Christ is the Effulgence of God as the Father of Glory Infusing us and Glorifying us!

Concerning the Triune God, the Bible tells us of the Father of glory, the Son being in glory and being glorified by the Father, and the Spirit of the glory and of God; our Triune God is a God of glory and we’re children of our Father being brought into glory! Hallelujah!

The Triune God is a God of glory. Many Christians know and love God as a God of love, a God of light, and a holy God.

But not many know God as the God of glory. God has many attributes and the foremost attributes are that He is love, light, holiness, and righteousness.

These are all attributes of God, but one of the most wonderful, glorious, and excellent attributes is that God is God of glory – He is glory.

When God is in Himself, concealed and not manifested, He is God, but when He is manifested, what we see is glory.

Glory is the expression of God. Many think that glory is like a shining or a halo around the head of the glorious one, but glory is simply God expressed, God manifested.

When God appeared to Abraham, He appeared to him as the God of glory; the appearance of the God of glory captured Abraham and strengthened him to follow God wherever He wanted him to go.

We believers in Christ can testify that we didn’t just agree with the dogmatic teachings or sound doctrines in the Bible, therefore we’re Christians; we had the appearing of the God of glory, and we were captivated by Him.

When God appears to a human being, no matter who he is and what he has done, that person is captured and changed forever.

Look at the example of Paul, who used to be Saul, persecuting the church of God and being zealous for the law and the traditions of his fathers.

He was so much for the law that, whenever he saw a Christian, a follower of Jesus, he was breathing out murder. Wow.

Such a one could not be deterred or convinced to drop his religion or zeal for the law; however, when the Lord appeared to him, everything changed.

God’s appearing to us is undeniable and convincing, for we realize that this is what we’re made for: we are made for God, we want to be in His presence, and we want to have His appearing. Hallelujah!

This is why we have God’s appearing not only once, at the beginning of our Christian life, but every day!

We want to have God’s appearing every day, even moment by moment; we treasure the shining of His face, and we want to have His smile.

We want to be believers in Christ who not only read the Bible but have the Lord’s appearing as we read His word.

We love Him, we treasure His presence, and we want to live in His appearing today so that, when He returns, we would simply be with Him and forever be one with Him. Amen!

Our God is the Father of Glory: We have been Redeemed and Regenerated to Express Him!

Eph. 1:17 says that our God is the Father of glory; the term Father implies that He has many sons, and glory implies expression.

Our God is the Father of glory: He has regenerated us to be His many sons, and we are His sons so that we may express Him in His glory.

The Father of glory is God expressed through His many sons (Heb. 2:10).

God is not merely someone who created all things just because He wanted to, and He does whatever He does because of His mood or because He’s bored.

No, our God is a God of purpose, and according to His purpose, He wants to be the Father of glory to father many sons, the many believers in Christ, to express Him.

How can He have many sons, however, when all men sinned and fell short of the glory of God, and men became fallen and rebellious against God by nature?

First, Christ had to come as the incarnated Triune God and, through His crucifixion, He redeemed man.

On the cross, the Lord Jesus accomplished redemption for us.

Now all the fallen persons who believe into the Lord can receive His redemption and be regenerated to be sons of God.

What an amazing thing it is for us as sinners to be saved and be begotten of God to be His many sons, part of His corporate expression!

We were regenerated by God to become sons of the Father of glory; we were called and saved unto His glory, and one day we will fully express Him in glory.

We are now in the process of being renewed, sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of Christ, and the consummation of this process is that we will be glorified.

On the day we’re glorified, God will fully be expressed from within us; on that day, we will become His expression in full. Hallelujah!

We are not only sinners redeemed and saved by God but we’re sons of God to express Him in His glory.

We are not merely sinners saved by grace, washed by His blood, and forgiven of our sins and offenses; we are sons of God and God is our Father. G

od is not only our Creator; He is our Father. God is not only our Redeemer, but He is our Father and we are His sons.

And because we have the same life and nature as our Father of glory, we express Him in glory.

God is our Father and we are now expressing Him by His life and nature.

His glory is not something objective to us; His glory is very subjective to us.

His glory is increasing in us and one day, at the time of our glorification, God will be fully expressed from within us.

On that day we will become His expression in full. Christ today is leading many sons into glory (Heb. 2:10); on one hand, He is saving us to the uttermost and, on the other hand, by doing this He is leading us into glory.

The regeneration of many sons and the expression of God are the consummations of the divine economy.

The last step of God’s great salvation is to bring us, His many sons, into glory.

His work of grace upon us began with His foreknowing through His predestination, calling, and justification, and it will end with His glorification (Rom. 8:29-30).

The whole creation eagerly expects the revelation, the glorification, of the sons of God, for the whole creation groans and yearns and hopes that it will enter into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:19-20).

This will take place at the Lord’s coming back (Phil. 3:21), at which time we will appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:4).

This is our hope, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).

Today we’re in the process of being glorified, and once this process is complete, we will be glorified through the millennial kingdom (as the overcomers) and we will be manifested in the New Jerusalem for eternity to express God eternally in His glory (Rev. 21:22, 23). Hallelujah!

Father of glory, we love You! Thank You for reaching out to us where we are to appear to us and regenerate us with Your life and nature! Hallelujah, we believers in Christ are not only created by God but also regenerated by Him to be sons of God, having the life and nature of God! Thank You, dear Lord, for coming to redeem us and regenerate us. Thank You for coming into us to be our life and nature. Hallelujah, Christ is now leading us as the many sons of God into glory! Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with Your great salvation and be renewed, sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of Christ so that we may reach the peak, the glorification of our body! Hallelujah, when Christ comes back we shall appear with Him in glory, and for eternity we will manifest His glory in full in and as the New Jerusalem! Praise our Father of glory!

Christ is the Effulgence of God’s Glory and the Impress of His Substance to Infuse God into us and Bring us into Glory!

God the Father is the Father of glory; Christ the Son and God the Father are the same in glory (John 17:5).

Heb. 1:3 says that Christ is the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of His substance.

The effulgence is the brightness, the shining, of the light of the sun; the effulgence cannot be separated from the light, the brightness of the sun.

Similarly, Christ is the shining of God, the brightness of God; Christ is the shining of the Father’s glory, and the two cannot be separated.

Also, Christ is the impress of God’s substance; Christ is the express image of the substance of God.

Outwardly, we see glory, for glory is the outward expression of God; Christ is the effulgence of God.

Inwardly, there is a certain substance, an essence, and this has a certain appearance or image; Christ is the impress of God’s substance, the image of God.

Christ is both the effulgence of God’s glory and the express image of the inner substance of God.

The impress of God’s substance can be likened to the impress of a seal; a seal has an image with some characters or letters, and when this seal is applied to the paper, the image on the seal is imprinted on the paper.

When we look at God and want to know God, we see Christ, for Christ is the shining forth of God, the effulgence of God’s glory, and Christ is also the image of God, the impress of God’s substance.

Before Christ came to the earth, He had a certain glory, which was the glory of the Father; in John 17:5 He asked the Father to glorify Him with this glory which He had before the world was.

The only begotten Son of God in eternity past possessed the same glory as the Father; the glory of the Father was the glory of the Son.

When He became a man, Christ was the effulgence of God’s glory, the shining of God; when others saw Him, they saw God, but God was approachable, communicable, and pleasant and tender.

Christ came to express God in a pleasant and sweet way, and He came to infuse God into us to make us sons of the Father of glory with Christ as the hope of glory.

Christ is the King of glory, Jehovah of hosts; He is the consummated Triune God embodied in the victorious and coming Christ (Psa. 24:7-10; Luke 21:27; Matt. 25:31).

This is Christ in His coming kingdom when He will be Jehovah of armies who is victorious.

Christ is the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:7-8); He’s our life today and our glory in the future (Col. 3:4; 1:27).

It is to this glory that God has called us, and it is into this glory that He will bring us (1 Pet. 5:10; Heb. 2:10); Christ is leading us into glory as the many sons of God.

The God of all grace, He who has called us into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after we have suffered a little while, will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground us.

Hallelujah, we have been called into His eternal glory!

And just as Christ went through suffering to be made perfect and to be glorified, so we are going through a certain amount of sufferings today, and at the same time glory is wrought into us for us to express God.

We are glory-bound people; every day we are going onward to glory.

Even in the midst of this confused and chaotic world, we need to be reminded that we have been called into glory and we will be brought into glory!

We are not here trying to unravel or solve the problems in today’s society: we are here to be brought into glory, and we are going onward to glory.

Our Father is the Father of glory, Christ is the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of His substance, and we’re being brought onward to glory!

Daily, our God reaches us and dispenses Himself into us to make us the same as Christ in His life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead.

We are being glorified and, as we go through things and suffer, more of the divine glory is wrought into us when we remain open to the Lord and let Him work Himself into our being.

Lord Jesus, we praise You as the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of His substance. Thank You for coming to shine forth God, manifest God, and express God in humanity. We praise You for being the impress of God’s substance, the image of God, to make God communicable, experiential, and tangible. Hallelujah, we are now children of the Father of glory, and Christ is leading us into glory! Praise the Lord, we have been called into the glory of God, and daily Christ is working Himself into us to be expressed through us as glory! Amen, Lord, may we realize that, though there are so many problems and so much chaos around us, we have been called into glory and we are going on to glory! Hallelujah, we are glory-bound people! Praise the Lord, we’re not here to solve the problems in today’s society: we are here to be brought into glory so that we may corporately express the God of glory!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament (pp. 38, 226-228), by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 9, entitled, The Temple of God Filled with the Glory of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Blest Father of glory, we worship: / Thy greatness surpasses our praise; / We bless Thee Thy Spirit within us / Gives pow’r to these heavenly lays. (Hymns #35 stanza 1)
  – Oh, the glory of the Triune God! / We’re His sons, oh, what a blessing! / We His glory are expressing— / Oh, the glory of the Triune God! / In Thy glory, in Thy glory, / In Thy glory we are one. / In Thy glory, in Thy glory, / In Thy glory we are all made one! (Hymns #1081 stanza 3 and chorus)
  – Christ is the hope of glory, my very life is He, / He has regenerated and saturated me; / He comes to change my body by His subduing might / Like to His glorious body in glory bright! / Christ is the hope of glory, He is God’s mystery, / He shares with me God’s fulness and brings God into me. / He comes to make me blended with God in every way, / That I may share His glory with Him for aye. (Hymns #949, stanzas 1 and 2)