Into the buckets on the waterwheel of eternity, God is faithfully and ceaselessly pouring out His glory. This glory ever descends in these buckets down to His people and His purposes that it might generate in us that power – that evangelistic love and service – that sends this glory back up and into the glory-fount of the Father, from whom all glory flows.
This process – the eternal circulation of God’s glory and our participation in it – is essential glorification. To continue with the metaphorical waterwheel, glorification is the process by which God’s people reach into the buckets, which God has sent down, and pull out a portion of His glory that He has poured in. We pull out a handful of His sacrifice, or faithfulness, majesty, or love, forgiveness, mercy, long-suffering, righteousness – we reach in and pull out God’s exhibition of Himself and we show it to the world. We make Him known. We exhibit the character and attributes of God – His glory – to the world.
Interestingly, mankind, it can be said, plays dual roles in this glorification process. We understand that we are called to glorify God. We are called to reach into the buckets and pull out God’s expression of Himself and make this known to the world, in love. We should also understand that God’s glory is expressed from within us through the Holy Spirit. We are called to reach into the buckets and also to be the very carriers of His glory.
Consider this: the buckets into which God so faithfully pours; the carriers of God’s glory are made of four materials. Four carriers, or facilitators, of God’s glory:
God is glorified in creation.
We can see much of God and learn much from Him in observing His creation. God makes Himself known in creation. Creation carries the glory of God. From the soul-stirring beauty of the autumn sun rising over the Atlantic to the worship-inspiring majesty of the galaxies in perpetual motion; from the first breath of an infant child to the changing of the seasons and the complexity of the cell, creation glorifies God. It makes Him known.
God is glorified in Christ.
When we’re told that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we must know that this Word is the perfect proclamation of God, Himself. Jesus Christ is the perfect proclamation of God. Christ is the image of the invisible God. Christ is the perfect representation of the Father’s perfect nature. Our Father is made known in Christ Jesus. The way, the truth, and the life of God are magnified in and are one with Christ. No greater expression of the Father’s love can be had than what we have in Jesus Christ. There is no truer glorification of God than Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, it can well be said, is the embodiment of glorification.
God is glorified in the book that He has left us.
God is made known in the Bible. It carries His glory. We learn of His attributes and His character. We read from this word of His will and His ways. The holy scriptures are a proclamation of God Himself; they glorify Him in that they make Him known.
In addition to what He’s revealed to us through the words and pages of the Bible – though not necessarily to be held with the same esteem – it is also expressive that we have a collection of books testified to by their historicity, fulfilled prophecy, and manuscript evidence. Our God has not only revealed himself to us through its pages, He has also sustained it through the millennia and has given us wonderfully sound reason (historicity, fulfilled prophecy, and manuscript evidence) to stand upon it and proclaim truth from it. The Bible is the third material of which the buckets, the carriers of God’s glory, are made.
God is glorified through us.
So we see that God’s glory is carried to us through creation, through Christ, and through the Bible. These are three of the four elements that make the buckets which hold His glory. The forth carrying material is us. God is glorified through us. God is made known through us. Christ says to the Father in John 17:10, I am glorified in them. You and I. Our holy Savior has chosen to make Himself known through mankind. We are the carriers and magnifiers of God’s excellencies. Though God could receive praise from the stones, He has given you and I breath for this purpose.
The first and greatest commandment is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…” Fulfillment of this command is observed only in our glorification of God. It is only in making God known that we proclaim our love for Him. In our studies, and in our relationships, and in our worship, and in our employment, and in our love for our neighbor, and in our commitment to living the life of Christ, we love our God. Loving God is the destination – glorification is the path. Loving God is the matter – glorification is the manner.
Into the buckets on the waterwheel of eternity, God is faithfully and ceaselessly pouring out His glory. This glory ever descends in these buckets down to His people and His purposes that it might generate in us that power – that evangelistic love and service – that sends this glory back up and into the glory-fount of the Father, from whom all glory flows.
God powers the waterwheel with the blessings of His glory; His essence. This glory produces further power within mankind, by the workings of the Spirit, which, when reflected in our living – our evangelistic love and service – brings the praise and glory back to God. The proper image-bearing of the Christian will shine God’s glory on the world around us and thereby send it back up, manifold, into the glory-fount of the Father.
Make Him known.
