Imagine a world ablaze with God’s glory—a dazzling display that radiates his goodness, beauty, and love toward his people. Scripture promises that such a day is coming, and Donnie Berry reminds us (or introduces some to the reality) that this eschatological design has always been the Triune God’s intention for his creation and creatures.
Though we presently live exiled from Eden in a fallen and groaning creation, we are not consigned to a monochromatic existence. Even in this age and condition, God’s glory is displayed for his people to enjoy.
In “The Earth Will Be Filled” (InterVarsity Press, 2025) Donnie Berry invites readers into a deeper reflection on the glory of God and its significance for the Christian life. He avoids the common pitfalls of abstraction and speculative definition by consistently grounding readers in the biblical storyline.
Berry, an instructor of New Testament and biblical theology with Training Leaders International, begins from a beautiful premise: “The bedrock—for joy and for work and for all things good and beautiful and true—is the same. It’s the glory of God. The glory of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (2). This conviction governs the volume.
A Biblical Theology for Every Christian
Berry’s volume is one of the newest entries in IVP’s “Essential Studies in Biblical Theology” series, edited by PCA Teaching Elder L. Michael Morales. The series aims to introduce biblical-theological themes in an accessible, non-technical manner. Berry succeeds admirably in this aim. Berry’s clear prose makes the book well-suited for lay readers, church groups, and anyone new to the practice of biblical theology. The series’ intentionally irenic tone makes it appealing across denominational lines while remaining anchored in Scripture.
A notable strength of the ESBT series, and of this volume in particular, is its commitment to beginning in Genesis 1–3. This feature helps readers see a biblical theme unfold from creation to new creation. This redemptive-historical approach is made famous in Geerhardus Vos’ image of a seed growing into a mature tree. Berry, in narrative form, displays God’s progressive self-revelation along the contours of history, with particular attention to humanity’s engagement with, response to, and participation in God’s glory.
The book is divided into two major parts. The first five chapters establish the narrative foundation by showing that God disclosing his glory is not an afterthought in response to the fall, but a defining feature of the created order itself. Berry walks readers through the stories of creation, fall, and the earliest promises of redemption, demonstrating that God is glorious in himself and imprints that glory upon his creation and creatures.
This raises the inevitable question: what is God’s glory? Rightly recognizing the difficulty of defining an infinite and ultimately incomprehensible idea, Berry does not force a rigid or overly technical definition. Instead, he follows Scripture’s own pattern of apprehending God’s glory progressively throughout redemptive history. Still readers benefit from having a succinct, memorable definition, so Berry describes God’s glory as “God’s awesomeness on public display” (13).
While I love that definition, Berry offers a longer one too: “Glory refers to all the fullness of the triune God — the fullness of his wisdom, love, creativity, beauty, strength, compassion, justice, life, joy — all that makes him weighty and wonderful, made manifest for us to see, experience, respond to, and, perhaps most surprisingly, participate in” (7). In short, the glory of God is the outward manifestation of his inward excellencies.
Delighting In and Displaying God’s Glory
When we learn to approach God’s glory as an external revelation of his identity, it teaches us that all God’s works — creation, providence, redemption, judgment, patience, beauty, and even de-creation — are God’s means of revealing himself to us. The displays of God’s glory are acts of divine self-disclosure, revealing his triune identity and inviting human response. As Berry repeatedly emphasizes, beholding God’s glory leads not merely to knowledge but to joy and transformed affections.
I appreciate how this book presses readers beyond contemplation. Berry frames the Christian life as a movement from delighting in God’s glory to displaying it. Without explicitly asking the question “So what?” Berry consistently answers it. Reflecting on God’s glory reshapes how we understand the world, our purpose, and our lives within God’s redemptive story.
While the book does not explicitly develop covenantal structures, it nevertheless presents a strong continuity running along the lines of redemptive history. Berry shows that from the beginning, God created humanity in his image to reflect his glory and exercise dominion. This calling remains constant across the covenants and finds its continuation within the new covenant community, which is tasked with reflecting God’s glory so that others may see and know him (cf. Genesis 2:15).
Readers familiar with the Reformed tradition will recognize how Berry’s method echoes the Westminster Shorter Catechism’s first answer: that man’s chief end is “to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” The book demonstrates how this theological truth is not merely an abstract confessional affirmation but is woven throughout the entire fabric of Scripture’s story.
God’s Glory and the Christian Life
Berry is especially effective in connecting the imago Dei to participation in the missio Dei. The glory of God has implications for all spheres of life. Drawing on passages such as John 13:34–35, Berry shows that the glory of Christ is displayed through self-giving love — love that flows from union with Christ and communion with the Father.
In the latter chapters, Berry traces the theme of glory through the New Testament, with special attention to the apostle Paul’s theology. He argues persuasively that God’s glory is a unifying theme at the heart of Paul’s gospel, shaping his teaching on sin, justification, reconciliation, and new creation. For Paul, the Abrahamic promise is bound up with God’s original purpose for humanity, to fill the earth with his glory and rule under his lordship. This purpose unfolds from Adam to Abraham to Israel and reaches its fulfillment in Christ, and those united to him by faith.
Berry concludes by returning to the central burden of the book: the glory of God must not remain a theoretical concept but impress upon us the benefits for which it is revealed. God’s glory is the fountainhead of the Christian life and the believer’s greatest joy. In this respect, “The Earth Will Be Filled” succeeds. It introduces readers to a rich and biblically grounded theology of glory and consistently presses that theology into adoration, obedience, and hope.
This connection is deeply Reformed in spirit: true theology is never merely academic but always doxological and transformative, stirring a mind for truth and a heart toward the supreme beauty of God himself. Or, in the words of Paul, our present sufferings and strivings, while toilsome in the present, are incomparable with the benefits of God’s glory now and in the new creation (Romans 8:18).
While many volumes can and should be written on the glory of God and the Christian life, this volume should be warmly received. It should find a home in the hands of individual lay readers, but will prove even more valuable in small groups. Berry helpfully includes chapter-by-chapter discussion questions that encourage reflection and application. For readers seeking an accessible introduction to the practical implications of the glory of God, this book is a welcome contribution.
Chris Stevens is assistant professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary Jackson.