By Dwight Pentecost

      The theme of the glory of God runs throughout the Word of God. God's method of revealing His glory is to take lowly things, things that have no glory in themselves, and to transform them and use them as instruments to reveal His glory so that He may be glorified. . .      

      God took the humble man Moses and so transformed him by the manifestation of His glory that he became an instrument to reveal the glory of God. . . . When God manifested His glory, there was an outshining of His glory in a radiance that could not be hidden. . .

      It is not until we turn to the New Testament that we read of the coming of this glory to the people of God. In John 1:14 John testifies that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." . . . The glory that the Old Testament had spoken of and that the prophets had anticipated would be seen again, was manifested through the Person of Jesus Christ. . . . Jesus Christ's life in the flesh among men was a temporary manifestation of the glory of God.

      But after the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, God did not leave Himself without a means of manifesting His glory. Ephesians 2:21-22 . . . "you are also builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." God's purpose . . . that believers should be instruments to bring praise and honor and glory to Him.

      2 Corinthians 4:6-7 ". . . we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." God has chosen those who had nothing in themselves to bring glory to God, and through them--by a transforming work, by the power of the Holy Spirit--He will bring glory to His own name and to the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.

      Ephesians 1:1-5, says all that the Father has done, He has done "to the praise of the glory of His grace" (v. 6). . . Why has He redeemed us? "That we should be to the praise of His glory" (v. 12). . .

      That is why Paul says in Colossians 1:27 that "Christ in you" is "the hope of glory." It is not the individual who will manifest the glory of God; it is the transforming presence of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit who take up residence within the child of God that will manifest the glory of God.

      Yet even this form of manifestation is temporary, for our Lord will call to Himself through the glorious experience of resurrection and transformation every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Church will no longer be on the earth as a temple to manifest the glory of God (See John14:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17).

      Matthew 24:30, "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:   . . . and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." . . . The Son of God will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords, sitting upon a throne of glory, as we read in Matthew 25:31: "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory." God will manifest His glory to this earth when the Son of God, who is also the Son of Man, will receive the scepter to David's throne, and reign in power and great glory. God will be glorified in the personal presence of His Son on this earth as King of kings and Lord of lords.

      The Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 3:4 that "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." . . . The phrase "in glory" describes the condition of the child of God when Jesus Christ comes. Let me read it this way: "When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then you also appear with Him as glorious ones, or glorified ones." We shall be so transformed by the Son of God that we shall be instruments of praise to bring glory to God while the Son of God is manifesting the glory of God throughout His millennial reign on the earth and throughout the unending ages of eternity.

      . . . The Word of God puts primary emphasis on that glory which will come to Him when we are translated into His presence. . . He has chosen us that we might be instruments to bring glory to God. . . "I want Christ to be manifested in my body, whether it be by life, or by death." The compelling motive in the life of the child of God must be to glorify God (Designed to be Like Him,   pp. 11-22).