(Quotes in italics by John Owen from The Glory of Christ)

In scripture we read that Christ is the image of God (2 Cor. 4:4). He makes the invisible God visible (Col. 1:15). God is glorious and in beholding Christ we behold that glory. In Christ, God himself, his Being and the mystery of his existence in three distinct persons, was gloriously revealed to believers, and the light of the knowledge of these truths dispelled all those shadows that were in [God’s people], and also pierced the darkness which was in the world, so that none could continue to be ignorant of God but those who would not see.

We see God’s glory in a particular way in his wisdom, love, goodness, grace, and mercy. We don’t know what infinite wisdom is. We don’t know what it is to love truly. We don’t know anything but a veiled glory as it is reflected and revealed to us. In Christ, however, we see the mind of God. We see wisdom’s works, the most glorious of which is the great work of the salvation of the church (Eph. 3:9-10). Included in this great salvation, of course, is the display of God’s love, kindness, goodness, grace and mercy on which the life of our soul depends [which is] represented to us in all their splendor in and through Christ.

While Christ reflects God’s glory, he has a glory of his own. His is the only and will always be a divine-human person, the God-man. This is the best, the most noble and beneficial truth that we can think about or set our minds on. In him we see God and humanity come together and that fills us with glorious hope. We behold Christ in the scriptures through the eyes of faith (more on this later).

Let us meditate on and through faith see the glory of Christ. There are some who profess to be strict, disciplined Christians, but who never put aside time to meditate on the glory of Christ. Yet, they tell us that they desire nothing more than to behold his glory in heaven for ever. They are being wholly inconsistent. Let us as those parched, dry and thirsty pursue as much of a vision of the glory of Christ as we can here on this earth, not being satisfied to wait to see it in heaven.