John 17 | Glory
Tony Reinke, in a conference message, speaks on the topic of glory. How in our media saturated age, we are all seeking glory. The smartphone and computer have had profound implications for the re-wiring of our brains and the avenues through which we can seek to fill the voids in our hearts.
What does John 17 have to do with any of this? The call to all Christians is to live a life that glorifies God. That makes Him look worthy, Holy, Gracious, Loving, Wise, Kind, Powerful, Faithful. That’s what Jesus was praying for in this chapter.
And we will always struggle to see (and display) the glory of God in our lives if we are infatuated with our own glory.
Here’s the bad news: no one in this room glorifies God like he should. Each of us face-plant short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). Here’s the great news: Christ died for self-glory seeking, piety-flouting, peer-fearing, narcissistic sinners like you and me. And he proved it by carrying our joy on his shoulders to the cross and into the grave and into the resurrection and into heaven! Only because of him can we now die to the praise of this world.
Because even in Christ we are tempted to puff up the resume and polish ourselves to impress others. And I still fail to relish the glory of God as I ought, and my social media habits show it. And digital minimalism will not save me. And a new lifehack app will not save me. And a digital detox will not save me. And deleting all my non-essential apps will not save me. And switching to a dumbphone will not save me. And more religion and more morality will not save me.
…
In the end, God alone can break our obsession with trivial habits and grabs for vainglory. He must show up. God’s glorious presence must become real to us. He must cause us to marvel at him, to enjoy him, to obey him, to wonder at his creation, to gaze at his works, to give our lives in sacrifice to others, as we anticipate an eternity to come with him, perfectly glorifying him forever.
To live for the glory of God is to choose his glory over vainglory.
Beholding the glory of God and centering your life on him is what it means to be truly human. This is how God restores us. He’s remaking our lives to make us more human. He does it by re-centering us so that the weightiest, most significant thing in the universe to us, is not us, but him. And that is the whole goal of the triune conspiracy of John 17.
- Tony Reinke
Reflective thought
To be a Christian is not to “live a better life”. That is an implication, that you are changed, but it is not the crux of the Christian life. We are prone to believe the way we bring Glory to God and live our Christian witness is by cleaning ourselves up. Being nicer, stopping bad habits and such. And although those are good things, they do not glorify God, they glorify us.
What most glorifies God is our reliance upon Him. Our love for Him. Our treasuring of Him. In those things we experience change. The order is very important. We do not change to come to God and glorify Him. We come to God broken and in need, and that is what glorifies Him as He works in our life. It highlights His power, His grace.
The Christian life can be summed up in this sentence: “To treasure God as the supreme joy of your life”. Is God’s Glory real to you? Does it awe you? Does it move you to worship Him and love Him more? If it doesn’t, all you must do is keep looking at Him in the Bible. Keep looking until you see.
Looking with you,
Josh.