Soli Deo Gloria: Our
Only Motive
1 Chronicles 16:23-36; Rev. 5:12
Sing unto the LORD, all the earth; shew forth from day
to day his salvation.
Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous
works among all nations.
For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised: he
also is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the people are idols: but the LORD
made the heavens.
Glory and honour are in his presence; strength and
gladness are in his place.
Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the
people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his
name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship
the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
Fear before him, all the earth: the world
also shall be stable, that it be not moved.
Let the heavens be glad, and let the
earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The
LORD reigneth.
Let the sea roar, and the fulness
thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is
therein.
Then shall the trees of the wood sing out
at the presence of the LORD, because he cometh to judge
the earth.
O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is
good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
And say ye, Save us, O God of our
salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from
the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name,
and glory in thy praise.
Blessed be the LORD God of Israel for
ever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and
praised the LORD.
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory,
and blessing.
Here in the
final “sola” of the Reformation, we see that our only
motive in all that we have seen is to bring God,
and God alone, glory. All our
theology, all our preaching, all our teaching, all that
we do and say, is bring glory to God
alone.
We turn
first to a little history once more. In the days prior
to the Reformation, it was only popes, priests,
cardinals, monks, and nuns, who were considered to be
those who honored God. The Reformation shattered that
illusion and called such spiritual elitism the lie that
it is. The reformers, for example, cherished marriage
and child rearing, which flew in the face of the
supposed superiority of celibacy. The people were
taught, in fact, that everything they did could glorify God, just as Paul wrote
to the Corinthians, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink,
or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (I Cor.
10:31) and the to Colossians, “whatever you do in word
or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God and the Father by him” (Col.
3:17).
What was the
result of such revolutionary teaching? The effects on
society were astounding. Art, for example, was
transformed from merely pictures of saints to ones that
celebrated creation and ordinary life using people,
landscapes, flowers, birds, and people at work and play.
Music was
also transformed. For 1,000 years, Latin hymnody was
devoid of truth, filled with Mariolatry as well as many praises written to the
martyrs. The Council of Laodicea (343-381) decreed that
only specially appointed singers, usually choirs of
monks, could present music sung in Latin. Think of it!
For over a thousand years, the Church did not
sing. It was held that “average people” could not
understand or appreciate such holy music and, therefore,
could not participate. What an appalling tragedy! They
could not even understand what was sung because the
common people could not understand Latin. That was a
wholesale departure from the obvious fact of
congregational singing in the early church. Not only was
there the elevation of Mary, but also the
apostate lowing of the nature of God. While
God was pictured as an angry, intolerant, and unlovable
kind of deity, the Virgin Mary was portrayed as the
embodiment of the kindness, humanity, and sympathy, and
all that came out in the hymnody of the day.
The
Reformation, however, replaced the worship of Mary with
the Christian message of the person and work of Christ
alone. It improved some of the Latin hymns and produced
many new ones. The Reformation brought back
congregational singing and replaced the cold, hollow
chanting of priests. Because of the Reformation,
for example, we have the music of Bach and Mendelssohn.
The words Soli Deo Gloria, in fact, were carved
into the organ at Bach’s church in Leipzig, and
Mendelssohn penned his Reformation Symphony
(Symphony No. 5 in D Major) in 1832 in honor of the
300th anniversary of Luther’s Augsburg
Confession.
The study of
science was also a product of the Reformation. Because
Roman Catholicism was based more on Aristotle’s view of
the universe instead of Scripture, it stifled scientific
discovery. The reformers, however, taught that God has
written two books, the book of Nature and the book of
the Word and that these two complement the other and are
never contradictory. Just one example is, “The heavens
declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his
handiwork,” the psalmist writes (Ps. 19:1). Here the
physical universe (Nature) declares and praises the very
God of the Word who made it all.
Our day, however,
has brought a new attack. Once again Robert Schuller is
at the forefront of this apostasy by writing, “Classical
[i.e., Reformation] theology has erred in its insistence
that theology be ‘God-centered,’ not
‘man-centered.’”[i] In other
words, in his unimaginable arrogance, Schuller clearly
states that all those godly reformers were wrong in
starting with God while he is right in starting with man
and building a “theology” with man’s self-esteem at the
core. Of course, to say that Theology is man-centered is
not only blasphemous but is an oxymoron, the height of
contradiction. How in the world can Theology
(theos, God) have anything to
do with man? But once again, that is the norm of our
day, a fact that was spawned by the Humanism of the
Renaissance.
Another
example is that instead of self-esteem, other leaders,
such as Rick Warren and Bill Hybels, have decided that
“personal fulfillment” is the greatest need and have
built their churches on that sandy foundation. As a
result, gone today are the truths of sin, wrath, and
repentance, and in their place are “felt-needs,” love,
acceptance, and personal fulfillment. Addressing these
issues is also radically different. Doctrine, absolute
truth, and expository preaching are out, while
entertainment, pop-psychology, motivational “sermons,”
and other man-centered methods are in.
To summarize the matter, Truth has simply vanished. As a magician
performs slight of hand by keeping your attention on one
hand while his other does something else, that is what
has happened today. While one hand has been mesmerizing
the crowds with all kinds of eye-pleasing,
flesh-satisfying feats, Truth has been discarded. And
why has the truth vanished? Because, and please get
this, the Reformation has been
abandoned.
When that happened, as mentioned in our last study, we
gave up the ship. As we will see, these doctrines are
the only ones that truly give God
glory.
What, then,
was the reformers’ point in soli deo
Gloria? Was it man’s
“felt-needs”? Was it entertainment? Was it man’s
self-esteem? No! Their driving motive was God’s glory.
Their point was two-fold.
I. God Alone Must be
Glorified
First
Chronicles 16:7-36 is a psalm of thanksgiving and
celebration and is actually a compilation of three
passages in the Book of Psalms: verses 8-22 are from
Psalm 105:1-15, verses 23-33 are from Psalm 96:1-13, and
verses 34-36 are from Psalm 106:1, 47-48. This
repetition suggests the importance of the truths that
are presented here, namely, giving glory to God for what
He alone has accomplished, that is: “his deeds” (v. 8),
“his wondrous works” (v. 9), “his judgments” (v. 14),
and His “word” (v. 15). The whole passage is filled with
praising God alone: Declare his glory (v. 23), greatly
to be praised (v. 24), Glory and honour are in his
presence (27), glory due unto his name (v. 29), worship
the LORD in the beauty of holiness (v. 29), Let the
heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice (v. 31), Let
the sea roar (v. 32), let the fields rejoice (v. 32),
the trees . . . sing out at the presence of the LORD (v.
33), give thanks unto the LORD (v. 34), give thanks to
[His] holy name (v. 35), [give] glory in [His] praise
(v. 35). Verse 36, therefore, concludes: Blessed be the
LORD God of Israel for ever and ever. And all the people
said, Amen, and praised the
LORD.
That is not
only what drove the reformers but also the
early church. Throughout Acts
and the Epistles,
it is God’s glory that is preeminent. We defy any modern
teacher who can cite a single example of the modern
concepts of ministry that we have referred to several
times. Why are their no such precedents? Because they
are man-elevating, not God-glorifying.
Scripture is not anthropocentric (man-centered),
rather Theocentric
(God-centered), even Christocentric (Christ
cantered).
As our
second text (Rev. 5:12) then declares, only the Lamb is
worthy . . . to receive power, and
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory,
and blessing. One does not have to read the reformers
very long to notice how they were virtually obsessed
with giving God alone glory, that this was their driving
motive. While glory today goes to the newest
method of ministry, the biggest church, the most book
sales, and even the most baptized converts, the
reformers recognized that God alone—not the
Church, popes, images, saints, Mary—was to receive
glory. Even worse in our day is that instead of
God being glorified, it is people
who are entertained. We have become, just as
Robert Schuller insists that we should,
man-centered instead of God-centered. That
truly sums up a large portion of the church today. We do
whatever appeals to people’s flesh, appealing to what
they want instead of what they need and
what God demands.
II. God
Alone is Glorified Only Through the Other
Solas
The only way
God alone can be glorified, the reformers
insisted, is through the other solas. To fail in any one
of these, in fact, is to rob God of glory. God receives
glory only when Scripture alone is our authority;
popes, councils, and priests, are robbers. God receives
glory only when grace alone is acknowledged;
so-called free will and those who espouse such
humanistic rubbish are robbers. God receives glory only
when faith alone is established; works and human
effort are robbers. God receives glory only when
Christ alone is recognized;
sacraments are robbers.
With that
firmly entrenched in our minds, let us briefly summarize
the glory of the Doctrines of Grace, the only doctrines
of salvation that give God all the glory for salvation. Arminianism is a
robber.
The Walking Dead
Man
Arminianism, which
we have seen is thoroughly Roman Catholic and has been
rejected repeatedly through the ages as heresy, teaches
that although human nature was seriously affected by the
fall, man has not been left in a state of total
spiritual helplessness. Man’s will has not been enslaved
in his sinful nature, rather he has a free will, which
is free to choose good over evil in spiritual matters.
While the sinner does need the Spirit’s help to be
saved, he doesn’t need the Spirit’s help for believing,
for faith is man’s act only and is man’s contribution to
salvation. Is God glorified by such teaching? Certainly
not.
What
Scripture teaches is man’s total depravity and inability
to turn to God, which demands God’s intervention. The
reason is because he is spiritually dead, as Ephesians
2:1-3 clearly states. A dead man cannot do anything,
including believe. While many teachers insist on running
to the term “free will,” it is a fact this term appears
in the New Testament only in the context of stewardship
(e.g., II Cor. 8:1-4); it never appears in the
context of coming to Christ in faith. The Scripture’s
entire emphasis regarding the will is its bondage, not its freedom. Romans 3:11-18 clearly shows
that man runs from God, in no way ever seeks God, and
does nothing to please God.
What must
happen, therefore, for man to receive the Gospel? The
answer is simple: salvation is all of
grace. When His disciples asked Him who can be
saved, Jesus answered: “With men it is
impossible, but not with God:
for with God all things are possible” (Mk. 10:27). If
that does not emphasize man’s total inability, nothing
does. Man contributes absolutely nothing to his
salvation. As Luke tells us: “For the Son of man is come
to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk. 19:10).
Can a lost item find itself? No, it takes an outside
power to find it.
The Apostle John
also makes it clear that salvation comes totally from
outside man:
No man can come to
me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I
will raise him up at the last day. . . . And he said,
Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me,
except it were given unto him of my Father (Jn. 6:44,
65).
Additionally,
after writing of man’s spiritual death and inability in
Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul then writes in verses 4-6 about
God’s intervention:
But God, who is
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
[i.e., made us alive, and here is the doctrine of
regeneration] together with Christ, (by grace ye are
saved;) And hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to
come He might
show the exceeding riches of his
grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus
(emphasis added).
It is in this view
alone that God is glorified.
The Full Grace of
Salvation
Arminianism
teaches that God chose certain individuals for salvation
before the foundation of the world based on His
foreknowledge that they would believe. He chose for
salvation those whom He knew would, of their own free
choice, choose to believe in Christ. This view says,
therefore, that election is not based on God choosing us
but us choosing God. In the final analysis, then,
salvation is not based solely on God’s grace but on our
faith. But is God glorified in such an idea? Certainly
not.
What
Scripture teaches, as we just read in Ephesians 2:4-6,
is salvation is the work of God alone. Man is
nowhere to be found in that passage, nor is man anywhere
to be found in Romans 8:29-30, which speaks only
of what God has done: “foreknow,” “predestinate,”
“called,” “justified,” and “glorified.” Only God is
doing something here, and it is for this reason that we
say that the Doctrines of Grace are the real heart of
Christianity, Christianity in its purest form but have
repeatedly been attacked because men simply do not like
them. Throughout the history of the church these
doctrines have been the real power of Christianity. Why?
Compare the Doctrines of Grace to any religion.
Not one of them speaks this way because they are all of
man. Only the Doctrines of Grace emphasize that
salvation is all of God.
The word
“chosen” in Ephesians 1:4 is pivotal. It is the Greek
eklego, which
carries the basic meaning “to pick out, choose, select
for one’s self.” Most importantly, however, is the fact
that this is in a construction in the Greek (middle
voice) that indicates that God did the choosing
independently in the past and did so primarily for
His own interest, that is, His glory. While modern
Arminian evangelism is based on what “God will do for
you,” the biblical truth is our salvation is primarily
for God’s glory, not ours. Why don’t we preach
that today? The answer is obviously: because it doesn’t
serve man, address his felt needs, or make him feel good
about himself. Verses 6, 12, and 14, however, bear this
out with full force, for they all emphasize the words
“His glory”
(emphasis added). Foreseen faith is not the basis
for election (“foreknowledge,” prognosis, in I
Pet. 1:2, simply does not mean merely
precognition, regardless of who insists it does).
Election speaks only of an
action done by God in the past, not on
man’s faith in the future.
Woven into the
very fabric of Scripture, in fact, is this principle of
God’s election for His glory. To list only a few:
Deuteronomy 10:14-15; Psalm 33:12; 65:4; Matthew
11:27-28; 22:14; Luke 4:25-27; John 15:16; 17:6;
Colossians 3:12; and we could go on. It is in this view
alone that God is glorified.
The Result of the
Cross
Arminianism
teaches that the atonement of Christ provided potential
salvation that becomes effective only to those who
believe. Christ died for all men without exception, but only those who believe are saved. Jesus’
death, then, didn’t really accomplish salvation, rather
it’s power is only potential. But is God glorified in
such an idea? Certainly not.
What was the
result of the cross? What did it actually accomplish?
Did it actually do anything? The cross accomplished our
redemption. While it is obvious that Christ died in
the past, what is the depth of that truth? Did His death
simply make redemption possible, that
is, possible if we believe? If that is true, then the
cross itself did not actually save us, rather it
was our believing that saved us. This, of course,
cannot be. The truth is that Christ’s death did not
provide potential
redemption, rather actual
redemption. It was the cross that saved
us.
Ephesians 1
bears this out with tremendous force. As we can see, all
three members of the Godhead are present. The Father
chose us before the foundation of the world (vs. 3-4), a
choice that was not potential but actual. Second,
the Son’s death redeemed us from our sins (v. 7), again
a redemption that was not potential but actual. Third,
the Holy Spirit applies the death of Christ (vs. 13-14),
once again an application that is not potential but actual.
Therefore, at all three points the work of the Godhead
is effectual,
that is, each
actually does something. The work of each is not
something that is virtual, but
something that is real.
Now ponder
the outworking of this. First, was the sinner saved when
the Father chose him? Yes, though not yet in the
sinner’s personal experience. Second, was the elect
sinner saved when Christ died? Yes, though not
yet in the sinner’s personal experience. Third, is the
elect sinner saved when the Holy Spirit applies the
merits of Christ’s death? Yes, and this time it
did happen in the sinner’s personal experience. It
is in this view alone that God is
glorified.
The Power to
Believe
Arminianism
teaches that man’s will is free, he is the deciding
factor in salvation. The matter is totally up to him.
Faith is man’s contribution to salvation and is what
makes salvation possible. The Holy Spirit can draw to
Christ only those who allow Him to do so. But is God
glorified in such an idea? Certainly
not.
What
Scripture teaches is that there are two calls of God to
men. The first call is the general call (or
external call). It is to this our Lord refers in Matthew
22:14: “For many are called, but few are chosen.” While
there is a call to all men to believe, however, it is
equally clear that the majority of people reject this
call. In fact, as we preach and witness, the Gospel
often hardens a person even
more.
The second
call of God, however, which we find primarily in the
Epistles, is the effectual call
(or inward call). This call is the inward call of the Holy
Spirit that draws the elect one to God. Our Lord alludes
to this in John 6:44: “No man can come to me, except the
Father which hath sent me draw him.”
Why is this
effectual call necessary? Because of man’s depravity,
this drawing follows of necessity. As we have seen, man
is in darkness and even in death, so God had to call us
in a very special
way. After all, how can a dead
man hear a call at all? God had to create the ability
for us to respond. What is this effectual call? It is
this: the Word of God comes with such power of the Holy
Spirit that God’s chosen ones are drawn to God, and
brought to life. God effectually draws to Himself those
who belonged to Him from before the foundation of the
world. It is in this view alone that God is
glorified.
The Security of
Grace
Arminianism
teaches that those who believe and are truly saved can
lose their salvation when they sin. But we ask one more
time, is God glorified in such an idea? Certainly not.
What Scripture
teaches is that man is secure in God’s grace. There is
probably no other picture concerning the Holy Spirit’s
work in salvation that is more graphic than that of
sealing. Turning to Ephesians 1 once again (which is
only one reason Ephesians is my passion), we read, “In
whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of
truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit
of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto
the praise of his glory” (vs. 13-14).
The concept
of sealing is quite ancient. In fact, we can trace this
concept back a millennium or more before Christ.
Herodotus (c.484-525 B.C.), the first of the great Greek
historians, wrote in his History that
ancient man possessed not only his staff but his seal.
The Greek verb used here is spragizo, “to
set a seal; mark with a seal,” and comes from the noun
spragis,
which refers to a signet ring that had a distinctive
mark. There are many illustrations of sealing. We can
see many of these by looking at four pictures that this
term provides. While space doesn’t permit looking at Acquisition, Absolute
Ownership, and Authenticity, let’s look briefly
at Assurance.
The
spiritual parallel is staggering. The Holy Spirit’s
sealing seals us eternally in Christ. The verb tense is past in all three
New Testament references that refer to sealing.
Ephesians 4:30 declares, that we are “sealed [in the
past] for the day of redemption” (see also II Cor.
1:21-22). Does this say, “God sealed us temporarily
until we sin our way out?” No, it says, “God sealed us
in the past until the day we are redeemed into glory.”
It is in this view alone that God is
glorified.
We close
with this statement on soli deo
gloria, as stated in The
Cambridge Declaration of the Alliance of Confessing
Evangelicals on April 20,
1996:
We reaffirm that because salvation is of
G
od and has been accomplished by
God, it is for God’s glory and that we must glorify him
always. We must live our entire lives before the face of
God, under the authority of God and for his glory
alone.
We deny that we
can properly glorify God if our worship is confused with
entertainment, if we neglect either Law or Gospel in our
preaching, or if self-improvement, self-esteem or
self-fulfillment are allowed to become alternatives to
the gospel.
Oh, that the five
solas of the Reformation would be burned into the hearts
and minds of God’s people today! These are not just the
tenets of the Reformation; they are the very pillars of
Christianity itself. Without them, we are doomed; not
only is salvation impossible, but the church has no
foundation. Let us embrace them, defend them, and
proclaim them.
[i] Robert H. Schuller,
Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, p.
64.
