Soli Deo Gloria: Not About Us

Photo by Jordan Wozniak on Unsplash
​There is a whole genre of misbehavior online called “being the main character.” This “main character” label is given to people who act like they have the staring role in the world’s story. The camera is fixed on their situation and everyone else is a just an extra, a background character, and NPC. Main character people have all sorts of annoying habits like standing directly in front of elevators getting in the way of people trying to get out, or blocking other people’s view of an area so that they can get that perfect instagram shot. It is a pattern of behavior that says “life is about me, and no matter who else I affect negatively, I am going to do what I want.” Videos and posts online to shame such people are popular because we all understand (at least when WE aren’t behaving like that) that life is not all about us. 
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But if life isn’t about us, then who is it about? If we aren’t the main character in this world, who is? And most importantly, how do we relate to this Main Character and His story?
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These are the questions that we are going to be asking ourselves as we close our series on the five solas. So far, we have seen in Scripture Alone that by Grace Alone in Christ Alone we find salvation through Faith Alone. Today, we find out that all of this, all of life, is for the Glory of God alone, Soli Deo Gloria.
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Giving God Glory frees us from ourselves
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So let’s start with our first question, if we aren’t the main character of history, who is? Well our passage today tells us who that is: God Himself. The Bible tells us quite plainly in
Romans 11:36
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” This is speaking of God and tells us very clearly that everything is from Him (meaning He created everything), everything works because of Him (through Him), and that everything is ultimately mean to glorify Him!
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There’s the answer in plain English, but just because something is in English doesn’t mean we understand it. Let’s take a look at the word “glory” for a minute. What does that mean? This is important to know, because in our passage today we find out that God does not give this glory to any other.
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In the New Testament the word “glory” is the Greek Word “doxa” from which we get the word “doxology.” It means to praise. However, “The meaning of the word in the nt seems to be shaped less by secular Greek usage and more by the Hebrew word כָּבוֹד (kābôd, “glory”), which the lxx usually renders with doxa.” (Fenlason). The word “kabod” has the idea of “heaviness” or weighty. When we say that something has weight in English, we are actually pretty close to what that Hebrew word is communicating. A weighty matter is an important matter, something that deserves your reverent consideration. In the simplest of terms, it is “importance.”
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When we are talking about giving God glory, we are talking about giving God the worship that is due to Him. And we are told in no uncertain terms here that God will not share that glory at all. Nothing else is going to be competing with God for first place in our considerations. In fact, that is the very first of the Ten Commandments “You shall have no other gods before me.”
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Now, is God right to demand this? When we encounter human beings who act like this, we call them “main characters” or narcissists. Demanding that one be considered as central to people’s thoughts is generally considered prideful at best.
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So why is it different with God?
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Well, the biggest difference between God and the human narcissist is that the human actually isn’t worthy of worship. No matter how consequential they are, no matter what country they rule, they didn’t create the world with their word. God did create us and continues to sustain us, so at the very least we owe Him thanks for providing and sustaining our lives.
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We think that way about human relationships, don’t we? Even if parents haven’t been the best, kids in general feel a sense of obligation to them because they bore us and cared for us (even if imperfectly). How much more so if it is God?
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But there is another layer of oughtness to our giving glory only to God.
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In our passage, you’ll notice that the word “LORD” is in all capital letters. That is referring to God’s actual name (which, near as we can tell, is Yaweh). That name is only given because God’s people are in a covenant with Him. They are in a relationship with Him! That relationship is only possible because He was willing to sacrifice His Son on the cross! There is no greater sacrifice that He could give!
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Going back to our parenting illustration, if there is a kid who not only had parents, but had exceedingly good and self-sacrificial parents, that child would feel that obligation to serve them even deeper! And can you imagine the shame that would result from someone who would not only not serve such parents, but who would actively betray them by giving that respect to someone who hadn’t don any of those things for them?
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But wait! There is even more!
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God doesn’t just demand worship because of what He has done, although that is more than enough. He also demands worship because that is actually where we find our deepest joy. we see this expressed in
Psalm 16:11
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” That is what we have been created to do, worship! In fact, as John Piper points out recently, this is what Jesus prays for in
John 17:24
“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” We will worship something. But only God will be a joy to worship. That doesn’t mean that things are always easy, of course, but living out your purpose, worshiping God, is where you find your highest joy.
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Since that is true, God insisting on being worshiped is actually the kind thing for God to do. He insists we don’t spend time worshiping false things, and points us to Himself.
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This is why God will not share His glory with anyone or anything. It is all His to have.
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So now that we know this, what does worshiping God, giving Him glory look like and how do we often take glory away?
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It is worth stating first off that there is no way to damage God’s glory. You can no more dim God’s actual importance with your sin anymore than you can dim the stars by pulling our your iPhone flashlight. But what you can dim is your ability to perceive God’s glory.
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If you’ve ever had the experience of getting out into the country away from streetlights, it is amazing how many stars you can see. I got to go do some star photography with a friend out in Carbon Hill, and I was amazed that I could actually see stars of different color! The thing was, the longer I was out there, the more my eyes adjusted and the more I could see. However, as soon as a light turned on, or if I put a bright screen in front of my eyes for too long, things would begin to dim on me.
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Have you gone through those periods in your life where God just doesn’t seem as glorious and you find it harder to worship? There can be many reasons for that, but I wonder if it might be something else is in your eyes. When you noticed your view of God begin to fade, what did you start doing right around that time? Did you begin to entertain some sin in your life? Whenever we sin, we are disagreeing with God on how best to live. And once you disagree with God in one area, the idea that God has exclusive rights on worship immediately begins to fade. Pornography is a glory killer. Contempt of your spouse is a glory killer. Anger and self-pity (often those go together) is a glory killer. Things like this is like shining a flashlight right in your eye and keeps you from seeing those stars as well as you could have.
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If this is the case, then you need to put that sin away. The longer it shines into your eyes the harder it is to see and the longer it takes for vision to recover. It is actually very similar to our spiritual lives. If you have indulged a sin for a long time, the decision to stop and refocus on God often doesn’t immediately result in clear vision of Him again. It can take time, but the longer you spend staring at God in His Word and prayer, the more of Him you will see.
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Now, it doesn’t have to be a real serious sin like what I mentioned above. Sometimes it is just simple distraction. The vast majority of Americans are checking their phones within the first ten minutes of waking up! Many then are on them for hours upon hours outside of school or work. There is nothing wrong with a phone in and of itself, but when that becomes the dominating part of your attention, you can lose sight of God’s glory. What happens online becomes more interesting than what is happening in God’s Word. That isn’t because God is less interesting than the latest Twitter trend, it is because our eyes have adjusted to dimmer things. Be mindful of what you are doing.
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If you need to regain that vision of glory to God alone, take note of how much time you are actually looking at it. I can already tell you that the verse of the day app isn’t getting it done. The devotional pamphlet that takes a minute and a half to read likely isn’t filling your soul. If there is truly no time (I get it, father of three here), take what you can, but goal for more for your own sake. There is more time available than you think. I thought of most of this sermon between 4 and 5 am when Faye wasn’t sleeping very well. Look for opportunities to pray or just think over what you know about God.
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One great prompt for this is notice anytime you start complaining. If you have time to complain, you have time to think about God. Complaining about the dishes? Time to wash the dishes to the glory of God, which means wash them like you would wash Jesus’ dish. After all, He owns it. Thank God for the people in your home to share meals with, the meals you ate off those dishes, and the fact that you have dishes and running water that is clean to wash them in. All of this God has provided.
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Today, we have the special blessing of getting to behold God’s glory in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. God’s glory shines the clearest in Christ’s work which we are about to declare now.
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Aaron C. Fenlason, “Beauty,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).