Yesterday, I summarized the broad goal God has for your life: the Spirit of Christ desires to free you to be driven by love in order to glorify Him. Today, I want to begin to unpack that statement with the why part: “in order to glorify God.” The freedom to be driven by love has that as the ultimate motive and reason.
Gal. 1:3-5 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
1 Cor. 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
What is the glory of God? The glory of God means his weightiness and radiance, his beauty, majesty, honor, reputation.
The glory of God is his own overflowing abundance, gaining him a reputation for being the most wonderful Person in all the world. He created us, in order to share his overflowing goodness with us, so that he would be more greatly glorified.. We exist, not because God wants to make us the center but because God wants us to enjoy making him the center. (Ray Ortland, sermon on 1 Corinthians 10:31)
This purpose of God’s glory is what the human race has turned against:
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened…. exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images ….. they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator… (Rom 1:21-25)
How does this relate to God’s love for us?
Most people do not immediately see God’s passion for the glory of God as an act of love. One reason for this is that we have absorbed the world’s definition of love. It says: You are loved when you are made much of. God’s love for us is not mainly His making much of us, but His giving us the ability to enjoy making much of Him forever. In other words, God’s love for us keeps God at the center. If God’s love made us central and focused on our value, it would distract us from what is most precious; namely, Himself. Love labors and suffers to enthrall us with what is infinitely and eternally satisfying: God. Therefore God’s love labors and suffers to break our bondage to the idol of self and focus our affections on the treasure of God. (John Piper, Pierced by the Word)
To live for the glory of God is to turn from wanting to be made much of to being centered on God, honoring Him, praising him, enjoying Him. And this is not instead of enjoying life, it is the ultimate way to enjoy life.
When I am honest, I see that I want to be made much of, and my goals are not for the glory of God. My goals are for my glory—to improve my reputation, to think better about myself, to have God and people make much of me. In other words, my goals are born out of insecurity, and addictive drives to be a significant and respectable person—even if it is just me respecting myself, meeting my standards of success. That is why my goals have been a nemesis at times. They have been my accuser.
To live for the glory of God is the reason for the freedom of Christ. What does that look like? Tomorrow, I will look at the what of God’s goal: liberated to be driven by love (Galatians 5:13-26).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment