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244 How Are the Christian Scriptures Confirmed by the Peculiar Glory of God?
you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will
receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one
another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
That last rhetorical question has a devastating answer. The answer to
the question, “How can you believe?” is, “You can’t.” Restate the question
as a statement, since Jesus really is making a strong statement
with it: “You who receive glory from one another, and do not seek
the glory that comes from God, cannot believe.” Why not? Because of
what Jesus says in verse 43: “I have come in my Father’s name, and you
do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive
him.” Why would they have received one who comes in his own name?
Because that mind-set would fit with their own. One who comes in his
own name, seeking his own glory, would be one like them. His ways
would be their ways. He would endorse their self-centeredness. Even if
he became their competition, he would not become their condemnation.
They might feel envy, but they would not feel guilt.
This is why they “cannot believe.” They love the glory of man more
than the glory of God. “I know that you do not have the love of God
within you” (v. 42). They love themselves. They love the praise of man.
So when Jesus says, “I do not receive glory from people” (v. 41), he
means this: “The kind of human exaltation that people give who have
no love for God is of no interest to me and does not fit with who I am.”
Therefore, people who want that kind of “glory from people” will
not know Jesus. They will fundamentally miss what he is about. And
therefore, they will not see what his signs—his miracles—are pointing
to. They cannot recognize the peculiar glory of Jesus in his miracles,
because they do not will his will (John 7:17). They do not share his love
for the glory of God (7:18; 5:44). And they do not intend to join him
in the self-sacrifice that puts his power in the service of love, not pride.
Transfiguration: The Coming, the Glory, and the Scriptures
There was one moment in the life of Jesus when the majesty of Jesus
stood forth in an absolutely unique way. It was notable precisely because
it was exceptional. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus’s divine
glory shone in a more immediate and spectacular way. For our