by T. Austin-Sparks
The first letter of Peter, chapter 5, verse 10: "And the God of all
grace who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ, after that ye
have suffered a little while shall Himself perfect, establish,
and strengthen you. To Him be the dominion for ever and ever."
I want to place over this time a fragment out of that verse. It is
this: 'His eternal glory'. His eternal glory. That
indicates an all-governing object and end of God - glory. 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.
You remember when the divinely appointed servant of God, Moses,
was challenged by some as to his position, we're told the glory
appeared in the door of the tabernacle and judgment followed. 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, 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 this 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 in to 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 (I
think) 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's 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 fulness, there is no death
at all, but it is all Life, the river is flowing in fulness, it's
a state of glory! When faith is free from all questions, and
doubts, and mistrust; it's perfect faith, that is a state of
glory. When holiness, Divine holiness, is present without any
jarring, contradictory element of sin, then it's glory.
We know what we mean by just thinking of the opposite to all
these. We know that when there's strife, and discord, and un-love,
hatred, malice, suspicion, and all those things which are just
contrary to love, there's no glory. There's no glory, it's a
wretched situation and no one would call that glorious. Or in any
of the other cases where, for some reason or other, death,
spiritual death, has been allowed to come in and we touch the
realm of death and dead things. We get on to some line of
conversation where we are touching things that are dead, they
don't live with God; there's no glory, we're sorry that ever we
touched them, mentioned them, referred to them. Death has no glory
about it. When you and I get into a state of doubting and
questioning, questioning the Lord and begin to waver in our faith,
the glory goes out and it never comes back until we get back to
faith and confidence in the Lord. But when sin is allowed to
persist, evil is given a place and there's no glory. So I think
the definition is a sound one, a right one: glory is just the
Divine nature in expression and wherever and whenever that is so,
then it is glory. It is glory!
The Glory Comes In
Glory is initial whenever we get into line with the mind of God. Take the experience of one who comes first to the Lord. Why, a new-born soul, a new convert, one who has really come into the meaning of salvation, right at the beginning that one thinks that they are ready for heaven at once; there is nothing more to be done. Indeed, if they have not gone to heaven, heaven has come to them! This is glory, there's a touch of glory. That's true, it is initial.
It is also occasional. That is, whenever there is some experience by which we come into a fuller correspondence to the will of God, there is a new uprising of glory. It may be through some tremendous spiritual battle; some controversy that the Lord has had with us, or we with Him; something upon which the Lord has put His finger and we have just not been willing to let go, to yield; something like that, where everything for the time being has been held up in our relationship with the Lord or in our spiritual life. And then, as we say, "we get through", we get through on that, we get that thing settled and cleared up and out of the way. Immediately there is a new expression of glory; it fills our hearts.
It is initial, it is
occasional. We can have many times of glory in our Christian
lives. It is progressive, progressive in this sense: that it is an
increasing matter. The Christian finds that from time to time he
or she is taken into a deeper, deeper experience of trial,
affliction, sorrow... something deeper and more difficult than
anything before, and it's a time when there does not seem to be
very much glory; the glory seems to be veiled. There is nothing
necessarily wrong about that, dear friends. We will come to that
again in a minute. That is the common experience and that is
recognised as being true to Christian experience. But, you see,
God is the God of glory and we are called unto His eternal glory
and what the Lord means by this is more glory. The deeper the
trial, the greater the suffering, the greater the glory,
presently. It is only to bring about the glory in fuller
measure. It is progressive, like that. And so there seems to be no
end to these going-down experiences, but equally there is no end
to the coming-up experiences. If there seems to be no end to the
dark experiences, be assured that there is no end to the light
ones.
Sometimes I have been in the lift or elevator and tried to make a contact with the operator and I have said like this: "Well, you know a great deal about the ups and downs in life, don't you?" "Oh, yes, of course...", with a grumble. But I say: "Make sure the last one is up and not down, won't you?" And a questioning look comes onto the face, "What do you mean by that?" Well, you see that's just what we do mean. And with the Lord's people the last one is going to be up and not down, simply because this is an all-governing object and end of the Lord. Do you believe it, that the end is not going to be down, it's going to be up? He is intending glory who hath called you unto His eternal glory.
And so what is initial,
occasional, progressive, is final. The Bible reveals that
to be so for the people of God. That is a statement of general
truth, of truth in general.
Now if you look at your New
Testament, you will find that glory is a central and a governing
factor in the foundation of this particular dispensation in a
particular way. This dispensation, as you know, in a special way,
is built upon, as the Word says, "the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner
stone" (Eph. 2:20). The faith of believers for this dispensation
is thereby declared to rest upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets. Of course, they are the New Testament apostles and
prophets. The apostles... and Jesus Himself being the chief corner
stone, that is the full foundation. Now when you look to the
foundation of the apostles and prophets upon which all faith in
this dispensation rests, you find that it is the foundation of
glory. John, who was one of them, and not one of the least of
them, said "we beheld His glory", and you look at his gospel, and
you find that the word "glory" has a very large place in the
gospel by John. It is glory, glory, and so John, long years after
said, summing it all up (their apprehension of Christ, what Christ
had meant to them, and it is in the plural "we", see, the
apostles): "we beheld His glory", and everything rests upon that.
Peter, who again was not
one of the least of the apostles, he in looking back upon what
Christ had come to be to them, and referring to what evidently had
made the greatest impression upon him, he said: "we were
eyewitnesses of His majesty, when there came from the excellent
glory this voice...". Now, that is rather remarkable in
this way: that Peter, who was on the Mount of Transfiguration with
the Lord and, as he put it afterward, years afterward: "we were
eyewitnesses of His majesty and there came from the excellent
glory this voice". It wasn't long, only a little while after that
that Peter is found in complete darkness, doubting who the Lord
was, doubting almost everything that the Lord had said, raising
questions about the cross, because the cross to him seemed to be
the greatest disaster that could happen, doubting the very
resurrection and because he had not laid hold of the significance
of this really: denying his Lord thrice with vehemence. But then
this, as it were, came right up from the dead, this all came
back, this Mount of Transfiguration experience all came right back
in this mighty way and years afterward he wrote "we were
eyewitnesses of His majesty". You see, Peter's life and ministry
subsequently rested upon the glory of Christ, upon glory,
it came out of glory. I believe that the subsequent recollection,
remembrance, recovery of what happened on the Transfiguration
Mount was the inspiration and strength of Peter's life and
ministry.
For us, for us in this whole dispensation, these men were saved by glory, that's the point. These men were confirmed and established by glory. These men had their life and their ministry from the glory that they had seen in Christ. And Paul, by no means the least of the apostles, beheld the glory of Christ on his way to Damascus. He beheld the glory. Christ appeared to him in glory and we have good reason to believe that that was not only the conversion of Paul, but everything that we know about Paul dates to that and sprang out of that. And the wonderful thing about it is that the glory was attached to Jesus of Nazareth. "Who art thou, Lord?", he asked. "I am Jesus of Nazareth." The significance of that, because that is the title of Christ in humiliation, of Christ as Man, and the glory, the effulgent glory of God and heaven attached to the Man, Jesus of Nazareth. To get the implications of that is tremendous. Man! Attached to man. And that became the very foundation of Paul's life and ministry. You see, dear friends, glory was the foundation of the apostles and prophets and this whole dispensation for Christians rests upon that glory. These men knew something about the glory, and that glory made them what they were and gave them to us. And what we owe to them, what we owe to those men!
Now just for a minute or two, let us look at another aspect of this.
The Four Relationships of Glory in the New Testament
We have them in this way:
Acts 7 verse 2, Stephen opens his address to the Jewish rulers and
elders with these words: "The God of glory appeared unto
our father Abraham when he was in Ur of the Chaldees". The God
of glory. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians chapter 1,
verse 17 uses this phrase: "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory": the Father of glory. In the first letter
to the Corinthians chapter 2 verse 8 he speaks like this: "They
crucified the Lord of glory": the Lord of glory. And then
Peter, in his first letter chapter 4 verse 14: "The Spirit
of glory resteth upon you". Four relationships of glory: the God
of glory, the Father of glory, the Lord of glory, the Spirit of
glory. The triune God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, all designated by
the word "glory".
We'll look at each one of
these briefly.
The God of Glory.
Whenever the word or idea "God" comes into view or into mind,
there is only one thing that is the right meaning of that. If it
is God, then the idea is worship, isn't it? It is worship. The God
of glory... then the end of all God's ways will be worship. The
glory will be in terms of worship. You see this is Abraham, "The
God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Ur
of the Chaldees" and you remember in our last conference we
pointed out that in Ur of the Chaldees worship was given to two
thousand different forms of deities. And God said: "This isn't
good enough. Two thousand deities getting worship? There is only
one God who ought to have the worship. Come out of that Abraham,
come out of that!" And you notice that the whole history of God's
dealings with Abraham, indeed, His choosing of Abraham, was to
constitute a people who gave all worship to one God only. "Thou
shalt have none other gods beside Me." A people who give God His
sole place and rights, unreservedly, undividedly - all the worship
to Him alone. That was the meaning of the calling of Abraham: out
from all other worships, to worship the One, the only true and
living God; a people, a seed, in whom God got His rights and got
them thoroughly without any reservation. That was the object. And
God says, "When, when that happens, when I have My place,
and sole place, and there is no dividedness about this matter of
who has the worship and who gets the rights, then there will be a
state of glory". We can look right through, can't we, to the
end... the end will be there will be no other gods, no other
objects of worship, no dividing of allegiance with God. He will be
God alone. Paul touches on that when he says that even the Son
Himself shall be subject "that God may be All in all", and that
will be glory. It is glory in terms of worship. The God of
glory! The God of glory. If you and I (and this is saying a very
elementary thing) if you and I believe in God, the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, as our God, claim Him to be our God, believe Him to
be our God, see what it means; it is something which would lead to
glory, but it is a challenge all the way along as to whether He
is, after all, God, our only God, altogether God.
Enough on that, the God of glory.
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 doesn't have any meaning at all and true fatherhood means that
the children take the character of the parent. 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", 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's 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) whose
children we are. 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 the 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, isn't it, 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's
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 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.
Then coming to 1
Corinthians 2:
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 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 something that is not 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's not the Lord of glory you see. Now, if He is
really Lord, then there will be glory. But I think this has
another meaning too. As Lord of glory He is over everything
and going to make it work out to glory. The book of the Acts
is just written on that principle, isn't it? All sorts of things
from early in the book, right to the end which seem to be, well,
the work of the devil, the work of evil men: apostles in prison,
the work of God being hindered, things seeming to go wrong,
Christians suffering. But look again at each case. Is Peter in
prison? All right, what's the outcome, what's the end of it?
Glory, isn't it? Are Paul and Silas in prison? Well, glory is the
issue. And so again and again and again things which seemed to be
all wrong at first, contradictory, were made to work out to good.
Paul said "I would have you know that things which befell me have
fallen out for the furtherance of the gospel". Why? Because the
Lord of glory has got the situation in hand and not the devil! It
looks otherwise and it looks as though the end is going to be
calamity, but no! The Lord of glory has got hold of this thing and
He will make it work out for glory in the end. If only we believed
that; the darkness and the most difficult situation is going to
work out for glory because the Lord of glory is over it!
And finally:
The Spirit of Glory.
You need to read Peter's context to see what that means. Look at
his first letter, and you will see that he has a lot to say about
the sufferings of the Lord's people. "Think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial... Though now for a season you
are in heaviness through manifold trials". And he refers to their
being persecuted for the sake of Christ and then he heads it right
up here: if you are persecuted, if you suffer for the sake of
Christ, "happy are you, for the Spirit of glory rests upon you"! You
see, the Spirit of glory links with the fellowship of Christ's
sufferings. Now, Christ's sufferings led to His glory. The
sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow...
suffering together with Christ, and the glory that will follow,
both in the custodianship of the Holy Spirit. Our sufferings, as
were His, are under the Holy Spirit's hand, and the Holy
Spirit will see to it that just as Christ was glorified after
suffering, so by the same energies of the Holy Spirit, glory will
come to us if our sufferings are in fellowship with Christ. The
Holy Spirit has got this matter in hand. He is the Spirit
of glory, that is His end, the object to which He is working. The
Holy Spirit has
got this matter really in hand, to turn the sufferings of
the saints to glory, to bring them to glory through
suffering. So Peter says: "If you are reproached, if you suffer,
for Christ's sake, happy are ye, blessed are ye, for the Spirit of
glory rests upon you". That is: the Holy Spirit is present to turn
your sufferings to glory - not to shame, not to disaster, not to
despair - but in the end to glory.
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