For His Glory

Ephesians 1.11-14 (3)

Pray Psalm 123.1, 2.
Unto You I lift up my eyes,
O You who dwell in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,
As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the LORD our God,
Until He has mercy on us.

Sing Psalm 123.1, 2.
(Darwall: Rejoice, the Lord Is King)
To You we lift our eyes, O God enthroned above!
With longing gaze and heaving sighs we plead Your love!
Refrain v. 2
We look to You! Have mercy, LORD,
upon us by Your sovereign Word.

Read Ephesians 1.11-14; meditate on verse 12.
What do you see in your mind’s eye when you say the word, “glory”? How do you think of the glory of God? What is it?

Preparation
1. What is God’s goal in lavishing upon us all these spiritual blessings?

2. What is our role in that?

Meditation
God has given us wondrous spiritual blessings, making us His own people, setting us aside as saints, granting us an apostolic calling, becoming our inheritance, and working to bring His purpose to bear on, in, and through us. All this, Paul wrote, is so that “we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.” This, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism reminds us, is our “chief end” in life: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

That sounds like a very high and holy calling, and indeed, it is. We need to circle ’round that word, “glory”, for a bit. Do we know what “glory” is? Or what it means? Or how we may “glorify” God or “be to the praise of His glory”? Too often these extremely wonderful and important concepts become just religious-speak because we don’t take the time to consider them carefully.

The word “glory” derives from a root that means “heavy” or “weighty”. The glory of God is the Presence of God, “weighing in” by degrees in the creation around us, so that we are treated to glimpses of beauty, order, wisdom, majesty, and more—all of which are aspects of God’s Presence and, hence, of His glory. To live for God’s glory is to live like the creation, as a kind of prism which receives the pure grace and light of God each day and separates it into colors unique to our personality and calling—thoughts, desires, words, and deeds expressed in our daily work. 

God graciously and gloriously shines the light of spiritual blessings into our lives, and that light then comes to expression in and through us with such clear manifestations of the grace of God that we praise Him and others praise Him, too.

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
That being our “chief end” we need to know how to achieve it.

How to be “clear manifestations of the grace of God” and how to “praise Him” with our mouths and lives so that “others praise Him, too.”

Salvation leads to sanctification; and without sanctification we run the risk of being a stink instead of a praise.
On a good day we are an “aroma of death” to those who don’t believe in Christ because of our godly behavior (2 Cor. 2.15, 16). On a bad day, we are merely a hypocritical odor of false living and foolish speaking.

Jesus’ healing of the blind man in Mark 8.22-25 is a good visual example of salvation plus sanctification.
At Jesus’ first touch (salvation) the man said, “I see men as trees, walking.”
By Jesus’ second touch (sanctification), “he was restored and saw everything clearly.”
It was both/and, not either/or.

To be able to carry the weight of giving glory we need the power of the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit desires for us to be holy vessels of praise (Lev. 11.44, 45; 1 Pet. 1.16).
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit Who is in you, 
Whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 
For you were bought at a price; 
therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, 
which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6.19, 20).

For His glory we must strive for sanctification.
We are to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2.12).
“You shall love the LORD your God
with all your heart, 
with all your soul, and 
with all your mind. 
This is the first and great commandment. 
And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22.37-40; Ex. 20.1-17).

Nobody can do this work for us: not our pastors, churches, spouses, teachers, parents, friends, children, politicians, governments, judges, or anyone else we might feel inclined to lay this burden upon. This work falls to us to do; and if we don’t, we will never be able to praise God properly, nor will our lives ever glorify Him. 

Thankful for God’s first touch of salvation—in which we were able to see our sin and need for a Savior—
we are now, after the second touch of receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, thankful to see clearly what our next step is: sanctification through daily fellowship with Him in His Word, in prayer, and in following obediently His Law as He states it. 

We err egregiously when we see His Law unclearly, “as trees walking.”
We have been “restored” and given sight to see His Word “clearly”.
And when we see it clearly, we must obey it rigorously. His way.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; 
try me, and know my anxieties; and 
see if there is any wicked way in me, and 
lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139.23, 24).

“We who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1.12).

Reflection
1. What is sanctification? How does this work proceed? What is your role in it?

2. What would we say about a Christian who was indifferent to being sanctified? Can we glorify and enjoy God apart from sanctification?

3. Whom will you encourage today in the work of sanctification?

The word glory, by way of eminence, (κατ’ ἐξοχὴν) denotes, in a peculiar manner, that which shines in the goodness of God; for there is nothing that is more peculiarly his own, or in which he desires more to be glorified, than goodness. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Ephesians 1.12

Pray Psalm 123.2-4.
Ask the Lord to prepare you to live for His glory today, in everything you do, with every person, and that you might know His Presence with you, to glorify and enjoy Him in all you do.

Sing Psalm 123.2-4.
(Darwall: Rejoice, the Lord Is King)
As servants strain to see their earthly lord’s command,
So we would in Your Presence be and firmly stand!
Refrain v. 2
We look to You! Have mercy, LORD,
upon us by Your sovereign Word.

Have mercy, LORD, we pray; our souls are weary, worn.
The wicked world condemns our way and heaps up scorn.
Refrain

Our souls are sore oppressed by this world’s ease and pride.
In You we would be healed and blessed, and in You hide.
Refrain

T. M. and Susie Moore

If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

Our book, To Know Him, can help in understanding the glory of God and how we may know it. Learn more, hear an excerpt, and order your copy by clicking here.

Other columns of interest this week: In our ReVision series on “The Kingdom Economy” we begin looking at commerce from a Kingdom perspective. Our Read Moore podcast continues readings from the book, Such a Great Salvation.  Our Crosfigell series on Brendan of Clonfert finds the saint beginning his second voyage to find The Promised Land of the Saints. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.

And please prayerfully consider supporting The Fellowship of Ailbe with your prayers and gifts. You can contribute online, via PayPal or Anedot, or by sending a gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.