Category Archives: God

What is the Glory of God?

Posted by Dan C. on

This is a continuation of the Thomas Watson sermon concerning the chief end of man started in this earlier blog, that end being to glorify God and enjoy him forever. The sermon continues. . .

“When we speak of God’s glory, the question will be moved, What are to understand by God’s glory?

Answer. There is a twofold glory:

1. The glory that God has in himself, his intrinsic glory. Glory is essential to the Godhead, as light is to the sun: he is called the “God of glory.” Acts 7:2. Glory is the sparkling of the Deity; it is so co-natural to the Godhead, that God cannot be God without it. The creature’s honour is not essential to his being. A king is a man without his regal ornaments, when his crown and royal robes are taken away; but God’s glory is such an essential part of his being, that he cannot be God without it. God’s very life lies in his glory. This glory can receive no addition, because it is infinite; it is that which God is most tender of, and which he will not part with. Isa. 48:11, “My glory I will not give to another.” God will give temporal blessings to his children, such as wisdom, riches, honour; he will give them spiritual blessings, he will give them grace, he will give them his love, he will give them heaven; but his essential glory he will not give to another. King Pharaoh parted with a ring off his finger to Joseph, and a gold chain, but he would not part with his throne. Gen. 41:40. “Only in the throne will I be greater than thou.” So God will do much for his people; he will give them the inheritance; he will put some of Christ’s glory, as mediator upon them; but his essential glory he will not part with; “in the throne he will be greater.”

2. The glory which is ascribed to God, or which his creatures labour to bring to him. 1 Chron. 16:29, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.” And, 1 Cor. 6:20, “Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit.” The glory we give God is nothing else but our lifting up his name in the world, and magnifying him in the eyes of others. Phil. 1:20, “Christ shall be magnified in my body.”

So What?

How do we define lifting up his name in the world, and magnifying him in the eyes of others? A comment to the earlier post described one way we give him glory: “I bring Him glory when I tell the truth about Him, or when my actions tell the truth about Him.”  We bring him glory when our words and actions tell the truth about him. Our actions ‘speaking louder than words’ is what it really means to me in Acts 1:8 – you will be my witnesses. Our words give voice to the reality of Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col 1:27).

To be continued. . .

Thanks, Michelle!

What is the chief end of man?

Posted by Dan C. on

That’s just another way of asking the question: “Why are we here?”, or “What’s our purpose?”  It’s a question that has probably been asked throughout time as we know it. It’s the topic of the biggest selling ‘Christian’ book in history. Phrased slightly differently, it’s the first question asked, and answered, in the Westminster Shorter Catechism that dates back to the 17th century. A notable Puritan preacher of the time, Thomas Watson, addressed the question in one of his sermons, the first part of which is below:

“Question. 1. What is the chief end of man?

Answer. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.

Here are two ends of life specified. 1. The glorifying of God. 2. The enjoying of God.

First. The glorifying of God, 1 Pet. 4:11. “That God in all things may be glorified.” The glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions. l Cor. 10:31. “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial; now, man being a rational creature, must propose some end to himself, and that should be, that he may lift up God in the world. He had better lose his life than the end of his living. The great truth asserted is that the end of every man’s living should be to glorify God. Glorifying God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity; it respects God the Father who gave us life; God the Son, who lost his life for us; and God the Holy Ghost, who produces a new life in us; we must bring glory to the whole Trinity.”

So What?

With 1 Cor 10:31 in mind, I am forced to consider how my behavior might change if I asked myself the simple question: “How does this (whatever I am doing or thinking/about to do) bring glory to God?” I think it puts the popular W.W.J.D. (What Would Jesus Do) thing, with all ‘stuff’ that goes with it, on a totally different level. While I am not knocking W.W.J.D as an honorable thought (other than all the aforementioned ‘stuff”), it can turn the Lord of the universe into nothing more than a moral example with a cute slogan.

And by the way, it doesn’t take a 300 page book and a 40 day ‘journey’ to figure this out! After the first couple of pages of appearing to say it’s all about God, that one turned out to be all about ‘me’ anyway.

Life really is all about God and His Glory!

He is Risen!

Posted by Dan C. on

On the morning after the Jewish Sabbath, a small group of women went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus, wondering who would roll away the stone. When they arrived, the stone had already been rolled away and they were met by an angel who said:

“But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.” Matthew 28:5-6

When it comes to classic Easter music, a favorite of mine is the refrain from the Robert Lowery hymn Up From The Grave He Arose:

“Up from the grave he arose;
with a mighty triumph o’er his foes;
he arose a victor from the dark domain,
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!”

If we consider more contemporary music, my favorite has to be The Easter Song, written my Keith Green and performed by The 2nd Chapter of Acts. I actually found a short clip of an early performance by the 2nd Chapter of Acts with Keith Green on guitar here.

Favorite Easter music aside, there’s the significance of the resurrection, summarized by the Apostle Paul  in one of his letters to the Corinthian church:

“And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:14

If there were no resurrection, not only would preaching Christ be senseless and faith in Christ useless, all the witnesses and preachers of the resurrection would be liars, no one would be redeemed from sin, all former believers would have perished, and Christians would be the most pitiable people on the earth! (See 1 Cor 15:14-20).

To borrow from The Easter Song:

Here the bells ringing
They’re singing that you can be born again
Here the bells ringing
They’re singing Christ is risen from the dead

The angel up on the tombstone
Said he has risen, just as he said
Quickly now, go tell his disciples
That Jesus Christ is no longer dead

Joy to the word, he has risen, hallelujah!

Born on ‘Death Row’

Posted by Dan C. on

You are probably already asking, “What does he mean by that one?”

Well, for this old soldier, that’s what this thing called ‘sin’ is all about, and by the way, the focus of the first point of the two part gospel message (See this earlier post). If I consider it my duty and Great Privilege (See this earlier post), I had better have a good explanation when I tell folks that ‘Christ died for our sins’. A correct ‘view’ of sin is as essential to delivering the gospel message as is the ‘fact’ of sin. Sadly, and to our shame (us evangelicals), we sometimes forget to mention sin when we share the gospel, and often when we do dare approach the subject, we treat it poorly.

Listening to today’s popular gospel, one might think that ‘sin’ is just about the annoying little things we ‘do’ and Jesus died so we could make it to heaven anyway because after all, we are born ‘good’ and of such great worth/value to God that he can’t even imagine heaven without us. Or, sin only means being ‘separated from God’, or ‘missing the mark’ – both true statements. If ‘sin’ is not just those things, what is it?

Listen to what the Apostle Paul had to say on the subject to believers in the city of Ephesus:

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” Ephesians 2:1-2

Now hear what Jesus said to a religious leader named Nicodemus:

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:18

Apart from Christ we are spiritually dead and already condemned. Would it be fair to say that those two concepts aren’t brought up much (if at all) in today’s ‘seeker friendly’), discover YOUR special purpose, have YOUR best life NOW ‘evangelical’ environment?

How did we end up this way – spiritually dead and already condemned?  We know the story – the first couple (the only two people who ever walked the earth with complete ‘free will’), in an act of willful disobedience, broke the only rule God gave them and sin entered to pollute God’s perfect creation. The effect on the human race was devastating. Everyone born since then (Christ excluded) has inherited what we call a ‘sin nature’ (also known as ‘original sin’) and under a death sentence. If that’s not bad news (REALLY BAD NEWS), nothing is!. And if that’s the bad news, what’s the GOOD news?

The good news (REALLY GOOD NEWS) is that we can get out from under the ‘death sentence’ – receive a FULL PARDON! When we deserved to die (the wages of sin is death – Rom 3:23) and spend an eternity in Hell, someone died IN OUR PLACE. That someone was Jesus, sent to the Cross by his own Father to die in our stead!

“God made him (Jesus Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (Emphasis mine.)

When we realize our lost and dead condition, admit that we cannot help ourselves, and believe in our heart that Jesus paid for OUR sin with His death, we can receive a ‘full pardon’.

That means a whole lot more than Jesus just dying for the ‘bad stuff I do’, or there being this gulf between me and God called ‘sin’. Jesus suffered the death I deserved! There’s a huge difference between the two concepts. Do you see it? Can you see how our definition of ‘sin’ impacts the gospel message itself?

Does God save people if they only hear the ‘love’ message? I’m sure He does, but it might be ‘in spite of’ a poorly delivered message! By all means talk about love, abundant living, God’s blessings for the one who believes, but as secondary to dealing with the ‘sin’ issue. That’s the difference between a ‘man-centered’ and a ‘God-centered’ gospel – and a message this important deserves to be delivered in its entirety.

We’ll talk about why there’s absolutely no need to dilute the message in a later post.