Beholding the Glory of Christ (Part 1 of 2)

The goal of this series is to behold God, to behave godly for the glory of God. By examining select passages in the gospel according to Isaiah, we will focus on beholding God with intentional desire to behave godly, so that God would be glorified.

To put this in perspective, consider the most significant difference between someone who merely talks about God and someone awestruck by God. This difference pertains to the person's understanding of the glory of God. William G. T. Shedd, in his sermon "The Supreme Excellence of God," said: "God alone therefore is worthy to receive all the glory and all the extolling and all the magnifying that belongs to his excellence... The really good man or angel refers his character to God and is filled with abhorrence at the thought of glorifying himself or of being glorified for it. And there is no sin that so grieves him as his propensity to a detestable self-idolatry."

Isaiah 6 summarizes this by beholding the person of Jesus Christ upon his throne in the temple. This passage teaches three ways beholding God causes us to behave godly for the glory of God.

1. The Glory of God Beheld by Angels

In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!"

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6:2-4)

Uzziah was a prosperous king, but when he was strong, he grew proud to his destruction. He entered the temple to burn incense, a role reserved for priests.

But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God." (2 Chronicles 26:16-18)

Then the Lord touched the king, afflicting him with leprosy until his death. Uzziah sought his own glory, not God's. Beholding God for godly behavior requires a focused attitude upon God for who he is, and learning who we are in his presence—coram Deo, in the presence of God.

The Lord is high and lifted up, his glory filling the temple. The Greek translation renders it as the glory of God filling the temple. John 12:37-41 connects this to Jesus: Isaiah saw his glory, the glory of the second person of the Trinity, enthroned and ruling, even as an earthly king died.

Above him are seraphim—"burning ones"—in perpetual flight. These majestic angelic beings have six wings: two for flight, two covering their faces, and two covering their feet. Even sinless creatures cover their faces before God's holiness. Though God may restrain his glory for Isaiah's sake—no one can see God and live—they respond in reverence because God is worthy.

They cover their feet out of respect and awe. These actions are imperfect tenses—constant, ongoing efforts to show perfect reverence. They shout to one another:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory! (Isaiah 6:3)

This is the only attribute repeated three times, a super-superlative of holiness. They worship ceaselessly, their quality and duration based on God's worth. Revelation 4:8 echoes this: the four living creatures never cease saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come."

2. The Glory of God Beheld by Anguish

The foundations shook at the angels' worship, the house filled with smoke. True, doctrinally saturated worship moves creation and the saved.

And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" (Isaiah 6:5)

"Woe" (oi) expresses dread and fear. "Lost" means utterly destroyed, annihilated—Isaiah sees himself as already undone. He confesses unclean lips, his own and his people's, deserving this fate. No plea for mercy, only acceptance: he has seen the King.

This echoes Gideon (Judges 6:22-23) and Manoah (Judges 13:22), who feared death upon seeing God. Yet Isaiah privileges seeing the King. Is beholding God's glory worth even death? Like Moses begging to see God's glory, it teaches that God's glory matters more than life.

Isaiah's anguish marks growth in sanctification: beholding God reveals sin's heinousness more clearly over time. Paul, at his ministry's end, called himself chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). The growing Christian sees remaining sin as worse, compelled to godly behavior for God's glory.

3. The Glory of God Beheld by Atonement

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." (Isaiah 6:6-7)

A seraph takes a burning coal from the altar and touches Isaiah's lips, searing them. With the smell of burning flesh, the seraph declares: your guilt is taken away, your sin atoned for. This immediate provision underscores God's worthiness and the transformation beholding his glory brings.