The Glory of God is the new second volume in Crossway’s “Theology in Community” series, edited by Christopher Morgan and Robert Peterson. It has chapters like “The Glory of God in the Old Testament” (Tremper Longman), “The Glory of God in John’s Gospel and Revelation” (Andreas Kostenberger), “The Glory of God in Paul’s Epistles” (Richard Gaffin), and “A Pastoral Theology of the Glory of God” (Bryan Chapell).
Morgan’s chapter (“Toward a Theology of the Glory of God”) is very helpful in surveying the various ways in which “God’s glory” is used throughout Scripture. Here is his summary statement:
the triune God who is glorious displays his glory, largely through his creation, image-bearers, providence, and redemptive acts. God’s people respond by glorifying him. God receives glory and, through uniting his people to Christ, shares his glory with them—all to his glory. (p. 159)
Here is a more detailed summary of God’s intrinsic and extrinsic glory:
The God who is intrinsically glorious (glory possessed) graciously and joyfully displays his glory (glory displayed), largely through his creation, image-bearers, providence, and redemptive acts. God’s people respond by glorifying him (glory ascribed). God receives glory (glory received) and, through uniting them to the glorious Christ, shares his glory with them (glory shared)—all to his glory (glory purposed, displayed, ascribed, received, and graciously shared throughout eternity). It could be argued that the entire biblical plotline of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation is the story of God’s glory. (p. 160)
The glory of God is such a dominant emphasis in Scripture. I’m glad to have this book to help us trace the story of his glory through the pages of Scripture.
For those interested in this topic—and of course I hope that’s everyone reading this!—be sure to keep an eye out this Fall for Jim Hamilton’s biblical theology, where he proceeds from Genesis to Revelation in order to set forth his case that the center of biblical theology is God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment.
