The Glory of God is Involved with Christ from His Incarnation to the New Jerusalem

The glory of God is involved with Christ’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and coming again, and in His being the lamp in the New Jerusalem.

Christ sought God’s glory, He was glorified by God, and He shines forth God with glory both in the millennial kingdom and for eternity! Hallelujah!

Our Triune God is a God of glory, and glory is God expressed in splendour, God manifested. God wants to manifest Himself, and He does this not only in His creation of all things but even more, in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His enlargement, the church. Praise the Lord!

Because God desires to gain His manifestation, His corporate expression, He took a few steps in His economy in order to obtain His glorious corporate expression.

First, He created man in His image and according to His likeness, so that man would express Him with His glory.

Man, however, fell, being deceived by Satan, God’s enemy, and now man falls short of the glory of God, expressing himself and his sinful self rather than God.

But praise the Lord, He did not stop here; He Himself became a man!

Christ became a man to accomplish redemption and fulfill all the requirements of God’s glory, righteousness, and holiness. Hallelujah!

Whoever believes in the gospel of the glory of Christ is called into God’s glory to become part of God’s glorious expression!

As believers in Christ, we are in the process of being organically saved to express God in glory.

God is working Himself into us little by little, day by day, so that He can renew us and transform us.

As we spend time with the Lord in His word and turn our heart to Him to be unveiled, we behold Him and reflect Him, and we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory. Praise the Lord!

God’s organic salvation operates in us to eventually bring us into glory and make us God’s glorious expression!

Even more, we are built up together by the Triune God working Himself into us and building us up into Himself so that we may become His glorious corporate expression! Praise the Lord!

In the coming kingdom, God’s glory will be expressed through the overcomers, and for eternity in and as the New Jerusalem, we will express God’s glory corporately! Praise the Lord!

In His economy, according to the highest peak in God’s economy, God became a man so that man may become God in life, nature, and expression but not in the Godhead.

The goal of God in His economy is that He would obtain a group of people who shine forth His glory, and He will do it! Hallelujah!

The Glory of God is Involved with Christ’s Incarnation, Human Living, and Crucifixion

We need to see how the glory of God was involved with Christ’s incarnation, human living, and crucifixion.

When Christ was incarnated, He was very limited and restricted, for the glory of His divinity was concealed within the shell of His humanity, the shell of His flesh.

Even more, Christ did not do things to express Himself but rather, He lived a restricted life; He lived a life restricted in doing things for the self.

In everything He did and in everything He said, Christ sought the glory of God for God’s satisfaction.

John 7:16-18 shows us how the Lord Jesus Christ didn’t seek His own glory as those who were around them did; rather, He sought the glory of the One who sent Him.

In His life and work the Lord Jesus did not seek His own glory but the glory of the One who sent Him (John 7:18; 8:50, 54).

He did not speak His own words but He spoke what He heard from the Father so that the Father may be glorified.

He did not do His own works so that He would be glorified but rather, He did the works that the Father gave Him to do so that the Father may be glorified.

When others saw the Lord Jesus, they did not see a man who expressed Himself or sought His own glory; rather, they saw One who sought the glory of God. Praise the Lord!

The fact that Christ was a person who sought God’s glory for His satisfaction didn’t depend on what He did or on His works; it depended instead on the fact that He was of God, that He was sent by God, that He came from God, and that He spoke God.

He could have done everything He wanted and He could have spoken what was on His own mind, but He chose to live a restricted life, a life restricted by God, and He did not seek His own glory but God’s glory.

In His incarnation, human living, and crucifixion, Christ sought the glory of God, and He spoke what God gave Him to speak, did the work that God gave Him to do, and went to the places where God wanted Him to go.

He was fully one with God the Father in all things and sought the glory of God the Father.

Lord Jesus, we praise You for Your incarnation, human living, and crucifixion. We praise You for not seeking Your own glory but the glory of the One who sent You. Oh, what a pattern You are to us! We want to follow in Your steps not to seek our own glory but the glory of the One who sends us! We are one with You today, dear Lord Jesus. We want to live a life for Your satisfaction today by seeking Your glory and making sure that we don’t get any glory but You get all the glory! Thank You for being the One in us who enables us to live a life restricted by God in which we don’t speak our own word nor do our own work but speak God’s word and do God’s work. Amen, Lord, live in us today a life that satisfies God.

The Glory of God is Involved with Christ’s Resurrection: Christ was Glorified in His Resurrection

John 7:37-39 gives us a window into what happened at the time of the Lord’s resurrection; when He was resurrected, Christ was glorified!

Hallelujah, the glory of God is involved with Christ’s resurrection, for Christ was glorified in His resurrection (see Luke 24:26; John 7:39; 17:5; Acts 3:13; 1 Pet. 1:21).

The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:39b). Here “glorified” means “resurrected” for it was in His resurrection that Christ was glorified.

The Lord Jesus lived a restricted life on earth, a life that was fully one with the Father to seek the glory of the Father.

While He was on the earth, He yearned to be glorified, and the Father glorified Him in His resurrection.

Through His death, the shell of Christ’s humanity was broken for the release of the divine life concealed within Him.

In His resurrection, the released divine life was imparted into millions of believers in Christ to regenerate them to be the many sons of God.

This was Christ’s glorification by the Father in His resurrection! Hallelujah!

In Luke 24:26 the Lord was explaining to His disciples going toward Emmaus that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer all these things and enter into His glory.

Christ’s resurrection brought Him into His glory (1 Cor. 15:43; Acts 3:13, 15).

To be glorified or to enter into the glory of God means that God is expressed; in Christ’s resurrection, God in splendour was expressed, and He was expanded, enlarged, and duplicated to obtain a corporate expression. Praise the Lord!

For the Lord Jesus, His resurrection was His glorification, for He was glorified in His resurrection.

According to the divine thought in the New Testament, resurrection is a release in life, and this release in life is a matter of glorification.

Praise the Lord, in His resurrection His divine life was released, and He was glorified!

It was necessary for Him to suffer and die on the cross, but the goal of all the suffering and death was for Him to be glorified!

Here we see that the glory of God is involved with Christ’s resurrection, for the resurrection of Christ glorified Him to be the Firstborn Son of God, to regenerate the many believers for His Body, and to become a life-giving Spirit.

Lord Jesus, we praise You for Your resurrection! Hallelujah, Christ was glorified in His resurrection! Thank You, Lord, for going through the suffering of death, and that the death of the cross. Thank You for obtaining a wonderful, all-inclusive redemption for us on the cross. Praise You, Lord, for entering into resurrection to be glorified! Hallelujah, through death the shell of Christ’s humanity was broken and in His resurrection the divine life contained in Him was imparted into many believers in Christ for God’s glorification! Praise the Lord Jesus for His resurrection, which was His glorification! Hallelujah, God is now expressed in a corporate way through His many sons who were regenerated in Christ’s resurrection!

The Glory of God is Involved in Christ’s Ascension – in His Ascension, He Entered into God’s glory and was Crowned with Glory and Honor!

Resurrection was not the end of the process that Christ went through; after His resurrection, He entered into His ascension! Hallelujah, Christ was glorified in His ascension by God!

After He accomplished redemption by suffering death, Jesus was glorified in His resurrection, and then in His ascension, He was crowned with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9-10). Praise the Lord!

Christ as the Only Begotten Son of God was already crowned with glory and honor, but in His economy He became a man, even the Son of Man, and His human part was not glorified.

Christ was both the Son of God and the Son of Man, and in His ascension it was His humanity that was glorified and crowned with glory and honor.

The Lord Jesus was a model of a person who “crossed the river” and entered into God’s glory, where He was crowned with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9-10; 6:19-20; 9:24). Hallelujah!

In Heb. 1, Christ is God, and He is full of glory; in Heb. 2, He is man, and as a Man, He was crowned with glory and honor.

In His divinity, Christ was already full of glory, but through His ascension, His humanity was glorified and crowned with glory and honor! Praise the Lord!

How amazing it is to see that the glory of God is involved with all the processes Christ went through, especially His ascension!

The little Jesus was born in a manger, raised in a poor home in Nazareth, had no beauty or comeliness and was despised by man, especially in His death.

But in His resurrection, God glorified Him and in His ascension to the heavens He has been crowned with glory and honour! Praise the Lord!

Glory is the splendor related to Christ’s person, and honor is the preciousness related to Jesus’ worth, value, and dignity, which is related to His position (2 Pet. 1:17; Rom. 13:7). Hallelujah!

We now have a resurrected and ascended Christ who is the Man in the glory, and His life is for us to enjoy, partake of, and experience!

God glorified the man Jesus in His ascension, seating Him at the right hand of God and crowning Him with glory and honor.

Now all shall bow to the name of Jesus, a man, for this ascended One has all authority in heaven and on earth, and He is crowned with glory and honor to be above all in the universe! Praise the Lord!

Lord Jesus, we praise You for Your ascension! Hallelujah, in His ascension Christ was glorified by God the Father and entered into God’s glory! Praise the Lord Jesus Christ who not only died for us and resurrected to impart His life into us but even more, ascended and was crowned by God! Hallelujah, the Lord Jesus was crowned in His ascension with glory and honor! Amen, now there is a Man in the glory, for Christ as a man was raised by God and ascended by Him to the highest place in the universe! Praise the Lord Jesus, the incarnated God who humbled Himself to the uttermost and was glorified by the Father to the uttermost! Amen, Lord Jesus, we take You as our life and person today. We want to live one spirit with You in all things. We praise You for being crowned with glory and honor and we call on Your name, Lord Jesus!

The Glory of God is Involved with His Coming in Glory and with the New Jerusalem for Eternity

In Matt. 16:27 and Luke 21:27 we see that the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man will come in the glory of the Father.

The glory of God is involved with every step of the process that Christ went through – His incarnation, His human living, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His coming back.

Right now Christ is in the heavens, even above all things enthroned by God with glory and honour, and one day we are expecting His glorious return!

Amen, the Lord Jesus will one day return as the Son of Man, and He will come in the glory of the Father!

On the one hand, His coming will be secret to those who are waiting for His coming, and He will come to rapture His overcomers.

On the other hand, He will also return openly and publicly to come in the glory of the Father, and every eye shall see Him. Praise the Lord!

For eternity, in the New Jerusalem Christ will shine God as the light to express God in glory.

Christ, the Lamb as the lamp, will shine with God as the light to illuminate the New Jerusalem with the glory of God, which glory is the expression of the divine light (see Rev. 21:11, 23; 22:5). Hallelujah!

Christ came to seek the glory of God, He was glorified by God to the uttermost, He will return in glory, and for eternity He shines with God’s glory to express God!

And we all as the New Jerusalem, the holy city, will express the glory of God for eternity! God is in Christ as the Lamb-lamp, and He shines forth God; we are the diffuser, the New Jerusalem, to express God as light to the whole universe, and the nations will walk in the light of the city.

What a glorious destiny we have! For eternity we will be one with God to the extent that we will express Him to all those around us for Him to shine on them and give them life! Praise the Lord!

Lord Jesus, we believe that one day You will return as the Son of Man in the glory of the Father! We praise You for Your incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. We believe into You and we want to live one spirit with You today. Amen, Lord, may our daily life and living hasten Your return so that we may be with You where You are, in the glory of God! Come, Lord Jesus! Hallelujah, for eternity in the New Jerusalem Christ – the Lamb as the lamp – will shine with God as the light to illuminate the New Jerusalem with the glory of God! Praise the Lord, Christ shines forth God and we diffuse and express God to the whole universe as the New Jerusalem, the holy city! Amen, Lord, gain this in us and with us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 288, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 10, Glory and Glorification as Revealed in the Gospel of John.
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• Hymns on this topic:
  – In the flesh by incarnation, / Into man He God hath brought; / By His death and resurrection, / Into God He man hath brought; / God and man together mingled, / In Himself is fully wrought. / Now in heaven by ascension / He is seated on the throne; / All the lordship, all the headship, / He Himself doth fully own; / And by pouring out His Spirit, / He as such might be made known. (Hymns #277 stanzas 3-4)
  – Lo! in heaven Jesus sitting, / Christ the Lord is there enthroned; / As the man by God exalted, / With God’s glory He is crowned. / He hath put on human nature, / Died according to God’s plan, / Resurrected with a body, / And ascended as a man. (Hymns #132 stanzas 1-2)
  – In new heaven and new earth / New Jerusalem lies; / Out of God it has its birth, / With God’s radiance thrice. / Lo, God’s image it doth bear, / And God’s glory it doth share! / And the Lord Himself is there / In that city of God. (Hymns #978 stanza 1 and chorus)