God Loves… Himself

What instructs man how to glorify God? Holy Scripture, as the very Word of God, is what instructs us how to glorify and enjoy God. Roman Catholicism had put the supreme authority into the hands of men by teaching that the Pope and the Councils did not err. The Reformation went back to Scripture and set out that the supreme authority was God as He spoke in His Word. No man and no collection of men have authority over the Word of God since it is the words of God given to men. The Scriptures are the very revelation of God and His will to man so that man may not have to rest on the verdict of fallen reason and so-called common sense. The supreme authority for the Church is God, but it is the spoken word of God as given by God. This means that for all matters of doctrine, life, and conduct in the church the Word of God is the final authority. It alone has the revelation of God that man is to submit himself to. The Scripture alone teaches how man is to live to the glory of God alone.

Scripture must be related to Soli Deo Gloria or it is simply how God reveals to man how man is to be saved and to live a better way. If Scripture is not the glory of God proclaiming the Gospel of His glory and how man is to live to the glory of God, then Scripture is simply another self-help manual. But if we look through the spiritual lenses that God provides by grace, we can see that Scripture is the very words of God about God and His glory. No longer do we see the Ten Commandments as simply words about how man is to be good, but those are seen as flowing from the holy character of God and how man is to love God. So Scripture is really a revelation of the Words of God about the glory of God and how man is to love God and His glory.

When Scripture is seen as the words of God revealing His glory, then we can understand the words of Ezekiel in an analogous way: “He said and it was sweet as honey in my mouth to me, ‘Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you'” (3:3). How lovely and tasty are the words of God to the soul of man who has a renewed heart and so that the words of God are used to give a taste of the glory of God. The Scripture becomes that which brings life to the soul and we know by taste that the words of Christ are spirit and life and are words of eternal life (John 6:63, 68). The words of Christ, to those that have the taste buds of glory and life, are the only real authority. We can understand how Luther would be able to stand before all the civil and religious rulers of his day and stand firmly on the Word of God alone. When Scripture is tasted and seen to be the very words of God and of the sweet breathings of the words of Christ to the soul, all contradictory authorities must not be listened to.

Once Luther, as he says, saw the gates of heaven opened and walked in, he was a man under authority, the authority of God as He speaks in His Word. It is not that Luther did not listen to other men, as assuredly he read Augustine and others, but he saw with an especial penetration into what the real authority must be. Should he listen to the teachings of men or heed the Word of God? Should he listen to the pope at the time, they changed on a regular basis, or the Word of God? Should Luther listen to the councils of men when they clearly did not heed the Word of God or the Word of God itself? How people today need to listen to Luther on these issues. No man, including Luther and Calvin, are to be followed apart from the Word of God. Luther did not want a denominational following that took his name, but one did. It is also interesting that the Lutherans departed from his teaching almost immediately and the modern Lutherans are not even close to what he taught regarding grace. Calvin was buried in an unmarked grace and he did not want a following either. What we need is the spirit of these men who adhered to the Word of God over all other teachings.

Luther, upheld by the grace and glory of God, stood on the Word of God and not the words of men. This is not saying that no one should listen to the history of the Church or the great teachers that God has raised up. It is simply saying that all teachers must teach the Word and that teaching that is not from the Word should not be followed. The teaching of Sola Scriptura must be returned to in order that the local church will see its real authority and then the authority of the local church will be seen. Sola Scriptura must be returned to in order that there will be a true teaching that will keep man in the grips of Soli Deo Gloria. Human centered teaching will always lead away from the glory of God as its center. That only happens when the Scriptures are not taught in their fullness and are departed from regarding their message and authority.

There were five principles that have been drawn from the heart of the teachings of the Reformers. While some will look at John Calvin and what is known as Calvinism and think that those principles would be the so-called “five points of Calvinism,” they are simply wrong. The five points of the Reformation are the real heart of Christianity and without them, even if one is a five point Calvinist; the real points of the Reformation have been missed. These are the vital issues of Christianity.

Soli Deo Gloria: (to God alone be the glory)

This point is at the heart of the Reformation and the Bible. This is the essence and core of why God created anything at all and of all biblical theology. While this point is last in many lists, it will be listed first here. It will be listed first because the other four points of the Reformation flow from it. The focus of this point is that all must be done to the glory of God and all that God does is for His own glory. This point flows from the Great Commandment in which all are commanded to love God with all of their beings. This flows from the command given in I Corinthians 10:31 where we are told this: “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” This reflects the cry of the Psalmist when he prayed: “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory” (115:1). When we look at the whole of Scripture, it tells us to know that we were created for the glory of God and that all we do is sin if it is not for the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in order that it may be to the glory of God alone. We are sanctified by grace in order that we may live in a way that manifests the glory of God. This principle is the heartbeat of Scripture and should be the heartbeat of all true believers. Several catechisms reflect this in different ways when we are told that the main purpose and goal of man is to glorify God.

All of biblical theology when seen in its truth is seen to flow from the God of all glory who in His holiness seeks the manifestation of His own glory. As Jonathan Edwards set out in his magnificent work The End for Which God Created the World, what other end could God have had in creating anything at all? If we could look back into eternity past and imagine that there was nothing but God, we can ask why God would have created anything at all. Would God have created the world for the benefit of beings that He would bring into being at a later point? Did God have a greater being to create for? Did God have a being more worthy than Himself to create for? Did God have another being that He should love more than Himself? The obvious answer to all of those questions is a simple and emphatic “no.” God is holy and will do nothing that is not for His own glory. God would have created only with the most noble and holy of reasons and that would be His own glory.

Since there is only one reason for why God would have created anything at all, it is easy to see the purpose of man in all that he is and does. We can see the primary motive and purpose of the Bible as it is the revelation of God in His glory and how man is to live for the glory of God. The fall of man is away from sin and man’s attempt to find a purpose and reason in life apart from the glory of God. The Gospel is all about how God saves and restores man to his original purpose in living for His glory in the Gospel of the glory of God. The Scripture speaks of the Gospel as a message that is saturated with the glory of God and how it comes to man as that. While man has tried to change the Gospel message to be primarily about man, the Scripture knows nothing of a so-called gospel like that.

When men get away from the Gospel of the glory of God (II Corinthians 4:4-6; Ephesians 1:2-14; I Timothy 1:11) it becomes a statement of man’s worth and inherent goodness. But the true Gospel shows that God saves to the manifestation of the glory of His name and not man’s. Sanctification flows from how one perceives the Gospel. If the Gospel comes to man as a statement of man’s worth, then sanctification should be motivated by similar motives. However, if the Gospel comes to man as a declaration of the glory of God and as a way that man may be restored to live for the glory of God both now and in eternity, then sanctification is all about the glory of God. If the Gospel itself shines forth the glory of God and renews and restores man to where God may glorify Himself through man, then all must be done to the glory of God. That is what happened in the Reformation. A Gospel that was centered on God was restored and lives that focused on the glory of God were restored. In this, therefore, man joins the purpose of God by singing and living in a way where it is Soli Deo Gloria or to God alone be the glory.