So it was no surprise that my professors had some pet verses that we Christians often quote and teach to new Christians that are taken totally out of context. The most popular to correct was Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.” It’s repeatedly quoted as if this is a great proof-text for a small group, or the minimum you need for a church. It’s strange to think the God who promises to live in us would say that we need a couple of other people to guarantee his presence.   You don’t really need to get theological to offer a corrective. After all, the context is about church discipline, not a text concerning the power of group prayer.

Following my professors’ examples, I’ve picked two verses and sayings that no longer work if you look at the context.

“Sanctification is by God’s grace and our effort” — You may not hear these very words all that often, yet I think most Christians in evangelical circles believe God gives us some sort of toolbox called “grace” that allows us to live holy lives by our effort. When I point out that the Bible clearly communicates that we are justified by grace alone and sanctified by grace alone (with grace being the very presence of God’s Spirit in our hearts) it’s not too long before I hear something like Philippians 2:12, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

Context: For the sake of brevity I’ll attempt to limit my answer to two contextual observations that don’t allow for this to be the case. First, in the ESV there’s a comma after 2:12 not a full-stop. Meaning 2:12 doesn’t make full sense without 2:13, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Did you catch that it’s God who brings the desire and the effort in us to please God. Secondly, the broader context tells us that it’s not individuals Paul is speaking to in chapter 2 but rather a church living in response to having tasted union with Christ and participation of the Spirit (2:1-5). Part of this response is to be united as a body in Christ with the humility that gave birth to their community (2:6-11). So Paul tells the Philippians in a kind, fatherly voice, “As you have always listened to me, live out who you are as the body of Christ, for its God who gives you the desire and the effort to please him.” It’s not your effort to workout your salvation, but rather we are made like Christ only as we humbly cling to him for everything, even our sanctification.

“God doesn’t share his glory with any other” — This is said in order to draw people to God. It’s said to invite people to believe in God’s bigness, to see him in all his power, sovereignty, and majesty. Yet I’m not sure that this God is entirely biblical. Not to say that God doesn’t have these things as part of his being, but the emphasis of the Bible is that the character of his power, sovereignty, and glory is trustworthy and loving. Even as I write these words I know that someone is thinking of Isaiah 42:8, “I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other…”

Context: It’s clear that Isaiah 42:8 says that God doesn’t share his glory with any other, so what am I on about? Here’s another example where people want to put a full-stop where there’s a comma; 42:8 finishes with “nor my praise to carved idols,” which as a poetic parallelism clarifies the previous line. In other words, God will not share his people with other gods, who the Israelites have faithfully followed instead of the LORD. It’s not saying that God won’t ever share his glory with anyone; instead he won’t share it with carved idols that his people have loved.

In chapter 42 the LORD promises to give his suffering servant as a covenant for the people so that they will no longer live for false gods. We are Christians because Jesus, this servant, came to give us God’s glory. That is the Gospel!

In John it’s clear that God gives all that is his to us when Jesus says, “All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Just in case you may question whether the “all” in John 16:15 actually includes his glory, let’s look at some of the specifics of the “all” that Jesus prays for in John 17:22-4:

“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

So three elements of the “all” that we find in John 17 are glory, love, and union. These are what the Son had with his Father before the foundation of the world—that is, being united to the Father in love, which is called “glory” (17:5). The very heart of the Gospel is that Jesus came and died on the cross in order to purchase the gift of his glory: that Father may love us just as he loves his eternal Son.

Please let’s stop saying things that distort God’s character and his Gospel by always pushing ourselves into the context.

The post Can We Stop Saying…? first appeared on Cor Deo.

But their mindset of what all this meant was turned on its head.  Jesus in John 12 said, “the hour has come that the Son of Man (who was given by the Ancient of Days glory and authority over all creation) to be glorified.”  But this glory isn’t the glory they were expecting, it was the time where he would lose his life and be lifted up on the cross, so that he might draw all people to himself.  That is, the glory of God was seen with the Son of Man dead, naked on the cross.

Now this didn’t go well with their expectations, how could this possibly be?  The Son of Man was to have power, dominion; the Christ was to live forever.  The idea that glory could be connected to death was absolutely impossible. Death is weakness and defeat.  It didn’t compute, and even the disciples didn’t understand Jesus until he was glorified.

This doesn’t usually sit well with us either.  How could glory be connected to the humiliating cross? How could this be the hour that God is most clearly revealed?

There are many reasons for this, but let me offer two.  First, we tend to make glory about power, strength, dominion, pageantry, and a majestic brightness. Second, we see humility as weak, low in status and condition, and modest in spirit.  Yet, God doesn’t seem to define humility or glory exactly like that.  Don’t get me wrong, there are elements of these ideas in the Bible, but at mountain peak moments in the Bible these two words are dramatically redefined.

John 12 is one of these mountaintop moments, and Philippians 2 is another.  Paul defines humility as “counting others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” After his instruction he offers the greatest example of humility by describing God’s humility.   Now we are all fairly comfortable with Jesus’ humility, but it’s the Triune God’s humility on display.

You might object: how could it possibly be about God’s humility when the hymn ends with all tongues confessing and knees bowing to Jesus because “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”?

That’s a great and perfect question to ask.   We see that God the Father exalts Jesus by giving him the name that is above all names.  That name is Yahweh, and all that goes with that name is synonymous with the name Jesus of Nazareth. Yes the God who said, “I am Yahweh and there is no other” and “every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance” (Isaiah 45:19, 23), has equated himself with Jesus of Nazareth, the poor, unnoticeable, suffering servant, who died as a criminal.  Yahweh’s glory was displayed with death, even death on the cross.

Most importantly we see the ethos of the Father-Son-Spirit revealed by Christ on the cross. The glory they had before the creation of the world.  The Father delighting in and giving to his Son; the Son responding to his Father with the same other-centeredness; with the Spirit as the Uniter of the two.   The Triune God is humble, he isn’t self-concerned but elevates the other above himself.

Therefore, elevating self isn’t godly, nor is it glorious (Prov. 25:27). Jesus similarly states that “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing” in the context where the Father glorifies the Son and Son glorifies the Father (John 8).  There’s no self-seeking in God’s glory.

So what should our response be to Christ’s gospel?

Paul invites the Philippians to live out the attitude of Christ, to humbly esteem others more than themselves, which will unite them as one body.   This isn’t a pragmatic suggestion, but an ontological reality for any person who is one with Christ.  The heartbeat of the Trinity is the heartbeat we have in Christ, a selfless love for the other.

Therefore, Paul would say, do nothing out of competiveness or conceit, which contradicts the mindset of Christ.  I think we get that competiveness, seeking to be better than someone else, will lead to fissures in a community.  But maybe we miss the contrast between God’s nature and a conceited community.   Conceited could be translated as “vainglory” or even “empty-glory.”  In other words, if you are focused on what satisfies self, over and against someone’s interests, you lack the character of godly glory.  God’s love humbly looks to the other, anything else lacks glory.

Jonathan Edwards says this better than most in his Treatise on Grace, “God’s love is primarily to himself, and his infinite delight is in himself, that is, in the Father and the Son loving and delighting in each other.”  Without the last section Edwards would be describing a God who only thought of himself and would be empty of biblical glory.  Instead we see a God who has existed since before the creation of the world in a selfless and giving ethos that Edwards invites us to worship.

May we gaze upon and know God’s glory that shines out by his humble character displayed for all to see on the cross.

The post Empty Glory first appeared on Cor Deo.