Romans 3.23-The Lord Jesus Christ is the Shekinah Glory
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday November 18, 2007
Romans: Romans 3:23-The Lord Jesus Christ is the Shekinah Glory
Lesson # 99
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 3:19.
Thursday evening we studied Romans 3:23, which teaches that the reason why anyone, whether Jew or Gentile can receive the gift of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ and be declared justified by God is that both groups have sinned and thus are always failing to measure up to the glory of God, who is Jesus Christ.
This morning we will note that Jesus Christ is the Shekinah glory that appeared in Old Testament Israel in the Tabernacle and in Solomon’s Temple and between the cherubim above the Ark of the Covenant.
Romans 3:19, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.”
Romans 3:20, “Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
Romans 3:21, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”
Romans 3:22, “Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe for there is no distinction.”
Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
“The glory” is the noun doxa (dovca) (dox-ha), which refers to the manifestation of the absolute perfection of God’s character, which is His holiness.
Moses asked the Lord to see His glory and the Lord responded with a description of what His glory entails in Exodus 33:18-19.
Exodus 33:18-19, “Then Moses said, ‘I pray You show me your glory!’ And He (the Lord) said, ‘I Myself will make all my goodness (divine perfection) pass before you, and will proclaim the Person of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.’”
The Lord goes on to say in Exodus 34:6-7a.
Exodus 34:6-7a, “Then the Lord passed by in front of him (Moses) and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding grace and truth; Who keeps grace for thousands, Who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.”
Therefore, from these passages, we can see that doxa is used for the manifested character and nature of God and refers to who and what God is and His modus operandi.
It also was used in the Old Testament for the Shekinah Glory or the visible presence of the Lord in Israel in both the Tabernacle and the Temple (Ex. 29:42; 40:34; 1 Kings 8:11; 1 Chron. 5:14; 7:1; Isa. 6:3; Ezek. 1:28).
The glory was also manifested ultimately in the Person and Finished Work of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union during the First Advent (Matt. 17:2-5; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 11:7; 2 Cor. 4:4, 6; Heb. 2:9; Rev. 19:1, 7).
The glory of God is also revealed in and through believers by means of the function of the new nature (John 17:22; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 1:18; 3:16; Col. 1:11, 27; 2 Pet. 1:3, 7, 11; Heb. 2:10).
All things exist for the glory of God (Ex. 33:18; Psa. 19:1; Isa. 6:3; Matt. 6:13; Acts 7:2; Rom. 1:23; 9:23; Heb. 1:3; 1 Pet. 4:14).
God’s glory was before all creation (John 17:5), and it will exist after human history as it did before.
The glory of God is the “manifestation” of the holiness of God, i.e. the absolute perfection of His character.
The Lord Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God is the glory of God since He manifested through His words and actions the absolute perfection of God’s character, which is His holiness.
Hebrews 1:3, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
The glory of God is found in creation in that God manifests His omnipotence and wisdom through what He has created.
Psalm 19:1-4, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
The glory of God was found in the Garden of Eden since the preincarnate Christ was present with Adam and the Woman (Genesis 3).
The Lord Jesus Christ was the “Shekinah” glory in the Old Testament.
The term “Shekinah” is a transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning “the one who dwells” or “that which dwells”.
This word is not used in Scripture but the root word shakan (to dwell) and the related word mishkan (tabernacle) are used often.
Both are associated with the presence of God dwelling with man.
The meaning of the word “Shekinah,” “the One Who dwells” emphasizes that God seeks to live with man and not vice versa.
Exodus 25:8-9, “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell (shakan) among them. According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it.”
The term “Shekinah” originally was used in the Jewish Targums (Aramaic translation of Hebrew Bible) and rabbinic literature whenever the Hebrew text would mention the presence of God.
The term “Shekinah” was used to describe the visible manifestation of God’s presence.
The Shekinah glory appeared to Moses in the burning bush.
Exodus 3:1-6, “Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, ‘I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.’ When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, ‘Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He said also, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”
This visible manifestation of God’s presence appears in Israel’s wilderness wanderings through a pillar of cloud during the day and the pillar of fire at night, which was for guidance and assurance of God’s presence with Israel.
Exodus 13:21-22, “The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.”
The angel of God is associated with this visible manifestation and is a theophany, a visible and auditory manifestation of the preincarnate Christ.
Exodus 14:19-20, “The angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night. Thus the one did not come near the other all night.”
The Shekinah glory appeared on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:16-18) and appeared in the Tabernacle in Israel (Exodus 33:9-11, 18-23; 40:34-38).
The Shekinah glory would dwell between the cherubim above the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle.
Isaiah 37:16, “O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.”
Ezekiel 8-11 records the departure from Israel of the Shekinah glory.
Therefore, we can see that the glory of the Lord had initially dwelt in the tabernacle in the wilderness.
It departed when the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, which God allowed because of Israel’s sin.
The glory of God came into the temple of Solomon upon completion and consecration (1 Kings 8:10).
Then, it progressively departed the Temple, in preparation for the destruction of the nation of Israel which had turned irrevocably to the worship of abominable idols (First step: Ezekiel 8:3-4; Second: Ezekiel 9:3; Third: Ezekiel 10:18-19; Fourth: Ezekiel 11:22-23).
Isaiah 42:8, “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven images.”
The Temple that was rebuilt after Judah’s seventy years of exile in Babylon did not possess the Shekinah glory of the LORD.
Many in Israel wept over this fact that the Shekinah glory had departed (Ezra 3:12).
The Shekinah glory appeared in Israel for thirty-three and a half years in the Person of Jesus Christ but departed when they crucified Him.
It will return to the millennial temple in the Person of the resurrected, glorified incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ (Haggai 2:9; Isaiah 4:5; 35:1-3).
In John 1:14, the apostle John draws the parallel between the Shekinah glory in Old Testament Israel and the incarnation of the Son of God.
John 1:14, “And the Word (Son of God) became flesh (a Man), and dwelt (“tabernacled, pitched His tent”) among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only uniquely born One from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul alludes to the fact that Jesus Christ is the Shekinah glory that was with Exodus generation of Israel.
1 Corinthians 10:1-4, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.”
Colossians 2:9, “For in Him (The Lord Jesus Christ) all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”
Paul calls the Lord Jesus Christ, “the Lord of glory.”
1 Corinthians 2:7-8, “But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
This same Shekinah glory indwells the body of a believer in the church age.
Colossians 1:24-27, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”