Glory to God
Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you;
I will say to the north, “Give them up,”
and to the south, “Do not withhold;
bring my sons from far away
and my daughters from the end of the earth –
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
Isaiah 43:5-7
Our purpose is to glorify God. Through the prophet Isaiah, God describes the great gathering of His sons and daughters, and He links the designation of being His sons and daughters and being called by His name to being created for His glory. He says,
Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you;
I will say to the north, “Give them up,”
and to the south, “Do not withhold;
bring my sons from far away
and my daughters from the end of the earth –
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.” Isaiah 43:5-7
Our purpose is connected to our association with Him. If we claim association with Him, if we call ourselves Christians, if we hold ourselves out as His people, our purpose is to glorify God. Our purpose is to bring glory to God. What does that mean? How do we get there? How do we position ourselves to glorify Him?
The short answer is, we seek God through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we grow in Christ, we move along the path from salvation to sanctification, we grow increasingly holy as we allow His transformation to occur in our hearts, souls and spirits, we increasingly take on the image of Christ Jesus as He transforms us, we increasingly gain aspects of His life, light and love and that transformation reveals itself as fruit of the Holy Spirit, and the world around us notices the change and sees the light, and God’s glory is revealed through it all. It is God’s glory, not ours, and our purpose is to glorify God, not ourselves.
Our purpose is to glorify God, or actually, to reveal His glory by allowing Him to flow through us. We cannot do this on our own. The only way this is possible is through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We bring glory to God when He works through us, when we truly become His vessels, emptied of self, and filled with Him, when we truly act consistent with His will, His desire, His call.
The gospel according to John is filled with references to God’s glory. Almost every chapter contains a reference to glory.
On the evening of the Last Supper, Jesus taught about the vine and branches, describing Himself as the Vine and those who abide in Him as branches. He taught that He abides in His followers, and they abide in Him, and so long as they abide in each other, God will produce fruit through the branches. However, apart from the Vine branches produce no fruit. As part of the teaching Jesus says,
My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. John 15:8; and
And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. John 15:16-17
God is glorified by the fruit and Jesus appoints His followers to go and bear fruit, and God produces fruit through His followers only when they abide in Him. Who causes fruit to grow? Only God. Jesus appoints us to go and abide, so that God will cause fruit to grow through us. It is not our doing, it is His, yet we have responsibility – we must abide, and we must go and work.
After the Last Supper, and all of Jesus’ amazing teaching filling chapters 13-16 of the gospel, and before walking to the Garden of Gethsemane where He will pray and surrender to authorities, Jesus prays. I have heard chapter 17 of John described as the most sacred chapter in Scripture because it records communion of the Holy Trinity – Jesus Christ praying to the Father, God praying to God. Jesus had taught and taught and taught, and as He concluded His teaching that evening, He said that He had so much more to say, but it was more than they could bear (John 16:12).
Then He prayed. Five times in the opening statement of the prayer, Jesus uses derivatives of the word “glory.” John 17 begins saying,
After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. John 17:1-5
After hours of teaching over the course of the Passover meal, sharing the feast and bowls of wine, Jesus prayed that God the Father would glorify Him so that He would glorify God the Father. And He defines eternal life. Eternal life is knowing God through Christ Jesus. It is intimate relationship with God through Christ Jesus. It is that present quality of life available now, today, here, in and through Christ Jesus.
And how did Jesus bring glory to God? He brought glory to God by finishing the work that God gave Him to do. Our purpose is to bring glory to God, and we accomplish that purpose by finishing the work He calls us to do. So it has to do with relationship and loving service.
A little later in the same prayer, Jesus says,
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. John 17:20-24
2000 years ago, Jesus prayed for us. He prayed for everyone who would believe through the disciples’ witness. Jesus is God Almighty. The holy One. The Creator of the universe who surrendered His heavenly glory to come to earth as a fully human man, and after everything He did on earth, just before His time came to fulfill His mission on earth, He took time to pray for us.
And what did He pray? He prayed that the body of believers “may all be one” just as Jesus and the Father are One. How tightly united is the Holy Trinity? They are One. They are united beyond our ability to comprehend. And Jesus prays that we, the body of believers, might be one in the same manner, that we might be one as the Holy Trinity is One, and He gives us His glory. He says, “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one…” He gives us the glory that the Father gave Him. Pause and let that soak in. And He does this and desires this unity for a purpose – “so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.”
Jesus gives His glory to those who dwell in Him so that we may be one in the same way that Jesus and God the Father are one, and it is all so that the body of Christ will serve as His witness to the world, so the world will come to believe. Unity is not a passing thought. It is essential to our purpose here on earth. And during this critical time, at the very end, when time was so short, Jesus paused to pray for our unity and His entire prayer for us is based on unity, relationship, dwelling, abiding … and through our abiding we are transformed … and it is all for a purpose.
God created us for His glory. Our purpose is to reveal God’s glory to the world, and God is glorified through the fruit that is produced by branches connected to the vine, through the works that fulfill His will by those in whom Christ Jesus dwells and who dwell in Him.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says,
“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16
We are light to the world doing good works for God’s glory when Jesus’ light fills us to the point that it begins to overflow and shine through us and illuminates the world around us. And when His light flowing through us illuminates the dark world around us and people notice, it all brings glory to God. The process depends on our relationship with God through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It depends on His indwelling. It depends on our spiritual transformation through Him. It depends on Him. And it is all for His glory.
We are the light when God’s light flows through us. Our works are good, they are fruit, so long as we abide in Christ Jesus and He abides in us and they are consistent with His will. Further, good works or fruit glorify God. It is God’s glory, not ours, and our purpose is to glorify God, not ourselves.
May you grow in Christ Jesus. May you know your purpose. May God’s glory be revealed through you out in the world so others may know that Jesus is Lord. Amen.