For the Glory of God Alone

Romans 11:33-36

What does Soli Deo Gloria mean? To the Glory of God Alone.

Because salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone, without any contribution on our part, and because Scripture alone is our final authority; we see that all glory belongs to God alone and not to us.

What does Glory mean?

In the Bible, Glory describes the supremacy of God in everything, the awesomeness of God’s presence

The Glory of the Lord went before Israel in the wilderness, met with Moses on Mt. Sinai, filled the tabernacle and temple so that the people could not enter.

Hebrew, kabod. It means heavy, substantial, of great significance and meaning. To declare the glory of God is to show His supreme value. The opposite of glory is vanity: to make empty, meaningless, of no consequence or value

When the Bible calls us to to glorify God, it is not that we make God glorious, He already is. To glorify God quite simply is to reflect, reveal, and to proclaim God’s glory.

Consider Today:

Why God get’s the glory by studying Romans 11:33-36.

Then to ask, “How We can glorify God?”

Why does God get all the glory?

The exposition of Rom 11:33-36.

Working through Romans:

Chs. 1-3: Judgment against sin, both Gentile, who deny the reality of God, and Jew, who sit in the place of God.

Chs. 4-5: Salvation for all, both Jew and Gentile, by grace in Jesus Christ - fulfilling the covenant promise to Abraham.

Chs. 6-8: All in Christ are dead to sin and alive to God, counted righteous because of God’s Spirit, who calls, regenerates, and saves according to God’s will.

Chs. 9-11: God is faithful to keep his promises, and all, both Jew and Gentile, will be saved if they do not continue in disbelief, but trust in Jesus’ name.

Theology leads to Doxology - having laid out this grand theological exposition, Paul erupts in praise.

O the deep riches of God’s wisdom, and knowledge

God’s wisdom evidenced in Creation; in ordering the stars and planets, in the variation and abundance of life, in the way in which he designed man, fearfully and wonderfully made; God’s wisdom is beyond ours.

Jer 10:12 - He established the world by his wisdom and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

God’s knows the hearts and minds of man, every word before it is spoken, knowing all things before they come to pass, and what must be done for His will to be achieved.

Ps 139 - such knowledge is too wonderful for me…

His unsearchable judgments and inscrutable ways

God’s judgments (righteous decrees); why God choses to save us, why God blesses one with salvation and eternal life, while passing over another that they would remain in a reprobate state beyond our reach, this is His secretive will.

Deut 29:29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God…

His ways, how even when man chooses great evil, God can still work greater good, His ways are past finding out.

Isa 55:8 My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

God is above our counsel and does not need our input.

Isa 40:14 Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

He is the source of all things

No one holds God in his debt. We cannot give God something that would make God have to repay us. There is no bartering with God.

From him, through him, and to him are all things

Everything that exists has its beginning in God, has its support from God, and has as its purpose to praise God.

We were made in His image, reflecting His glory for all to see.

How can a sinner glorify God?

Rom 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Sin runs so deep we end up hating the glory of God.

John 3:19 the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

It was the work of Christ to restore the elect to the glory of God through His death and resurrection. He secured glory through his suffering and death for us.

John 3:14 - the Son of man must be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

John 13:31, when Judas betrayed him, the cross approached, “now is the Son of Man glorified, and God glorified in him.

How is the cross God’s glory? His perfect justice, and His perfect love, meet at the cross of Jesus, to show His wisdom in the things the world counts as foolishness.

God’s glory in the salvation of sinners

How can a sinner glorify God? By His grace alone; through faith alone which is given by God’s Spirit; trusting in Christ alone, God’s Son given for our redemption, living according to the Word of God alone. The highest purpose of God’s plan of salvation in Christ is not our own blessing, wonderful as that is; it is God’s own glory.

How do we glorify God?

Look to Jesus - faith

God is glorified when we take him at his word, believe in his promises, and trust in the one whom he sent for our salvation.

God is glorified when we look beyond what we can see and touch and reason out with our own minds, and rest in the unsearchable knowledge of God, in his inscrutable ways.

The way boys talk of their father - my dad can do… and usually he’s only half the man his son thinks he is

All things are possible with God… If he said it, he will do it, he is faithful to keep every promise… this glorifies God

Look to Jesus - following as Jesus did

Everything Jesus did was to the glory of God

John 17:4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

Obedience glorifies God, honors him

Good works of righteousness done in love and thanksgiving for all that God has done for us

Matt 5 - let your light shine before me so that they may see your good works and bring glory to God

1 Cor 10:31 - whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God

Worship and Prayer

Worshiping God according to His word, singing his Psalms and Hymns that praise His name. Our worship reveals a glimpse of the age to come even here in our humble Sunday gatherings.

Prayer - looking to Him as our only provision. We glorify God when we plead his promises.

Submission and Sacrifice

Laying down our lives for the sake of loving one another and showing the love of God.

1 Peter 4:10-11 using the gifts we have been given by God in order than in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

God desires every Christian to put his gifts to use in service to his neighbor. God is glorified through Christ as we roll up our sleeves and love one another.

Humbly directing all praise to God in every experience. As God was glorified in Christ’s humiliation and apparent defeat, so he is glorified in our patient yet joyful endurance through much suffering and humiliation.

Psalm 115:1 - Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory

The intrinsic blessing of glorifying God

God is glorified in the glorification of the redeemed

God’s purpose in salvation is to glorify His people, as he does this, His name receives the greater glory.

C.S. Lewis, "The salvation of souls is a means to the glorifying of God because only saved souls can glorify him.”

God has promised that those who believe in his Son, though guilty sinners, will share in Christ’s glory and have glory revealed in them. God is pleased to glorify himself precisely through the glorification of his redeemed.

Our call to glorify God is really God’s work in us, so that he shows his glory through us. God grants us the privilege of reflecting his own glory as we grow in holiness and ascribe him glory in our worship, and by one day joining him in the glory of the new creation, which is our glorification.

In God’s glory is our dignity. In God’s glory is our delight. Our glorification lies in ascribing all glory in heaven and earth to him.

Our greatest blessing, our truest delight, is found in glorifying God as we enjoy him forever.