How Does Glory Change You?

Glory! That word can sound a little crazy, especially shouted with religious fervor and a Southern accent, which comes naturally to me. But in the New Testament, Paul writes often of the glory of God. For him, glory was not something flaky. Nor was glory merely theological, theoretical, or internally spiritual. It is all those things, but for Paul glory was a tangible experience.  According to Acts 22, the visual experience of the glory of God changed Paul’s life. It could change your life, too.

Glory is the nature of God.

It’s the perfection of all His attributes. As Tony Evans says that God’s glory is the sum total of his attributes in all their perfection. God’s glory is intrinsic to his nature. One scholarly resource says in reference to God’s glory: “In the ultimate sense, no subject is more important than this.” 

Is God’s glory relevant?

Talk of God’s glory may seem somewhat irrelevant. When I got my haircut this week, I was the only customer with two barbers in the shop. The one cutting my hair asked what I was preaching on Sunday and I said, “The glory of God.” The awkward silence led me to immediately realize that glory didn’t mean much to my barber, so I added something like: “God is perfect and wonderful in all his ways.” That led to a discussion about the fact that there must be a God to have created this world the way it is.

The two barbers were pretty impassioned about the topic and went on for at least 5 minutes without my having to say anything. It was as though these barbers, who don’t regularly attend church, were trying to convince this pastor that there really is a God! It was so good that I jokingly said they should join me in preaching on this topic.

Do you know who is helping me preach on the glory of God? The heavens and all of creation! (See Psalm 19.) The whole earth is filled with his glory–but we’re not as glory conscious as God would like us to be. Those of us who know Jesus and have experienced God’s presence should be more aware of God’s glory. We should also be more glory hungry, more desirous of glory after getting a glimpse of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. 

Can you catch a glimpse?

Moses, even after all of his experience with God, says to the Lord, “Show me your glory.” God’s reply: “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you” (Exodus 33:19a).

God’s glory is “all my goodness.” We want that. We were made for that. Moses asked for a visible manifestation of the glory of God, and God gave it to him. I believe he will do that for you. Glory is manifest in all creation. Yet, the knowledge of it is not yet universal. There are degrees of manifestation and awareness of God’s glory. The Bible describes special times of manifestation: the giving of the law, the dedication of the tabernacle, the dedication of the temple, and the Transfiguration of Jesus.

We should be sensitive to the glory of God all around us, yet still maintain that desire for more. As with Moses, “Show me your glory” should be our cry.

Go for glory!

Why not go for this the way Moses did? One, we just don’t believe God would show himself to us in a powerful way. Indeed, every manifestation of the presence and glory of God isn’t the same, and we also need to learn to see God’s glory in the mundane. Second, we just don’t want to be weird, and expecting a manifestation of God’s glory seems weird.

We don’t know what to do with it. Peter wanted to build tabernacles on the mountain when Christ showed his glory in the Transfiguration, when Jesus showed his glory to Peter, James, and John. He had no clue what to do.

If you don’t want to be weird, know that God doesn’t show his glory to give us bragging rights. I can share my story in a way to encourage you to expect God’s glory, or I can share my story in a way to impress you with my very unique access to God’s glory. I hope I’m simply encouraging you. Otherwise, when we try to use our spiritual experiences to impress, it just gets weird. 

God’s glory is the goal of history.

One of the reasons we want the glory of God is because it is the goal of all of history. God describes his glory as his “goodness.” That’s why he wants us to behold his glory. That’s why the end goal of creation is that the knowledge of the glory of God covers the earth.

For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14

All of creation is headed there. God invites us to get on the glory train now!

God’s glory is the fear of the enemy.

The devil hates the prospect of your seeing the glory of God. We are expecting to capture a glimpse of God’s glory to change our lives, too–all for the better. That’s why the devil fights so hard to keep you from seeing the glory of God. The devil wants to blind you to God’s glory because once your heart is captured by the glorious presence of God, nothing else will have quite the same appeal.

The devil is not stupid. And according to 2 Corinthians 4:4 and 6 he wants to blind people to “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” If blinding people to the glory of God is high on the devil’s agenda, then there’s a good reason. Look at what a vision of the glory of God did to Paul. Paul was one of Satan’s most effective agents in fighting the church. One experience of the glory of Jesus, and Paul became the church’ greatest proponent. Your experience of God’s glory is a threat to the devil, too. 

Glory is our LIFE

Our condition apart from Christ is not just that we are dead in sin, but that we are separated from glory (Romans 3:23). Christ restores that glory as we see and are transformed by his glory. The Christian life is summarized by Paul as a life that progresses from one level of glory to another. 

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:17–18

Some translations say, “from glory to glory.” I like that translation, because I don’t think Paul is trying to say that the Christian life is one of being on a constant spiritual high. My experience is that if we live only for the highs, we will become disappointed and disillusioned. But neither can we settle for our limited experience. 

There is more!

Don’t settle. Expect to go from glory to glory. Expect to experience the presence and power of God in a way that changes you, and changes your world.

Pastor Ed’s Notes:

Expect glory! You can listen to this week’s connected sermon here or read more from the Revival Leadership Insights blog here.