What is the Glory of Man?

The glory of man is the greatness and majesty of a person’s presence, their accomplishments and power.

The glory of man in much of history is most evident and on display in the glory of battle or wars. The glory of the warrior was essentially what was spoken of by the masses about the warrior in their life or in their deaths.

Getting into the history books is essentially an example of striving for glory, especially in war and in conquering of other warriors and nations. Alexander the Great was given glory for conquering so many nations. Genghis Khan was and is given glory because of the extreme toughness of his conquering and even the spreading of his genetics all over Asia through the women he had gained by conquest.

Rome used to have as one of its major motivations “for the glory of Rome.”

The Olympics gave glory to the greatest athletes with a wreath, today we do it with valuable medals hung around the neck.

The gods that were worshiped around the world had varying degrees of glory ascribed to them.

Today people strive for glory and greatness through many things, to summarize the concept of the glory of man, I defer to my April 2018 blog post.

The glory of man is to rule over others, it is to have an empire of others to command. It is also to make our ways known and dominant (as in military conquest, or as in leadership vision for a nation or organization). And often it is to have others enrich us financially.

https://AdamCollier.com/new-type-of-gods-glory/

Pursuit and striving for the glory of man ofen creates turf wars among people. It causes us to compete with others. It causes us to abandon bearing one another’s burdens for competitive battling.

Roman emperors, warriors and even citizenry were greatly motivated by the glory of man. The glory of man is synonymous with the pride of life. Read the history books and it is often on display.

Words and phrases used today (in 2021) to describe the glory of man include, “living your best life now.” “Living a fulfilled life.” People “crushing it” in reference to their constnat successes in life. Making the world a better place, when we are actually most often just imposing our wills upon others.

Watch the popular play called Hamilton about the American founding father, Alexander Hamilton. It’s a great display of men striving fir glory.

“History has its eye on us,” was a motivating factor for these men.

Pursuing the glory of man is also a major foundation to human government and in the Gospel of the State. Which is the message of human government which enthralls so many people today and which I am attempting to write a book about.

The glory of man can even be seen in churches these days. By some leaders who use their skills at speaking and leading to accumulate glory unto themselves. It causes them to be competitive with other leaders. It causes them to engage in turf wars. Evidenced by gossiping from the pulpit about other leaders or personal critics. And by the desire to feel dominant over others who would dare not give them the respect they feel they deserve.

Some of the most respected and gifted ministers from the past and present clearly struggle with this need for their glory. And with a tendency to get caught up in turf wars with other ministers and leaders.

Sometimes I wonder if it is better to not be gifted and talented, for those that set out to serve the Lord full time. As it so often gives the servant of God a spiritual handicap. And it can form a foundation for the pride of life. And an addiction to receiving and expecting glory from fans as they fulfill THEIR vision for the church.

The Glory is a man is someting that should go unsatified, unfulfilled and left undone in the lives of those who are relentlessly in pursuit of Jesus Christ.

Where His Glory Dwells

“The place his glory dwells!”

Glory means greatness and pleasure.

I do not love a place where the glory of a great man dwells. Or where his marvelous family dwells.

Ministry that gets its source from God leaves us saying and thinking “wow what an amazing Lord Jesus we have.” Ministry that is religious logic or eloquent sounding tradition leaves us thinking “wow what a good sermon” or “man my pastor is great” or very often “man I wish I was like him/her”

But wherever the glory of God dwells is wherever Jesus is made supreme. His greatness and pleasure is evident by and within every one present.

betrayed

A New Type of God’s Glory – Suffering

The Three Types Of God’s Glory

The English word glory means to honor, but glory also means the weighty brightness of Gods presence. And thanks to scritpure it can be seen that glory also means the unlimited laying down of life in surrender to Gods life.

All three of these definitions of the word glory are summed up and put on display in Jesus Christ.

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

1 Peter 4:14

The glory of God is entirely different from the glory of man. When Jesus Christ said “the hour of my glory is here.” in the garden before his trial. It was not when he had the thousands of fans singing around him saying wonderful things. It happened right before a different time, it was before a time of suffering and difficulty, cruelty, betrayal and death.

Instead it went on display when he was setting out to be betrayed, abandoned and mercilessly killed. A new type of God’s glory could be seen (to those with spiritual eyes) when he was being hated by men. It was seen when he was dying in their place, being disfigured, bloodied, spit on, mocked, beaten, betrated, instulted, abandoned, stabbed, provoked and many other horrible things we probably will never fully understand.

The Glory of Man

The glory of man is to rule over others, and to have an empire of others to command. It is also to make our ways known and dominant (leadership vision). And it often involves having others enrich us financially.

But there is a new type of God’s glory in the earth that has been on display since Jesus Christ. He took this aspect of life into himself, for himself and about himself. Have you seen it? It was first seen many years ago but it is still on display now. And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the son of Man to be glorified.” – John 12:23

The word glorified is the greek word doxazo, strongs G1391, to make glorious, to make renowned. Jesus then went on to describe this new glorification that he would encounter in verses 24-26. He defined it with terms like “death”, “whoseover loses his life in this world”, “not my will be done.” Jesus redefined and expanded the word glory here as far as we are concerned. He expanded glory into death, surrender, into unlimited laying down of human life in surrender to God’s life.

Another Type of God’s Glory – Suffering

A new type of God’s glory and greatness was is seen in the person of Jesus Christ, in the laying down of His life. We did not recognize it when we first saw it, in fact this new glory on display went unrecognized by almost everyone. It perplexed the natural man, to this day it is still looked down upon even still by many of his followers, for many it is foolishness.

But NOW we also know the glory of Jesus Christ in suffering? Can you see the glory of God in the laying down of life? Those ones we don’t like and have no patience for? The ones that cause us to quickly leave the room when they enter. Can we see him within the poor and needy?

God’s glory can be seen again…here and now. It is put on display when we lay down our lives for the purpose of Jesus Christ and those he identifies with on earth.

Can we begin to see God’s glory in suffering? In obscurity? Or in the laying down of human life?

more on the Glory of Jesus Christ

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