The word “glory” refers to the majesty and splendour of God. The Hebrew word literally means “weight.” In the Old Testament, God’s glory appeared in a visible form manifested as a cloud or pillar of fire. The cloud came down on Mt. Sinai and filled both Moses’ tabernacle and Solomon’s temple. After the destruction of the ark and the temple, the glory disappeared.
Until John. Because he writes in the first chapter of his gospel that he too, like Moses, has seen the glory. But this time the glory didn’t manifest in a cloud or a pillar of fire, but in a man — Jesus. And he writes of Jesus as full of grace and truth. When Moses encountered the glory on Mt. Sinai as recorded in Exodus 34, God revealed himself as gracious and faithful. These words translate from Hebrew into Greek as — you guessed it — grace and truth.
John was saying in so many words that he had seen God. How people can say the Bible doesn’t teach the divinity of Christ is completely beyond me.
Under the old covenant, only one man once a year could enter into the presence of the glory and live. Yet now John tells us the glory is in full public view, walking the streets of Jerusalem. No wonder that at his crucifixion the veil of the temple was torn in two! The glory is now for everyone to see. The glory even reached out to the unclean and to lepers and physically touched them.
Yet the Jewish teachers couldn’t see it. Paul tells us why. Just as the veil covered Moses’ face so no one could behold the glory, so now a veil has covered their understanding. And they took the glory of God and nailed it to the cross.
So what has happened to the glory? Jesus conquered death. And that initiated a whole new manifestation of the glory. It now appears, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3, in the most unlikely place — you and me. The same God who encountered Moses as Father on Mt. Sinai and encountered John as the Son on the streets of Jerusalem now encounters every Christian believer as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes away the veil and brings freedom. And in that encounter, day by day, we are being transformed from one degree of glory into another.
What does this glory look like? It looks like Jesus, as he appears in lives being transformed by the Spirit.
We don’t have to go chasing glory clouds today. There’s one forming in our hearts. But whatever you do, don’t hinder it. Allow God to do his work.
When people begin to see the glory again, this time in us, revival will soon follow.
