Mormon 8:15 defines the glory of God as his covenant people. God is full of glory, having a numerous people, and his glory grows forever, the more people come follow him. He continues to have children. He doesn’t rule over anyone save they are his child. That is how heaven works. It’s structured in families, and the grand law of the universe is the never-ending cycle of children becoming parents. Parenthood in this setting is the code word for exaltation.
This doctrine explains much of who God is, what he does, and why he does it. It also opens the door to understanding exaltation, that as God has children it brings him glory, so us becoming glorious and powerful like him doesn’t take away from God, it adds to him.
Lucifer had it backwards; rather than working to become like God (which is the only way to become like God), he wanted to just step in and take over the show. Rather than being tutored by God his great head, he wanted to kick God out and take his place. In reality, the eternal order is that of family, that children become like their parents. They don’t throw out their parents, or recreate morality; they seek to uphold the eternal laws of morality as taught by their parents. Lucifer would have been a tyrant ruler, allowing what he willed, requiring what he willed, rather than being a ruler governed by a set of laws. God is God because he upholds justice, which is the law of the universe. That’s why he provided Jesus Christ a savior, so we could have mercy without robbing justice. Jesus Christ takes up the bill, and renegotiates a merciful contract with us – he can do this only because he pays the bill; he can’t delete the bill, then justice wouldn’t be served – but he can pay the bill as a 3rd party. God the Father can’t pay the bill because he is the banker; the teller; the governor; for mercy to be available a 3rd party is needed to intervene, intercede, advocate our cause, suffer in our behalf. Lucifer wasn’t interested in suffering for anyone, he just wanted power authority and glory. To read more about this very subject, it was majestically expounded by Elder Christofferson in a 2017 BYU devotional titled “A Message at Christmas Time.” See my section on redemption for a link to my notes on it and the full text, in my book it’s titled “Why We Need a Savior: God’s Plan of Justice VS Lucifer’s Tyranny”.
The moral of the story is that God’s plan is perfect, and enables us to become like him. He ever grows in glory via his posterity. He has all knowledge and power, but there is no limit to the glory he can gain, through us and what we do, and our posterity, and so on. Us becoming Gods like him doesn’t make him less, it makes him greater!
Similarly, our Heavenly Father also has a father. When asked when it all began after teaching the doctrine of God himself having a father, Joseph Smith answered by taking off his ring, and showing the circular pattern, demonstrating that it is one eternal round, every father has a son, every son has a father; there is no beginning, and there is no end. If there was a beginning, there would have to be an end. Our minds cannot at present comprehend this, it’s part of the veil put over our understanding here to test our ability to walk in faith, but in a later day, this will be clear as crystal. For more quotes and proofs that God has a father, see my article in the exaltation section titled “Heavenly Father has a Father”.
