“But unless the weight of the burden is felt the gospel can mean nothing to the man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and burden. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them” (A. W. Tozer). The burden that Tozer is speaking of here is the burden of man’s “obligation to God. It includes an instant and lifelong duty to love God with every power of mind and soul, to obey Him perfectly, and to worship Him acceptably.” When “man’s laboring conscience tells him that he has done none of these things, but has from childhood been guilty of foul revolt against the Majesty in the heavens, the inner pressure may become too heavy to bear.”
1 Timothy 1:11 “according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.”
The Gospel is of and all about the glory of God. The Gospel is all about a happy or blessed God. To present a message of a worried and something less than a God of perfect glory and blessedness is not the true Gospel. To present a message focused on man and his worth and ability is not the Gospel. The Gospel is not a canned message that can be presented in thirty minutes or less, it is about the glory of God in Christ. A low view of God destroys the truth of the Gospel because the Gospel is glorious and the God of the Gospel of glory is infinite in His glory.
We have become so focused on man’s “felt needs” and how man feels about things that we have forgotten that we are to love God with all of our beings and that what man really needs is the glory of God. Paul saw himself as being entrusted with the Gospel (I Tim 1:11) and he was not going to water it down to make anyone feel better about themselves. Not only should we not water the Gospel down to make man feel good about himself, we must try to show man his idolatry in wanting to feel good about himself. As one older writer put it, “the only self-esteem you have is that which you have stolen from Christ.” We are to love and esteem Christ with all of our beings.
2 Corinthians 3:8 “how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. 10 For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.”
The Gospel abounds in glory, but we have changed it to be a message that saves sinners from low self-esteem of from various other societal ills. Can the true ministry of the Spirit fail to be of even more glory than anything and everything else? Do we fail to realize that it is the Spirit that convicts of sin and it is the Spirit who opens minds to the glories of the Gospel? Could it be that we have become rationalists and are relying on the methods of men to try to convince people of some doctrinal truths (which is not all bad) instead of trying to use doctrine as a way to seek the Spirit who alone can show them the glory of God? God is far more than the human mind can comprehend and explain. We must repent of our low views of God and return to pointing toward the glory of God in dependence on the Spirit who alone can open minds to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 3:18 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 from the Lord, the Spirit.
When we get away from the Gospel of glory and simply speak of rational truths which they may indeed be truths, there will be nothing more than little spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is not about how much a person knows as such, because knowledge can lead to nothing more than pride (I Cor 8:1). If we only instruct people with knowledge, that puffs them up with information and makes them think that they know a lot. In reality, we must hold out the glory of God so that in beholding the glory of God they may be transformed more and more into the image of that glory.
Low views of God do not allow for glory to be taught with anything other than lip service. The Church must begin to groan and cry out to be delivered from its dishonoring views of God. The Church must return to teaching the greatness and majesty of God or it will perish in finality. God will not be mocked by religious services that take His name on lips with hearts that love the world and the glory of man. Simply put, once again, with the glory of God being dismissed as the primary issue in the Church the Gospel has been distorted virtually everywhere and has been lost in a lot of places. The Church must quit thinking of numbers and start thinking of God.
God Loves... Himself 
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