We are all familiar with Colossians 1:25-27, where the Apostle Paul discusses the stewardship he has received to reveal to the saints the fulness of the mystery of gospel of Christ and how God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
It is the awareness of this mystery, and understanding the riches it holds, that enables us to fully display Christ in His glory. We can never exceed “what has been given” buthave we entered into the place of “fully operating” in all that has been assigned and given us? Are we fully functioning as the part we have been made in the place we have been given? Jesus declared in John 17, I have glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. Jesus said, in John 9 as the light of the world, that he had to do the works given him while it was light, verse 4.
The glory has many ways of being expressed but if we use Exodus 34 as a standard we find God himself manifesting His glory as He proclaims His name; 6:The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7: keeping steadfast love for thousands, (literal Hebrew on this phrase is: covenant-loyalty preeminently, God's perfect loyalty to His own covenant) forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin...” Pauls prayer from Ephesians 1 is “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory would give unto us a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him”.
From the New Testament we see Jesus expressing the glory of His Father. Hebrews 1:3 tells us Jesus was the express image of the Father and from John 1:14 when Jesus was manifest we were able to behold His glory; full of grace and truth. So we know that glory is something we are able to see. Glory is full of grace, which we understand to be God’s enabling power at work and glory is full of absolute, pure truth. It is light and there is no darkness in it. When His glory is manifested it is in all mercy and grace, full of compassion, faithfulness and love and forgiveness (but in no way clearing the guilty ~ repentance is always the foundation for forgiveness, by mercy and truth iniquity is purged). This is the very heart of God that we must hold in order to righteously expressHis glory
John’s gospel shows us Jesus as the true light which gives light to everyone. His light dispels darkness and 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us it is the work of Satan to blind the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. We can then see the first place of glory that we as the church are to manifest His glory is through the proclamation of the mystery of the gospel of Christ. It is this proclamation of the word, not enticing words of mans wisdom but in power and demonstration bringing light, revelation, and dispelling blindness. Jesus’ own testimony is that the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor. Only the preaching of the word has the power to change a heart and thus a mind. It is the word that carries His glory. It is Jesus and it is full of grace and truth. It is the preaching of His word that we see Him high and lifted up receiving glory and revealing glory.
Paul said in Col. 2:28-29; Him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present every man mature in Christ. For this I toil struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
May this year continue to hold new realms of revelation, wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of Him enabling each of us to more fully express Christ and show forth His glory.