"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. "(1 Corinthians 10:31)
What is it that will bring the greatest satisfaction to your soul? What is the highest purpose that God has made and redeemed you? It is important to know God's purpose in creation and redemption because that tells us why we are here on the earth, and common sense says that if you know what something was made for, you can get more out of it. That's true for your life. If you know that a lawn mower is made for cutting grass and not for cutting your hair, your life will be happier. And if you know that you are made for God's glory, you will make better use of it and be happier.
I have been humbly attempting to do a basic primer on the glory of God the past few weeks. We have learned that it is something you see or reflect upon or point to rather than define. But, for definitions sake I simply defined it as the beauty of God unveiled. It is what makes God, God, and shows Him so worthy of our praise, our love, our allegiance, our admiration, our boasting, our hope, our trust, our joy, and our confidence
God means for us to see His glory with our eyes, know His glory in our minds, and relish his glory in our hearts, and reflect his glory in our lives.” God has made us to see His glory, to savor and delight in His glory.This is fundamental in order to be able to live for His glory. God's glory is not something we merely see; it is something that transforms us (2 Corinthians 3:18). His purpose in seeing His glory is designed to evoke breathtaking delight and incomparable joy.
THE PASSIONATE AND JOYFUL ADMIRATION OF SEEING AND EXPERIENCING GOD IS THE GOAL OF OUR EXISTENCE!
When that begins to happen to you dear reader, you are ready to begin to live for His glory. I said last week that the whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way in your life and in your death that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God. We are supposed to be like well-polished mirrors of God's truth to the world. Or like prisms that take the beams of God's greatness and break them up into lots of varied colors for the world to see in our actions and words (Philippians 1:21; Ephesians 3:10; Matthew 5:16).
So, the way we glorify God is to acknowledge it, to value and delight in the glory of God above all things, and to desire and act to make it known. In short, to glorify God is to make Him look good, to place Him on display so that when others see our lives, they stand in awe of God. What does it mean to glorify God?
WE LOVE HIM: Matthew 22:37, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."
WE ARE THANKFUL TO HIM: Psalm 50:23, "Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God."
WE TRUST HIM: Romans 4:20, "He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God."
WE SERVE HIM: 1 Peter 4:11, "If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."
WE OBEY HIM: Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
The great duty of the Christian life is summed up by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31, "whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Whatever you do, whatever circumstance you are in, in other words, in the totality of your life: GLORIFY GOD! Even in the most mundane activities of life, Paul says, make God look good! So that is what every man and woman and child should devote his or her life to. That is why we live. That is our duty. Or you could say, that is God's will.
But perhaps there is a great disconnect here for some of you.First, because you do not know what it means to do everything to the glory of God and it seems disconnected from my daily routine and mundane activities. Secondly, because the words "duty" and "will" are not words of joy or freedom or happiness. They tend to sound oppressive,legalistic, and burdensome. What does it mean that it is the duty or the will of Gods to glorify Him? How do we joyfully, delightfully, passionately, compellingly glorify the Lord? Let me illustrate with the help of John Piper.
If you want to glorify a beautiful painting, you don't feel a burden to work to improve it. You simply enjoy it. You love it. You talk about it excitedly to your friends. Or if someone makes a wonderful meal and serves it up before you, how do you glorify the excellence of the meal? Not by putting on your apron and going out to the kitchen to make a few more dishes or add a few spices. No. You glorify a perfect meal by eating a lot and by feeling contented and saying, ahhh. In other words if it is your duty to glorify something infinitely beautiful and wonderful, that is no burden. It is a pleasure. In fact when you take from it pleasure, you show it's a treasure.
Or suppose it's your duty to glorify the strength of a new metal alloy that holds up a bridge. How do you glorify the strength of the metal? Not by working hard to provide some extra supports, but by getting in your car with all your family and trusting the bridge with your life as you peacefully drive across without any anxiety. You glorify strength by trusting it not by working to supplement it. So the duty to glorify power is not a burden. It's a restful pleasure.
Or suppose your duty was to glorify someones generosity. Suppose someone was so rich and so generous that they just spilled over in love and generosity and grace and kindness to you. How would you glorify that quality in them? Not by trying to pay them back. That would turn their kindness into a business deal. It would treat their free gift like a trade. Tit for tat. That would not glorify the wealth of their generosity. No the way to glorify their generosity and their kindness is to be lavish and genuine in your gratitude and thanksgiving. And that is no burden. If you get a billion dollar gift, you do not groan under the duty to feel thankful. It is a pleasure not a hardship.
Finally, suppose it is your duty to glorify someones great wisdom? Say the wisdom of your coach (if you're on some team) or your counselor (if you are in some kind of therapy)? The answer is that you don't glorify their wisdom by trying strenuously to help them figure out the answer to some problem. You glorify their wisdom by doing what they say. If you want to show that your coach is really wise, you run and do his drills without doubting or grumbling. If you want to glorify your counselor's wisdom, you do his assignments without doubt or grumbling. In other words, glad-hearted obedience glorifies great wisdom. And this is not a burden (1 John 5:3).
Now do you see what all this means? It means that God is love. It means that when He created us for His glory, He also created us for our joy. How so? Because the way He seeks to be glorified in us is by making us satisfied in Him. The good news of Christianity is that God is the kind of God who is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
This duty is not a burden. It is freedom and joy. You glorify God's beauty and excellence by loving it and delighting in it. You glorify God's power by trusting him with all the hard and threatening things in your life. You glorify God's bounty and generosity and kindness and grace by overflowing with gratitude. And you glorify God's wisdom by obeying his counsel. And everybody knows that this is no burden. This is no heavy law. This is love.
God is a God of infinite love because He wills to share all that He is with us for our enjoyment and His glory.
You glorify God's beauty and excellence by loving it and delighting in it. You glorify God's provision for your thirsty souls by drinking and being satisfied in Him alone. You glorify God's bounty and generosity and kindness and grace by overflowing with gratitude. It is there spontaneously. It is not consciously willed. It is not analyzed in terms of an appropriate response. It is not decided upon. It comes freely from deep within, from a place beneath the conscious will.
The only right way to live, serve, work, worship, eat, and drink is when we do it to His glory “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”
Oh may you dear reader, see His glory. May you delight, treasure, and savor His glory. May you be changed by his glory, so that we will reflect it to a world that is blinded to His glory and has sinned and fallen short of His glory.
Next week I will give you some practical ways to stoke the fire of seeing his glory in your daily life.
Longing to live for His glory in everything that I say and do,
Pastor Bill
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
THE GLORY OF GOD FOR DUMMIES LIKE ME, A PRIMER Part 3
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV)
If I asked you what is your primary purpose in life, what would you say? What is your greatest goal? The Apostle Paul makes explicit what is the highest and most precious purpose any person could possibly have. The better we understand it, the more we reflect on it, the more we pray about it, and the more we will fulfill it in our lives. "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
I have been humbly attempting to do a basic primer on the glory of God the past few weeks. We have learned that it is something you see or reflect upon or point to rather than define. But, for definitions sake I simply defined it as the beauty of God unveiled. It is what makes God, God, and shows Him so worthy of our praise, our love, our allegiance, our admiration, our boasting, our hope, our trust, our joy, and our confidence
I made a statement, “The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: the glory of God.” “God means for us to see His glory with our eyes, know His glory in our minds, and relish his glory in our hearts, and reflect his glory in our lives.” God has made us to see His glory, to savor his glory, and to show His glory. God says in Isaiah 43:7, "Everyone who is called by My name…I have created for My glory..." That means that we were all created to express the infinite worth of God's glory.
I said that God is always manifesting His glory in creation, in providence, in scripture, and Pre-eminently in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4). When we truly see Him it has profound effects on our lives.
2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. “ I really like the New Living translation of this passage. “And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like Him and reflect His glory even more,” The Amplified version helps us even more. “And all of us, as with unveiled face, because we continue to behold (in the word of God) as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another: (for this comes) from the Lord (Who is) the Spirit.”
An encounter with the glory of God is profoundly transforming.The point of what Paul says is, "what we see is what we be." John Piper says, "beholding is the way of becoming." This is the epicenter of learning to live for His glory. God's glory is not something we see; it is something that transforms us. His purpose is designed to evoke breathtaking delight and incomparable joy. God’s glory is what makes Him eminently desirable, attractive, and quickening to the soul that it was made for another world.
God has pulled back the curtain on His glory. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth” (Psalm 50:2). He has disclosed Himself on the platform of creation and redemption that we might stand awestruck in His presence, beholding the sweet symmetry of His attributes, pondering the unfathomable depths of His greatness, baffled by the wisdom of His deeds and the limitless extent of His goodness and mercy and grace. This is His glory and how it affects our souls.
THE PASSIONATE AND JOYFUL ADMIRATION OF SEEING AND EXPERIENCING GOD IS THE GOAL OF OUR EXISTENCE!
This week I would like to begin to discuss what it means to reflect the glory of God in our lives. Paul says it is that it is our duty to live for the glory of God in every aspect of our life to the point of even our eating and drinking.
Perhaps the best way that I can describe what Paul means is from what Paul wrote from prison in Philippians 1:21, "It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always, Christ shall be honored in my body, whether by life, or by death." Chained to a Roman guard, Paul applies this thought to his own experience, desiring that Christ will be honored in his body whether by his life or his death.
The word Paul uses where the ESV translates honored “megalounthsetai” can also be translated exalted or magnified or glorified. The word "magnify" literally means to make large. To magnify or glorify God, in common language means to make God look as He truly is. We may think, “Christ is the Almighty God, Creator of the universe. How can I possibly magnify, exalt or glorify Him?”
Think of Him as being a distant star. It may be more brilliant than our own sun, but to the human eye, it is just a dim speck in the night sky. To many in this world, Christ is that way. He is the very splendor of God, brighter than a billion suns. But the world doesn’t see Him that way. So God has purposed that the believer is to be a telescope to bring the truth about Christ into view for the unbeliever. Through us, and especially through how we handle trials, Christ is magnified to a skeptical, unbelieving world. The calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is. The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way in your life and in your death that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God.
Let us catch this purpose and it will revolutionize the kind of questions we ask in our daily lives. In view of Paul’s circumstances, it is remarkable that his main focus was not on getting released from prison, but rather on exalting Christ. Paul asked the question of himself, "How can I magnify Christ in this situation, this relationship, this trial?" If this world is going to see Christ they will see Him in our lives. He will be revealed through our bodies. Paul desires that Christ “be honored (exalted, magnified) in my body” Our hands must be His hands, our eyes His eyes, our mouth His mouth our feet His feet.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body”. In this life Christ is meant to be exalted and magnified in the bodies of those who believe in Him, or He will not be magnified at all. The reason for this is that God dwells only within His children. And if He is to be seen at all in this life, He must be seen in the lives of those who know Him. This means that we may either exalt Christ or bring shame to His name by our attitudes, our words, and our behavior.
How do you use your eyes? How do you use your ears? How do you use your tongue? Your hands? Your feet? Your countenance? How do you use your body? What about your personal appearance? Paul's passion was that his tongue will speak warmly of his Savior. He will exalt his name in testimony, in prayer, and in preaching. His knees will bend before the great, high and holy Lord. His hands will be zealous in serving the cause of such a Friend. His feet will run messages for the Lord. His eyes will see his glories everywhere and his likeness in all his people. His ears will hear his word and in His heart there will be a melody of praise to him. Always in his body he will exalt the Messiah. Oh reader, be encouraged, be focused, Let Christ be Magnified Through You! “Now! Always!" says Paul.
To be continued next week...
If I asked you what is your primary purpose in life, what would you say? What is your greatest goal? The Apostle Paul makes explicit what is the highest and most precious purpose any person could possibly have. The better we understand it, the more we reflect on it, the more we pray about it, and the more we will fulfill it in our lives. "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
I have been humbly attempting to do a basic primer on the glory of God the past few weeks. We have learned that it is something you see or reflect upon or point to rather than define. But, for definitions sake I simply defined it as the beauty of God unveiled. It is what makes God, God, and shows Him so worthy of our praise, our love, our allegiance, our admiration, our boasting, our hope, our trust, our joy, and our confidence
I made a statement, “The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: the glory of God.” “God means for us to see His glory with our eyes, know His glory in our minds, and relish his glory in our hearts, and reflect his glory in our lives.” God has made us to see His glory, to savor his glory, and to show His glory. God says in Isaiah 43:7, "Everyone who is called by My name…I have created for My glory..." That means that we were all created to express the infinite worth of God's glory.
I said that God is always manifesting His glory in creation, in providence, in scripture, and Pre-eminently in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4). When we truly see Him it has profound effects on our lives.
2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. “ I really like the New Living translation of this passage. “And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like Him and reflect His glory even more,” The Amplified version helps us even more. “And all of us, as with unveiled face, because we continue to behold (in the word of God) as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another: (for this comes) from the Lord (Who is) the Spirit.”
An encounter with the glory of God is profoundly transforming.The point of what Paul says is, "what we see is what we be." John Piper says, "beholding is the way of becoming." This is the epicenter of learning to live for His glory. God's glory is not something we see; it is something that transforms us. His purpose is designed to evoke breathtaking delight and incomparable joy. God’s glory is what makes Him eminently desirable, attractive, and quickening to the soul that it was made for another world.
God has pulled back the curtain on His glory. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth” (Psalm 50:2). He has disclosed Himself on the platform of creation and redemption that we might stand awestruck in His presence, beholding the sweet symmetry of His attributes, pondering the unfathomable depths of His greatness, baffled by the wisdom of His deeds and the limitless extent of His goodness and mercy and grace. This is His glory and how it affects our souls.
THE PASSIONATE AND JOYFUL ADMIRATION OF SEEING AND EXPERIENCING GOD IS THE GOAL OF OUR EXISTENCE!
This week I would like to begin to discuss what it means to reflect the glory of God in our lives. Paul says it is that it is our duty to live for the glory of God in every aspect of our life to the point of even our eating and drinking.
Perhaps the best way that I can describe what Paul means is from what Paul wrote from prison in Philippians 1:21, "It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always, Christ shall be honored in my body, whether by life, or by death." Chained to a Roman guard, Paul applies this thought to his own experience, desiring that Christ will be honored in his body whether by his life or his death.
The word Paul uses where the ESV translates honored “megalounthsetai” can also be translated exalted or magnified or glorified. The word "magnify" literally means to make large. To magnify or glorify God, in common language means to make God look as He truly is. We may think, “Christ is the Almighty God, Creator of the universe. How can I possibly magnify, exalt or glorify Him?”
Think of Him as being a distant star. It may be more brilliant than our own sun, but to the human eye, it is just a dim speck in the night sky. To many in this world, Christ is that way. He is the very splendor of God, brighter than a billion suns. But the world doesn’t see Him that way. So God has purposed that the believer is to be a telescope to bring the truth about Christ into view for the unbeliever. Through us, and especially through how we handle trials, Christ is magnified to a skeptical, unbelieving world. The calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is. The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way in your life and in your death that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God.
Let us catch this purpose and it will revolutionize the kind of questions we ask in our daily lives. In view of Paul’s circumstances, it is remarkable that his main focus was not on getting released from prison, but rather on exalting Christ. Paul asked the question of himself, "How can I magnify Christ in this situation, this relationship, this trial?" If this world is going to see Christ they will see Him in our lives. He will be revealed through our bodies. Paul desires that Christ “be honored (exalted, magnified) in my body” Our hands must be His hands, our eyes His eyes, our mouth His mouth our feet His feet.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body”. In this life Christ is meant to be exalted and magnified in the bodies of those who believe in Him, or He will not be magnified at all. The reason for this is that God dwells only within His children. And if He is to be seen at all in this life, He must be seen in the lives of those who know Him. This means that we may either exalt Christ or bring shame to His name by our attitudes, our words, and our behavior.
How do you use your eyes? How do you use your ears? How do you use your tongue? Your hands? Your feet? Your countenance? How do you use your body? What about your personal appearance? Paul's passion was that his tongue will speak warmly of his Savior. He will exalt his name in testimony, in prayer, and in preaching. His knees will bend before the great, high and holy Lord. His hands will be zealous in serving the cause of such a Friend. His feet will run messages for the Lord. His eyes will see his glories everywhere and his likeness in all his people. His ears will hear his word and in His heart there will be a melody of praise to him. Always in his body he will exalt the Messiah. Oh reader, be encouraged, be focused, Let Christ be Magnified Through You! “Now! Always!" says Paul.
To be continued next week...
Monday, June 13, 2011
THE GLORY OF GOD FOR DUMMIES LIKE ME, A PRIMER Part 2
"One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that 1 may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple”. Psalm 27:4
Last week I wrote about the glory of God. I simply defined glory as the beauty of God unveiled. Glory is all of God that makes God God. Glory is what you see and experience and feel when God goes public with his beauty.
King David longed to see the glory of God.“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that 1 may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple”(Psalm 27:4). His desire centered upon what he called the "One thing"; to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, the incomparable, transcendent, all¬ satisfying, awe-inspiring beauty of God.The wonderful thing about God is that He desires us to see His glory. He wants us to not only see it, but cherish it, enjoy it. God means for us to see His glory with our eyes, know His glory in our minds, and relish his glory in our hearts, and reflect his glory in our lives.
Jonathan Edwards shows that this is the root of worship:
“God glorifies Himself toward the creatures . . . in two ways: 1. By appearing to . . . their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself. . . . God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. . . . When those who see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by understanding and in the heart.”
Therefore, God is always manifesting His glory in creation, in providence, in scripture, and Pre-eminently in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4). His purpose is designed to evoke breathtaking delight and incomparable joy. God’s glory is what makes Him eminently desirable, attractive, and quickening to the soul that it was made for another world. God has pulled back the curtain on His glory. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth” (Psalm 50:2). He has disclosed Himself on the platform of creation and redemption that we might stand awestruck in his presence, beholding the sweet symmetry of His attributes, pondering the unfathomable depths of His greatness, baffled by the wisdom of His deeds and the limitless extent of His goodness and mercy and grace. This is His glory!
Throughout the Psalms we read of David’s passion for God’s glory. Read and catch his “One thing” passion:
Psalm 42:1-2, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God”.
Psalm 63:1-3, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory…Your steadfast love is better than life.” Psalm 84:10, “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
Psalm 16:2, 11; “I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you… You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
For David nearness to God in order to see Him in all his glory was the only experience that would truly satisfy him. Only God could satisfy a heart like David’s and David was a man after one thing: the glory of God. This is what we were created and redeemed for! This is the essence of loving God; as John Piper says, “being satisfied in Him”. Jonathan Edwards understood about the one thing. That’s why he wrote: “God’s is glorified not only in His glory being seen, but by in His glory being rejoiced in.” God’s glory satisfies the heart with joy and delight.
So what happens when we desire to see the glory of God? First, glory satisfies the heart with joy and delight. Secondly, God's glory transforms the soul. The encounter of the human soul with divine glory, is more than merely satisfying and enjoyable, it is profoundly transforming. There is within it the power to change our lives into something radiating God’s own glory!
The apostle Paul alluded to this in 2 Corinthians 3:18 when he said, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” The point is what we see is what we be! Or as Jon Piper puts it, “beholding is becoming.” We do not simply behold God's glory: God's glory takes hold of us and challenges the allegiance of our hearts. His glory calls us to reshape our lives and exposes the shabbiness of our conduct. It awakens us to the reality of a transcendent Being to whose likeness of glory we are being called and conformed by His gracious initiative. God's glory has the power to dislodge from our hearts the grip of moral and spiritual ugliness. The soul's engagement with glory elicits love and forges new affection that no earthly power can overcome.
Jonathan Edwards wrote of this transforming beauty in his sermon The Way of Holiness,
“Tis the highest beauty and amiableness, vastly above all other beauties; 'tis a divine beauty, makes the soul heavenly and far purer than anything here on earth-this world is like mire and filth and defilement [compared] to that soul which is sanctified-'tis of a sweet, lovely, delightful, serene, calm, and still nature. 'Tis almost too high a beauty for any creature to be adorned with; it makes the soul a little, amiable, and delightful image of the blessed Jehovah. How may angels stand with pleased, delighted, and charmed eyes, and look and look with smiles of pleasure upon that soul that is holy!”
The supreme manifestation of God’s glory is seen in the person of Jesus Christ. "He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature" (Hebrews 1:3). "He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1: 1 5). The glory of Jesus has nothing to do with how He smelled or looked or the sound of His voice or the strength of His arms or the color of His hair or the way He dressed. Jesus is beautiful because He has a glory, an excellence, a spiritual supreme beauty-that can be self-evidently true. That is to say, when you see Him there is a direct and personal apprehension of the glory that you see. It’s like seeing the sun and knowing that it is light, or tasting honey and knowing that it is sweet. There is a direct apprehension and attraction once you see Jesus that affects your thinking, your will, and your feelings, it goes deep and does something to your very soul. It changes your life. John writes of his experience with Jesus in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
When it comes to the glory of Christ, who can adequately describe glory and beauty that is infinite and is therefore beyond description? There is no one like Christ in this regard.
Spurgeon said it well:
“Hope not, my brethren, that the preacher can grapple with such a subject. I am overcome by it. In my meditations I have felt lost in its lengths and breadths. My joy is great in my theme, and yet I am conscious of a pressure upon my brain and heart, for I am as a little child wandering among the stars. I stumble among sublimity's, I sink amid glories. I can only point with my finger to that which I see, but cannot describe. May the Holy Spirit himself take of the things of Christ and show them unto you.”
What makes Jesus Christ so precious, so beautiful, and so glorious is what Jonathan Edwards calls in his profound sermon series The Excellence of Christ, “an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies” Christ's attributes work together in harmony. And there is a glory in Christ that exceeds any of His individual characteristics. It is like a rainbow in which the individual colors are beautiful, but their combination heightens the sense of beauty.
The effect of seeing these excellencies is described by Edwards in this way:
“The excellency of Christ is such, that the discovery of it is exceedingly contenting and satisfying to the soul. The carnal soul imagines that earthly things are excellent-one thinks riches most excellent, another has the highest esteem of honor, and to another carnal pleasure appears the most excellent. But the soul cannot find contentment in any of these things, because it soon finds an end to their excellency. Worldly men imagine that there is true excellency and true happiness in those things which they are pursuing. They think that if they could but obtain them, they would be happy. But when they obtain them, and cannot find happiness, they look for happiness in something else, and are still upon the pursuit. But Christ Jesus has true excellency, and so great excellency, that when they come to see him they look no further, but the mind rests there. It sees a transcendent glory and an ineffable sweetness in Jesus! It sees that until now it has been pursuing shadows, but that now it has found the substance. It sees that before it had been seeking happiness in the stream, but that now it has found the ocean.”
How do we see those excellencies of Christ's glory? The Apostle Paul describes this path to discovery in 2 Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” We can see the preciousness of Jesus through the portraits of Christ given to us in God’s word by reading it and hearing it proclaimed. This portrayal, accompanied by God’s shining in our hearts, appears to us what really is-“the glory of God in the face of Jesus.” Or to put it another way the beauty of Jesus Christ. God shows us that Jesus is beautiful through the word and the work of the Holy Spirit opening our blind eyes to see His beauty.
Oh reader, God invites us to do just what David desires. He has created the longings and satisfies the longings of our soul (Jeremiah 31:33). David gives an astonishing invitation from God in Psalm 27:8, "You have said, "Seek my face. My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” God invites us to seek His face, to dwell, to see, to gaze, and reflect upon His glory and beauty. How does that affect you?
This is God’s desire for you: “SEEK MY FACE”! This is the central business for your life- to see the glory of God. To get your head into the heavens. To know him for whom he is. He is the main reality.
There is nothing beyond this. Nothing more urgent. Nothing more important. Nothing more satisfying. Another time Edwards wrote:
“The pleasures of loving and obeying, loving and adoring, blessing and praising the infinite being, the best of Beings, the Eternal Jehovah, the pleasures in trusting Jesus Christ, in contemplating His beauties, excellencies, and glories, in contemplating His love to mankind and to us, in contemplating His infinite goodness and astounding lovingkindness…these are the pleasures that are worthy so noble a creature as a man is."
What was the most loving thing Jesus could do for us? What was the endpoint, the highest good, of the Gospel? Redemption? Forgiveness? Justification? Reconciliation? Sanctification? Adoption? Are not all of these great wonders simply means to something greater? Something final? Something that Jesus asked his Father to give us? "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me" (John 17:24). The highest end of the gospel is to see,to savor, and to show the glory of Jesus. You can be sure, dear reader, that the Father is earnest to see that happen for you.
Next week we will look at the effects of seeing the glory of God upon our lives.
Longing to see His glory,
Pastor Bill
Last week I wrote about the glory of God. I simply defined glory as the beauty of God unveiled. Glory is all of God that makes God God. Glory is what you see and experience and feel when God goes public with his beauty.
King David longed to see the glory of God.“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that 1 may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple”(Psalm 27:4). His desire centered upon what he called the "One thing"; to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, the incomparable, transcendent, all¬ satisfying, awe-inspiring beauty of God.The wonderful thing about God is that He desires us to see His glory. He wants us to not only see it, but cherish it, enjoy it. God means for us to see His glory with our eyes, know His glory in our minds, and relish his glory in our hearts, and reflect his glory in our lives.
Jonathan Edwards shows that this is the root of worship:
“God glorifies Himself toward the creatures . . . in two ways: 1. By appearing to . . . their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself. . . . God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. . . . When those who see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by understanding and in the heart.”
Therefore, God is always manifesting His glory in creation, in providence, in scripture, and Pre-eminently in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4). His purpose is designed to evoke breathtaking delight and incomparable joy. God’s glory is what makes Him eminently desirable, attractive, and quickening to the soul that it was made for another world. God has pulled back the curtain on His glory. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth” (Psalm 50:2). He has disclosed Himself on the platform of creation and redemption that we might stand awestruck in his presence, beholding the sweet symmetry of His attributes, pondering the unfathomable depths of His greatness, baffled by the wisdom of His deeds and the limitless extent of His goodness and mercy and grace. This is His glory!
Throughout the Psalms we read of David’s passion for God’s glory. Read and catch his “One thing” passion:
Psalm 42:1-2, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God”.
Psalm 63:1-3, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory…Your steadfast love is better than life.” Psalm 84:10, “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
Psalm 16:2, 11; “I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you… You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
For David nearness to God in order to see Him in all his glory was the only experience that would truly satisfy him. Only God could satisfy a heart like David’s and David was a man after one thing: the glory of God. This is what we were created and redeemed for! This is the essence of loving God; as John Piper says, “being satisfied in Him”. Jonathan Edwards understood about the one thing. That’s why he wrote: “God’s is glorified not only in His glory being seen, but by in His glory being rejoiced in.” God’s glory satisfies the heart with joy and delight.
So what happens when we desire to see the glory of God? First, glory satisfies the heart with joy and delight. Secondly, God's glory transforms the soul. The encounter of the human soul with divine glory, is more than merely satisfying and enjoyable, it is profoundly transforming. There is within it the power to change our lives into something radiating God’s own glory!
The apostle Paul alluded to this in 2 Corinthians 3:18 when he said, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” The point is what we see is what we be! Or as Jon Piper puts it, “beholding is becoming.” We do not simply behold God's glory: God's glory takes hold of us and challenges the allegiance of our hearts. His glory calls us to reshape our lives and exposes the shabbiness of our conduct. It awakens us to the reality of a transcendent Being to whose likeness of glory we are being called and conformed by His gracious initiative. God's glory has the power to dislodge from our hearts the grip of moral and spiritual ugliness. The soul's engagement with glory elicits love and forges new affection that no earthly power can overcome.
Jonathan Edwards wrote of this transforming beauty in his sermon The Way of Holiness,
“Tis the highest beauty and amiableness, vastly above all other beauties; 'tis a divine beauty, makes the soul heavenly and far purer than anything here on earth-this world is like mire and filth and defilement [compared] to that soul which is sanctified-'tis of a sweet, lovely, delightful, serene, calm, and still nature. 'Tis almost too high a beauty for any creature to be adorned with; it makes the soul a little, amiable, and delightful image of the blessed Jehovah. How may angels stand with pleased, delighted, and charmed eyes, and look and look with smiles of pleasure upon that soul that is holy!”
The supreme manifestation of God’s glory is seen in the person of Jesus Christ. "He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature" (Hebrews 1:3). "He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1: 1 5). The glory of Jesus has nothing to do with how He smelled or looked or the sound of His voice or the strength of His arms or the color of His hair or the way He dressed. Jesus is beautiful because He has a glory, an excellence, a spiritual supreme beauty-that can be self-evidently true. That is to say, when you see Him there is a direct and personal apprehension of the glory that you see. It’s like seeing the sun and knowing that it is light, or tasting honey and knowing that it is sweet. There is a direct apprehension and attraction once you see Jesus that affects your thinking, your will, and your feelings, it goes deep and does something to your very soul. It changes your life. John writes of his experience with Jesus in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
When it comes to the glory of Christ, who can adequately describe glory and beauty that is infinite and is therefore beyond description? There is no one like Christ in this regard.
Spurgeon said it well:
“Hope not, my brethren, that the preacher can grapple with such a subject. I am overcome by it. In my meditations I have felt lost in its lengths and breadths. My joy is great in my theme, and yet I am conscious of a pressure upon my brain and heart, for I am as a little child wandering among the stars. I stumble among sublimity's, I sink amid glories. I can only point with my finger to that which I see, but cannot describe. May the Holy Spirit himself take of the things of Christ and show them unto you.”
What makes Jesus Christ so precious, so beautiful, and so glorious is what Jonathan Edwards calls in his profound sermon series The Excellence of Christ, “an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies” Christ's attributes work together in harmony. And there is a glory in Christ that exceeds any of His individual characteristics. It is like a rainbow in which the individual colors are beautiful, but their combination heightens the sense of beauty.
The effect of seeing these excellencies is described by Edwards in this way:
“The excellency of Christ is such, that the discovery of it is exceedingly contenting and satisfying to the soul. The carnal soul imagines that earthly things are excellent-one thinks riches most excellent, another has the highest esteem of honor, and to another carnal pleasure appears the most excellent. But the soul cannot find contentment in any of these things, because it soon finds an end to their excellency. Worldly men imagine that there is true excellency and true happiness in those things which they are pursuing. They think that if they could but obtain them, they would be happy. But when they obtain them, and cannot find happiness, they look for happiness in something else, and are still upon the pursuit. But Christ Jesus has true excellency, and so great excellency, that when they come to see him they look no further, but the mind rests there. It sees a transcendent glory and an ineffable sweetness in Jesus! It sees that until now it has been pursuing shadows, but that now it has found the substance. It sees that before it had been seeking happiness in the stream, but that now it has found the ocean.”
How do we see those excellencies of Christ's glory? The Apostle Paul describes this path to discovery in 2 Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” We can see the preciousness of Jesus through the portraits of Christ given to us in God’s word by reading it and hearing it proclaimed. This portrayal, accompanied by God’s shining in our hearts, appears to us what really is-“the glory of God in the face of Jesus.” Or to put it another way the beauty of Jesus Christ. God shows us that Jesus is beautiful through the word and the work of the Holy Spirit opening our blind eyes to see His beauty.
Oh reader, God invites us to do just what David desires. He has created the longings and satisfies the longings of our soul (Jeremiah 31:33). David gives an astonishing invitation from God in Psalm 27:8, "You have said, "Seek my face. My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” God invites us to seek His face, to dwell, to see, to gaze, and reflect upon His glory and beauty. How does that affect you?
This is God’s desire for you: “SEEK MY FACE”! This is the central business for your life- to see the glory of God. To get your head into the heavens. To know him for whom he is. He is the main reality.
There is nothing beyond this. Nothing more urgent. Nothing more important. Nothing more satisfying. Another time Edwards wrote:
“The pleasures of loving and obeying, loving and adoring, blessing and praising the infinite being, the best of Beings, the Eternal Jehovah, the pleasures in trusting Jesus Christ, in contemplating His beauties, excellencies, and glories, in contemplating His love to mankind and to us, in contemplating His infinite goodness and astounding lovingkindness…these are the pleasures that are worthy so noble a creature as a man is."
What was the most loving thing Jesus could do for us? What was the endpoint, the highest good, of the Gospel? Redemption? Forgiveness? Justification? Reconciliation? Sanctification? Adoption? Are not all of these great wonders simply means to something greater? Something final? Something that Jesus asked his Father to give us? "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me" (John 17:24). The highest end of the gospel is to see,to savor, and to show the glory of Jesus. You can be sure, dear reader, that the Father is earnest to see that happen for you.
Next week we will look at the effects of seeing the glory of God upon our lives.
Longing to see His glory,
Pastor Bill
Monday, June 6, 2011
THE GLORY OF GOD FOR DUMMIES LIKE ME; A PRIMER Part 1
"Everyone who is called by My name…I have created for My glory..." (Isaiah 43:7)
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. " (I Corinthians 10:31).
".. to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout ail generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:21).
"To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be
honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." (I Timothy 1:17).
If I asked you what is your primary purpose in life, what would you say? What is your greatest goal? The Apostle Paul makes explicit what is the highest and most precious purpose any person could possibly have. The better we understand it, the more we reflect on it, the more we pray about it, and the more we will fulfill it in our lives. "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31)
I regularly ask both privately and at my bible studies this question of my fellow Christians. Those who have hung around me or sat under me are well acquainted with this. They have no problems speaking of the "glory of God" and of "glorifying God" until I press into them what this means. For many of these same people, 'glorifying God' is an empty shell. Ask them to describe what it means and you're likely to get a blank and embarrassed stare. Ask them to explain bow it's actually done and they have not the slightest idea. I understand because I myself, was never taught this until I had been and Christian over 20 years! The fact is, the Glory of God and Glorifying God have become something of a mantra in the evangelical world, yet often misunderstood. Sincere Christians simply don't know because either they've never been taught or they're rarely challenged to think deeply on what the glory of God is and what a life that glorifies God is supposed to look like. So the next few weeks I would like to give a primer on God's glory and what it means for our lives.
What is “glory”? 2 Corinthians 3:18 says,. “And all of us, as with unveiled face, because we continue to behold (in the word of God) as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another: (for this comes) from the Lord (Who is) the Spirit” (Amplified Version). It is really not easy to define. Our text helps us out. It is something you see or reflect upon or point to rather than define. It’s like beauty. How would you define it? I simply define glory as the beauty of God unveiled. Glory is the resplendent radiance of his power and his personality. Glory is all of God that makes God God, and shows him to be worthy of our praise and our boasting and our trust and our hope and our confidence and our joy. Glory is the external elegance of the internal excellencies of God. Glory is what you see and experience and feel when God goes public with his beauty.
The glory of God is a very, very, very great. The reason is because God is very, very great.And therefore his glory is very great. John Piper has written eleven ways God shows us the greatness of His Glory. I wanted to use this today to help you begin to really understand.
God has been very good to us in the New Testament by giving us many different ways of seeing the greatness of his glory. I am going to mention eleven of these in the hope that one or several will sink into your heart and give you a longing for God's glory. I am not going to define it first, but just let the texts point you to the reality.
1. By Saying It Is Eternal
God shows that his glory is very great by saying that it is eternal. Romans 11:36, "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen." The greatness of God's glory is seen in the fact that it will never end. It is great in durability and permanence.
2. By Contrasting It with the Frail Glory of the World
God shows the greatness of his glory by contrasting it with the frail and temporary glory of the world. 1 Peter 1:24, "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides for ever." "Flesh" in that verse simply refers to all that is not spiritual. All the accomplishments of natural man are like grass and all their glory—engineering glory, architectural glory, artistic glory, electrical glory, atomic glory, computerized glory—all our greatest human glory is like a dandelion ball compared to God's permanent glory.
C.S. Lewis preached a great sermon on June 8, 1941, called "The Weight of Glory." He said, "Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat." And if the greatest glories of the world are to us as the life of a gnat, how much greater must be the God of glory in whom we live and move and have our being!
3. By Speaking of Its Might and Power
God shows the greatness of his glory by speaking of its might and power. Colossians 1:11, "May you be strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory." And 2 Thessalonians 1:9 turns it around and speaks of "the glory of his might." The point is not very different: the glory of God shines forth in great power, and the power of God exhibits itself in great glory.
If you want to conceive of the glory of God in its proper proportions, dwell on the scope of God's power. How great is the power of God when Isaiah 40 says he "measured the seas in the hollow of his hands . . . and weighed the mountains in scales"; and when Daniel 4 says, "He does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say to him, What doest thou?" And when Hebrews 1:3 says, "He upholds the universe by his word of power." God is exceedingly powerful beyond all imagination, and his power is only one expression of his glory. Therefore his glory is very great.
4. By Raising Christ from the Dead by It
He makes the greatness of his glory known by telling us that it was by his glory that he did the greatest acts of power and love in history. Romans 6:4, "We were buried with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. If the resurrection is a great thing, if the eternal hope of millions hang on this great deed, then the glory of the Father must be very great. For it was the glory of the Father that burst the bonds of death and brought life and immortality to light.
5. By Repeatedly Reminding Us of the Riches of It
God presses the greatness of his glory on our minds by referring again and again to the wealth or riches of his glory. Romans 9:22–23, "What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory?" God compares his glory to wealth and says that the ultimate purpose of all history is to make the greatness of that wealth known to the vessels of mercy prepared for glory.
6. By Contrasting Its Joy to This Life's Suffering
God highlights the greatness of his glory by telling us that the joy of experiencing it will so far outweigh the sufferings of this life that they are not worth comparing. Romans 8:18, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." No matter how much you suffer in this life, the joy of the glory of God will be so great as to make you feel as though your years and decades of suffering were as nothing.
7. By Calling It a "Weight of Glory"
God says this to us in 2 Corinthians 4:17 and adds that the glory we will experience is a "weight of glory." "For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." Notice, the glory is eternal and weighty; the affliction by comparison is momentary and light.
Is there any heaviness in your life? Do you carry any burdens that are heavy and seem to drag on and on? The Lord teaches us that the glory of God is going to be so heavy that when it is put in the scales of your life for your enjoyment, it will make all the heaviness of this world go up like air in the balances.
8. By Linking Eternal Punishment with Exclusion from It
God causes us to see that his glory is very great by telling us that the great punishment in the day of judgment will be exclusion from his glory. 2 Thessalonians 1:9—at the coming of Christ unbelievers "will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might." Your heart was made to enjoy the glory of God. God is your real home. His glory is very great! And without it you will forever be heartsick. Don't live a life that results in being excluded from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.
9. By Showing Us That It Will Replace the Sun
The Lord pictures the greatness of his glory for us by showing us that in the coming age the glory of God will replace the sun for our light. Revelation 21:23, "And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb." For now the immensity and brightness of the sun are reminders and symbols of the greatness and brightness of the glory of God. But someday we won't need any symbols or reminders, for the real thing will swallow us up in light.
10. By Revealing It in Settings of Heavenly Worship
The Lord magnifies the greatness of his glory by revealing it to us in awesome settings of heavenly worship where it is held in proper esteem. Revelation 5:11–14, "Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, "To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped." Surely the purpose of giving us a glimpse into this heavenly worship is to make us feel the greatness of the Lord and the tremendous worth of his glory.
11. By Showing Us Jesus, the Perfect Reflection of It
Finally, we are made to see the greatness of the glory of God when Hebrews 1:3 tells us that our Lord Jesus "reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature." The glory of God is not merely a distant and strange thing. If we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father! We know what the moral character of this glory will be. It will be like Jesus—full of grace and truth.
So when Paul says in Romans 5:2 that "we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God," he means for us to know and feel that the glory of God is exceedingly great. If there is any wonder, if there is any awe, if there is any admiration, or fame or praise or applause, it belongs to the glory of God. For all other glory is like grass compared to God's.
“The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: the glory of God.” “God means for us to see His glory with our eyes, know His glory in our minds, and relish his glory in our hearts, and reflect his glory in our lives.” God has made us to see His glory, to savor his glory, and to show His glory. God says in Isaiah 43:7, "Everyone who is called by My name…I have created for My glory..." That means that we were all created to express the infinite worth of God's glory.
Next week, we will discuss the effects that seeing the glory of God is meant to have upon us.
Pastor Bill
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. " (I Corinthians 10:31).
".. to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout ail generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:21).
"To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be
honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." (I Timothy 1:17).
If I asked you what is your primary purpose in life, what would you say? What is your greatest goal? The Apostle Paul makes explicit what is the highest and most precious purpose any person could possibly have. The better we understand it, the more we reflect on it, the more we pray about it, and the more we will fulfill it in our lives. "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31)
I regularly ask both privately and at my bible studies this question of my fellow Christians. Those who have hung around me or sat under me are well acquainted with this. They have no problems speaking of the "glory of God" and of "glorifying God" until I press into them what this means. For many of these same people, 'glorifying God' is an empty shell. Ask them to describe what it means and you're likely to get a blank and embarrassed stare. Ask them to explain bow it's actually done and they have not the slightest idea. I understand because I myself, was never taught this until I had been and Christian over 20 years! The fact is, the Glory of God and Glorifying God have become something of a mantra in the evangelical world, yet often misunderstood. Sincere Christians simply don't know because either they've never been taught or they're rarely challenged to think deeply on what the glory of God is and what a life that glorifies God is supposed to look like. So the next few weeks I would like to give a primer on God's glory and what it means for our lives.
What is “glory”? 2 Corinthians 3:18 says,. “And all of us, as with unveiled face, because we continue to behold (in the word of God) as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another: (for this comes) from the Lord (Who is) the Spirit” (Amplified Version). It is really not easy to define. Our text helps us out. It is something you see or reflect upon or point to rather than define. It’s like beauty. How would you define it? I simply define glory as the beauty of God unveiled. Glory is the resplendent radiance of his power and his personality. Glory is all of God that makes God God, and shows him to be worthy of our praise and our boasting and our trust and our hope and our confidence and our joy. Glory is the external elegance of the internal excellencies of God. Glory is what you see and experience and feel when God goes public with his beauty.
The glory of God is a very, very, very great. The reason is because God is very, very great.And therefore his glory is very great. John Piper has written eleven ways God shows us the greatness of His Glory. I wanted to use this today to help you begin to really understand.
God has been very good to us in the New Testament by giving us many different ways of seeing the greatness of his glory. I am going to mention eleven of these in the hope that one or several will sink into your heart and give you a longing for God's glory. I am not going to define it first, but just let the texts point you to the reality.
1. By Saying It Is Eternal
God shows that his glory is very great by saying that it is eternal. Romans 11:36, "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen." The greatness of God's glory is seen in the fact that it will never end. It is great in durability and permanence.
2. By Contrasting It with the Frail Glory of the World
God shows the greatness of his glory by contrasting it with the frail and temporary glory of the world. 1 Peter 1:24, "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides for ever." "Flesh" in that verse simply refers to all that is not spiritual. All the accomplishments of natural man are like grass and all their glory—engineering glory, architectural glory, artistic glory, electrical glory, atomic glory, computerized glory—all our greatest human glory is like a dandelion ball compared to God's permanent glory.
C.S. Lewis preached a great sermon on June 8, 1941, called "The Weight of Glory." He said, "Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat." And if the greatest glories of the world are to us as the life of a gnat, how much greater must be the God of glory in whom we live and move and have our being!
3. By Speaking of Its Might and Power
God shows the greatness of his glory by speaking of its might and power. Colossians 1:11, "May you be strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory." And 2 Thessalonians 1:9 turns it around and speaks of "the glory of his might." The point is not very different: the glory of God shines forth in great power, and the power of God exhibits itself in great glory.
If you want to conceive of the glory of God in its proper proportions, dwell on the scope of God's power. How great is the power of God when Isaiah 40 says he "measured the seas in the hollow of his hands . . . and weighed the mountains in scales"; and when Daniel 4 says, "He does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say to him, What doest thou?" And when Hebrews 1:3 says, "He upholds the universe by his word of power." God is exceedingly powerful beyond all imagination, and his power is only one expression of his glory. Therefore his glory is very great.
4. By Raising Christ from the Dead by It
He makes the greatness of his glory known by telling us that it was by his glory that he did the greatest acts of power and love in history. Romans 6:4, "We were buried with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. If the resurrection is a great thing, if the eternal hope of millions hang on this great deed, then the glory of the Father must be very great. For it was the glory of the Father that burst the bonds of death and brought life and immortality to light.
5. By Repeatedly Reminding Us of the Riches of It
God presses the greatness of his glory on our minds by referring again and again to the wealth or riches of his glory. Romans 9:22–23, "What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory?" God compares his glory to wealth and says that the ultimate purpose of all history is to make the greatness of that wealth known to the vessels of mercy prepared for glory.
6. By Contrasting Its Joy to This Life's Suffering
God highlights the greatness of his glory by telling us that the joy of experiencing it will so far outweigh the sufferings of this life that they are not worth comparing. Romans 8:18, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." No matter how much you suffer in this life, the joy of the glory of God will be so great as to make you feel as though your years and decades of suffering were as nothing.
7. By Calling It a "Weight of Glory"
God says this to us in 2 Corinthians 4:17 and adds that the glory we will experience is a "weight of glory." "For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." Notice, the glory is eternal and weighty; the affliction by comparison is momentary and light.
Is there any heaviness in your life? Do you carry any burdens that are heavy and seem to drag on and on? The Lord teaches us that the glory of God is going to be so heavy that when it is put in the scales of your life for your enjoyment, it will make all the heaviness of this world go up like air in the balances.
8. By Linking Eternal Punishment with Exclusion from It
God causes us to see that his glory is very great by telling us that the great punishment in the day of judgment will be exclusion from his glory. 2 Thessalonians 1:9—at the coming of Christ unbelievers "will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might." Your heart was made to enjoy the glory of God. God is your real home. His glory is very great! And without it you will forever be heartsick. Don't live a life that results in being excluded from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.
9. By Showing Us That It Will Replace the Sun
The Lord pictures the greatness of his glory for us by showing us that in the coming age the glory of God will replace the sun for our light. Revelation 21:23, "And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb." For now the immensity and brightness of the sun are reminders and symbols of the greatness and brightness of the glory of God. But someday we won't need any symbols or reminders, for the real thing will swallow us up in light.
10. By Revealing It in Settings of Heavenly Worship
The Lord magnifies the greatness of his glory by revealing it to us in awesome settings of heavenly worship where it is held in proper esteem. Revelation 5:11–14, "Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, "To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped." Surely the purpose of giving us a glimpse into this heavenly worship is to make us feel the greatness of the Lord and the tremendous worth of his glory.
11. By Showing Us Jesus, the Perfect Reflection of It
Finally, we are made to see the greatness of the glory of God when Hebrews 1:3 tells us that our Lord Jesus "reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature." The glory of God is not merely a distant and strange thing. If we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father! We know what the moral character of this glory will be. It will be like Jesus—full of grace and truth.
So when Paul says in Romans 5:2 that "we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God," he means for us to know and feel that the glory of God is exceedingly great. If there is any wonder, if there is any awe, if there is any admiration, or fame or praise or applause, it belongs to the glory of God. For all other glory is like grass compared to God's.
“The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: the glory of God.” “God means for us to see His glory with our eyes, know His glory in our minds, and relish his glory in our hearts, and reflect his glory in our lives.” God has made us to see His glory, to savor his glory, and to show His glory. God says in Isaiah 43:7, "Everyone who is called by My name…I have created for My glory..." That means that we were all created to express the infinite worth of God's glory.
Next week, we will discuss the effects that seeing the glory of God is meant to have upon us.
Pastor Bill
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