UPWARD GLANCE: Soli Deo Gloria
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It is not uncommon, and even understandable, that we would wonder what the will of God is. I’ll even go so far as to say that, in a specific sense, it’s hard to tell. However, the whole, “No one knows the will of God. He/She/It’s just so mysterious,” argument is a cop-out that I have a hard time tolerating.
We can be very sure, at least in a general sense, what God wants, and that’s the subject of the fifth of the 5 Solas: Soli Deo Gloria. It means, “Only the Glory of God.”
Soli Deo Gloria refers to our purpose for living in this world. Our sole purpose on this planet is to live in such a way that gives glory to God. Scripture supports this concept pretty heavily.
Recall that the first of the ten commandments is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3) God knew the default state of man is to worship something, and He only wants us to worship Him.
God strengthens the imperative in Deuteronomy when He commands, “You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name.” (Deuteronomy 6:13) Not only are we not to worship others, but we ARE to worship Him.
Jesus even said the greatest commandment - the one that we are to follow before anything else we do in our lives - is, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
Isaiah 45:23 reveals that God’s purpose in history is for “every knee to bow.” Paul quotes Isaiah in Philippians 2 when he reveals it is through and to Jesus that it will occur, saying, “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
To accomplish this, believers are constantly being transformed into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18) so that we can be equipped and able to do good works for God’s glory (Ephesians 2:10).
Colossians 1:16 clearly states, “all things have been created through Him and for Him.”
That being the case, let’s live up to our purpose and focus our lives on giving glory to God since it’s what we were made for. Psalm 46:10 says, “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
At the end of our fight against what He wants from us and for us - which is sin - there is rest beyond measure in simply being what we are supposed to be.