We meet with this word very often in Scripture, and we cannot be too particular in our proper apprehension of its meaning. It is not very difficult to understand how JEHOVAH is glorified actively, when we give to him the glory that is due to his holy name. God is said to be glorified, when we honour him in his word, his attributes, his perfections, and in all his dispensations, both in nature, providence and grace. "Whoso offereth me praise, saith JEHOVAH, he glorifieth me." (Ps. li. 23.) We may be said to glorify God, when wegive him the credit due to God in believing him, and especially in that record he hath given of his dear Son. In this view of giving glory to God is included all that self - abasement becoming poor lost creatures, and ascribing the whole of redemption to sovereign, free, and unmerited grace. In short, in every way, and by every means, we may be said to glorify JEHOVAH when Christ, as the Christ of God, is exalted as the only Saviour of a lost world; and the soul lies low at the footstool of the throne of grace, ascribing "salvationonly to God and the Lamb." This is to glorify God actively. But then it should be carefully remembered at the same time, and never lost sight of, that all this, and ten thousand times more, in giving glory to JEHOVAH, doth not in fact add an atom to his glory. God is all - glorious in himself, whether his creatures praise him, or do not. Resting in his own eternal glory and all - sufficiency, nothing can add to, or take from that glory. Sooner might light be added to the sun by a faint taper of the night, or sound to the thunderbythe human voice, than that JEHOVAH can receive additional glory from any act, or from all the acts of his creatures, put them all together in one. No! the giving glory to God is spoken of in accommodation to human apprehension, and after the manner of men, to intimate the suitable and becoming frame in man towards God, and his sense of divine goodness.
But beside this glorifying God actively, there is another method by which the Lord is said to be glorified by his creatures passively; namely, when under suited impressions of his goodness the soul lies passive, and comes to receive, and not to give; and from the Lord’s grace thereby to minister to the Lord’s glory. And this is as blessed a way as the former, and in which the Lord is truly glorified. When God in Christ gives out of his fulness mercy, pardon, grace, yea, imparts of himself the suited supply to the wants of the millionsof his people, this is to his glory. He doth, indeed, get himself a glorious name, and is glorified in all the gracious acts by which his love and rich mercy is thus made known. And if poor needy creatures had but such views of the clemency of heaven, they would see what encouragement it gives to faith, to be always looking up to God’s free bounty in Christ, to receive from his fulness, and grace for grace. When a poor believing soul can say, it is the glory and perfection of a God in Christ to be laying out upon hisredeemedof his infinite and inexhaustible fulness; and Christ in God is as much glorified by my poor heart, when passively receiving from his grace bestowed upon me, as when I actively praise him with joyful lips, when by his Holy Spirit he enables me to bring my poor boon of love and thankfulness. This is to glorify God.
The reader will be pleased to observe, that in all I have here noticed of glorifying JEHOVAH, I have hitherto confined the subject to that part of the divine glory given to him by his church and people, under those two branches of it, actively and passively. But a yet far higher view of glorifying the Lord remains to be considered. The transcendent glory of JEHOVAH is in the person of Christ, as God - man Mediator. Here the whole glory of JEHOVAH, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, centres. In Christ that glory shines out in one fullconstellation. The Holy Ghost, by the apostle, describes it in a short verse, when speaking of Christ’s person. In him dwelleth all the fulness of the GODHEAD bodily." (Col. 2: 9.) But what angels or men can describe this? And in Christ’s ministry, offices, character, work, and relations in the accomplishment, who shall undertake to set forth the glory of the Father in the Son, and the glory of the Son by the Father, through the efficient operation of God the Holy Ghost?
I will only add, that it forms a part of that glory which all the persons of the GODHEAD are concerned in, and will be loved, and praised, and adored for, to all eternity by the church, when the church is glorified and made everlastingly happy, from her union with her glorious Head Christ Jesus, and brought home through a life of grace here, to a life of unspeakable nearness, felicity, and glory in Christ Jesus hereafter, and to rest in the uninterrupted enjoyment of it for evermore. This also is to the divine glory.
to make glorious or honourable, or to cause to appear so, Joh 12:28; Joh 13:31-32; Joh 15:8; Joh 17:4-5; Joh 21:19; Act 3:13. In this view it particularly refers to the resurrection of Christ, and his ascension to the right hand of God, Joh 7:39; Joh 12:16. It also expresses that change which shall pass upon believers at the general resurrection, and their admission into heaven.
(1.) to make glorious or honorable, or to cause to appear so, Joh 12:28; Joh 13:31-32; Joh 15:8; Joh 17:4-5; Joh 21:19; Act 3:13. In this view it particularly refers to the resurrection of Christ, and his ascension to the right hand of God, Joh 7:30; Joh 12:16.
(2.) It also expresses that change which shall pass upon believers at the general resurrection, and their admission into heaven.
(3.) To glorify God (1Co 6:20) is to "show forth his praise" by obedience to his law. Thus the "heavens declare the glory of God" in obedience to the law of creation; and much more do moral and intellectual beings glorify him by willing obedience to the moral law (1Co 10:31; Joh 17:4). SEE GLORY OF GOD.
(1) Men may glorify God, that is, give to Him the worship and reverence which are His due (Isa 24:15; Isa 25:3; Psa 22:23; Dan 5:23; Sirach 43:30; Mat 5:16, and generally in the Synoptic Gospels and in some other passages of the New Testament).
(2) God, Yahweh (Jehovah), glorifies His people, His house, and in the New Testament, His Son, manifesting His approval of them and His interest in them, by His interposition on their behalf (Isa 55:5; Jer 30:19; The Wisdom of Solomon 18:8; Sirach 45:3; Joh 7:39, and often in the Fourth Gospel).
(3) By a usage which is practically confined to the Old Testament, Yahweh glorifies Himself, that is, secures the recognition of His honor and majesty, by His direction of the course of history, or by His interposition in history, either the history of His own people or of the world at large (Lev 10:3; Isa 26:15; Eze 28:22; Hag 1:8).