glory
+ NewThe Kenosis — Philippians 2:5-11
Phil 2:5-11 traces Christ's descent and exaltation: though "in the form of God," he "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant," and was therefore "highly exalted." The hymn is the pattern of Christian humility and the map of redemption. Debate centers on the kenosis: of what did Christ empty himself? Chalcedon's two-natures grammar rules out any loss of deity; the self-emptying is the veiling of glory, not its abandonment. Barth read the passage as God's freedom to be lowly, while Bavinck guarded the immutability of the divine nature. The "form of God" language parallels Col 1:15 and John 1:1, and the universal homage of 2:10-11 fulfills the monotheistic oath of Isa 45:23. Every knee will bow to the crucified Lord.
The Deity of Christ — Hebrews 1:1-4
Heb 1:1-4 opens with the Son as "the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature," who "upholds the universe by the word of his power." The Son is not a creature but the eternal heir of all things. Athanasius marshalled this text against any subordination of the Son, and Nicaea confessed him 'true God from true God'. The catena of Old Testament quotations that follows in Hebrews 1 applies divine titles directly to Christ. The creative agency of 1:2-3 matches the Logos of John 1:3 and the cosmic Christ of Col 1:16-17. Aquinas treats the Son's consubstantial glory as the basis of his priestly mediation, which Hebrews will develop in chapter 9.
The Resurrection as Vindication — 1 Corinthians 15
1Cor 15:3-8 preserves the earliest creed: "Christ died for our sins... was buried... was raised on the third day... and appeared." Paul stakes the whole faith on it: "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile" (15:17). Wright argues at length that only a bodily resurrection explains the rise of the church, and Athanasius saw the resurrection as the public defeat of death itself. The resurrection is the Father's vindication of the crucified Son. The Adam-Christ contrast of 15:22 ties back to Rom 5:18, and the resurrection body of 1Cor 15:42-44 anchors Christian hope for the believer's own glorification promised in Rom 8:30.
Why God Became Man — Athanasius on the Incarnation
Athanasius's thesis is famous: the Word became man so that we might be made divine. He reads John 1:14 as the divine remedy for human corruption and death, grounding the whole argument in the creative and re-creative work of the Word. The logic is soteriological: only the Creator can renew the image he made, so only God incarnate can save. Gregory of Nazianzus sharpened the rule — what is not assumed is not healed, and Irenaeus had cast it as recapitulation. This deification theme connects to the image of God in Gen 1:27 and to the glory shared with believers in Rom 8:29-30. Nicaea's homoousios is the grammatical guardrail of the whole vision.
The Resurrection of the Body — 1 Corinthians 15:35-58
1Cor 15:42-44 describes the resurrection body: "sown perishable... raised imperishable... sown a natural body... raised a spiritual body." The Christian hope is not escape from the body but its glorification. Wright argues that 'spiritual body' means Spirit-animated, not immaterial, and Bavinck treats bodily resurrection as the goal of the whole ordo salutis. Augustine devoted the close of City of God to the glorified body. The pattern is set by Christ's own resurrection in 1Cor 15:20 and promised as glorification in Rom 8:30. Death is finally "swallowed up in victory" (15:54).
New Heavens and New Earth — Revelation 21
Rev 21:1-5 unveils the consummation: "a new heaven and a new earth... the dwelling place of God is with man... and he will wipe away every tear." Redemption ends not in heaven's escape but in a renewed creation. Augustine's City of God ends with this eternal Sabbath, the vision of God face to face, and Bavinck saw the new earth as creation brought to its destined glory. The covenant formula "God with them" reaches its final fulfillment. The renewed creation answers the first creation of Gen 1:1 and reverses the curse of Gen 3:17. The Immanuel promise of Matt 1:23 becomes eternal fact: God dwells with his people forever.