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THE GLORY OF GOD

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 29, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 39.

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THE GLORY OF GOD.

By Eugene Leland

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23. The inference to be drawn from this passage is that the glory of God was the ultimate object had in view in the creation of man. In fact, this thought is plainly stated in several passages of Scripture. Here is one: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” Rev. 4:11.
But man has not attained to the object of his creation. By sin he has “come short of the glory of God.” “Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. And if the transgression of the law causes all to “come short of the glory of God,” it follows that obedience to the law would enable all to attain to the glory of God, and therefore that the law of God is the measure of the glory of God, and that to attain to that glory is to meet the requirements of the law.
But “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Not one has met the requirements of the law in his life. “There is none righteous, no, not one.” Therefore not one can attain to the glory of God by trying to meet the requirements of the law. Transgression has made the mind of all carnal, “and the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Even tho the carnal mind could meet the requirements of the law from this time forward, that is no more than it ought to do, and it would still “come short of the glory of God” in consequence of past transgression. But the carnal mind can not even meet the requirements of the law for the future, much less atone for the sins of the past. How, then, can “the glory of God” be attained, not only for the present, but also for the past?
Just at this point is where another attribute in the character of God is made manifest. Altho “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” yet all may be “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” It is by the grace of God that we are to attain to the glory of God. And this is true not only for the present, but by the same means the glory of God is to be attained for the past; for God hath set forth Jesus Christ “to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”
The law condemns all men to death because it sees transgression, and all that the word “transgression” stands for, written upon the hearts of all men everywhere, when in order to the glory of God it should see obedience written there instead. The law condemns pride, and foolishness, and every other evil thing, and it holds the rod of death over every one in whom they are seen, and that is every one in the world. But the glory of God, the requirements of His law, can be fulfilled in every man by the grace of God. Man can attain to the object of his creation, he can attain to the glory of God, by the grace of God.
Listen to the Scripture: “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” 1 Peter 5:10. It is through the grace of God that we are called to the glory of God by Christ Jesus. David says, “The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory.” He gives grace as a “shield” against the death penalty of the law both for past transgressions and for present imperfections. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” He gives glory, His own glory, as the brightness of the “sun” to shine out in us through obedience to His law. But it is all in Christ.
Read again: “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us unto glory and virtue; whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:2–4. And further: “For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” 2 Cor. 1:20. All that we can ever know of the grace of God is what is revealed to us in the promises of God.
It is through the promises of God in Him that the glory of God is to be attained by us. “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him.” Col. 2:9, 10. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17. The pride, the vanity, the foolishness, all the “old things” of this character, “are passed away,” when I am “found in Him,” “not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Phil. 3:9.
When once we are found in Him, the demands of the law are satisfied: “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Cor. 5:21. And when the law looks for the evil things in us for which we were once under its curse, even the curse of death, it can see only the divine perfection of Christ, who “hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” Gal. 3:13. The knowledge of the glory of God is given in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 4:6. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Cor. 3:18.
But the Scripture says that Christ is in us as well as that we are in Him. And therein is the difference between the grace of God and the glory of God. We are in Christ that He may be a “shield” to us from the curse of the law. This is a grace. Christ is in us that He may be a “sun” to shine forth in the world obedience to the law of God in us. This is glory, even the glory of God. The riches of His grace is shown in the forgiveness of sins: “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Eph. 1:7. The riches of His glory is shown by granting power to live in harmony with His law. “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col. 1:27.
And why not this glory just now? Is not the admonition given to “arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee” (Isa. 60:1, 2)? And did not the Saviour say, “And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are One” (John 17:22)? And the apostle Paul testifies, “Whom He justified, them He also glorified.” The glory of God is ours to enjoy just now. EUGENE LELAND.
Bethel, P. Q.