God Loves… Himself

We have been looking at Solo Christo (Christ alone) in the last few posts and in this one we will turn to consider Sola Gratia (grace alone). What is vital to understand about grace alone is really the same issue with Christ alone. The core teaching, motives, and real issues have to do with the relations of God within the Trinity rather than human beings in and of themselves. If grace is a power or something that God does that is not moved from within the Trinity, then we have an insurmountable problem within the Godhead. That leaves us with a god that loves human beings more than Himself which would not be consistent with the Greatest Commandment nor with the way God has revealed Himself in Scripture. Grace alone is founded within the biblical God who loves Himself and will do nothing that is not moved by love for Himself as triune. Without this teaching of God whose very holiness consists in His love for Himself within the Trinity, we are left without a real teaching on grace alone.

The order of the five sola’s (as presented here in this series) is then seen as logically consistent but more importantly as consistent with God Himself as triune. We started with Soli Deo Gloria and saw that God is moved to do all that He does from within Himself and in order to manifest His own glory. This can surely be seen as linked with the teachings of grace when Ephesians 1:6 teaches us that God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace. God does all that He does to the praise of the glory of His grace and so we see that for God Himself there is meaning in grace alone. When we teach that the Gospel is grace alone we are teaching what is consistent with God’s desire to manifest the glory of His name. We are teaching a Gospel that is consistent with God Himself and of the eternal fact that all He does is to manifest His own glory in Christ.

We then moved to Solo Christo by which we saw that God glorifies Himself in and through Christ because Christ is the very outshining (radiance = shining out) of His glory (Hebrews 1:3). It is not that God shines something else in Christ, but that Christ Himself is the outshining of the glory of God. The very nature of the second Person of the Trinity is to be the image of God, which is to be the perfect reflection of God. In a spiritual being this is for the Father to shine out of Himself and for that shining to be Christ. We saw that this is utterly vital in terms of what it means for God to do all things in and through Christ alone. The Gospel is Christ alone because that is how God saves. It is God saving sinners by and for Himself. It is easy to see that the Father shines out His glory in Christ and so loves the Son as the image and reflection of His own perfect glory. It is then easy to see why the Father only works and loves in Christ. Therefore, we have Christ alone. Christ alone teaches us that salvation is by God’s love for Himself alone or that it is the love of God for His own glory as it shines out in Christ.

As we move to consider grace alone, we can see how beautiful grace really is. Grace is not just something that God does, it is something that God is in Christ. When God gives grace to sinners, it is actually God giving Himself because there is no grace apart from God and God only gives grace in Christ. We saw that God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace. We know also that God never does anything but what glorifies His name in Christ. What we must see is that grace is the shining forth of God in giving Himself to human beings in Christ. The Gospel is by grace alone because God does nothing but through Christ alone. The Gospel is by grace alone because in doing all through Christ alone God is doing all to His glory alone.

The study of grace when looked at in this light is really a study of the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Many in the modern day want to look at grace in terms of human beings as the focus of grace. In some way they set out human beings as the focus of grace and as the standard of grace. When that is done, it destroys any true idea of grace. True grace is nothing else but the love of God for Himself being His own motivation in saving those who are at enmity with Him and doing that to manifest His love for His Son which is His own glory. What an impoverished idea of grace we have in our day and that includes many in the Reformed camp. Grace is more than a proposition encased in a tomb of theological accuracy; it is Christ Himself at work in human souls with the motive of changing those souls to make them instruments and partakers of the divine glory. Grace is not just an abstract noun or thought; it is Christ Himself being given to sinners because of the love of God for God. Christ Himself is the shining out of the glory of God’s grace. No sinner will have any more of the love and grace of God than that sinner has of Christ. This is a grace that must be applied by a Divine Being because no finite sinner can apply God to his or her own soul. No sinner can reach inside God and make Him shine Himself out in Christ and apply that glory by the Holy Spirit to him or herself. All that God does for sinners in salvation is by grace because all He does is for His own glory as it shines out in love for Himself in Christ. No one can deserve that as this is grace Himself.

The teaching of Christ alone is very hard for proud human beings to take. They want to find some wisdom for themselves and want to contribute something to salvation. The hardest thing for a human being is for his or her pride to cast out pride or for his or her self to cast out self. In fact, this is impossible. A proud person is too proud to admit of much pride and so will never cast it out. A person focused on self will never even try to cast self out unless it is in the interests of self, which shows that self is not really cast out. For a person to rest in Christ alone in reality and not just give assent to a creed that asserts it is for the person to repent of pride and any trust in self at all. It is to repent of the wisdom of self which is so hard on pride. It is to repent of the strength of self-will which is crushing to pride. It is to be turned from the love of self to the love of God which is a turning from self in terms of intent and motive. Christ alone is a teaching that is devastating to pride and self when it is seen and understood that it means Christ alone and nothing of self. It is a painful path to be turned from a heart that loves and trusts in self to one that dies to self in order to follow Christ.

The beauty of Christ alone is seen in its relation to how God exists and operates within the Trinity. The Father does all that He does out of love for the Son and out of love for His own glory shining out in the Son. It is Christ alone in our search for wisdom because Christ is the shining forth of the glory of the wisdom of God. It is Christ alone for righteousness because Christ is the shining forth of the perfect righteousness of God and while in a human body He earned a perfect righteousness for His people. It is Christ alone for sanctification because it is in the Father’s love for the Son that God’s holiness consists and it is the life of Christ in the believer and the work of the Spirit of Christ in giving believers a love for God that a believer grows in holiness or sanctification. It is Christ alone for redemption because Christ is the shining forth of the self-sufficiency of God in paying the price for the redemption of the slaves of sin and of darkness and no one else can pay the price for a sinner and rescue sinners from the just wrath of God. But again, it is so hard for a proud heart to accept that not only is it that Christ saves sinners with His work on the cross, but that He sanctifies sinners by His work in the heart.

The beauty and glory of God shines in the Gospel, sanctification, holiness, the life of the believer and in all things that are holy and good through Christ. We tend to think of Christ alone as being focused on the Gospel for sinners alone, but that is simply incorrect. Ephesians 3:16-21 sets this forth for us: “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

The above text points out that Christ dwells in hearts by faith and so believers are rooted and grounded in love. It is in knowing the love of Christ that one is filled up to all the fullness of God. It is in being rooted in love that a believer is able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of God. Romans 8:39 fits this well: “nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We must see that the saving love of God is in Christ and only for those who are in Christ. We must stand for the biblical truth that the saving love of God is in Christ alone. All spiritual blessings are in Christ alone. All spiritual knowledge of God is in Christ alone. All eternal life is in Christ alone. God has shone forth the glory of Himself in Christ and it is in Christ alone that a sinner can come to and know God. It is in that shining forth of His love in Christ that a sinner may come to know the love of God.

The teaching of Christ alone is that all of the spiritual blessings and knowledge of God are in Christ. This means that nothing depends on us and our own strength but it all depends on Christ. This teaching is actually denied by various theologies that want to leave room for self, but also by many in the Reformed camp as well. There the teaching is upheld in the creeds but not really held in the heart or practice. To truly hold to Christ alone we must hold this from the depths of our hearts and love it from the love of God in our hearts. To truly hold to Christ alone is to love the glory of God in Christ in reality and not just intellectually believe the doctrine. To really believe this is to give up all hope in self and look to the grace and love of God found in Christ alone for His sake alone.

We have been looking at Solo Christo (Christ alone) in the last few posts and how that relates to God Himself doing all through Christ and of how this is His way of glorifying Himself. In fact, I tried to show that no one can do anything for God and cannot glorify God in his or her own strength. In fact, what must happen for God to be glorified is for the internal glory of God to become external. He only does that through Christ who is the outshining of His glory (Hebrews 1:3). It is only when a believer has Christ and the glory of God is shining through Christ who is in the believer is God truly glorified. The believer is but an instrument through which God’s glory shines in and through Christ. The believer cannot truly glorify God other than be an instrument through which Christ the outshining of the glory of God shines. This is why God hates self-righteousness and works for salvation so much. When a person seeks to work for salvation (or any part of it) along with his or her own righteousness that person is seeking self and the wisdom and honor of self rather than seeking the glory of God out of love for God. That person is also seeking to glorify God with his or her own strength rather than Christ.

When we look at things through the lenses of “meta-theology” or get to the root of God’s own God-centeredness in all things, we can see how utterly obnoxious a works for salvation scheme is. We can also see how utterly obnoxious a scheme that has men and women working for the glory of God according to their own wisdom and in accordance with their own strength is. For a Gospel or a schematic theme of sanctification to fit with who God is as He exists in love within the Trinity is a Gospel or scheme that must be according to Christ alone. In the modern day it appears as if the teaching of the Reformation (and more importantly, the Bible) on Christ alone has devolved into a practice of mentioning Christ or something about Christ in what we do. This is far from the teaching of Scripture and of the Reformation. For example, in his book The Bondage of the Will Luther said he wrote it to defend the Gospel of grace alone. Salvation is by grace alone in order that it would be to the glory of God alone and that the glory of God alone would be through Christ alone and by the grace that Christ purchased.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel of grace alone and by grace alone that it may be by Christ alone and only in that way is it to the glory of God alone. But it is only to the glory of God alone if it is by the glory of God alone in and through Christ alone. We must see that with conviction. What was the great battle between imputed righteousness and infused righteousness really over? It was over grace alone and Christ alone. The argument was never over whether Christ worked righteousness in the hearts of His people or not, but on the grounds by which God declared a sinner just. If we look at this from the “meta-theological” position, we can see how obnoxious the Roman Catholic position really was to God. When God declares a person just on the basis of Christ alone, that person really is just because that person is one with Christ who is the righteous Savior and the only truly righteous One. When God declares a person just on the basis of unity with Christ and His perfect righteousness, it is to the glory of God because it is entirely the work of God. The declaration that a person is just because of Christ is the glory of God shining forth in Christ and in His people. If we can see that the triune God will only manifest His glory in Christ because Christ is the outshining of His glory, then we can see immediately that the Gospel must be by Christ alone in order to be to the glory of God alone and by the glory of God alone.

The battle over the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ should be settled over the source of that glory and of how that glory is manifested. If we think of human beings as having some abilities in doing things that glorify God, we will end up looking at things a lot differently than if we see that God only shines His glory in Christ and then to humble and broken human beings. God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph 1:6) and not to the praise and glory of human beings in the slightest. God saves sinners in such a way that they have no room to brag or glory. God only saves the broken and the humble because only they receive the salvation that is the manifestation of His glory in Christ rather than their own. God wants nothing from sinners but their broken spirits which consists in contrite and broken hearts. It is these souls alone that have been so worked on by the Spirit of God that they despise their own glory and desire that of God. It is these souls alone that will receive grace alone so that salvation is truly by Christ alone and not just in name. It is the broken and humbled soul that loves the Gospel of Christ because in that Gospel s/he sees the very glory of God shining in Christ. Until we see the glory of God shining in and through Christ we will not understand the Gospel of the glory of God and of Christ alone. After all, Christ was the very tabernacle (dwelling place) of the glory of God (John 1:14) and it was that glory that was full of grace and truth. When Christ shone with that glory God Himself was displayed (John 1:18). No sinner ever understands the Gospel until the sinner sees the light of the Gospel of His glory in Christ alone.

In the last two posts we looked at Solo Christo (Christ alone) in the sense that we looked at how this is true for God Himself. When we look at the teaching of Christ alone in this way, we begin to see how artificial, contrived, and even works oriented it is to command people (as Scripture does) to glorify God and leave them in their own strength, wisdom, and power to do so. The command to glorify God teaches us to be empty of self and to look to God for Him to do this in and through us. The command is really another way of commanding believers to love God with all of their being and of course they have no access or source of love but God Himself. But if Christ is the outshining of the glory of God, then this teaches us to be empty of self and look to Christ to fill us with the love and glory of God by grace alone in order that we do this by Christ alone. God will only glorify Himself through Christ because Christ is the outshining of His glory and so His command to glorify Himself in all that we do will never be at odds with receiving all by grace and doing all by and through Christ. In fact, the command to love Him and the command to glorify Him teach us to do all Solo Christo as that is the only way that they can be done.

I hope that it is clear that God’s purpose is to glorify Himself in Christ and since Christ is the very outshining of the glory of God there is no way to glorify God but God’s glorifying Himself in and through human beings by and through Christ. Human beings have no glory to give God and they can do nothing for God. We must always keep this basic teaching in mind that no human being can do anything for God. All of the commands of God are expressions of God’s own character and glory. All of the commands of God cannot be kept by human beings out of love for God and His glory unless it is God Himself who is working these things in them through Christ and the Spirit of Christ. It is not just that we are to take the name of Christ upon our lips when we preach or do things, but it is to be Christ in us that is working in us and is shining Himself through us to do the commands of God. Only then are we glorifying God in the sense that it is God’s glory shining through Christ and then human beings.

In modern America men and women are trying to come up with new ways to make God look good. They are trying all kinds of music and ways of doing church and not doing church. The problem is that they are trying to find ways of doing these things in their own wisdom. But when we look for ways to glorify God in our own wisdom we are not looking to glorify God through Christ alone. Christ is to be our wisdom and the Spirit of God alone knows the mind of God. Instead of trying to dream up ways to make God look good in our own power, we need to look to Christ as our wisdom and seek His face for a sight of God’s glory in order to be filled with Him. It is only when we are filled with the glory of God that the glory will then be manifested through us and so God truly be glorified. If it is not the glory of God shining through Christ and by that in and through believers, it is not the glory of God in the first place. It is simply human beings striving to make God look good in their own power. That is nothing but another works oriented way of trying to please God in the guise of orthodoxy.

If Christ is the glory of God in the sense that He is the outshining of the glory of God, then that has major ramifications for all of theology and life. Where do we go if we want to see the glory of God shining in His love? We must go to Christ alone to see the beauty and glory of that love. This is one reason why Christ told us that it is by our love for one another that men will know we are His disciples (John 13:35). While it is incredibly annoying to the unbelievers of the world, I John 4:7-8 is quite clear that there is no love in any human being other than those who have been born of God and know God. Let us never forget that John 17:3 tells us that eternal life is to know God. Jesus then prayed this in John 17:26: “and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” It is not just that God has feelings for those He loves, but the very love with which He loved Christ is in the believer.

What is this love of God that is in the believer? Is it some mental construction that we have or does it have to do with God Himself dwelling in the believer? If one aspect of love has to do what is best for another, then if God sets His love on a person He must give the person Himself. The love that flows within the Trinity is not a power greater than God, but is how the triune God exists in love. It is God Himself. So when God sets His love on a human being, He is giving Himself and giving a love for Himself. As the only true source for love in the universe, when God gives Himself He is giving that person a love for Himself. But since love is how the triune God exists, when God gives Himself He is sharing Himself with that person. The person is being brought to a place to share in God’s love for Himself through Christ. The person is united to Christ and so shares in the love of the Father for the Son and can only be found in the Son. That is Christ alone and nothing but Christ alone.

Last time we started looking at Solo Christo (Christ alone). The philosophical field of ethics is divided into applied ethics and meta-ethics. The latter is an investigation into the concepts and methods of ethics. The two fields, however, are not always easy to keep separate because ethics must be applied. The last post was meta-theological (and this one is as well) since it looked at the deepest level of the concept, which was how Christ alone was rooted in God Himself. In one sense it is a concept when we look at the beauty of a doctrine as it relates to the inner workings of the Trinity and yet it is very practical when we see that the basis and example of our practice comes from the inner workings of the Trinity. Even more, we then see how it is God Himself that must give us love to put into practice what we practice and that is because Christ Himself is to be our life.

Christ Himself is the very outshining of the glory of God (I John 1:14-18; Heb 1:3). When we speak of doing all to the glory of God, we must not just think of doing something that makes God look good. It is, very plainly when we look at it clearly, a very arrogant thing to think of ourselves as being able to make God look good. It is the height of arrogance to think that my good work will in some way make God look good. In fact, if I am doing something in my own strength thinking that it makes God look good or honors Him in some way, then I have just resorted to pleasing God by my own works. It seems that a lot of talk about doing things to the glory of God in our day is really just a biblical way to talk about a works oriented way of sanctification. If I say or think that my joy or my good works are things that I do so that God is honored, then I am saying that there is something that I can do that glorifies God. If by definition Christ is the outshining of the glory of God, then it is by Christ alone that God is truly glorified. But, one might argue, all of nature manifests the glory of God. That is very true, but all things were created through, by, and for Jesus Christ (John 1:1-4; Colossians 1:16).

What we arrive at by looking at things in this way is the utterly glorious thought that God glorifies Himself through Christ alone and in some way creation shines with the glory of God as it shines out in Christ as well. In creation as well as in the Gospel it is God’s glory that shines in Christ alone. Our own works, therefore, cannot make God look good or even honor God in the slightest if they do not come from Christ and are not for Christ. It is not that our works glorify God as man cannot glorify God apart from Christ. In Christ the glory of God is more than just a thought, it is reality. The glory of God is not just a thought about God, it is God Himself expressed in and through Christ. The glory of God is only seen as it shines in and through Christ (John 1:14-18). It is not as if grace is an intellectual concept, it is the glory of God shining out in and through Christ to sinners who have not done one thing to deserve Christ nor can they.

The glory of God is not something that a human being can access by him or herself, it is something that God must do to shine out of Himself. Older theologians have looked at this as the glory ad intra and the glory ad extra. The first is the inner glory of God and the latter is the external expression of the outer glory. No man can reach inside of God and make Him shine forth His glory. It is only if God chooses to express His inner glory that His glory shines outward. The only place or location that His glory shines out of is Christ. In this sense God does nothing but through Christ alone. All of God’s glory that shines out in the world is through Christ and Christ alone.

This leaves us with one question. If man is commanded to do all he does to the glory of God, yet Christ is the only way God is truly glorified, then how is man to glorify God? In some ways the answer is almost self-evident. However, we can know that our joy, works, preaching, and all we do can never reach inside God and force Him or manipulate Him to shine forth in Christ. Nothing we can do will ever glorify God unless God shines forth His glory in Christ. So we know that we must have Christ in us and that Christ must be our life in order for the glory of God to shine through us and so God be glorified in and through us. The true believer only glorifies God when the believer is so broken and humbled that God dwells in that person through Christ who is the outshining of the glory of God and it is Christ that shines through the person. It is only when Christ is truly shining in and through a person that God is truly glorified. It is only when a believer loves with the love that is worked in him or her by the Spirit (love is the fruit of the Spirit) for the sake of Christ that the internal glory of God is manifested or becomes external. This is the way, then, that the believer glorifies God by Christ alone. The believer is the temple of Christ who is the outshining of the glory of God, and by the Spirit the character of God is shared with and then manifested through the believer by Christ. In other words, as those who are one with Christ behold His glory and partake of Him, they are transformed from on degree of glory to another and so God’s glory is manifested through believers.

We looked at the Reformation phrase of Soli Deo Gloria the past few times and now we turn to another. When we speak of the phrase Solo Christo or Christ alone, there are many ways to approach this. The first approach is to look at it in light of Soli Deo Gloria. We saw that for man to do all for the glory of God alone that this at the very least implies that God does all for His own glory as well. Now if we look at what Christ alone means, we will know that God does all for the sake of His own name in Christ. Salvation is by Christ alone because Christ is the perfect display of the glory of God and is the shining forth of the glory of God’s love, grace, justice, wrath and all of His holy character. Since the Gospel is really the glory of God in the face of Christ, this tells us that if salvation is by Christ alone then the glory of God shining in the Gospel is all of Christ and for Christ alone.

What we must flee from the common thought that Jesus Christ is all about human beings for the sake of human beings alone. In our man-centeredness we think of Christ as coming because He could not bear to let man go to hell without a chance or opportunity for salvation. To be a perfect sacrifice Christ had to have been perfectly sinless which means He had to have kept the Greatest Commandment perfectly in all ways and at all times. When He went to the cross in was from love for God or He would have sinned. During the time of the life of Christ on earth He lived out of love for God and His glory each and every moment. Christ is the only way of salvation because God alone saves and Christ is God in human flesh. Christ is the way that God has saved sinners to the glory of God and out of love for Himself. In other words, salvation is by Christ alone because salvation is by the work of God alone in and through Christ. Salvation is by Christ alone because that is the only way that God saves. Salvation is by Christ alone because God will only save in a way that displays His glory and Christ alone does that.

Salvation is by Christ alone because Christ is the shining forth of the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3) and the Gospel is the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ (II Corinthians 4:4, 6). There is no other place or person where the glory of God shines in such a way that it could make up for sin which is falling short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Human beings fell into sin and lived for themselves and by themselves rather than doing what they were created to do which was and is to be empty vessels by which God’s glory would be manifested. Sanctification is also Christ alone because human beings are no more sanctified than they are dead to self with the glory of God shining through them because of the life of Christ in them who is the glory of God shining.

All the works of human beings that are not from the life of Christ in the soul are rubbish and dung to the living God. God never made human beings to work as if to do something for Him that He could not do for Himself, but they were made to be instruments of His glory and those who put His love for Himself on display. The Law sets forth the glory of God’s holiness and love in such a way that man should be able to see that he cannot do one thing to earn righteousness. The Great Commandment sets out that man is to love God with all of his being and yet man is completely void of true love apart from Christ and the Spirit of Christ. All of this should drive human beings to see that they are utterly dependent on God who is love for love. This should drive us to see that all of God’s love for human beings is purchased by Christ alone and is not available in any other way. This should drive us to see and to feel that there is no eternal life apart from Christ alone who is the very shining forth of the life of God.

When we utter Solo Christo we are uttering words that point to the very glory of God shining in Christ. The Gospel is by and through Christ alone because there is nothing a human being can do to remove the wrath of God from him or herself and there is nothing any human can do to earn the slightest bit of righteousness much less a perfect righteousness from God. The Gospel puts the beauty of God on display and proclaims that it is by Christ alone because it is all by the works of God through Christ. The Gospel also tells us of the glory of God in the New Covenant which is the very life of God in human souls sharing His love and life with them. This is eternal life and this is Christ Himself in the soul. I John 5:20 makes this point with great beauty: “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” It tells us that Christ is the true God and He is also eternal life. This is why one must believe in Christ to have eternal life. It is because Christ is eternal life. I John 1:1-3 tells us that Christ is the Word of life and that very life manifested. It is all Christ alone because He is the life of God alone and He is the only way to eternal life. Only He who is eternal life Himself can give eternal life and can cleanse sinners by His blood as applied by the Holy Spirit and so He can be the life of true believers. The glory of the Gospel is the shining forth of the glory of God in Christ and so the Gospel is truly Christ alone.

God’s glory is another subject we can adopt an intellectual position on and have affections rise in our heart while we are focused on ourselves. This is something that must be of the heart and flow from our love for God which comes from God’s love for Himself. Evangelism that is moved by the eternal welfare of humans rather than the love of God is idolatry. We must not be more concerned about another human than the glory of God. If so, then we don’t have true love for the other human because what is best for them is to be turned from their self-love to a love for God. If we love the eternal welfare (in a modern sense) of a human being more than the glory of God we will change the message of the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ to one that has Christ as focused on the sinner as the sinner is focused on the sinner. Instead of that the sinner must be as focused on the glory of God in the face of Christ as Christ did while on earth and does now as He is in the bosom of the Father. The evangelism that is practiced with the sinner as the focus makes God the Father, God the Son, the one being evangelized, and the one doing the evangelism out to be lovers of human beings more than lovers of God and His glory.

Evangelism must be done out of a heart of love for God if we have the love of God in our hearts. The love of God in the heart is something far different than a human oriented self-love for sinners. In reality the human oriented self-love is not true love at all. We can have a false love in our heart while we have a correct creed in our brain. Soli Deo Gloria is not just a Latin phrase dreamed up by the fevered brain of Martin Luther; it is another way to express the Great Commandment and the Great Commission as well. This is a biblical phrase that must be at the heart of all we do in that it must be in our hearts and flow from all we do. The reason that true believers are to function and operate by Soli Deo Gloria is because that is the reason that God functions and operates. We cannot know that God has set His love on a human being if that human being does not love God. When God sets His love on a soul, that person will love Him because God is at work in that soul sharing His love for Himself with that person. God can give human beings great riches and material things and those things turn out to be curses to those people. But to those He sets His love on He gives them what is best and that is Himself. When God gives a person Himself, He is sharing His love for Himself with that person and now that person will love Him.

It is impossible for God to set His love on people without giving Himself and therefore a love for Himself. It is also impossible for a human being to love another human apart from a desire for the other human to have the love of God. The love of God in our soul is not seen by being nice and doing good things, it is by looking to the soul of other people and out of love for God desire that other people would have God. If our evangelism is telling people that God loves them and that they need to make a decision based on that, we have done nothing but what may damn that person. Virtually every person in his own self-love already believes that God loves him. What they don’t know and understand is that the wrath of God is upon them and that they hate God and love themselves. They must repent of their enmity toward God expressed in their self-love so that the love of God may be in them. They must know that the Greatest Commandment is the true standard and that they have no power or ability to keep that commandment apart from the love of God being in their soul. True love will deal with souls like that rather than tell them things in an effort to get people to pray a prayer. Sinners must have a new heart in order to have the love of God in their souls and they must know that is something totally beyond their own power and ability.

In evangelism as well as in true conversion Soli Deo Gloria is far more than just a phrase, it is a necessary truth to all that goes on. It is perhaps the statement about God that defines and sets out God as well as any other. He is a God that loves Himself in the Trinity and all true love flows from the love He has for Himself. This is a truth that must be known in the depths of our being and not just in our brains. We can have so many things locked in our heads and yet not know the reality of them deep in our souls. We may have every confession and creed memorized and yet be lost and on our way to hell. We may know theology better than any human being ever knew it and still be on our way to hell. The Devil knows theology far better than any human, yet he will spend eternity in hell. The Devil is far smarter than any human, yet he is going to hell. The Devil is the greatest theologian and the greatest exegete of Scripture in his own way, yet he is on his way to hell. The Devil believes that the Bible is the Word of God and that Jesus is the only Savior, yet he is on his way to hell for eternity. The Devil may do great outward good for others, but he is on the way to hell. He lacks the love of God in his soul. No matter what else we do or what else we are, without the love of God in our hearts we are headed to eternal torment. There may be many Reformed people in the world today who are full of knowledge, external morality, have “perfect” families, and many good works who are on the way to hell. They don’t have true love in their hearts and so settle for externals.

The Reformation phrase of Soli Deo Gloria in light of God’s desire for His own glory is our present topic of discussion. In the last post we looked at evangelism a little. However, we did not look at it from the biblical setting forth of God’s perspective. What is God’s perspective in evangelism? What is His intent in evangelism? Is this even set out in Scripture? Can we really know this at all? Does Soli Deo Gloria have any meaning for us in striving to understand the intent of God in evangelism? Does that have anything to do with how we practice evangelism? If Luther wrote Bondage of the Will so that our view of the will would be in accordance with the glory of God and of the Gospel, it should at least wake us up to how important this might be. It is too easy to go out and tell people a few things in the Bible and call it biblical evangelism. It is too easy to adopt a creed or some principles and then to call ourselves Reformed. Where is the glory of God in this?

The Greatest Command shows us that the purpose of evangelism is to make sinners into lovers of God. If we evangelize with a goal other than that sinners would love God, we are going in the wrong direction. The hearts of sinners must be changed so that they would love God rather than themselves. The Gospel is not all about sinners; it is all about God primarily. If God does all things for His own glory and He loves Himself within the Trinity above and in all manners and things, then evangelism must in some way take those things into account. One way to do this is to understand that God loves Himself and His love is only for Himself. A sinner, therefore, must repent of self in order to love God since the love of God is for Himself and He will only work love for Himself in the sinner. After all, the fruit of the Spirit is love and the Spirit dwells in and works Himself in His people. If there is no love for God in the sinner, then the Holy Spirit is not dwelling in that person and working His fruit.

I Corinthians 10:31 commands us to do all things for His glory. This shows us the goal that we are to have for our own hearts in evangelism as well as what we are to point sinners toward. If we do nothing but tell the sinner some facts about Jesus and a few things about his or her sin, that does nothing toward pointing the sinner to what real salvation is and of what the sinner is to expect for eternity. We evangelize people as if they themselves were the center of the universe and then wonder why they will not deny themselves and submit to Christ after they have been “converted.” The Great Commandment and I Corinthians 10:31 declare to us that sinners are saved in order to love God and to do all for His glory. If we evangelize as if it is all about and all for the sinner, we have not instructed them about who God is and we have not told them about real repentance and real faith. God’s purpose is to glorify Himself in and through sinners. God’s purpose is to make instruments of His glory and then to manifest Himself and His glory through them. Sinners are saved from the guilt of their sin and are saved from sin itself in order to be set apart for the purposes of God. His primary purpose is His own glory. Sinners need to hear that.

Ephesians 1:6, as we have seen in previous blog entries, declares that God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace. This text tells us without equivocation or shame the reason that God saves. “Well,” modern Christians think and say, “we can’t tell people that or they will be offended.” But if we don’t tell them these things they will remain in their sin of self-centeredness and pride, which is what they need to be saved from. Ephesians 2:7 also shows us the purpose of salvation when it tells us this: “so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Again we see the purpose of God in saving sinners. It is so that He might show the surpassing riches of His grace. The Great Commission tells us to make disciples by teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded. Jesus gave us the Great Commandment. It is only by grace that we can love God.

We must understand that God saves sinners to the glory of His name. If that is true, we must evangelize to that end or we are not evangelizing in the way God intends. Why did God save Israel time after time? Hear this text from Ezekiel 36:22: “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.” Again we see this in Ezekiel 36:32: “I am not doing this for your sake,” declares the Lord GOD, “let it be known to you.” Why did the Lord take Israel from Egypt and then into the land? “Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name, That He might make His power known” (Psalm 106:8). Verses like this can be multiplied many times over, but the point is already crystal clear. God saves sinners to declare and manifest His glory. He does not save sinners just to save them from hell for their own sake. If God saved sinners for no other reason than to deliver them from pain, then He would be an idolater as well. But instead God saves sinners to the glory of His own name and out of love for Himself as triune. That is, in all truth, the holiest of reasons. Our evangelism must reflect that.

The Reformation phrase of Soli Deo Gloria is rich with history and even richer in meaning. One writer said that Luther’s Bondage of the Will was the greatest Soli Deo Gloria sung during the Reformation. In other words, that writer perceived that Soli Deo Gloria was something that guided the thoughts and practices of Luther. On the one hand the Gospel is the glory of God displayed in the face of Christ, but if we could theoretically separate the glory of God from the salvation of human souls, we would see that salvation for human beings would be of no real importance apart from the glory of God. Apart from the glory of God the only reason that human beings would desire salvation in any way would be to escape hell. Wait a minute, isn’t this the main reason that is presented to human beings for salvation these days. Escaping hell is the main reason given to us for having gratitude for salvation. But the glory and reason of the Gospel is the glory of God shining in the face of Christ.

For those who have read Bondage of the Will they can see that Luther escaped the clutches of a self-centered and man-centered view of the Gospel. He saw that the Gospel was all about the glory of God first and foremost. The subject that he dealt with was of vast importance to him, but not because it was a philosophical treatise on the will. It was because it was of vast importance to state a view of the Gospel and of the human will that defended the glory of God as the real issue of primary importance. Erasmus was concerned to defend man and the rights and power of man, but Luther defended the rights and power of God. That same battle continues on in our day. However, in our day there are people who call themselves Reformed and defend the philosophical and even biblical view of Luther and yet they are without the Soli Deo Gloria of Luther. In other words, they are defending a view without the underlying worldview that should drive it.

It is my position that until a person grasps that God-centeredness of God which entails God’s love for Himself as triune that a person cannot hold the historical Reformed view with true consistency. In that case a person has lost the very heart of theology along with its basis and motivations. Reformed theology is nothing but a shell that is internally consistent in a way but has nothing to really support it or drive it other than human motives once the God-centeredness of God has been taken from it. Some might argue that it is biblical, but what is biblical if we don’t have a biblical view of the Bible and of God? Let me use an analogy that I hope makes the point without bringing in too many other issues. Reformed theology apart from the God-centeredness of God being the basis and aim of it all is like a scope on a rifle. When you look through the lenses of a scope many things are brought into better view. The sight is better and so the shooter is excited to have this view. The shooter sees the target and because s/he can see the target s/he thinks that it will be easier to hit the target. The problem is that the scope has not been aligned with the rifle. The purpose of a scope requires that it be aligned with the rifle and to assist the shooter to hit the target better. It is not just to give a better view of things.

We can imagine Luther writing Bondage of the Will as a philosophical treatise with the only goal of defeating Erasmus and presenting a biblical position. But can we imagine Luther not being focused in (scoped) on the glory of God in what he was writing? If so, he would have missed the target no matter what else he wrote. This is what I think Reformed theology is doing in our day. It looks through the scope and sees that things are clearer and it looks around and thinks others should have this view. But it is not aligned with the rifle and so it will not hit what it must hit to be accurate. In fact, it might hit things and cause a lot of damage by hitting the wrong object. Reformed theology must learn that academic respectability is not the same thing as pleasing God. It must learn that large numbers and large offerings is not the same thing as pleasing God.

If the focus of evangelism by Reformed people is to get people to escape hell, then that is a scope that is aimed in a different direction than the rifle. God does all out of love for His own name and for His own glory. That must be our aim and goal in evangelism. Evangelists are to be people living and preaching for the glory of God in the salvation of sinners rather than being here for the salvation of sinners in order to make God look good. Sinners are not just to escape hell, but they are to be turned from their seeking of themselves to being lovers of God. They are to be turned from seeking their own honor and glory to seeking the honor and glory of God. Jesus Himself told us that no one could enter the kingdom apart from being turned and becoming like a little child (Mat 18:1-4). Our evangelism needs more than just a little better theology; it must be the outflow of God’s love for Himself and His own glory. If it is not, we are far off of the target of what we should be aimed at and our evangelism falls far short of the glory of God. All that we think and do is to be aimed accurately at the glory of God from love for God.

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.