Hence we learn [see quote from Reflections on and Admirations of God 6] how all God’s love may be resolved into His love for and delight in Himself. His love to the creature is only His inclination to glorify Himself and communicate Himself, and His delight is in Himself glorified and in Himself communicated. There is His delight in the act and in the fruit. The act is the exercise of His own perfection, and the fruit is Himself expressed and communicated. Jonathan Edwards
We can also see that works for salvation can be nothing but a seriously false teaching. In this approach, where all is based on the glory of God, there is nothing that man can do to glorify God in and of himself. Man must be thoroughly humbled and emptied of self in order to be an instrument through which the glory of God will shine forth. When men look to their own works, they are looking to themselves as the source of their strength and righteousness. That is nothing less than seeking the glory of self, but the Scriptures are quite clear that nothing that is truly righteous can come from a man.
If we truly believe that nothing that is righteous can come from man or from the strength of self in man, then this shows us (with a moment of reflection) that a subtle form of works has slipped into biblical Christianity and is deceiving many. People can think that they are escaping a works mentality when they do things for the glory of God, but that can be another way of looking at a law and that can be nothing more than a form of works as well. One can be doing things stating the words of doing them for the glory of God and yet still be doing them from the strength of self. One may even have some intent in doing them to the glory of God and yet still be doing them from the strength of self. Saying the words and even having an intent to do things to the glory of God does not mean that what a human being is doing is actually from the strength and working of God in the human soul. In order to actually do something to the glory of God requires that it is actually God manifesting His glory in and through the human being.
I think that it should be clear that people can be taught that they should do all to the glory of God and that they can then convince themselves that they are doing it for the glory of God when they say the words or tell themselves that what they are doing does in fact glorify God. But that can be more deceptive than other forms of deception because it is closer to the truth. Living to the glory of God and doing any one thing to the glory of God is as impossible to do in the strength of man as it is to be perfect. For God to be glorified through a human soul it must be God Himself working in and through that human soul. Only God can manifest His internal glory to where it is now external in the sense where it is manifested and communicated.
Living to the glory of God is not possible by any human act, but instead it can only happen by the grace of God. Living to the glory of God is not what a human being does, but instead the human being must be transformed by the glory of God and then that glory must manifest itself through the human. Living to the glory of God is not a work of man, but instead it is a work of God in the man. Living to the glory of God is not done just because a person decides to do something that s/he may think honors God, but instead a person should seek the Lord to be an instrument of His glory which only happens by grace. Living to the glory of God is not done by the human for God, but it is God doing it through the human for Himself and His own glory. Human beings are privileged to be used as instruments of His glory and this is only done by sovereign grace and sovereign grace alone.
When a person truly longs to see the glory of God, that person must begin to seek humility for Christ to dwell in him or her more and more. Christ will not dwell in a proud heart and He will not share the glory with another which is precisely what a proud heart will try to do. The person that longs to see the glory of God should then long to be an instrument of His glory which means to seek Him to be humbled and broken as clay in the hands of the Potter. God does not use vessels that are used for other purposes, but instead He uses vessels that He has made to be set apart from all other uses and then for His own purposes. Oh how so many have been deceived into thinking that as long as they use the words “for His glory” or think that what they are doing honors Him that they are living to His glory. But instead a vessel must be prepared to be full of His glory so that He may manifest and communicate His own glory by grace and His will and wisdom.
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