Glory’s Two Faces…
04.06.25
(From Chapter Three of “Why the Gospel” by Matthew Bates.)
C.S Lewis on glory… “It is like when you throw a stone into a pool, and the concentric waves spread out further and further. Who knows where it will end? Redeemed humanity is still young, it has hardly come to its full strength. But already there is joy enough in the little finger of a great saint such as yonder lady to waken all the dead things of the universe.”
A key purpose of the gospel is to grant us fame. But it is not a self-centered fame. Nor is it a fame apart from Jesus’ kingship. Rather it is sourced in the Christ and overflows for other people so they can become more of whom God wishes them to be. While our glory is being restored in and through the Christ, we fill the pools of many others, replenishing their glory too. This brings honor to God.
Are you ready for some shockingly good news? Contrary to popular belief, in Scripture God is not stingy with his glory. God wants to share it with humans. Indeed, God already has, and wants to do so more and more (John 17:10, 17:22, Romans 8:30.) All of this brings honor not merely to us, but to God as well. But there is a problem. Human glory has become tarnished, fallen, and corrupt. God must help humans recover their lost glory. It is through this process that ultimately God is most glorified.
Intrinsic glory is this… consider the substances water and gold. Each has a worth connected to their properties that has nothing to do with personal opinion. In other words, gold and water have characteristics as objects that have nothing to do with subjective or private judgements. Because gold and water are unique, they have their own objective glory.
But I’ll give you a choice. Would you rather have a bucket of water or of gold? You’d doubtless choose the gold because we value it more. But is this always true? Would gold be worth more if you were stranded for two weeks in the desert? Water is always more glorious than gold for quenching thirst. Because the human is the one who determines how much value something holds for them personally, acknowledged glory is the other side of glory.
The two sides of glory are: Intrinsic (inherent worth) and Acknowledge (perceived worth)
We discover in Scripture that both God and humans have different but appropriate levels of intrinsic and acknowledged glory… We are made in the Image of God; this is our human dignity (intrinsic worth.) But our human shame (perceived worth) us is that the glory of our image-bearing has been defaced by idolatry. When we worship dehumanizing empty idols, and we’ve all done this, there is a glory exchange.
Our idolatry leads us to become like the hideous idols we worship (Psalm 115:5-8, 2 Kings 17:5, Jeremiah 2:5.) The lover who worships relational security is consumed by jealousy. The employee who worships money is devoured by greed. The worshiper of moral autonomy bows the knee to tolerance. The final result is a bankruptcy in glory.
Yet when we instead worship the one true God… our glory is refreshed and recharged. As Greg Beale pithily described the situation: “we become what we worship.”