Tag: Glory

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Glory Is Central

The two statements in 2 Corinthians 4 are not only a mouthful they are full of majesty. They are not the same, but they have a similar flow. This is what Satan blinds men from seeing, this is what God shines in the hearts of those He rescues from perishing.

  • “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (verse 4)
  • “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (verse 6)

“Light” is the same in each; light is illumination. “Gospel” and “knowledge” parallel each other; good news is a message and understanding of that message. “Glory” is central in both, the first is the glory of Christ, the second is the glory of God; it is no contradiction because Christ is God; they share the same divine glory. “Image” and “face” follow the reverse order, Christ is the revelation of God, and then God is revealed in Christ.

The gospel is for men because it is about God. Our glory is tied to whatever we reflect, so the revelation of God’s glory is the great good for men. This revelation is exclusively through Jesus. Glory is central and the good news centers on the Lord.

It is interesting that we are taught to call this the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:20), and the Lord’s Table (1 Corinthians 10:21), rather than Jesus’ Supper. We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord (2 Corinthians 4:4), and as we eat this bread and drink the cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes (1 Corinthians 11:26). He is “the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8), we have His divine and supernatural light.

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Lord's Day Liturgy

One Degree of Sacrifice to Another

When you are transformed from one degree of glory to another by beholding the glory of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18), what does that look like? What does it feel like? Awesome? Probably not. Instead this glorification will look and feel like sacrifice.

It is a profound, mysterious, radical, far-reaching, intense, and also obvious principle that Jesus told and then embodied for His disciples.

Some Greeks had come to worship in Jerusalem for the Passover feast and told Philip that they wished to see Jesus. Philip got Andrew and they told Jesus.

And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:23–24, ESV)

Jesus continued,

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” (John 12:27–28, ESV)

The hour of His glory was the hour of His loving death for His people.

That makes Lord’s Supper a meal of glory; our sharing and joy are part of the “much fruit” from Jesus’ sacrifice. So likewise we learn the way of glory, and we are being transformed from one degree of sacrifice to another.

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Lord's Day Liturgy

An Interrogative Shovel

I value the Why? question. I think I’ve mostly lost the smart-alecky junior high attitude underneath the asking, but I still appreciate and utilize the interrogative shovel to dig for idealogical treasure.

The reason why God created the universe and the reason why God created marriage between one man and one woman and the reason why Christ came and died and rose again and the reason why we make disciples and the reason why every disciple belongs to the Church is the same reason. If we said that the reason is “for His glory,” we’d be correct but perhaps still clouded behind the Christian jargon. So again, why creation, marriage, salvation, and church?

It’s because the three Persons of God so loved one another and enjoyed their union together that He made other beings to know and enjoy that glory. The understanding and affection and joy between the Father, Son, and the Spirit is part of His magnificence. It’s what makes Him awesome. His incommunicable attributes such as omniscience and omnipotence and eternality are at work for spilling His communicable glory into us.

Therefore, the reason why God made the world, instituted family, forgives rebels, and knits His people together in one Body is so that we will have understanding and affection and joy with Him and between ourselves like Him.

We glorify God when we see His glory truly, when we say it accurately, and when we sing it wholeheartedly. We also glory God when we receive His gifts thankfully and then imitate Him through loving generosity/sacrifice for the joy of others and in order to increase fellowship between us. We glorify God vertically and horizontally, through praise and through practice, through communion with Him through Christ and communion with each other by the Spirit.

What did God want with us and for us? He wanted us to taste His love and joy in union with Him as well as in our relationships here, especially in family, both by blood and by Christ’s blood. Why? Because it’s truly glorious.

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Two Adams

There are two Adams that we need to know about. The first is Adam from Eden, the first man on earth, husband, father, gardener, and eater of forbidden fruit. The second Adam is Jesus, the eternally-beggoten Son of God the Father, carpenter, prophet, and sinless sacrifice. He is called Adam because He, too, stands at the headwaters of a people. Paul compares and contrasts the two in 1 Corinthians 15.

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45)

The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:47–48)

God gave life to Adam from the ground. God gives life through the second Adam now risen from the grave. Not only do both Adams represent us, we reflect them.

Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:49)

The first Adam was brought to life in glory in a garden. The second Adam was buried in a garden and then raised to life in greater glory. The first Adam lost glory for all of us when he sinned. The second Adam secured glory for all of us when He rose again. We enjoy the blessings of both the natural body and the spiritual body; we follow and image both Adams. We were born and we were born again. We are humans and we are Christians, so we eat and drink on two levels, looking to our resurrection glory like the second Adam.

For more on how the spiritual man is still a material man read this post by Doug Wilson.

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Overlooking Glory

There is a stage of development as Christians are learning to love righteousness that can cause its own kind of damage. There is no way to not love righteousness and have that be good. There is also a way to love righteousness that is not as good as it could be. It can happen between peers, it can happen from parents and pastors, and really anytime someone watches someone else sin.

Here are two ways to state it positively, one from Proverbs and one from an apostle. Solomon said,

Good sense makes one slow to anger,
and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
(Proverbs 19:11)

And Peter said,

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)

In each circumstance there are real problems: an offense was committed and sins were multiplied. These are not okay, and they are virtually impossible to avoid in a community or a classroom or around a kitchen table. Yes, we are to help one another recognize and repent from sin. Yes, we are to train our kids to obey and respect. Yes, we are to be a people who love righteousness.

But how can we have the glory of overlooking an offense without anyone committing an actual offense against us? And are we loving earnestly by always grinding confession out of others? It is not good sense, let alone our glory, to be fussy with the fussers. We may have been sinned against, but we may sin in being so easily offended.

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A Shot of Encouragement

True Glory Isn’t Grabby

I can’t recommend the whole book by any means, but this paragraph pokes grabby authority in the eye by observing that God gets more glory by glorifying His people. A true authority bestows honor, he isn’t threatened when surrounded by others with dignity.

If God alone is all glorious, then no one else is glorious at all. No exaltation may be admitted for any other creature, since this would endanger the exclusive prerogative of God. But this is to imagine a paltry court. What king surrounds himself with warped, dwarfish, worthless creatures? The more glorious the king, the more glorious the titles and honors he bestows. The plumes, cockades, coronets, diadems, mantles, and rosettes that deck his retinue testify to one thing alone, his own majesty and munificence. He is a very great king to have figures of such immense dignity in his train, or even better, to have raised them to such dignity. These great lords and ladies, mantled and crowned with the highest possible honor and rank are, precisely, his vassals. This glittering array is his court! All glory to him, and in him, glory and honor to these others.

—Thomas Howard, Evangelical Is Not Enough, 87