Part
12 of 12
The
5th Sola - “SOLI DEO GLORIA”
SOLI
DEO GLORIA - “GLORY TO GOD ALONE”
Eph.
3:21 Unto
him be GLORY in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
“Soli
Deo Gloria”
is the doctrinal teaching that all glory is to be due unto God ALONE, since
salvation is accomplished solely through His will and action on our behalf.
Not only is the gift of the all-sufficient
atonement
(justification), which is only available by the cross of Jesus
Christ, but also the gift
of faith in that atonement is created in the heart of the believer solely
by the work of the Holy
Spirit.
Ephesians
2:8-9 For by
GRACE are ye saved through FAITH; and that NOT OF
YOURSELVES: it is
THE GIFT OF GOD: 9
Not of works,
lest any man should boast.
The GLORY
OF GOD is the full “EXPRESSION
of God the Father, which is seen in Christ who indwells every believer’s
spirit. Colossians
1:27 To
whom God would make known what is the
riches of THE GLORY
of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is CHRIST
IN YOU, the HOPE
OF GLORY: The
believer’s new life and faith that is of the
resurrected “Spirit of Christ”
is of the GLORY OR EXPRESSION of the Father, now indwelling every
believer…as the believer’s only “HOPE
(expectation) OF GLORY.”
We
speak words to express our self and so it is with God who is fully expressed
in Jesus Christ. Jesus was the visible expression of the Father. John
14:9 … Philip? he that hath
seen me hath seen the Father…? When
Jesus was manifested in flesh, He spoke and expressed the exact sentiment of
the “fullness of the Godhead”
that dwelt within Him (
Col
2:10).
Hebrews
1:1-3 GOD,
who at sundry times and in divers manners SPAKE IN TIME PAST UNTO THE
FATHERS BY THE PROPHETS, 2 Hath
IN THESE LAST DAYS SPOKEN UNTO US BY
HIS SON, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3
WHO BEING THE BRIGHTNESS OF HIS
GLORY, AND THE EXPRESS IMAGE OF HIS PERSON, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high;
Jesus
Christ is therefore referred to as “the
Word” (John 1:1). Jesus
Christ is the GLORY or full expression of the Godhead.
John
1:1 In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John
1:14 And the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld
HIS GLORY, THE GLORY as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of
grace and truth.
1
Peter 1:23-25 BEING
BORN AGAIN, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, BY
THE WORD OF GOD, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24
For all flesh (of
man) is
as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower (glory) thereof falleth away: 25
But THE WORD OF THE
LORD endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is
preached unto you.
The
believer’s life on earth is lived
by the faith that is “of” (Greek,
“ek,” meaning “from and with”) the glorious life of
Son of God, who as the “Glory
of God” indwells every
reborn believer.
Galatians
2:20 I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but CHRIST LIVETH
IN ME: and the
life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of
(Gk. ek, from and
with) the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Thus
Christ as the Son and Glory of the Father lives in the believer as their “hope
of GLORY.” The word “hope” here means a “confident
expectation.” Every believer can have the confident expectation that they,
by the Seed, which is “the Word of God” (Christ) in them, have the
inborn life that expresses the glory of their real Father, God.
Romans
16:27 To
God only wise, be GLORY
THROUGH JESUS CHRIST FOR EVER.
Amen.
The
Reformation reclaimed the Scriptural teaching of the sovereignty of God over
every aspect of the believer’s life. All of our life is to be lived to the
Glory of God. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What
is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to GLORIFY
God and to enjoy Him forever.”
This great
and all consuming purpose was emphasized by those in the 16th and 17th
centuries who sought to reform the church according to
“the Word of God.”
In contrast
to the monastic division of life, into sacred
or religious versus the secular
perpetuated by Roman Church, the Reformers saw the life of ALL men
is to be lived directly
under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Every activity of the Christian is
to be sanctified unto “the
glory of God” as they live in His presence, abiding within.
1
Corinthians 10:31 Whether
therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do
all to the glory of God.
1 Peter 4:11b … that God
in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be
praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:21 Unto him be
glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world
without end.
Romans 4:20 He (Abraham) … was
strong in faith, giving glory to God;
Romans
15:7 Wherefore receive ye one
another, as Christ also received
us to the glory of God.
Romans
16:27 To
God only wise, be glory
through Jesus Christ for ever.
Amen.
Romans
11:36 For of him, and through
him, and to him, are all
things: to whom be
glory for ever.
Summary:
The lies of the evil one win when the truth is not known. Sadly,
today the scarcity of the Bible’s pure and simple “words
of God” leads to and sustains the lies of Satan that are perpetrated
by the many pulpits and religious systems of Christianity – thus so many
are deceived so easily. Amos wrote of the scarcity of “the
words of God” in the
land
of
Israel
. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine
in the land, not a famine of
bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
(Amos 8:11). We in our country similarly suffer
the scarcity of “the words of God.”
Let
us be those who honor and present the
pure “words of God” to all who will hear. God’s “Word” has the
power to lighten the hearts and minds of all those who will receive God’s
salvation that is found in His Word.
Some
might say “We stand for the pure word and that we would never fall away
from the truth (that’s apostasy).” By this they entertain the
notion that apostasy from the truth
(falling away from Biblical truth) begins with a denial of one or more of the
fundamentals of the faith, such as the infallibility of the Bible, the
deity of Christ, or the efficacy of His redemptive work. The moral aspect of
apostasy, they suppose, comes about in much the same way. This view is not
entirely correct; apostasy generally begins, not with holding,
but with condoning
spiritual or moral error, such as we see in our day. Eve
fell into sin, not by denying what God had said but by listening
to the Serpent’s words.
So, beware of the seeming “little
foxes” seen in the Song of Solomon, where the Shulamite maiden,
doubtless quoting the words of Solomon her beloved bridegroom, notes that
the vineyards are in full blossom. Soon the grapes will be ripe for the
marriage feast. But a danger threatens the harvest: “the
foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines.” These “little
foxes,” such as denying the full sufficiency of “faith
alone” (apart from works) as the basis of salvation, must without fail
be “taken,” or caught (Song of Solomon 2:15).
These little
foxes are subtle but dangerous to the health of the believer and
“the faith.” Look at the lesson we have here. How often God’s people
have stood at the threshold of great blessing, the refreshing odor of an
abundant spiritual harvest in the air when, sadly, all has been lost — not
through a frontal attack by the adversary, but by those wily
little foxes that had been permitted to spoil the vines. Some
doctrine or practice, clearly unscriptural and subversive of spiritual
blessing, had been condoned when, like the little
foxes of Solomon’s song, they should have been caught and disposed of.
May this be
our lesson, warning us that we should always stand for the PURE words of God
as seen in these “Five Solas”
that we have considered in this study series.
<END SERIES>
