What does it mean to see the glory of something? It means to realize in the heart the significance and beauty of what you see and how it relates to and affects you. To behold the glory of the Lord means that what we are seeing of the person and work of Christ is affecting us in heart and life. The way the Spirit produces His fruit within us is by “shining the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
“God’s glory is not an attribute as much as it is the sum total of all God’s attributes.
In viewing God’s glory, we are not directly viewing God, but the impress and effects of His majestic greatness. …
Holiness, glory, and beauty are inseparable. We must recognize the connection between them. God’s holiness (otherly presence) is manifested in glory (majestic splendor and brilliance) and the form it takes is beauty. This combination produces both fear and longing within us. God’s “terrible” beauty – God’s “awe-full” beauty – simultaneously repels and attracts. It is both shocking and soothing, disruptive and fascinating, unnerving and restorative. It provokes both fear and love. Unless we embrace this full range of engagement with God’s glory, we evidence that we have not truly encountered it” (Read more: TheoCentric)
The Holy Spirit glories in and magnifies the beauty of the person and work of Jesus by unveiling it to our spiritual understanding (cf. John 14-16; 2 Corinthians 3:18). The essential work of the Spirit is to set Christ before our eyes until in adoration our hearts find Him more beautiful than whatever our flesh desires to have or do.
Are we to say then that the law has no use in the process of sanctification? Absolutely not. The issue at stake in the sanctification/law debate is one of revelation versus power. If we see the law as one way the power of God works in us to make us like Christ, we err. We have already established that we are not made like Christ by obeying the law. But if we see the law as a revelation of the character of Christ, we see rightly. I’m sure you would say that if someone perfectly kept the Law, he would be like Christ. Why would you say that? Because the Law is the revelation of His character. The law is useful for believers to reveal His character to us (we can gaze upon the beautiful character of Christ through the Law) and as a goal for which we should strive in the power of the Holy Spirit – with the certain knowledge that we will fail daily in this life and then the Law becomes our Tutor to drive us back to Christ (back to the good news of God’s provision for our failure).
It is interesting to note here that the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is essentially the Law at the heart level. The Spirit works to internalize the Law within us (He works love within us which is the summary of the Law). The fruit of the Spirit is just that, the fruit of the Spirit’s work in our lives by (again) “shining the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
The true Christian message is always fixated on the Glory of God and the Person of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.
This is why gnosticism is so deadly because it says that there is more wisdom, more beauty, more satisfaction outside of Christ.
We must do our best to lift up Christ. He is the true Adam. He is the reality of what it means to be human. He is the true obedient Son that has done everything to please the Father. He is the true dwelling place of God – the true temple. He is the righteous Priest that represents us perfectly and sinlessly to the Father. He is the true Prophet. He is the true Vine Who always brings forth the fruit and brings everything in accordance with the law of God. This is our only hope – Christ. We must not make our identity in anything other than Jesus the Grain of Wheat that fell to the ground and died so we might live.
Our identity in Christ should form our behavior and if we begin to focus on anything else, we darken the light of the Glory of Christ. We must guard the content of our affections. Any teaching that presents God as polygamist or as one of many gods and shows Him as anything other than what He has revealed in His Word is false and outright rejects the Supremacy of Christ in all things. Christ is the Hope of Glory.
Anything less is a false gospel.