The Scarcity and Abundance of Glory
Glory is a scarce commodity—but it is not a limited resource.
When we think about glory, we go quickly to the glory which is God’s alone, and rightly so. God is indeed ultimately glorious. His glory is in a category of its own. When it comes to worship and veneration as God, he refuses to share his glory with competitors and charlatans (Isa. 42:8, 48:11). Yet Jesus claimed glory with the Father before any creation existed, which says something about who Jesus is (John 17:5).
It also says something about what glory is. At the least, it is something which can be shared. It is no injustice to the Father to share glory with the Son, and vice versa. The communicability of glory does not stop there. After Christ states his claim to God’s glory, he says, “The glory that you have given me I have given to [my disciples]” (John 17:22).
The idea that we should somehow share in the glory of God is nearly too much to bear. It is, in fact, this truth which glory-seekers have isolated from the framework of orthodox doctrine and mangled into other false religions. In each of these, man seeks to grasp the glory of God to the depreciation of God himself. Man seeks to take God’s glory at God’s expense, rather than participate in God’s glory for God’s increase.
This reveals two different approaches to glory. One man loves the glory that comes from God and belongs to God, and he wants it to stay where it belongs. He knows glory is scarce, in the sense that it is rare. But he knows glory is not a limited resource, because it comes from the Lord, whose glory is abundant. This man will share in God’s glory, because he seeks to show God as glorious, rather than himself.
The other approach loves the glory that comes from man and begrudges the glorification of any other. Since he sees the rarity of glory as evidence of a limited resource, he hates it when others receive praise—even if he himself is alsopraised! He must receive all the honor primarily and alone, because glory is a zero-sum game.
Let’s call this the difference between a “scarcity” mindset and an “abundance” mindset. One example of the scarcity approach is King Saul. He had in his troupe the greatest warrior in the land: David the giant-slayer. David fought for Saul and gained victory for Israel. He became the king’s armor-bearer. He sought Saul’s interest and honor, which is to say, he sought the king’s glory. Every victory of David reflected well on Saul. And so, the women of Israel sang, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Sam. 18:7).
Saul could not stand it. What more could David have but the kingdom? he said to himself (which gives you an idea of just how important public opinion was to the king ordained by God). He ultimately assaulted his greatest servant and exiled his best shot at regaining a good reputation. When you view glory as a zero-sum game, there is no room for other players.
David proved to be a different kind of king. He knew that honor can be—must be—shared. Not awarded cheaply, but earned, and when earned, recognized and welcomed. While Saul cast away his one “mighty man,” David gathered around himself many. Look at 1 Chronicles 12, and you will see the awesome list. There were the thirty, and the three, and the chiefs who stood among them. There were the Gadites, the least “a match for a hundred men and the greatest for a thousand” (v.14). There were Israelites and Philistines, men from many tribes and varied nations.
David welcomed them all. They came to him “until there was a great army, like an army of God” (v.22). Many had been, like David, run off by Saul. They came “with a whole heart” to establish David’s kingship, and to share in his glory (v.38). Because David welcomed them and enabled them to do good and great things, his name increased, their names increased, Israel flourished, the kingdom was established, and God showed himself to be a God like no other, who seeks his own glory in the good of his people.
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, there are different types of bodies and so different types of glories:
“There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory” (vv. 40–41).
In another place, he acknowledges that man is himself the “glory” of God, and woman is the “glory” of man (see 1 Cor. 11:7). This is a mindset of abundance, not scarcity. Every person and thing has its own glory, its own honor and dignity and worth and capacity for greatness, according to the boundaries and capacities and contexts in which God has placed it. Each is meant to glorify God. For us creatures made in his image, we are meant to share in God’s glory, and to share this glory with one another. We are meant to be like David and his mighty men—not pursuing glory for its own sake, but pursuing good and mighty works, which God has prepared for us, which we are to be rich in, which will yield a glory that redounds to the benefit of others, to our communities, and to our God.
We serve a King who deserves all glory, all honor, all praise. Yet he welcomes us onto the stage of the theatre of redemptive history and invites us to stand next to him through the power of his crucifixion for our sin and triumphant resurrection. May we learn to share not only in his glory but in his heart of abundant generosity and selflessness, and with a whole heart, do the good and glorious works which he has prepared for us beforehand.
A Prayer from Abundance
Lord, let me pay no mind to the glory of others, except to rejoice when they are rightly honored. Teach my heart to give glory away as the rarest resource that costs me nothing. Teach me to love the glory that comes from you alone, and to forget about the glory that comes from man. Please give me the wide-heartedness of David, welcoming others and their gifts, and celebrating their opportunities and strengths. Be glorified in me, and let that be more than enough for my heart. Amen.