Christians often say things like we’re created for God’s glory, that we want to glorify Him, or even that we’ve fallen short of His glory. 

We use this phrase so much that it’s tempting to write it off as meaningless internal language. But instead of leaving it behind, we need to embrace it because, as we’ll see, it describes something incredibly important.

God’s glory generally refers to three things:

The first is connected to what God does—His actions in the world. His acts of mercy, His kindness toward us, His acts of judgment, and most importantly the death and resurrection of Jesus… all of these reveal His glory.

The second has to do with God’s reputation; God’s fame or His name’s sake, as the Bible puts it. Glory in this sense is connected to who God is. 

The third has to do with the beauty of His very being. God’s attributes and characteristics are on display all around us, and He is so incredible that even a word like “glory” falls short of the reality of God’s awesomeness.

Something we need to remember is that these ways of referring to God’s glory are all connected to one another, and they’re connected to us. 

Everything was created for God’s glory. That’s why God made it: to show His glory. This means humanity was made to display His amazingness in all of creation, but because of our sin, we fall short of it. Sin is a rejection of the purpose God created us for.

But through faith in Christ, God gives us the ability to give Him the glory He deserves. And as His people, we do this by seeking to know and love Him each day, pointing others to the good things He has done, and giving thanks to Him for how He is working in us and through us for His glory and our good.