In the last post we looked at what Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be the glory) meant in light of the fact that God loves Himself and does all for His own glory. I tried to set out that God operates on the basis of Soli Deo Gloria because of His great love for Himself. It seems self-evident that a triune God who is love must love Himself as triune and that would include doing all for His own glory. Scripture sets out that God is love and that God does all for the glory of His own name. God shines forth His glory in Christ and loves the Beloved Son. The Son loves and delights in the Father even when the Father sends the Son to the cross. The Holy Spirit was purchased for the people of God and works love for God in the souls of all He dwells in. In this way, then, we see God’s love for Himself and His own glory in that He shares His love for Himself with human beings and so all that a true believer does from love for God is really the glory of God’s love for Himself shining in and through that human being. When it is God’s love for Himself worked in a human being, it is the glory of God shining through the human and thus God Himself is glorified. Thus we can see how a human being can do many works that s/he thinks is love and will think that those things glorify God but in fact they are from the person’s self rather than the love of God. In that case self is glorified rather than God. It is only when the love of God is in the human soul and then expressed in and through the human soul that God is truly manifested and therefore glorified.
In all that the Father does He does out of love for the Son and all that the Son does He does out of love for the Father. This should bring a vastly different understanding to the work of Christ while on earth. His life on this planet was filled with miracles and wise teachings. When He healed and fed people His primary love had to have been for the Father or He would have been an idolater. When He fought the battle in the Garden He had to have loved the Father or His going to the cross would have been sinful since He would have been violating the Greatest Commandment. While the Son was on the cross He must have loved the Father perfectly while the Father was pouring out His infinite wrath on the Son or the Son would have broken the Greatest Commandment and have sinned. If He would have sinned, He would not have been a perfect sacrifice for sinners.
Now we can see a little better how Soli Deo Gloria worked while Christ was on the cross. True love is seen in desiring the glory of God out of love for God Himself and the expression of His love for Himself and His character which is His glory. At the cross we see the very love of the Father for the Son displayed in that the Father is willing to cause the Son to suffer so that the glory of the Father (which is what is very best) may be displayed and manifested in saving sinners. What we must see at this point is that the cross was where the love of the Father for the Son was displayed but also where the Son purchased the Holy Spirit who would go and work love for God and His glory in the hearts of sinners. The cross was not just something that happened and so the glory of God was displayed there and then was over, but it was an event that purchased the Spirit so that the glory of God would be displayed for the rest of history and then eternity.
The Father loved the Son at the cross because there the glory of the Father was displayed in and through the Son and the greatest thing that a person or Person could ever do is to display the glory of God. The Father loved the Son at the cross because at the cross the Spirit was purchased who would apply the work of the Son to the souls of sinners who would become the Bride of the Son (the Church). The Father loved the Son because we can see in Scripture that the Father told others with the voice from heaven that this was His Beloved Son and in Him He was pleased. In other words, the very pleasure of God was in and on the Son which means that God was manifesting Himself through the Son and that the very pleasure of God was being carried out by the Son.
As we gaze upon the cross of Christ and of the love of the Father for the Son, we can see where Reformed theology in our day has “missed the boat.” How shallow of us to think that the Father had great feelings for us and so sent His Son to die in our place. That makes God the Father out to be an idolater as well as the Son. If God the Father loved human beings more than His Divine Son He would be an idolater. But if the Father loved human beings more than the Son, then the source of all love would not have an infinite object of His infinite love. The source of infinite love would love something other than perfect holiness and so would not be true love at all. If we do not trace all love to its Source and all love as to its Divine object, we will not be God-centered and we will not see the true nature of the Divine love at all. Reformed theology can be man-centered as well despite what it says its intent is. The Gospel is the display of the glory of God (His love for Himself as triune) in the face of Christ.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment