern, so that we had nothing else to justify our existence, and that object was a consuming passion, so that for it we lived, thought, planned, sacrificed, suffered, worked, and longed with an unutterable longing; and then that object was realized, reached, possessed: if that happened, we should be quite unable to shut it all in to ourselves it would break out and affect all around us. In its realm it would be what we would call "Glory" we should exclaim, "Isn't it glorious!"

Well, lift it all into so much greater and higher realm of Infinite God; make it eternal and not of time; spiritual and not merely temporal; immortal and not corruptible; and that - where it exists - is Divine glory, and it is affecting and wonderfully satisfying.

God's nature craves for that which corresponds to it. God's nature contains the elements of His purpose and desire. Out of His very being He has projected His purpose. To that purpose He has committed Himself; has planned, labored, thought, sacrificed, suffered, longed; and for its sake He is never resting. When He sees it, in its beginning or increase, in its principle or growth, His 'good pleasure," satisfaction and joy are ministered to, so that those concerned register and share His satisfaction; and that is "Glory."

This, then, is the key to John's gospel, and to these two chapters in particular. Let us use the key.

Death - the Counter to Glory

Here is Lazarus. It is a fair and beautiful human scene. Strong affection between sisters and brother; a lovely home, to which Jesus turned when He could, knowing of a warm welcome, a deep understanding and appreciation - even if sometimes, under peculiar stress, there may have been a little domestic tension. This scene is broken into by sickness and - death!

Death is the enemy of all that is beautiful. Death is always death, whether it be our death or the Lord's death. When it says of Him that "He tasted death," it means that it was the bitterest and most devastating cup that He drank. Death is always the breakdown of Divine purpose, the contradiction to God's will; the veil over the Divine glory. Death - if it remains - is a closed door.

But more - death is no mere accident; the natural termination of a tenure of life! If the Bible is clear on anything, it is certainly clear on this, that death was not intended but is the result of a wrongful exercise of choice - the exercise is called "Sin," and its wages are not the grateful emoluments of services rendered, but judgment upon a state and position altogether contrary to the Creator's mind.

Death declares that there is something that does not, and never can, bring satisfaction to God's nature. There is that which declares a Divine halt, not a Divine purpose. There is no glory in death! Some people may labor to sublimate death; others declare, "There is no death"; but the Bible just stands by its own definition and declaration: "the last enemy ... death," and it is for "abolition," not bowing out or sublimating.

Such then is the setting of John 9.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 49)