It’s All About HIM – ad infinitum

In my previous post I looked at the proposition put forth by Pastor Brian Borgman and attested to by other Christian theologians such as Jonathan Edwards and John Piper, that the Bible reveals that all creation exists for and all of human/Biblical history centers around the revelation of the glory of God, the outshining of the infinite perfections of His being, displayed most prominently and most clearly in the incarnation of God the Son, Jesus Christ, and in His work of the redemption of fallen mankind.  Before I get into a more detailed explanation of this, I would like to look more closely at this concept of the glory of God. 

When we speak of the glory of God we are speaking of the outshining, the revelation in creation of all that makes God, God, and thus infinitely worthy of being known intimately, loved supremely, feared and worshiped exclusively and enjoyed eternally as the desire of our heart and the delight of our soul, the object of our deepest love and source of our greatest joy.

The glory of God begins with the revelation of Him as the eternal, self-existent, self-sufficient creator and sovereign ruler of the universe and all that is in it.  It includes the revelation  of the infinite perfections of His being which at minimum include the beauty of His holiness, the excellence of His infinite wisdom and creativity, the awesomeness of His majestic power, the greatness of His faithfulness, the loveliness of His humility, the wonder of His incredible patience, the blessedness of His uncontested sovereign authority, the preciousness of His truth, the splendor of His abundant goodness and amazing grace, the sweetness of His loving kindness and tender mercies, the awfulness/severity of His justice, judgement and wrath, and the perfections of His redeeming love, which He revealed most gloriously in Jesus on the cross.

We learn from the Bible and from the writings of those theologians noted above, that above all else, God delights in being God (Jeremiah 9:24).  He finds His greatest joy, greatest pleasure and greatest satisfaction in His own Glory, as it is displayed within the eternal love relationship between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:16-17). There is none happier, nor more fulfilled, nor more satisfied than God is in God, and in creating man in His image and likeness He did so that we also would know our greatest joy, our ultimate pleasure, significance and satisfaction in and through our relationship with God and one another as image bearers of God such that God would enjoy us also enjoying Him (Genesis 1:26-28) (Psalm 90:14) (Zephaniah 3:17).

Thus, the glory of God is the central theme of the Bible.  And the Bible reveals that God displays His glory in four main ways: In the creation of the universe and all that is in it as well as all that occurs in it, in the creation of man in His image and likeness, in the truths found in the Bible regarding His person, purposes and ways, and most gloriously, in those truths being revealed, personified and witnessed to in the living Word, His Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Genesis 1:1) (Psalm 19:1-6) (Genesis 1:26-28) (Psalm 138:1-2) (John 1:1-4) (2 Corinthians 4:6).

The Apostle John, who may have had the closest relationship with Jesus while He was on earth (John 13:23) writes in John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 

We are told in Hebrews 1:1-4 that Jesus is the brightness of God’s glory, the express image, the exact representation of His divine being.  He is revealed as the one who made and upholds the universe and all that is in it, the one who alone can save us from our sin, from its present power and eternal consequences, and restore members of Adam’s fallen race to a place where we can once again and forever image and enjoy the glory of the greatness, goodness and grace of the one who presently sits on His throne in Heaven, ruling over the nations of the earth, working all things together for the eternal good of those who truly love Him (2 Chronicles 20:6) (Romans 8:28-30).

In the four gospels Jesus reveals Himself and His mission in various ways.  However, it is in John 14:6 wherein He is only hours from completing His mission which will have its full accomplishment on the cross, that He gives His apostles a most succinct statement regarding His identity and mission when He proclaims “I am the Way, the Truth and The Life, no man comes to the Father but by me.   

In identifying Himself as the Way, Jesus is revealing that it is only by Him- through our faith in Him, submission of our lives to Him and our identification of our lives with His, that men and women can be saved from their sin, declared righteous and welcomed into the Father’s house and the Father’s heart, wherein we can once again know the joys and pleasures of communion with God (Matthew 7:13-14) (Acts 4:12) (John 17:22-23) (Psalm 16:11).

In identifying Himself as the Truth, Jesus is proclaiming that all of His actions and all of His words represent and display the reality – the objective truth of God’s person and His purposes in creating man for His glory, and that as the sovereign king of the universe, human flourishing and individual happiness is to be found in Him alone.  In Jesus we see the greatness of God’s wisdom and power and the glory of His mercy and grace, as it is revealed in Jesus’ sinless life of mercy and compassion toward lost and hurting sinners and most gloriously in His sacrificial substitutionary death on the cross, which also clearly reveals the certainty of His justice and the righteousness of His judgement against sin (John 1:17) (John 18:37-38).

Finally, in identifying Himself as the Life, Jesus is revealing Himself to be the creator and source of all life, and as the one who came to raise us from spiritual death to eternal life – the glorious life with God for which man was created and lost because of sin (John 1:1-4) (John 11:25) (Ephesians 2:1) (1 John 5:11-12) (John 10:10).

Thus, in this one statement in John 14:6, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that all things that pertain to life and godliness are, and will be forever, all about Him (2 Peter 1:2-4) (Hebrews 13:8).

Grace and Peace ×