Scripture Reading: Col. 1:27; 3:4; 2 Cor. 4:4, 6; 2 Thes. 1:10; 1 Thes. 2:12; Rev. 21:10-11
Ⅰ
The glory of God is intrinsically related to the economy of God—Eph. 1:6, 10, 12, 14; 3:21; 5:27:
A
The Triune God is a God of glory—Acts 7:2; Eph. 1:17; 3:14, 16; 1 Cor. 2:8; 2 Cor. 4:6; 1 Pet. 4:14.
B
God's eternal goal is to bring His many sons into glory—Heb. 2:10; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:5-6, 12, 14.
C
Man was created by God in His image in order that man may express Him in His glory—Gen. 1:26; Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4, 6.
D
God created us as vessels unto honor, prepared unto glory; we were predesti-nated in His sovereignty to be His vessels to express what He is in glory— Rom. 9:21, 23.
E
To sin is to fall short of God's glory and thus to express sin and the sinful self and to love the glory of men more than the glory of God—3:23; John 5:44; 7:18a; 12:43.
F
Christ's redemption has fulfilled the requirements of God's glory—Rom. 3:24-25; Heb. 9:5; cf. Gen. 3:24.
G
Through the gospel of the glory of Christ, God has called us by and into His eternal glory—2 Cor. 4:4; 1 Tim. 1:11; 1 Thes. 2:12; 1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3.
H
As we behold and reflect the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the Lord's image from glory to glory—2 Cor. 3:18.
I
The goal of God's organic salvation—and the last stage of this salvation—is glory—our glorification—Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:17, 21, 30.
J
When we are strengthened with power by the Father of glory through His Spirit into the inner man, when Christ makes His home in our hearts, and when we are filled unto all the fullness of God, there is glory to God in the church—Eph. 3:14-21.
K
The Lord Jesus prayed that we would enter into the highest stage of oneness— the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of the Triune God— John 17:22.
L
The building of God is the Triune God wrought into us so that we may become His glorious corporate expression—Eph. 2:21-22; 3:17a, 19b, 21; 4:16; 5:27.
M
The glory of God will be manifested in the coming kingdom—Matt. 6:13; 16:27-28; 26:64; 1 Thes. 2:12; Rev. 5:13.
N
An outstanding feature of the New Jerusalem is that it has the glory of God, His expression; the entire city of New Jerusalem will bear the glory of God, which is God Himself shining out through the city—21:10-11.
Ⅱ
The gospel is the gospel of the glory of Christ, which illuminates, radi-ates, and shines in our hearts—2 Cor. 4:4, 6:
A
God's shining in our hearts results in the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that is, in the enlightenment that causes us to know the glory of God in the gospel of Christ—vv. 4, 6:
１
The illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ; this indicates that the gospel of the glory of Christ is a lovely person in whose face we can see the glory of God—vv. 4, 6; Matt. 17:2.
２
The glory of God manifested in the face of Jesus Christ is the God of glory expressed through Jesus Christ, who is the effulgence of the glory of God; to know Him is to know the God of glory—Acts 7:2; Heb. 1:3.
B
Through the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ, the Christ of glory as the excellent treasure is received by the believers; now the shining reality of Christ is the treasure within us—2 Cor. 4:6-7:
１
God's shining, which is God's dispensing, in our hearts brings into us a treasure, the all-inclusive Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God as the life-giving Spirit to be our life and everything—vv. 4, 6-7; Col. 2:9; 3:4, 11; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
２
This treasure, the indwelling Christ, is the divine source of the supply for the Christian life—2 Cor. 13:5; 4:7; Phil. 4:13.
Ⅲ
To the believers Christ in His person is the hope of glory—Col. 1:27:
A
Christ not only dwells within us; He dwells within us as our hope of glory.
B
Christ can be our hope of glory because He dwells in our spirit to be our life and our person—3:4; Eph. 3:17.
C
According to Colossians 3:4, when Christ our life is manifested, we also will be manifested with Him in glory:
１
Christ will appear and be glorified in our transfigured body; we will be glorified in Him, and He will be glorified in us—Rom. 8:23; 2 Thes. 1:10.
２
This indicates that the indwelling Christ will saturate our entire being, including our physical body—Phil. 3:21; Eph. 4:30.
D
Glory is the expression of God—Exo. 40:34; Acts 7:55; 2 Pet. 1:3; Rev. 21:11:
１
God has ordained that we should be brought into this glory, and as believ-ers, we have been called into this glory—1 Cor. 2:7; 1 Thes. 2:12; 1 Pet. 5:10.
２
When we were regenerated, Christ as the life of glory came into us as a divine seed that will eventually blossom into the full expression of God— Col. 1:27:
ａ
The Christ who is God's expression, the effulgence of God's glory, now dwells within us to be our hope of glory—Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:27; 3:4.
ｂ
Just as we hope for the blossoming of a seed that has been sown, we hope for the blossoming of the life of glory that is now within us; our hope of such a glory is the indwelling Christ Himself—1:27.