Bible Text: John 1:14 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

The Greek word doxa is the same word which gives us our English word doxology, yet Bible scholars are somewhat at a loss to explain what the glory of God really is.

Roy Brill was a veteran missionary and conference speaker, a godly man with a full head of white hair, which made him look like a patriarch. One day we were talking, and I asked, “Do you understand what the glory of God is?” This man of God began to blush as a schoolboy who had been asked a question he should easily be able to answer but couldn’t, and then said, “For more than 50 years I have been trying to understand the glory of God, and I still haven’t been able to fully fathom it.” Can anyone ever fathom God’s glory?

The shepherds in the fields outside of Bethlehem didn’t understand God’s glory, but then encountered it, and so had Roy Brill. There are some marvelous things in life that you encounter but you can’t fully explain. Try describing the smell of a rose, or the crispness of fresh mountain air as the sun rises in the eastern sky. Try to explain the marvel of a baby’s smile, or tell me exactly what love is.

Some things are better encountered than explained. So is it with the glory of God. It was simple herdsmen, uneducated, without university credentials, hard-working, ordinary laborers who were privileged to encounter the glory of God when angels announced that a Savior was about to be born in the city of Bethlehem.

In his book, Transformed By His Glory, Charles Ryrie says, “The glory of God means the awesomeness, splendor, and importance of God seen in some way.”

There is one thing for sure: when sinful man has an encounter with the Almighty and His glory, his life will never be the same. The shepherd who experienced the glory of that first Christmas came and worshiped the child that had been born in Bethlehem, and then began to spread the Word that God had sent a Savior in the person of the child born that night in the stable outside Bethlehem.

The difference between the glory of God and our human concept of glory is that God’s glory is vitally connected with His character and His person, which includes His holiness and His nature. For example, when Isaiah had a marvelous encounter with God and saw the glory of God, he immediately cried out, “Holy, holy holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3).

The glory of Christmas which touched the lives of the humble shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem is still with us. I see it in the lives of men and women who let God touch their lives through His Son Jesus Christ. I see men and women who have known only anger and bitterness learn tenderness. I see the hardened crust of life begin to peel away as the Holy Spirit changes a person from selfishness to kindness. I see the glory of God reflected in the lives of ordinary people who are changed by the Spirit of God.

Want to see the glory of God? Then look in the pages of the New Testament and ask God to touch your life with His glory. Come with expectancy and faith, and you will find that your life will never be the same. The glory of God’s touching humankind is still the greatest force in our world.

Resource reading: Psalm 104