(Ro 6^). The precise sense of this expression has not yet been elucidated (in Fss.-Sol. xi. 9 there is what seems to be a parallel to it: dpaaTrjo-at Kvpios rbv 'lo-paTjX iv dvd/xari t^s Sofijs avrov), but it would seem that the 'glory of the Father' is practically equivalent to the Kpdros, the sovereign act of Him who is the ' Father of glory ' (Eph 1"). To formu- late is hazardous ; but perhaps we may say that for St. Paul the 56^a is the self-revelation of the tran- scendent God, given through Christ, here to faith, in the heavenly world to that more direct mode of perception which we try to express by saying that faith is changed to sight.
2. The Divine glory as communicated.— («) As originally given to man, it has been lost (Ro S^^).
According to Rabbinic doctrine, when Adam was created in the image of God, a ray (VI) of the Divine glory shone upon his countenance, but among the six things lost by the Fall was the VT, which went back to heaven (Weber, Jiidische Theologie, p. 222). At Sinai the VT was restored to the children of Israel, but was immediately lost again by their unfaithfulness {ib. p. 275). There can be little doubt that this pictorial rendering of spiritual truth lies behind the Apostle's peculiar mode of ex- pressing the fact of man's universal failure to represent the Divine ideal (see Sanday-Headlam in lac). The same allusion may possibly serve to explain the obscure passage, 1 Co 117.
(b) But the departed glory is more than restored in Christ, the second Adam, to whom as the Image of God it belongs (2 Co 4''), who is the Lord of Glory (1 Co 2^), and in whose face it shines forth in the darkened hearts of men, as at the Creation light first shone upon the face of the earth (2 Co 4®). Here the conception is emphatically ethical ; it is above all the glory of Divine character that shines from the face of Christ and in the hearts of believers. Yet here again the glory is not that of an ethical ideal merely ; it is the full, indivisible glory of the Living God of which Christ is the eflulgence (dtravya(7fia [He P]).
(c) By Christ as Mediator the Divine glory is communicated, not only to believers, but to every agency by which He acts: the Spirit (1 P 4'^, Eph 318), the gospel (2 Co 4*, 1 Ti 1"), the 'mystery'— God's long-hidden secret, now revealed, the eternal salvation of men by Christ (Col 1^). The whole Christian dispensation is characterized by ' glory ' (2 Co 3^"^*). As the inferior and temporary nature of the old dispensation is typified in the veiled and fading splendour of Moses, its mediator, the per- fection and permanence of the new are witnessed in the unveiled and eternal glory of Christ, which is reflected partly here, more fully hereafter, on His people (a merely figurative interpretation is excluded by the very terms eUibv and 86^a). Their transfiguration is in process — already the 'Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God' rests upon them (1 P 4''*) ; at His appearing it will be consummated (Ph 3^1, Jn 3=*).
(d) In the majority of cases in which 'glory' is predicated of Clirist, of Christians, and of the en- vironment of their life, the sense is distinctly eschatological. The sufferings of Christ are con- trasted with their after-glories (1 P 1'^* -i) ; also those of believers (1 P 4'8, 2 Th 21'', Ph 32'). As already in Jewish eschatology, 56|a is a technical term for the state of final salvation, the Heavenly Messianic Kingdom in which Christ now lives and which is to be brought to men by His Parousia. This is the 'coming glory ' (Ro 8'*), 'about to be revealed' (1 P 5'), the 'inheritance of God in his saints' (Eph 1"*) unto which they are prepared beforehand (Ro 9'^), called (1 P 5'"), led by Christ (He 2'") ; it is their unwithering crown (1 P 5"), the manifestation of their true nature (Col 3^), their emancipation from all evil limitations (Ro 8'') ; in the hope of it thev rejoice (Ro 5'^) ; for it they are made meet by the indwelling of Christ (Col P") and by the discipline of the present (2 Co 4").
GNOSTICISM
GNOSTICISM
453
II. — The second chief sense in which 'glory 'is predicated of God or Christ is that which may be termed ascriptional in contrast with essential. Passing over the strictly doxological passages, we note that ' glory ' is given to God (or to Christ) (a) by the character or conduct of men : by the strength of their trust (Ro 4-"), in eating, drinking, and all that they do (1 Co 10^^), by thanksgiving (2 Co 415), brotherly charity (2 Co S'"), the fruits of righteousness (Ph 1^^), repentance and confes- sion of sin (Rev 16^) ; (6) by the results of God's own saving work, the Exaltation of Christ (Ph 2'^), the faithful fulfilment of His promises in Christ (2 Co 1-"), the reception of both Jews and Gentiles into the Church (Ko 15''), the predestination of believers to the adoption of children (Eph P), the whole aceomplishment of that predestination, by faith, the sealing of the Spirit, and final redemp- tion (Eph V-*), by the marriage of the Lamb, the final and eternal union of Christ with the re- deemed, sanctitied, and glorified Church (Rev 19^).