What’s the relationship between God’s glory and Jesus? Not only do we see God’s infinite greatness and worth displayed in creation (Ps.19:1), we’re told that it is in the person and work of Jesus that the glory of God is supremely displayed and revealed. It is in Jesus that we see God’s infinite greatness and worth above all things. In fact the gospel centers on the glory of God in Jesus not just revealing to us God’s glory, but also saving us to God’s glory. In 2 Cor.3:7-16 we’re reminded that the problem with believers in the Old Testament was that they couldn’t come face to face with God’s glory and live. God as an infinitely glorious being perfect in righteousness and holiness dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim.6:16). Even as you look at a rising sunrise, as the sun rises, your eyes begin to squint, until eventually you have to look away. Keep looking at the sun and you will go blind because of its sheer light. Look at God’s glory directly without a veil, and you will die because he dwells in unapproachable light. But now for those of us who are New Testament believers we are no longer looking at God’s glory behind a veil because in Jesus we are beholding God’s glory (2 Cor.3:18)! We are seeing God in his infinite glory, in all his manifold perfections in Jesus!
In fact 2 Cor.4:4-6 reminds us that the gospel is ‘the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God’. And in the verses that follow in v.6, we are again reminded that in saving us God has shone in our hearts to reveal to us ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’. Jesus is the very glory of God. To see Jesus is to see the very glory of God. The gospel that saves us is a revelation of God’s infinite greatness and worth above all things, his glory above all things revealed to us in Jesus and his redeeming work. In saving us we are being brought to seeing and recognizing as true in our lives and in our hearts that God is infinitely great and worthy above all things; that we have ignored him all our lives and given glory to lesser things; but we now see that God alone is a treasure above all treasures in life, glorious above all things because we see that in him is everything we desire as great and praise worthy, and it has come to us in the face of Jesus.
Repeatedly we are told that Jesus is the very glory of God. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Heb.1:1-3). He is the image of the invisible God in whom the fullness of God dwells (Col.1:15, 19). To see Jesus is to see the Father (John 14:9). It’s the reason why the Father takes delight in the Son. As God the Father looks at his Son in Matt.3:17 we are told that he is the beloved Son with whom God is well pleased or with whom he delights in. In the entire universe who is the supreme object of God’s joy or delight? We’re told in the Scriptures that it’s in his Son that he supremely delights in, not you or me. It’s because Jesus reflects the glory of the Father in his being and in his saving work at the cross. God could not delight in anything less than himself or in his own glory otherwise it would make that which he takes pleasure in greater than him. But he takes delight in his Son because Jesus is the reflection, radiance, image of the glory of God, God himself and so he reflects in who he is and in what he does the infinite greatness and worth of God himself in all his manifold perfections.
That is precisely why the gospel as it centers on the glory of God in Jesus and his saving work is so central to everything we hold dear to as believers. The gospel reveals the glory of God and it brings us to the glory of God for the glory of God – it reveals God in his infinite greatness and worth, and it brings us to God in his infinite greatness and worth and magnifies God in his infinite greatness and worth. How does the gospel do this?
Firstly, only God himself is able to sufficiently deal with our judgment and sin so that we might be forgiven. Who can sufficiently deal with the judgment of a perfect and infinitely just and righteous God? Only one who is comparable in infinite glory can sufficiently pay the penalty for my sin to secure my forgiveness. Secondly, only God himself is able to give us a sufficient righteousness that covers us so that we might stand before him righteous. Who can sufficiently deal with the demands of a perfect and infinitely holy and righteous God? Only one who is comparable in infinite glory can clothe me in a sufficient righteousness to secure my right standing before God. Only one in whom the glory of God supremely dwells is able to save us, and Paul says the one has come to us in Jesus who is the glory of God for our salvation (2 Cor.4:4, 6).
The gospel as it centers on the glory of God in Jesus and his saving work is very reason why the gospel is good news, for God himself comes to die for our sin and covers us with his righteousness saving us for his glory, and to his glory, to our joy forever. And it’s all sufficiently accomplished because of an infinitely glorious Son, Jesus.
