Last time we ended on how the Church is like the Pharisees in many ways in focusing on the outward actions and thinking that is love for God rather than the inward motivations and intents of the heart. We looked at how the Pharisees used the instrumental means that God has given yet they removed them from the terminal end that God as set out for them. Boiled down what that means is that God has created all things to be a reflection of His glory and He has given means for humanity to use in order to do that. Yet men want to use the means God has given and keep the terminal end in their own power or perhaps even change it whether on purpose or by deceit.
God has not given Himself or anything else into the hands of men to glorify Him in their own power. The means are to be used as means of grace but the means must also be empowered by grace if they are to be used to manifest the glory of God and not just be used the way the Pharisees used them. In other words, a Pharisee could use the means of grace just as well as many if not all conservatives can. The Pharisee used the means for his own terminal end which was to gain honor for himself and that out of self-love. However, the Pharisee claimed to be holy and to be keeping the Law of God. Many conservatives say the same things and do the same things as the Pharisees. Reformed people are certainly not immune to that charge as well. The Pharisee believed in predestination too.
The Church is full of people that are like the Pharisees in many ways. As long as people believe or at least live as if they have the power of holiness and love in their own power things will not change. As long as people believe or practice the lie that God has given them the means and it is up to them to use them and apply them as they please, things will not change. The means of grace cannot bring grace in and of themselves. The Bible is to be studied as the way God has revealed Himself rather than as a way to live better. Prayer must be practiced as a means of seeking God and His glory rather than a way to exalt self and seek things for self. Preaching must be practiced as a means of seeking and meeting with God rather than a duty to be performed.
While there may be other aspects to this, no one will ever study Scripture and pray as God has intended them until that person seeks God as God and for His glory rather than for a selfish reason. A selfish reason would also include a way to make me look holy or a way to obtain a favor for something for God, and it would also include virtually all religious reasons as well. The terminal end that God has created all things for and has given several means as ways to seek Him is that of His own glory. But it is not in the power of a human being to glorify God. God alone can make His internal glory shine outward and that through human beings. It is only when a human being is seeking God and His glory out of a pure love (which must come from God as well) that what that human being does is then a shining forth of the glory of God.
What I am trying to get at is that no one can glorify God in his or her own power as that is something that resides in the mere pleasure and will of God. It is only when God resides in a human being and is expressing Himself through that human being is His glory being displayed. Until we get that basic point we will be living in a way of works thinking that we are living to the glory of God. I Corinthians 10:31 tells us this: “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” That is how a person lives if one loves God. However, unless the life of Christ is in a person and the Holy Spirit is working His fruit of love in that person it is beyond a person to do so. Living to the glory of God in all things is the Greatest Commandment. As the Law was given to show us that we must have Christ, so the command to glorify God shows us that we must have the life of Christ.
God Loves... Himself 
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