When the New York Yankees won the World Series of baseball this fall, they were given a ticker-tape parade down 7th Avenue in New York City. It was the moment of their glory – the glory of being the world champions of baseball.
The glory of man is but a temporal and limited glory. It shines for a time, but then it quickly fades away.
Not so with the glory of God! His glory is an incredible glory – so intense that it is absolutely blinding. It is infinite in its brilliance, and eternal in its duration. There is no glory like His glory! Now this is what Jesus was referring to in Matthew 16:27 when He spoke of His Second Coming by saying, “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels…” In other words, the Second Coming will be a total display of the incredible glory of God.
This word, “glory,” is a word that means “brilliance; radiance; splendor.” It has the idea of magnificence and majesty.
Have you ever watched rock stars and other pop singers try to create a sense of glory for their concerts? They wear costumes with sequin reflectors, flood the stage with powerful lights, crank up the decibels of their music to ear-shattering levels, and scream into microphones which amplify their puny voices into Goliath dimensions. Actually, they are admitting that they need a lot of help when it comes to glory.
But Jesus won’t need any of their artificial trappings. His glory is intrinsic – resident within Himself. And it far surpasses any other glory in the universe. “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels…” He will radiate with the glory of God.
Say – don’t be enamored with rock stars and Hollywood personalities. Their glory is like a flickering candle in the presence of the sun, when compared to the radiant glory of Christ!