Our Salvation – His Glory
Our Salvation – His Glory
“And they glorified God in me”
Galatians 1:24
Our Salvation and His glory was the emphasis of Paul’s testimony concerning his radical salvation experience, exemplified by his life. The chief end of Paul’s life was to bring glory unto the ONE who died for his transgressions. It was this passion beating within that produced a life of fruitfulness. The effect of Christ living and ruling in him created the same heart eternally resident in the Son…
“I have glorified thee on the earth:
I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do”
John 17:4
In the crucible of life, the effect of our salvation is to produce within each of us a desire, a compulsion, and a selfless intent to see Him glorified!
“Surely His salvation is nigh them that fear Him.
that glory may dwell in our land”
Psalm 85:9
His salvation is “nigh” unto those who know in truth the wonder and the beauty of the “fear of the Lord”. John on the Isle of Patmos saw Jesus in His full unveiled glory, and fell as “one dead” (Revelation 1:17) amid His Splendor! The purpose of salvation is to usher us “within the veil” so that we also may behold Him (Hebrews 10:20) in like manner. Many in our day scoff at the truth concerning the “fear of the Lord” to their own sorrow and the resulting blindness that accompanies these things. In the purposes of God, salvation and glory are inextricably linked. His Glory is the reason for His gracious dealings with us. When we separate these two, we make salvation something very different; we make salvation about ourselves rather than Him.
“Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name:
and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for Thy name’s sake”
Psalm 79:9
The intent of salvation is to “purge us” from our sins so that we may live righteously “that the world may know” of His kindness and grace. We receive His mercy that we may then shine forth His divine attributes into a dark and dying world. His salvation is the world’s hope of glory. Those who honor His salvation shine as lights and ambassadors in the foreign landscape we live in.
A nation loses its way when the church has lost her way.
God’s answer is us! In His wisdom, He uses His people to communicate His likeness and heart.
“Ye are the Light of the World”
May these words strike us with the full force of His Spirit. His intent is for us to breathe in the Spirit of those words and let them be the pulse and purpose of our being. “You are the light of the World”; not your pastor, nor your teacher, nor someone on television. The word carries little power until it is YOUR Word. Until our hearts reverberate with His word, until we see that His salvation is to result in the manifestation of His Glory, we have missed the wonder of it.
“Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory”
2 Timothy 2:10
A Salvation concerned only with itself is stunted and falls short of His desired end. Salvation ought to produce in us a desire to live right so that others may “taste and see” His goodness.
“The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God”
Isaiah 62:2-3 (ESV)
SELAH
Related Post: Light and Salvation
Brian Troxel
Good words of life, brother.
Thank you! be blessed in strengthened in Him
BT
Your title is exactly what Paul proclaimed, Brian– that because of Adam’s transgression “all sinned and are falling short of the glory of God” (an accurate rendition of the tenses in Romans 3:23). What a grievous and heart-rending thing, that the very reason God created man– to be the outshining of His glory– was lost because of Adam’s sin. It is truly a breathtaking thing, then, to discover that what Christ accomplished on Calvary’s cross returned to man the hope of the glory of God.
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1,2).
It is a sure and certain hope if for our part we “continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel…” (Col 1:23). Or, as the writer of Hebrews exhorted, “…if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end: (Heb 3:6).
What a powerful incentive it is then, this hope of the glory of God. This is what our salvation is all about– that we might be “to the praise of His glory,” No other incentive, no other motive, will sustain us through to the end.
Hello Allan – yes amen and well said.
Blessings
BT