What if I told you that life wasn’t meant to revolve around you? Or if I said that you were created for something infinitely greater than your own personal self-satisfaction?
Well guess what? Life doesn’t spin around you and you do exist for something mightier than you. That something is a someone. And that someone is God. He is the One around whom life orbits. This is the stunning message of the Bible.
I was recently overwhelmed by a powerful passage in Matt Chandler’s ‘Explicit Gospel’ (2012) wherein he argues convincingly that, “From beginning to end, the Scriptures reveal that the foremost desire of God’s heart is not our salvation but rather the glory of His own name. God’s glory is what drives the universe; it is why everything exists.” Chandler proceeds to list sixteen passages from Scripture in which the Lord reveals the reason He does everything, namely, for the glory of His own name.
- God didn’t destroy Israel in the desert for the glory of His name (Ezekiel 20:5-9).
- God saves men for the glory of His name (Psalm 106:8).
- God hardened Pharaoh’s heart for the glory of His name (Exodus 14:4, 8).
- God instituted the monarchy for the glory of His name (1 Samuel 12:19-23).
- God inspired the building of the Temple for the glory of His name (1 Kings 8).
- God strengthened Israel for the glory of His name (2 Samuel 7:23).
- God didn’t destroy Israel for the glory of His name (Isaiah 48:9-11).
- God decided to destroy the wicked Israelites for the glory of His name (Malachi 2:2).
- God sent Jesus to earth for the glory of His name (John 7:18; 17:4).
- God planned the crucifixion for the glory of His name (John 12:27-28).
- God saves us for the glory of His name (Ephesians 1:3-6).
- God calls Christians to live for the glory of His name (Matthew 5:16; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 Peter 4:11).
- God will send Jesus to return for the glory of His name (2 Thessalonians 1:9-10).
- God will consummate all things for the glory of His name (Revelation 21:23).
Do you realize something that all the passages above have got in common?
In every case God works for “the glory of His name”. That is the real purpose of your life and existence. Everything is ultimately subject to the grand purpose of glorifying God’s great name. That’s right- everything! Even salvation and condemnation! God will be glorified eternally independently of what lot befalls the sons of men.
It is by living in the light of this grand ideal that Christians are delivered from the selfish spirit of our age which is all about me, myself and I. True believers rejoice continually in the hope of the glory of God; not in their own self-glorification. God’s glory acts a sweet medicine that soothes every afflicted heart and restless soul. God’s glory comforts and God’s glory embraces because God’s glory is Jesus. He is someone much more important than you and me.
An article written by our brother, friend, Pastor Will.
