This week on the Evangelist Podcast, God's Glory Alone. The Evangelists Podcast. Encouragement to speak life to a needy world. We've been looking at the five solars to time with the Reformation. And uh this week had the release of our final video, Glory Alone. Probably, at least for me, when I think about the the solars, it was probably the one I know least about. Yeah. And God's glory, thinking about that, well, hopefully, if you've not seen the video, go and see it. But maybe we've come at it at it from a little bit of a different angle than what you might have expected. Um I think when we were initially starting to think about God's glory, I in my head I'm thinking about passages that talk about God being worthy of praise and and actually we've got to give God all the glory and things like that. And I think it it's a difficult thing to know quite how to broach that subject. So I you know, thinking from a an evangelistic perspective, or for the non-Christian listening in, you worry that they're just gonna think God sounds like a real egotist. Right. You know, God is a real big head, you know. Um He wants all the glory. Exactly, He just wants to suck it all up, you know, give it all back. Yes, give it all back to you. Yes, um As the gospel song goes.
SPEAKER_01I once I once had to s uh speak uh i in a pub and there was the gospel choir they were singing, and one of the songs they love to sing all the time was um was called Give It All Back to Me. And it's it's the words of God sung by this whole choir, it's a very, very like catchy number. Yeah, yeah. And they're all singing, Give It All Back to Me, whatever I've given, whatever I've given, give it all back to me, give it all back to me. And like for literally five minutes, they're just singing, Give It All Back to Me.
SPEAKER_00See, when when I referenced it, I thought I was referring to the S Club 7 song, but that's bring it all back to you, bring it all back to you. It's a similar, yeah, similar thing.
SPEAKER_01But like imagine being sung to, and like this is the words that these are the words of God, and God is just saying, Give it all back to me back, give it all back to me, give it all back to me.
SPEAKER_00You've taken it, give it back, give it back, give it back, that's mine. I had it first. The thing is though, I mean You'd be nothing without me. Even if I I think probably in these these situations before, you've heard people maybe have that objection, say God, you know, he's really up himself and wants all this this glory and praise. And people's response sometimes, Christian response can be, ah, but look at all these things God has done, isn't he worthy of praise? And of course, you know, I'm not gonna deny that. Um P45. Um but um uh even if you know someone, and and they might show you all these these reasons that God is great and and and worthy of these things, but even if you know someone who is very, very good at stuff and is brilliant, if they were saying all the time, you should totally be bigging me up, you'd be like, Yeah, what a jerk, you know, if that was a human being, you know. And actually you can see why to the to the non-Christian, yeah, they would easily hear that and think, Well, God sounds like he's being a bit of a jerk here. And actually, even Christians, perhaps you just think glory is the one-way street towards God.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's and and I think I mean there's lots of ways that you can get around it. And you sort of you sort of say, like some people kind of say, okay, well, God is the one person who's allowed to be selfish because he's the greatest. And actually it's for our goods that God wants everything, because if we are all face with if if we're all facing God and loving him, and it all goes back to him, we will be the happiest. And you know, if if we start loving other things and not God's, then that's not for our own good. So it is to his glory, and it is also for our goods that we do it. But I I don't know, it's it's kind of it's to define glory as as the self-centeredness. Um and then you say, but God's allowed because he's God. And I just I I think there's a there's a better way of doing it where actually you define glory, not philosophically, but you define glory scripturally and in Christ. That actually, you know, as we say on the video, glory in the Bible, it's so often associated with light. You know, the the angels are out there in the fields at night, and the as rather the shepherds are there in the in the fields at night watching over their flocks, and the angels show up and glory shone around, and glory shines around because glory is like light. Um, glory is something that goes out from itself to transform the unworthy, just like light transforms darkness, so glory goes out to the unworthy. It's love to the loveless shown. And we kept on talking about light and fountains, you know, Jeremiah 2, the Lord is the fountain of living waters always flowing forth. And I think in that way you sort of say, actually, God's glory is not his self-centeredness, it's it's his other-centeredness. And and then glory becomes something kind of beautiful and attractive, and also something that we are meant to share in. See if gl if glory is God's selfishness, then that's not something for us, right? But if God's glory is actually his other-centeredness and his his glorious flow out into the world, then oh there there's a glory that we partake in. We become glorified when we're swept up by the Spirit into the Sun and we flow out to the nations too. Um, I think that's a healthier way of looking at glory. I think.
SPEAKER_00And is it and is it is it Ezekiel who, when he talks about God's glory, actually God's glory looks like a a person. Right. And then obviously we get into kind of John 1 and you know talking about we have seen, you know, whoever comes flesh dwell among us, we've seen his glory. Yes. You know, glory as of the only Son and the Father, and and so this sense in which glory is not this kind of abstract concept somewhere. It's a bit like we've talked about grace and faith. Grace is not this thing and faith is not this thing. Exactly. Even glory is not just this this thing. Right. Actually we see God's glory in Jesus. And of course, yeah. Jesus is by the very nature of coming down and pouring out his life an outgoing movement for the world.
SPEAKER_01Hebrews 1 3 is the radiance, there's the light language, he's the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. And to go back to the John language, when Jesus keeps on saying, I'm going to be glorified, I'm going to be lifted up, and you know, my hour is coming, I'm going to be glorified, I'm going to be lifted up. And you know, if you weren't paying attention in the Old Testament, you'd be really shocked that the way he's lifted up is on a cross. Ah, that's the glory of God. The glory of God is actually when Christ is poured out for the nations. So that's that's gotta be our bedrock definition of glory.
SPEAKER_00Um and we we get like uh is it it crops up in John a number of times, isn't it, about revealing his glory. Yeah. And I mean we see I mean I think the first one is is it wedding at Cana? That's right. And of course he reveals his glory by the with the with the wine, this kind of great abundance, which is very much a again a kind of towards others thing, isn't it? It's not a kind of and he revealed his glory by showing he was amazing and sucking everything to him. There was an outward thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know. And and the reason why this kind of plays out with the Reformation is that in 1519, um, Luther has the Heidelberg disputation in which he kind of unpacks his kind of ongoing thoughts about the Reformation, and um that's that's where he really contrasts the theology of the cross with a theology of glory. And for him, a theology of glory is a negative thing. So when he says a th, you know, to be a theologian of glory is kinda to follow Aristotle. And you know, he he didn't have any time for Aristotle. He said, you know, if Aristotle, if I didn't know that Aristotle was a man of flesh and blood, I'd have to conclude that he was the devil himself. So he doesn't have a lot of time for for Aristotle, but you know, Aristotle's basic doctrine is if God is the best, then he's got to have the best taste, and if he's got the best if he's got the best taste, then he can only love what is best, and what is best, only God, therefore God can only love God. That's his philosophical argument. And through this philosophical argument, he makes God a prisoner of his own transcendence, which was, you know, if you if you've been listening to the podcast, that was my big thing against Masharaf Hussein, the Muslim apologist, that Allah is this He I mean, Allah is so the God of Aristotle, he is so this this God of glory in the philosoph philosophical sense, yeah, in which, yeah, Allah puts himself first because he he is this individual. Um but Luther's saying if we've got the Trinitarian God, then you've got other-centered love at the heart of God's glory, and therefore God's glory flows forth and bestows good from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, and then out to the world. So if that's what glory is, then you've got an outgoing kind of vision for life. And then I mean the question that then people ask is, well, hang on, doesn't it say in the Bible that God acts for his own glory, or for his own name's sake, and not for us? So in Ezekiel 36, for instance, the Lord says, I'm acting for my own name's sake, and not for your sake, O Israel. And people ask, kind of, what's going on there? And uh and at that stage I kind of give them the the the illustration of uh a friend of mine, he was once um walking down the corridor, and he heard some high heels behind him, and as he got to the doors at the end of the corridor, he opened the door and he ushered this woman through, who he hadn't seen, but he just assumed there was a woman behind him, and there was a woman behind him, but she she was not the kind of woman who wanted a man to open the door for him, for her. And so as she went through, she just like shot him a look and she said, I hope you're not opening this door because I'm a lady. And my friend, this is is the brilliant comeback that you always you always think of about two weeks too late, but he thought of it on the spot. He just shot back and he said, No, I'm not opening this this because you know you're a lady. I'm opening the door because I'm a gentleman. Nice. Like, huh? Isn't that good? And I like to reimagine him in the words of Ezekiel 36 saying, Not for your sake, not for your sake, oh woman, am I opening this door, but for the sake of my gentlemanly name. How can I let my gentlemanly name be blasphemed among the nations?
SPEAKER_00Is that when the thug life music kicked in and the shades came down?
SPEAKER_01It's should have totally. I'm not saving you because I'm a sucker for a damsel in distress, and I just can't help myself. Like you don't pull me down. You know, it's the push coming from heaven, it's not the pull coming from earth. And so the Lord's saying, Well, because it is my eternal nature to be outgoing in this way, therefore I act for my glory's sake and not for your sake. Um and I but that doesn't mean that his glory is for him to be a you know selfish. His glory is precisely that he is gentlemanly, his glory is precisely that he is other centered. Um So yeah, so I mean I mean you you can go through the Bible and talk about all sorts of times when God acts for the sake of his own glory. And that's true, he does act for the sake of his own glory. But you can go through just as many verses where God acts for the sake of love. Just as many verses. And at that stage you kind of say, Whoa, is is it a competition? Is it a fight? And some people take the glory verses, and some people pay take the love verses, and oh who knows how to you know. And I just want to come along and say, well, what if it's the same? What if his glory is his love? What if his glory is his grace? And then when he acts for the sake of his grace, um or he acts for the sake of his glory, it's it's not a competition, it's just the same thing. No mean. You know? So that's I don't know, that's that's all I've got to say on glory alone. But what what do you guys think? We'd love we'd love to hear what people think. Uh on uh this Reformation series, we've been doing the uh all you need. And uh if you haven't checked out our videos already, what are you doing? Take a good look in the mirror. Uh I I I don't know. Look at you, look at you. You need our videos, and you know that you need our videos. So uh do yourself a favor and go to Facebook and uh Speak Life UK, like the page there, uh, check out our All You Need videos, or go to uh YouTube, subscribe to our YouTube channel there, Speak Life UK again. And uh and we'd love to hear from you not only what you've thought of our previous videos, but uh we'd also love to hear uh what you'd like to see in future videos. And Paul, what what are some of our plans about future videos that we've got coming up?
SPEAKER_00So uh we are thinking at the moment about some thorny questions. Um so hopefully Reformation's been great, um, very much kind of aimed at Christians in some ways, I suppose, because more Christians are going to be interested in the Reformation than non-Christians. We're hoping that the thorny questions will be a bit more outsider-friendly, that it's things that you guys will be helpful for you, probably in in conversations you have, but also something you could go and think, yes, I could share this, you know, if if maybe you get a thorny question from someone, uh you think, well, why don't I just show them this video? Or at least I can use this video as a a conversation point or for a resource. So we're gonna be doing that. Um we're thinking a little bit about um getting people to make their own videos. Yeah. So maybe we'll reveal a bit more about that in the coming weeks. Um so that's an intriguing one. We're gonna leave that there. Dangling tantal as well. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yes, good. So we've just worked on our first thorny question, which is who made God? So in four minutes we're gonna tackle that question, Who made God, and uh and leave you with gospel good news at the end of the four minutes. Absolutely. That's the challenge we've set ourselves, and you can uh let us know if you think we have achieved that goal. But um, thanks so much for listening uh on the Evangelist Podcast. Do subscribe to us and uh give it a share. Why don't you give it a push out there on social media and uh and spread the good news? Uh but uh thank you very much, Paul, for joining us. Thanks very much. And we'll see you again next time. Bye bye. Bye bye.