THE GLORY OF GOD
Robert I Webster
Romans 3:21-23
John 17: 4
Philippians 2: 9-11
I seek to say a word as to the glory of God; it is of fundamental importance in the glad tidings because there has been a challenge raised against it. Satan has sought, with apparent success, to undermine it. I think what we shall see is the way that God has taken in the glad tidings has meant that His glory has been maintained despite the efforts of Satan and the position of man; as we sang in our opening hymn (No 133) every thought of God is maintained.
The glory of God is the shining out of all that is true of Him, the expression of all that He is. It is marked by glory. There is the evidence of this in creation - the psalm says,
The heavens declare the glory of God;
and the expanse sheweth
the work of his hands, Ps 19: 1.
It is for all to take account of. Earlier on from where we read it says, “for from the world's creation the invisible things of him are perceived, being apprehended by the mind through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity”, Rom 1: 20. The psalm goes on to say -
There is no speech and there are no words,
yet their voice is heard. v 3.
You think of the demonstration of God’s power in what we can see in creation; “there are no words”, but you think of the manifest glory of God in what we can take account of. Men like to make a lot of noise to draw attention to themselves, but in the glory of creation there is a silent testimony to the power and divinity of God. It expresses something that is true of God. Yet generally as to men, the scripture in Romans suggests that they have chosen not to have God in their knowledge (chap 1: 28); “their heart without understanding was darkened”, v 21. You think of that!
And now I would like you to think of something else, dear friend: that man was created for the glory of God: you were created for God’s glory. In the beginning in creation, the word of God was, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen 1: 26), suggesting that it was in the divine mind that there would something to be expressed in man which was true of God Himself, thereby rendering glory to Him. But if you take account of the situation as it is, you will have to say that there is something seriously wrong! There is not much that can be seen in men that is to God’s glory.
That is why I read in the epistle to the Romans, because it is a sweeping statement, and none can excuse themselves from coming under the scope of it: “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”. That is all encompassing: you might say it is a great leveller for all men, that they “come short of the glory of God”. And that applies to you, dear friend, and it applies to me; and it is vital that you should have an appreciation of that. Perhaps we go to school, or to work, and we see people, or hear people say things that we might not say, or do things that we might not necessarily do, and we think they are worse than us. But you see that in the gospel we do not measure according to our own judgment: it is a question of the glory of God. “All have sinned”, whatever that might be. Sin is the expression of our own will. That is solemn to think about. We might sometimes like to compare ourselves against others, and find some rest in the fact that we are not as bad as they may seem, but when was the last time that you did your own will? That is an affront to the glory of God. That is a very solemn thing - God’s glory has been challenged. We have all sinned, we are of a sinful nature. Man was created for God’s glory and was put in the garden in circumstances of great blessing that he might know a relationship with God. And yet, as we know, he was disobedient; and in his disobedience he moved outside of the true relationship that man should know before God, into one of distance. What havoc that has caused - if there is something to be attributed to God which is denied by man, then there is something seriously wrong. It is on account of the disobedience of the one, as Romans 5: 19 says; we are all of a sinful nature.
We are all sinners by practice too. We might look back on Adam and see we are all of a sinful race, but there is that too which, as far as our sins are concerned, stands out against us personally. There is something that is personal to you by way of your sinnership, dear friend: “all have sinned”. It is important to see things as God takes account of them. It is not a case of how good you are when you compare yourself with others at school, or others at work, or others you come to the meetings with; it is a question of the glory of God and how you stand up before that. There is one of whom we are told he was put in the balances, weighed and weighed justly, and found wanting, Dan 5: 27. How solemn that is when you think of it; how active the enemy has been in challenging the glory of God! How solemn it is: man disobedient, seeking his own will; and what has it led to? You only have to read the scripture in early Romans to see the result of man choosing not to have God in his knowledge; he falls into moral depravity, moral degradation, to the point where man has fellow-delight in the result of sin. And that is prevalent today. How solemn, how serious, the man created for God’s glory, fallen and degraded in his sins.
Well, I do not seek to dwell on that; I really want to speak of the One who could say, “I have glorified thee on the earth”. What is the answer to fallen man? You think of the whole sinful history of man; how it has scarred the whole human race, and the earth has been a witness to it all. But there was a moment when One could say, speaking to the Father, “I have glorified thee on the earth”. The earth is the very sphere where sin has been so prevalent, and One could say, “I have glorified thee”! It is wonderful just to feed our souls, and to think of it; that One came here, and what did He have on His heart? What was at the root of every motive? It was the glory of God. What a Man! What a pure heart, what perfection of Manhood we see in One who could utter those words. It was not simply that He had not done anything wrong - and that is true - but He had glorified God. He took His place amongst men, and what was seen there was an altogether different order of man. Where the one order of man was disobedient, it could be said of Him that He “learned obedience” (Heb 5: 8): that is unique to Him because of the greatness of His Person. As to that, one has said, ‘He had been accustomed to command’, FER vol 9 p431. But He learned obedience, and He learned it through circumstances of suffering. He came here, the glory of God was at stake; and come what would against Him, He committed Himself to uphold it: He said, “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”, Heb 10: 7. It was a question of the glory of God, and He committed Himself to a pathway in which everything would be resolved, and God’s glory would be maintained through it all. That is moral perfection! We spoke of it this morning, the moral glory of the Lord Jesus.
We might not understand what ‘moral’ means. As far as I can grasp it, the simplest way I could put it is it is, how something appears before God. As far as you and I are concerned, we are morally corrupt on account of our sinful nature and deeds and become disobedient. We have altogether become corrupted, but there was One in whom moral perfection was seen - perfect obedience: cost Him what it would, He would not move outside the course of His Father’s will, and all the power and forces of Satan, the forces of evil, they railed against Him - infinitely more than any of us might experience; and He would not be altered on His course. That scripture in Romans 5 goes on to speak about “the obedience of the one”, v 19. God was glorified in it, that such a One should commit Himself to that will in spite of all that He knew it would involve for Him. Despite the suffering that He endured, despite all that came against Himself, He would obey. How fully God was glorified in it: “I have glorified thee on the earth”. Where every other man had disobeyed, there was One of whom the hymn could say -
Thou chosest still, blest Saviour, to obey
Hymn 318.
We could speak of His dependence upon God too. It says prophetically of Him,
I was cast upon thee from the womb
Ps 22: 10.
This is not seen amongst men; natural man moves in independence of God and follows the course of his own will. There is no glory for God in that. But what was seen in Jesus was a perfect dependent Man; and that magnified the One on whom He depended. Think of the Lord Jesus, cast upon God “from the womb”. The place into which He came meant that that must be so: in all the circumstances He passed through, what was seen was perfect dependence on God.
You remember that the Lord Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and you think of Him hungering. It is to be noted, and it is very touching to think, that the first man, Adam, disobeyed God in the most beneficial of circumstances, the most wonderful circumstances into which he was put, and yet he succumbed to Satan. Then there is the Lord Jesus, a perfect dependent Man in the power of the Spirit, led into the wilderness, hungering, and Satan came against Him. I suppose in the pride of his own thoughts he may have thought he had found the Lord at a weak point, but what was seen was perfect dependence upon God, and the enemy found no inroad. There was no entry, there was nothing; all the power of Satan which has enticed every other man so easily was rendered null when it came against this perfect Man dependent upon His God. In that, God was glorified.
You think of the manifest moral perfection in Him that could be taken account of. God had already taken account of it; He could express His delight in it at the waters of baptism before the Lord Jesus came out in His public service in those three and a half years. Before that, the Father had His delight in the perfection of that One, speaking reverently, seen in the simple and ordinary circumstances of life. How God was glorified in all that the Lord Jesus expressed. And He moved here perfectly; as I said before, the glory of God was at stake, a challenge had been raised. How successful Satan had been in robbing God of what is rightly due to Him! You think of it: man, the top-stone of God’s creation - you see all the glory of creation, and man is the top-stone - and yet become utterly degraded, darkened in his heart and at enmity with God. And there was One here concerned for the glory of God.
What I now seek to bring out is that, in saying, “I have glorified thee on the earth”, the Lord Jesus not only did this by what He was and what was seen in Him, wonderful though that is, but God has also been glorified in what He has done.
A question might be raised: if God is desirous of blessing the sinner, then what is to be done? - Because God would not be God if He does not condemn sin. Nothing is overlooked, and it is important to get that firmly in our souls, that the glory of God demands that nothing is overlooked. Sin has been fully exposed before God; the full awfulness of all that it is before a holy and righteous God has been seen. It has been seen at the cross of Christ. So what God is in respect of sin is not in question. If you are in any doubt as to what your sins are before God, I would point you to the cross of Christ, when in three hours of darkness, the Lord Jesus Himself became the sin bearer, and was forsaken of God, in order that God’s glory in respect of sin might be maintained. All that He is in respect of sin was seen there, and it was fully condemned, judged. Sin was dealt with when the Lord Jesus came under the judgment of God, as the One who was forsaken. That is what it meant for the Lord Jesus to be obedient; that is what it meant for Him to say, as He did anticipatively here, “I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”. The work meant that all that God is against sin might be demonstrated. No one can raise a question, no one can say that God has overlooked sin; it has been fully judged when the Lord Jesus offered Himself spotless to God.
You might then ask what God is in relation to the sinner. It is not only that what God is in respect of sin has been seen at the cross, but His heart of love to the sinner has been told out. It meant that God would give His only beloved Son in order that the issue of your sins might be resolved. It meant that that One should come here as a Man, and in love go the way of suffering, offer Himself, and know what it was to be forsaken, and enter into death itself. You think of it: the Lord Jesus lying in death, and the heart of God is told out, expressed towards the sinner; God would do such a thing for you! And His beloved Son was prepared to go such a way in order to resolve every issue that stood out between you and God. Who can question the heart of God towards the sinner? All has been done to satisfy the righteous demands of God and bring you into the fulness of salvation and the peace of knowing everything has been settled for you. All that God has required from man, Christ has done through His atoning work; and the fulness of what God’s heart for you is has been seen. We sing -
'Tis love displayed by Jesus,
(Hymn 212).
What a demonstration of love! Can you question God’s intention for you? God’s desires for you? God’s heart of love for you? He gave His only Son for you! And it meant that He should be forsaken. It meant that He should bear the mockery, the despising, the rejection, the betrayal of men; it meant that for Him. It meant that He should be the One that suffered before a holy God, as the One making atonement for sins.
What momentous things these are! God’s glory has been maintained; no one can raise a question - even Satan himself; no one can be uncertain as to what God is in respect of sins, because it has been seen at the cross. No one can question God’s heart towards them, and God’s heart is expressed towards you tonight. He is offering you mercy. The gospel gives opportunity for God to express His heart to you. You think of that: the wonder of God’s ways, that through the fall of man, God has been given occasion to express His heart in ways that are glorious. He is offering mercy; it “glories over judgment”, Jas 2: 13. I think that means that something supremely glorious is expressed in the exercise of mercy; and grace is known. God is gracious; He is good: “the kindness and love to man of our Saviour God”, Tit 3: 4. And it has been demonstrated by this blessed One. What a thing it was for God when One could say, “I have glorified thee on the earth”. What a triumph every lover of His feels, because it effects everything for God, it effects everything for you and me, that One was found here in the scene in which man in responsibility has failed and could say, “I have glorified thee on the earth” - one Man.
We read in Philippians, and it speaks of what God has done with this Man. What is the answer? What is God’s answer to the One who could say, “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”? “God highly exalted him”: He now fills the highest office in God’s universe; and God has “granted him a name, that which is above every name”. It is that Name that is preached for salvation and for remission of sins, the name of Jesus. And God would magnify that Name; God has ensured that there is renown attached to that Name. He is now there as an Object of faith for all those who have “obedience of faith”, Rom 1: 5. As the word comes in the glad tidings, it is in order that conviction might be brought in. God seeks that you should bottom things out, not simply to gloss over them. How easy that is to do: we are listening to the gospel, and perhaps we think we will be doing the same next week. God seeks for you to be able to have it all out with Him now; He could say, “Come now, let us reason together”, Isa 1: 18. His desire is that you might acknowledge your sinnership and be brought to repentance. If the word of God says it, there is no quarrel: “all have sinned, and come short of the glory”. That is the issue: you come short of the glory of God. It is not that you might be A better or worse person than others, it is a question of the glory of God. And God would seek to convict you in your heart as to it. He has installed a Man in glory who has resolved every issue for you; and He is presenting Him, He is setting Him forth as “a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood” (Rom 3: 25), that you might have the peace and assurance of knowing that He has accomplished a work that maintains everything for God and brings in forgiveness for the sinner. What a work: think of the majesty of such a work! Nothing has been overlooked, nothing has been swept to one side; everything came to a head and was dealt with at the cross, and God’s love has been expressed.
God has set that One forward as an Object of faith, that you may lay hold of Him, that One that we sang of this morning. He is different from every other man. He is the One that God would set forth; He has “granted him a name, that which is above every name”. It says that every knee is going to bow to Him: think of that! How man seeks his own things, his own glory, but there is a Man that every knee will bow to. That Man could say at one point, “I do not seek my own glory” (John 8: 50), but God has set Him at His right hand, and He is going to see to it that every knee bows to Him. And then it says that it is going to be “to God the Father’s glory”. God is glorified in that. He has vested everything in this Man, the One who is set apart from every other; every knee is going to bow to Him, and it is going to be “to God the Father’s glory”. Everything is going to be headed up in Him. God will say, ‘That is my Man’, and every created being will be brought to bow to Him, and it is “to God the Father’s glory”. In the exaltation of Christ, God is glorified.
What a Man He is! Everyone will be brought into subjection to Him. 1 Corinthians 15 says, “when he gives up the kingdom to him who is God and Father” (v 24); it is that eternally “God may be all in all”, v 28. That is the result of God committing everything to this Man. He is now setting Him forth as a point of attraction for you. Despite all Satan’s efforts, the way he would seek to undermine and raise a challenge, God’s glory has been maintained through circumstances of suffering; and the One who has done it is now in glory, set forth as an Object of faith, that you might find your trust, your hope, your joy, your rest, and your life there. Think of it - the One you have come to know so personally will be owned as Lord by the whole created sphere to God the Father’s glory. He is God’s Man.
That was my simple impression. We look within and we see what is so obnoxious to God. Then we look out - that is what faith does, it causes you to look outside of yourself, and look to the One who has maintained everything for God and who brings us into eternal blessing, that we might be to His praise and glory eternally. I trust that something of the wonder of what the Lord Jesus is and has done might freshly lay hold upon each one, and that we might be drawn nearer to Him in our affections, for His Name’s sake.
East Finchley
16 December 2018