There
is no doubt that, when God does something on his own, it is filled with glory.[4] In the beginning God created the universe, ordained one planet to
be the focus of all his attention, and established it with living things that
could reproduce and fill the earth. What God was able to do all on his own in
that six days of creative genius continues to speak of his glory to this day.[5] So, how would it benefit him at all to add someone like me to
something he would do?
The
answer at least includes this: that the same God who could gather together dirt
and turn it into a man created in his own image and likeness, can take my worthless
lump of clay and fashion it into a clay jar. [6] He can then use this clay jar to carry his glory to the world in a
way that is all the more glorious for the fact that he can do such things
through someone like me.
In
other words, for God to do a work unhindered by the interference of any created
thing is to his wonderful glory. But, when God personalizes his work to include
the creature he has created, and extends his life, and his work, and his
activity, through these jars of clay, and still accomplishes the most amazing
work of turning sinners into saints,[7] and changing lumps of clay into living stones that he uses to build
a holy temple he can live in by his Spirit,[8] and making a band of orphans and misfits into “a chosen race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession,” who now “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light” (I Peter 2:9), and using fishermen
and tax collectors and angry, violent religious zealots to “turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6), then accomplishing such
things through lumps of clay like me shows his glory even more distinctly than
when he does wonderful things without any participation from me at all.
Over
the years, I have done many projects all on my own. I’m not good at planning
ahead, so I usually do a project by thinking my way through it. I take my time,
take breaks as needed, fit in my work around other things that need to be done,
and plug away until the project is finished. It would be extremely tedious for
someone to try to work with me, except at times I have one particular focus to
get done at one particular time. Another part of my life is helping my wife
operate a family daycare. This gives me opportunity to practice being a friend
to whichever children are in our lives at any given time.
Now,
let’s just say I decided that, this time, instead of building something all by
myself, and people admiring my workmanship in the completed project, that I
decided to do some building project with the help of our daycare kids (all
safety requirements are met in this imaginary illustration!).
If
people came day after day and saw me supervising my little work-crew, and they
saw that a structure was coming together that was as good as anything I had
ever made all on my own, and they saw the unity and harmony of the group of
children who were enjoying being part of the team I had pulled together, and we
eventually completed a new building that was just as impressive in structure
and craftsmanship as anything I had done solo before, wouldn’t that be even
more impressive than the projects that had preceded?
So
too, the God who displayed his glory through creating the universe and our
world without any help from ourselves, so that the creation continues to
manifest his glory to this very day, will receive a distinctive measure of
glory for the work he has chosen to do in partnership with his people.
I
have already alluded to God’s word speaking of his people as jars of clay. As
we look at that description in context, it draws us to consider how such a
feature contributes to making God’s glory known. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the
surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”[9]
There
is a distinctive way in which God’s work of placing the treasure of the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ” into people like me, anyone who has faith in Jesus
Christ, makes abundantly clear that the power to do this is all of God. Even
though we carry this treasure in our clay jars, only God could have made clay
jars live with such a life.
The book of
Ephesians gives multiple references to the way that the lives of God’s people show
his glory in very distinctive ways. For example, “In love he
predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the
purpose of his will, to
the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”[10]
It
is interesting that God’s glorious grace could only be glorified in the act of
being gracious in a glorious way. He could not show his own Son grace, since
his Son deserved everything the Father delighted to give him. He could not show
grace to his angels, since they happily lived to do his will, and rejoiced in
the blessing that was theirs in so doing. He could not show grace to the red
dragon and his fallen angels, for they were destined for the lake of fire. No,
God needed people like me, sinners, orphans, lost sheep, self-centered little
brats, to whom he could grant the full rights of adoption of sons. And so, in
doing that for me, he gave himself that distinctive glory of showing grace to a
lost human soul, which means that my involvement in his expression of grace
adds something distinctive to the glory he receives.
Paul
continues, “In him we have obtained an
inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works
all things according to the counsel of his will, so
that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his
glory.”[11] God had purposes for people; these purposes had to be fulfilled in
people in order for God to be glorified in what he did. When the Jewish people
were the first to put their hope in Christ, their coming alive in Christ was to
the praise of God’s glory in raising his people from the dead.
“To me, though I am the very least of all
the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the
plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things,
so that through the church the manifold wisdom
of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly
places.”[12] Paul, once a persecutor of the church, had received the grace of
God that led him to become a preacher of the gospel to the Gentiles. He came to
understand that this church he had tried to destroy was such a glorious work of
God that, “through the church” God’s
manifold wisdom would be put on display in the spiritual realm in a way that
was distinct from all the other ways God’s manifold wisdom was on display.
And
so, Paul concludes his prayer with this benediction: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
Amen.”[13] There is no doubt that God the Father would always be glorified in
Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. However, the work
God did to redeem the church, to complete his work of making a people in his
own image and likeness, was that he would also be glorified “in the church” for all of eternity.
There
are days when I wonder how God could get any glory out of my life whatsoever.
But then I think that, if God made man from clay in the beginning, how
could his treasure in our jars of clay not show how completely awesome and
amazing he is to be able to accomplish such a thing as, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”[14]
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Ezekiel 10:1
[2]
Revelation 4:3
[3]
Revelation 4:3
[4]
Genesis 1
[5]
Romans 1:20
[6]
II Corinthians 4:7
[7]
“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (I Corinthians 6:11)
[8]
Ephesians 2:19-22
[9]
II Corinthians 4:6-7
[10]
Ephesians 1:4-6
[11]
Ephesians 1:11-12
[12]
Ephesians 3:8-10
[13]
Ephesians 3:20-21
[14]
Colossians 1:27
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