Soli Deo Gloria

The glory of God is a difficult thing to completely sort out what we are speaking about.

Isaiah 6:3 ESV

3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

The angels cry out holy, then speak of the earth being filled with the glory of God.

This is becasue the glory of God, is connected to the holiness of God.

God is separated from that which is common in the world.

The things that God does, is to maintain His glory.

We see in scripture that he does things for the sake of His glory.

This is to say becasue of His holiness.

Ezekiel 36:16-21

Israel was living for evil. Some wonder why God disciplined them.

They were profaning His holy name among the nations.

They were to be Holy, as God is Holy. Yet the name of God was mocked becasue of them, so He needed to discipline them for the sake of His own glory.

Us?

God says that we are called to be holy.

We ask the question, does our behavior show the glory of God.

This is to ask, is our behavior holy, as our God is holy.

Separated and different from the rest of the world.

That is one aspect of the glory of God alone

The other part is the work of salvation.

All Christians will agree that salvation is by Grace. The question is, to what extent.

In the 5th century there was a British monk named Pelagius. He believed that if God commanded something, then man was naturally able to do it apart from grace.

He was condemned in the 3rd ecumenical council in 431.

Cassian was a monk who agreed that Pelagius was wrong.

But he believed that grace facilitates righteousness and is necessary to achieve righteousness, but that man has a part to play where we need to accept Jesus, and man can and often does reject the grace that God is extending towards him.

This became known as semi-pelagianism. Arminianism is quite similar to this view with a few differences.

Why bring this up?

Soli Deo Gloria came about after the reformation because the reformers saw a need to show God on the throne.

Any Arminian or semi-pelagiun who you ask “why are you saved and your neighbor isn’t.”

It will come down in the end that they did something right, while their neighbor hasn’t.

This shows that the view is that they have contributed in some way to their own salvation.

Because semi-pelagiusts and Arminians see our work as contributing to the works of salvation, none of them can say with resounding authority “TO GOD BE THE GLORY!”

We should see that God deserves all the glory, becasue He has done it all!

John 10:22-30

v.26- They don’t believe because they aren’t among the sheep.

v.27- The sheep hear His voice and follow.

v.28-29- No one can snatch them out of my hand, or the fathers hand.

Luke 8:4-15

God doesn’t leave the decision up to the disposition of the soil.

Each type of soil responds to it’s kind.

The good soil to brings forth a harvest. Because that is what it was designed to do.

This is why we believe to God alone be the Glory. He brought us back to life by His spirit, by doing so we desire to ask Him into our lives. Once He has brought us back to life and we have tasted of the richness of His goodness, we never desire to leave Him.