2. The Glory of God
But now thus saith the Lord, who created thee, O Jacob, and who formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I redeemed thee; I called you by name, you’re mine. When you cross the waters, I will be with you; when, near the rivers, they will not overwhelm you; when you go through the fire, you won’t burn, and the flame won’t burn inside you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom and Ethiopia and Seba for you. As you were precious in my eyes, worthy of honor and as I loved you, I will give men to you and peoples to your life. So don’t be afraid because I’m with you; I’ll bring your offspring from the east and gather it from the West. I’ll tell the North: get away! And to the south: don’t stop!Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters, from the ends of the earth, all who are called by my name, and those I created for my glory, to those I formed and created (Is 43:1-7).
- After the question in Chapter 1: “Does God exist?” to which God responds 😕 I am? (Ex 3.
- 14)? The next question that most shaped us was: “Why did God create the world?”.
The short answer that resonates throughout the Bible as thunder is: God created the world for its glory. We’ll talk about what this means, but first let’s establish the fact.
Notice the key verses of Isaiah 43:6b-7 😕 Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, all who are called by my name, and those I have created for my glory, and who have formed and done. The most restricted meaning here is “I took Israel to my glory”, using the words “I believed”, “Did I train?”and referred us to the original act of creation. That’s why Israel finally exists. Because that’s why everything exists: for the glory of God.
When the first chapter of the Bible says, “God created man, in his image, in the image of God, he created him; Did the man and the woman create them?(Genesis 1. 27), what is the main point? The point of an image is to think. Images are made to indicate what is original. Point to the original. Glorify the original. God created human beings in his image so that the world would be filled with God’s reflectors. Images of God, seven billion portraits of God, so that no one loses the main point of creation. No one (unless blind) could overlook the main point of humanity, that is, God. Know, love, and show God.
The angels shout in Isaiah 6. 3: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of armies; the whole earth is full of its glory!The earth is full of millions of human beings who bear the image of God. Glorious ruins. But not just human beings, nature too!Why live in such an amazing world?I read some time ago (I don’t remember when!) That there are more stars in the universe than words and sounds that all humans of all time have uttered.
The Bible is clear about it: “Do the heavens declare the glory of God?(Salt 19,1). If someone asks, “If Earth is the only inhabited planet and the human being is the only rational inhabitant among the stars, why such is a large and empty universe?”The answer is: this is not about us. ThatDieu. Ets about falling short. God created us to know him, love him, and show him. So, did you give us an idea of what it looks like?The universe.
The universe declares the glory of God and the reason we exist is: to see the universe, to marvel at us and glorify God for Him. Paul therefore says in Romans 1:20-21: “For the invisible attributes of God, also as his eternal power, as well as his own divinity, are clearly recognized, from the beginning of the world, being perceived through the things that have been created. “Such men are therefore inexcusable; because, knowing God, didn’t they glorify him like God?
The great tragedy of the universe is that while human beings were created to glorify God, not all of us achieve that goal and change: the glory of the incorruptible God in the likeness of the corruptible man?(Room 1,23)?especially the one we see in the mirror. This is the essence of what we call sin.
Then why did God create the universe?Eternity in eternity: God created the world for its glory.
Isaiah clearly says in 43. 7 that God created the world for its glory and continues to insist on reality several times to help us feel and be part of the fabric of our thinking:
Isaiah 40: 4-5 😕 Each valley will be filled, and all hills and hills will be razed?The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all the flesh will see it, for did the mouth of the Lord say so?
Isaiah 42. 8 😕 I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory, therefore, will I not give it to another, nor my honor, to the images of sculpture?
Isaiah 44. 23: Rejoice, thou, the depths of the earth; rejoice in joy, mountains, forests, and all its trees, why did the LORD redeem Jacob and glorify himself in Israel?
Isaiah 48:9-11: “For the love of my name, I will delay my wrath, and for my honor I will stand with you for fear of exterminating you. I see you, but it didn’t lead to money; I tried you in the furnace of affliction; for me, for me, I do that; because how would my name be desecrated?Don’t I give my glory to someone else?
Isaiah 49. 3 😕 And he said unto me, “Thou art my servant, thou art Israel, by whom shall I be glorified?”
Isaiah 60. 2 😕 For behold, darkness cover the earth, and darkness the peoples; But does the Lord shine upon you, and his glory sees upon you?
Isaiah 61. 1-3 😕 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for the Lord anointed me to preach the good news to the broken. In the mourning of those who are grieving in Zion, he carries praise rather than anguished spirit; to be called oaks of righteousness, planted by the Lord for their glory.
God created the world “to be glorified. ” Which he doesn’t mean, “to make it glorious. “Don’t you believe the word, and consider it the word “beautification. “Beautify is to take a common room and make it beautiful. We don’t have an ordinary God and we make it beautiful. This is not what it means to glorify God.
When God created the world, He did not create it from a need, weakness, or deficiency. He created from fullness, strength and complete sufficiency. As Jonathan Edwards said: “There is no discussion about the emptiness or lack of a source prone to overflowing. (Yale: Works, vol. 8, 448) Therefore, we do not glorify God by improving his glory, but by seeing, testing, and showing his glory (which is like knowing, loving, and showing).
Or do you consider the word? (as in Philippians 1:20, “May Christ be magnified,” megalunthesetai). We magnify its glory as a telescope and not as a microscope. Microscopes make small things look bigger than they are. Our lives must be telescopic toward the glory of God. We were created to see its glory, be amazed by its glory, and live in a way that helps others see it and appreciate it for what it really is. love and show your glory.
That’s why the universe exists. If it gets you well, it’ll affect the way you think and feel everything. Now you know why everything exists. You don’t know everything, there are billions of things you don’t know, but you never hear anything important about everything. Because you know that everything exists for the glory of God, you know something about everything. And that is one of the most important things you can know about anything, and then, to know something, that all things exist for the glory of God, is to know something supremely important above all, in other words, for what purpose, in the end. Exists. That’s wonderful.
Simply saying that God created the world for its glory is very general, we cannot stop here. This statement is still very disconnected from the specific people of the Godhead and from the flow of history as God guides it. The question is not only: “Why did God create the world,” but why this world?Why these thousands of years of human life?history with a glorious beginning, a terrible fall into sin, a history of Israel, the coming of the Son of God to the world, a surrogate death, a triumphant resurrection, the foundation of the Church, and the history of world missions to where we are today?Why this world, this story?
And the quick answer to this question is: for the glory of God’s grace, it manifests itself supremely in the death of Jesus. Or to put it in more detail: this world? This story, how it develops, was created and supported by God so that God’s grace, manifested supremely in the death and resurrection of Jesus by sinners, can be glorified for all eternity in the stimulating joys of Christ felt by the redeemed. Or in short: this world exists for the glory of God’s grace revealed in Jesus’ saving work. This means that Bethlehem is not only a God-centered church, but a church that exalts Christ and a church guided by the gospel. For us, there is an indestructible bond between the glory of God, the glory of God. grace, the glory of Christ and the glory of the cross.
Let me show you, from the Bible, how God’s glory relates to the cross of Christ. We can do it in five steps.
“[God] predestined us for him, for the adoption of children, for Jesus Christ, according to the will of his will, to praise the glory of his grace, which he bestfed upon us in the beloved?(Eph 1:5-6). In other words, the glory of God’s grace?What does Paul call the supreme richness of his grace, in kindness to us, in Jesus Christ?(Ephesians 2. 7)? It is the culmination and final culmination of the revelation of God’s glory. the purpose of predestination is that we live for the glory of this grace forever.
It is the result of his glory and everything else; Even God’s wrath serves that purpose. Thus Paul says in Romans 9:22-23: “What will we say, then, if God, wanting to manifest his wrath and make known his power, has endured the vessels of anger with great patience??” so that he may also make known the riches of his glory in the vessels of mercy?Anger is the penultimate one. The glory of grace in the vessels of mercy is definitive.
“God chose us in him before the foundation of the world?To praise the glory of your grace? (Ephesians 1. 4, 6). Grace was not a late reaction in response to the fall of man. That was the plan, because grace is the summit of the mount of your glory. And he created the world for his glory. God planned the world for the glory of His grace.
?? Did he predestinate us for himself, for the adoption of sons, through Jesus Christ? Praised be the glory of his grace! (Eph 1,5-6). This predestination to the praise of the glory of God’s grace occurred “through Jesus Christ. ” In the eternal fellowship of the Trinity, the Father and the Son foresaw that the grace of God would be revealed supremely through the saving work of the Son.
Again, Paul says in 2 Timothy 1. 9: “[God] saved us and called us with a holy vocation; not according to our works, but according to your determination and grace that were given to us in Christ Jesus, before eternal times?Therefore, before the times began, the plan was to reveal the glory of God’s grace specifically through Christ Jesus.
We realize this fact in the name that was already in the book of the redeemed before the creation of the world; before there was a human sin to die for, God foreshadowed His Son to be killed by sinners; we know it by the name given to the book of life before creation. “Will all [worship the beast] whose name was not written before the foundation of the world, in the book of the life of the Lamb who was killed?(Ap 13. 8).
The name of the book that existed before creation was “the book of the life of the Lamb who died”. The plan was glory. The plan was thank you. The plan was Christ. The plan was death. And this death for sinners like us is the essence of the gospel, so in 2 Corinthians 4. 4 Paul calls it “the gospel of the glory of Christ”.
That is why Revelation 5. 3, 9 shows that for all eternity we will sing “the song of the Lamb. ” We will say with amazement and praise: “You are worthy to take the book and open the seals, because you have been murdered and with your blood have you bought for God those who come from every tribe, language, people and nation?” (Ap 5, 9) We will praise ten thousand facts about our Savior, but nothing more glorious than we will say: have they killed you? And bought millions of them.
Then, in conclusion, we asked, “Why did God create the world?”And we respond with Scripture: God created the world for its glory. God did not create it out of necessity. He did not create the world from a gap that needed to be corrected, he was not alone. Were you extremely happy in the communion of the Trinity?Father Son and Saint-Esprit. Il created the world to show its glory so that his people could know, love, and raise him.
And why did God create a world that would become similar to this world, a world that has fallen into sin?A world that changed God’s glory for the glory of images Why would he allow, rule, and support such a world?And we respond: to the praise of the glory of The supreme grace of God manifested in the death of Jesus.
The ultimate reason for all things is the communication of the glory of God’s grace to the joyful praise of a redeemed multitude composed of people from all tribes, languages, peoples, and nations All things are created, governed, and sustained for the glory of God. , which reaches its peak in the glory of his grace, which shines brighter and on the glory of Christ, which focuses more clearly on the glory of the cross.