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It is encouraging to note that the general Greek word for “glory” used in secular writing took an entirely different shape in the New Testament. The word was particularly influenced by its Hebrew counterpart meaning “weighted” or “heavy,” and hence, denoting something of honor and importance. The word doxology, referring to an expression of praise, comes from the same Greek word. The etymology is fascinating because the word itself seems to cry out for comparison. Will the things I give most honor always measure up? Under the heaviness of life, what weight does the hope I profess actually carry? Or, asked another way, can one give thanks after losing so much?
The Apostle Paul wrote of his own dark encounters as fleeting moments in which he saw nonetheless an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. “For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”(2) Paul proclaims the eternal weightiness of his hope in Jesus Christ: “[F]or it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”(3) The peculiar message of hope in the midst of darkness originates for the Christian with the God who first spoke light into darkness, the God who made light to shine in the darkness of Christ’s grave, and the inextinguishable light of Christ given to shine upon us today. It is this God of intrinsic glory in whom we know light and life itself.
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