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Soli Deo Gloria | #TheSolae

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Here we are, the last section of our journey. It is my hope and prayer that you have enjoyed the ride almost as much as I have. I started in October, hoping to have finished by end of November, but it seems I had a lot more to learn and a lot more to surrender to God before I could do every post. Maybe after this post, I’ll do a behind the scenes and breakdown of what more I have learnt, but all in good time.

When I started the Solae, as I do with all other series I have done on this blog, I pray it be for God’s glory. Surprising now I have to do an article on what that is, the glory of God alone. If you’re like me, the glory of God is usually a phrase we hear, sing and speak about, but seldom give much thought to. What is it? Why do we ascribe everything to the glory of God? How do we glorify God? These questions and more begin to rise up once we give them the due attention they deserve, and rightly so.

The word that has been recurring in this series is alone; five things that alone are the pillars on which the doctrine of salvation stands. We are saved from our sinful, dead state and our position as legally guilty before God, and now continually being cleansed of our sinfulness, having been made alive by God to seek Him, and pronounced righteous before Him.

All this came to be through the work of Jesus Christ alone, no other person could have so perfectly obeyed God, and by Him taking our place on the cross, bearing the punishment meant for us, we are justified (having His righteousness covering us), made alive from sin, and effectively being indwelt of the Holy Spirit who constantly makes our consciences desire to please God in all we do, say or think.

If to summarise everything we have gone through, we are justified before God by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ’s atoning work alone for the glory of God alone as authoritatively taught through Scripture alone. In this final article, we will look at how all these tie up to the overarching glory of God.

The glory of God alone, overarching and supreme over all

What is the glory of God? John Piper defines it as, the radiance of His intrinsic worth, beauty and greatness of all His manifold perfections. Let’s try to demystify that. In Isaiah’s vision (Isaiah 6), the angels cry out,

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.

Isaiah 6:3b, ESV

Before we dive into how holiness and glory relate, let us ask ourselves, what is God’s holiness? When we say God is holy, it means He is set apart from all other created things; His love is unlike any other, it is a holy (separate, God-unique) love. His majesty is holy; His justice is holy. Everything Scripture says to be true about God are what are known as His attributes, His holy attributes. If we were to describe God as a diamond, His attributes would be the facets of the diamond; each individual facet shines forth with holiness, and the brilliance with which all facets collectively shine is His glory. This might be a very weak example, but I hope it somewhat gives a perspective of what God glory is.

If we closely look at all God does, it is with the aim of displaying His beauty and greatness; His glory. A song I love, Creation Sings the Father’s Song, has this line saying, His fingerprints in flakes of snow. Psalm 19:1 says that the heavens tell of God’s glory. Have a look at the stars at night, the phases of the moon, the dramatic sunsets and cries of birds in the morning; all these are testament to His greatness. His glory is also shown in our own redemption (Romans 15:9); the manner with which He wrestles with a sinner’s heart and reveals the worth of Himself to the simple is beautiful. Yet, all these things are inended to give man the most basic idea of God’s grandeur and majesty. If He can create all we see and all that will ever be down to their molecular levels, just how powerful and awesome is He?

So, this points us back to Soli Deo Gloria as a tenet of salvation. How does the glory of God fit into the work that leads to our salvation? For starters, it gives us a hint of His supremacy, His greatness and His holiness above all that ever was and will be. In light of this majesty, we then begin to see the extent of our own inadequacy and depravity. Think of it as walking on a dark, muddy road toward a friend shining a light at the end of it; the closer you get to the light, the more you see the filth with which you are covered. The natural reaction would be to turn away so as to hide the mess you are from whoever will see you, and more so, to hide the fact that you are dirty from yourself. However, we see God’s holy love displayed through Christ in whom we have our sins washed away, and our minds renewed and progressively conformed to His desires and will. In turn, we delight to do what His desires are and find joy in seeking Him through His word.

And that is what He has intended, dear one, that through salvation we may be reunited to Him to enjoy being in His presence and under His love, as it was in the Garden of Eden before the fall. The Psalmist says,

You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fulness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forever more.

Psalm 16:11, ESV

God is glorified, that is (as we have inferred), beautified, when those who see His worth and greatness delight and find their source of joy in it. And as we are continually sanctified, we look forward to the day when we too shall become glorified, taking up new bodies that are incorruptible and as intended to be before the effects of sin. That shall be the day when we will fully be satisfied in God, and He will be most fully beautified (glorified) in us.

Why then should we glorify God? It will naturally flow from all we have seen this far. All the other solae are from Him, through Him and to Him. There was and is nothing at all, even if given the opportunity, we could do for ourselves to save us from the wrath of God intended for us; from initiation to execution of salvation, it all was Him and Him alone.

Our response, then? We see our own depravity and corruption, and as much as it grieves us, it shows us that it is only God who can help us, and as such, prompts us to live a life of morality where we, guided by the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures, carry it out with a keen awareness of accountability to God alone. Our words, our deeds, our thoughts; all are held under the microscope of, how can I daily show the beauty and greatness of God?

My friend Ngome often says, be the walking version of a Bible (or the Gospel) to the non-believer. Show the wonder of God in your life that has been made new by the work of Jesus Christ alone, and not to attribute it to what you are able to do now, but what God has thus far enabled you to do it. This is how we live out Soli Deo Gloria.

The Reformers did much to make known these truths, some even dying for what they knew to be true as taught from Scripture. I must admit, at times I wish it could be as what the Catholic church was fighting against, and still fights against today; to attribute part of the work of salvation to human effort and tradition. It would make salvation feel deserved and rightly won, and easy to attain, right? Pray a prayer, do some rituals, and eventually you will outweigh the bad you’ve done and be granted access back to God’s presence. So easy, and so satisfying to the ego.

However, if I look at the depth of my wretchedness, oh, how I am torn apart! And it suddenly becomes blindingly clear that there is nothing that can wholly and fully cleanse me rather than the blood of Jesus; everything I do is coloured by sinful and selfish pride, a desire to be better than my neighbour and eventually God Himself. That couldn’t save me no matter how many times I would try it.

So I look to Christ. Who else lived perfectly, no sinful ulterior motives in everything He did, thus obeying the command set out by God to a tee? And I pray for you, dear reader, that your state doesn’t cause you to flee from God, but that you may be drawn in by His grace, be cleansed and live out the life full of joy that comes with seeing God’s beauty in His word and walking daily with Him, and showing that beauty to all around you in deed, word and thought.

Thanks for sticking it out this far and walking this road with me. I pray you have come to a fuller understanding of salvation as we followed the guideposts, and a greater appreciation for God’s great work.

What next? Well, as much as I would want to hang up my boots and take a breather… Sounds inviting, but more lies in store. For now, I will take a slight break to prepare an announcement on the future of this blog. Hopefully, it won’t be too long, maybe a week or so. Keep me in your prayers as I chart the way forward.

Grace and peace to you. Stay safe, and remember to wash your hands.

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Overwhelming Sacrifice (#KnowMore Part 4)

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Hi there!

So glad you have passed by to continue in the growth of knowing more about who God is and what He has in store for us all. I might not always get to say this, but I really do appreciate each and every one of you for reading, sharing and desiring to know more about the wonderful God who is our friend and redeemer. I am thankful to God that He is continually showing you and I His grace and will for us through His word, and I hope it will go on even beyond this series as you cultivate a personal walk with Him.

On Monday, we looked at the person of Christ, His life story and His purpose on earth. He claimed to be God in flesh, to show us that it was possible to fully obey the commands of God in order to be considered as holy before Him. It’s only a lawgiver, we saw, who can attain the law he gives. He claimed to be the Messiah, the one foretold about by the prophets to be a conquering King who would lead the nation of Israel to a glorious future of peace and prosperity, but the form He took instead of a servant was quite the opposite.

Today, we will gain further insight at what exactly He came to conquer, and how He ultimately defeated it. I hinted at it in the second part of this series, Holy, Just and Merciful. God Himself becomes the one who takes our place, and His justice is upheld while His mercy is upheld. Let’s take a deeper look.

What exactly is sin? The Hebrew word translated as sin is khata, which means to fail, or miss a set mark. Our core purpose, why we were created, was to seek to obey God in a fulfilling, trusting relationship with Him, because He knew what was good for us, and what would cause us harm. That was the set goal, the mark we were to always uphold. So, when we rebelled and decided to determine on our own what was good and evil, we failed; we sinned.

That’s where all the problems we see today started; our attempt to define what was good in our own eyes usually meant that we sought, and still seek, that which benefits us more than what will benefit those around us and give God the glory. Most of the time, they end up being things that fracture our relationships, cause grief and pain and eventually, in the extreme case, death. In Genesis 4, Cain is seen to be very angry when God showing favour to his brother Abel’s sacrifice than his own, he allowed khata, the failure to meet God’s standard of what was wrong and right, to overtake his reason and purpose to glorify God by showing respect for life, and ended up killing Abel.

So, with all the wrong done, God’s justice had to be upheld, right? When He spared the lives of Adam and Eve, He killed animals on their behalf. So, symbolically, the shedding of an innocent animal’s blood represented the death of that animal on the person’s behalf. It was as if the animal took on the sinfulness, the failure of the person to meet God’s standards and commands, and is punished on the behalf of the person (in this case, death is the punishment). The animal commonly used by the Israelites was a lamb.

On Monday, we mentioned a cousin of Mary called Elizabeth, who in her old age gave birth to a man
whose purpose was to show people their hearts needed redemption, a new birth, that could only be offered by a greater sacrifice than that of sheep or goats. His name was John the Baptist, and when he was baptising people in the Jordan River, he saw Jesus coming and proclaimed;

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

John 1:29 ESV

The lamb, of course, was a common animal used in atonement (taking the place of a sinner deserving death); however, it would usually be used to take away the sin of one person, or at most, a few other people. But a Lamb who takes away the sin of every single person on the earth? That must be a really different kind of atonement. How was it then possible for one person to be able to take the failures of everyone upon Himself?

Jesus claimed to be God, who made His dwelling among us, and took on a body like ours, along with all it’s weaknesses and impediments. Yet, He still remained obedient to God, and show love to those around Him in service, healing of bodily and spiritual brokenness and raising the dead to life. He was sinless; He attained every standard set by Himself without breaking even one. Thus, it was right that He took upon Himself the sin of every person who had ever failed to meet God’s requirement, like a lamb who had not done any of the wrongs committed by humans.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die–but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:7-8 ESV

That’s the thing that makes Jesus’ sacrifice so overwhelming; He being so perfect and free of any sin took the place of we who had every right to be punished and pay the ultimate price for our wrongs.

Nowhere else do we see such; the Creator reaching out to redeem His own creation to Himself, for His glory and their own good. It’s mind-blowing, earth-bending and soul-shattering to even think about it.

Next week begins the guest posts from three of my friends. It feels good to take a breather and offer
you a new angle.

We will begin with regeneration; what is that? Well, let’s wait and see. Technically, you wait and see, because I already have 😝😝.

Grace ✌️

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Christ the Redeemer (#KnowMore Part 3)

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Hey, hey! Welcome back, guys! Hoping you had an amazing weekend. Here’s to a brand-new week! And, apparently, a brand-new month. I swear September was like 2 hours; just whizzed past like Roadrunner. Still, we thank God for His goodness throughout the month, and it is my prayer that He will safely guide us through October.

I gave a week’s pause on this series to organise some other things going on outside of the blog, and now that it’s all good, I pray it will be consistent as promised. Every Monday and Thursday will have a new part posted.

If this is your first read on this blog, feel right at home. We have been doing a series called Know More, which seeks to help us understand more about God, His plan for us, and our role in all this. It is my hope that through all this, we will (definitely) know more, be guided more by the Word, and effectively reach out more by sharing this wonderful story of the God who is there.

In past weeks, we have been looking at God’s attributes; that which He has revealed to be true about Himself in Scripture. We saw his holiness as His primary attribute, which is, all His other attributes are set apart (distinct only to Himself) and infinitely perfect. We looked at His righteousness, how all He does is good, and His justice in having to punish that which is wrong. Lastly, we saw His mercy, in that He punished sin as His justice demanded, but we who were the offenders did not receive the punishment meted out.

Today, we take a closer look at the Person of God who took our place. On Thursday, we will delve deeper into how the substitution was carried out, hoping God will enable me to do so clearly.

Let’s begin!

We all have to agree that the person who has had most influence on culture and worldview is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. Books have been written about Him, countless forums held to discuss who He is and what He was, and many other forms of media, including plays and films, which have all tried to answer the question; who is this man who, in a span of three years, was able to completely shake up the world, have a third of the current global population follow His teachings, and literally be the central figure who splits time into two eras (BC and AD)?

It would be good to note, as we have been doing, that any of our attempts to try and explain Him as we know (or think we know) would ultimately fall short of what He has been revealed to be in the Bible. Let’s look at His life story as outlined in the first four books of the New Testament, known as the Gospels, with an emphasis on that written by Luke.

A young lady, a virgin called Mary, lived in a quaint little town in Judea called Nazareth. She was engaged to a carpenter named Joseph of the lineage of the great King David, and I bet she, just like any other young woman awaiting marriage, was looking forward to finally settling down and having a family of her own. She, being a Jew and brought up in their ways and culture, was hopeful of a day when the one promised by God to deliver them would appear. Judea at the time was under Roman occupation, and many of the people clung to the promise of this conquering King given in Isaiah 9:6-7;

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 9:6-7 ESV

One day, as Mary was probably going about her own business, she received a visitor who greeted her in a very strange manner;

And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

Luke 1:28 ESV

Favoured one, she must have wondered. The visitor, who was an angel sent by God, then went on to assure her not to be afraid, for she had been chosen by God to be the one who would give birth to the foretold Promised One that she and her people had been hoping for; this son she would bear was to be called Jesus.

Well, Mary must have been quite disturbed to hear all this, and wondered how she would bear a child and yet was still a virgin. The angel told her that she would be overshadowed by the Spirit of God – the same Spirit that was present at creation and formed the world out of nothing. No human intervention was present, and thus the child born would be sinless, without the genome of Adam’s sinfulness transferred to Him.

The same power of God that would make this seemingly impossible thing come to pass had already done the same thing to Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth, who, though advanced in age and considered barren, was already six months pregnant with a son who would later become the man to prepare the way for Mary’s own son.

It all might sound like a plot worthy of a bestseller, but it did happen as foretold, and God Himself came into the world as prophesied, not as a mighty King the Jews were expecting, but as a baby, helpless and crying, born in a stable because there was no room to stay in at the city of Bethlehem, where His parents had gone to be present for a census. A very humble way to enter the world He had created, and even more humbling to have to grow up as one of the people He had created.

What was the purpose of all this? Remember, we saw the Israelites had to constantly give sacrifices for their sin, or choose to follow each and every one of the 613 laws prescribed by God, with obedience from the heart, in order to be considered right before Him. Evidently, we couldn’t, and still can’t.

Only a lawgiver can spell out what they can attain.

God requires holiness in order to approach Him because He himself is holy. God therefore came down and took up our form and body to show us that it is possible to live a sinless, holy life of complete obedience to Him as He intended at the beginning.

So, His work as promised was not to lead Israel into a glorious triumph over the Romans and their oppressors. It was to redeem them and all of mankind from an even greater oppressor; sin and their own wicked desires and ways.

On Thursday, we will look at how exactly He carried out His redeeming work, and of equal importance get into a clearer understanding of what this word ‘sin’ is. Keep praying that this will impact us in our walk with God as we strive to know Him more.

Have an amazing week ahead.

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Holy, Just, Merciful (#KnowMore Part 2.1)

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Welcome back, dear reader. I am hoping your week has thus far been good and full of God’s goodness. I have been doing great, in between researching for this post and contemplating on an aspect only people wearing glasses can relate to.

All that aside, it’s great to have you here, and I am deeply humbled that you are along this journey of knowledge with me. Taking it one step at a time is important in having to understand and grow in the knowledge of these truths.

On Monday, we had a small glimpse at who God is. You can read it here if you haven’t yet. We established, from Scripture, that He is unchangeable, the creator of everything we see, and is not like us; He is infinitely higher and greater than we can ever be (this attribute is called transcendence).

There are other truths we didn’t expound on, but are critical in knowing and understanding who He is; eternal (He was from the beginning, and will be after the end), spirit (He doesn’t have a physical body like ours, thus He cannot be represented by an image, seen in Deuteronomy 4:15-19), and infinite (He cannot be contained by anything, stopped by anything, or made unknown of anything, Jeremiah 23:24).

Today, we will look at holiness. It being rather broad and of great importance, I shall split this part into two (particulate theory of matter). The following post will cover His justice and mercy. Let’s get this rolling, shall we?

Holiness

What comes to mind when you hear the word holy? I bet it’s this; a man or woman dressed in long flowing robes with hands constantly folded in prayer. Or that guy who doesn’t drink or smoke, or that girl who dresses modestly. Oh, and all three are always found in a church setting.

Sadly, that isn’t what holiness is. Secondly, we ought to remember that it’s God we are talking about, and He is not like us, so using human examples will, in one way or another, ultimately fall short. The only way we can define how God is holy is through His word.

Holiness is used as a term to mean two things; set apart and free from sin or blemish. When we say
God is holy, it means He is absolutely free from any trace of stain or of sin.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:5 ESV

In addition, He is holy in that He is set apart and distinct from all His creation and any other thing. The word used for holy in the Old Testament is ‘qodesh’ and that in the New Testament is ‘hagios’. Both carry the connotation of something that is separate, set apart, and purity of the highest degree.

In Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, we see a term used only twice in the Bible to describe our God.

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

Isaiah 6:3 ESV

The seraphim (angels of light ministering before Him) fly back and forth, singing this anthem aloud and with unanimity. The same song is sung by the four living creatures in Revelation 4.

In the Hebrew language, repetition is used as an emphatic (I hope my English there is correct).

For example, in many of Jesus’ teachings, He says ‘truly, truly I say to you,’ to emphasise on the truth of the matter. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes says ‘vanity of vanities, all is vanity’ to lend emphasis to how the pursuit of happiness in earthly things is a worthless pursuit.

However, the term holy here has been used not twice, but three times.

If you’re like me, the first ‘holy’ will have you like, ‘yeah, that’s true’.

The second one, ‘ok, not just an ordinary kind of holy, but a greater one’.

The third, ‘hold up. Are you talking about a holiness that is greater than even the greater one I can think of?’ Drops mic. Booom!

The fact that it is used thrice indicates how absolute and infinite His holiness is. Nowhere else do we see another attribute given such emphasis as holiness is.

In addition, His works, titles and all things associated with Him are designated as holy. His name is holy.

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

Isaiah 57:15a ESV

David called His temple holy (Psalm 5:7) because it was where He dwelt, whether in heaven or on earth.

This can lead to one conclusion. If the angels are in awe of God’s mercy, they would cry out ‘merciful, merciful, merciful is the Lord’. We don’t see it, however. Neither is love, or wrath, or kindness. All things associated with Him are designated as holy.

If holiness is given such emphasis, it means it must be His primary attribute, and rightly so. If His power were not a holy power, it would be a terror to us. Were His love not tempered by holiness, it would be permissive even to what is evidently sinful. Indeed, our God is a holy God.

This must have an implication to us having a relationship with Him. How can we have fellowship with a holy God?

We have seen that one meaning of holiness is ‘free from any trace of stain or sin; pure’. Is our condition pure? In our natural state, are we free from sin and darkness?

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:23 ESV

We all have no purity, in fact, we are polluted through and through.

In the earlier passage of Isaiah we mentioned, after beholding the glory of God and hearing the angels declare Him thrice holy, Isaiah cried out,

“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Isaiah 6:5 ESV

Hearing the angels declare God as holy, holy, holy, when they themselves were considered such pure and holy creatures by Isaiah must have broken him down as such. He recognised his own state before God, having spoken evil from an unclean heart that had stained his lips, dwelling among a people who lived and breathed wickedness.

We cannot, in our polluted state, have a relationship with the God of utmost purity and blamelessness. What makes the matter grave is that God cannot tolerate sin, and cannot even look upon it.

You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,

Habakkuk 1:13a. ESV

He being of utmost power, thus, has to deal with it, and remove it from before Him. Where does that
place us?

In tomorrow’s post, which will wrap up these three attributes of God by looking at His justice (tied to His righteousness) and His mercy.

We will see why He is the highest moral authority, and how he deals with sinfulness and wrong. I pray that as we go along, we will keep growing in knowledge of Him and His plan for us.