The Glory

It is by the cross that everything is sustained, for “in Him all things hold together,” and He does not exist in any other form than that of the crucified One. But for the cross, there would be universal death. Not a man could breathe, not a plant could grow, not a ray of light could shine from heaven, if it were not for the cross. Now “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” Psalm 19:1. They are some of the things that God has made. No pen can describe and no artist’s brush can depict the wondrous glory of the heavens; yet that glory is but the glory of the cross of Christ. This follows from the facts already learned, that the power of God is seen in the things that are made, and that the cross is the power of God. The glory of God is His power, for “the exceeding greatness of His power to usward” is seen in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (Ephesians 1:19, 20), and “Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father” (Romans 6:4). It was for the suffering of death that Jesus was crowned with glory and honor. Hebrews 2:9. So we see that all the glory of the innumerable stars, with their various colors, all the glory of the rainbow, the glory of the clouds gilded by the setting sun, the glory of the sea, and of blooming fields and green meadows, the glory of the spring-time and of the ripened harvest, the glory of the opening bud and the perfect fruit,—yea, all the glory that Christ has in heaven, as well as the glory that will be revealed in His saints when they shall “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father,” even “as the stars forever and ever,”—is the glory of the cross. How can we ever think of glorying in anything else?GTI 261.4