Results tagged “theocentric” from To Tell You The Truth
God's Glory
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"God’s glory is not an attribute as much as it is the sum total of all God’s attributes. In viewing God’s glory, we are not directly viewing God, but the impress and effects of His majestic greatness. ...
Holiness, glory, and beauty are inseparable. We must recognize the connection between them. God’s holiness (otherly presence) is manifested in glory (majestic splendor and brilliance) and the form it takes is beauty. This combination produces both fear and longing within us. God’s “terrible” beauty - God’s “awe-full” beauty - simultaneously repels and attracts. It is both shocking and soothing, disruptive and fascinating, unnerving and restorative. It provokes both fear and love. Unless we embrace this full range of engagement with God’s glory, we evidence that we have not truly encountered it" (Read more: TheoCentric)
The Holy Spirit glories in and magnifies the beauty of the person and work of Jesus by unveiling it to our spiritual understanding (cf. John 14-16; 2 Corinthians 3:18). The essential work of the Spirit is to set Christ before our eyes until in adoration our hearts find Him more beautiful than whatever our flesh desires to have or do.
Are we to say then that the law has no use in the process of sanctification? Absolutely not. The issue at stake in the sanctification/law debate is one of revelation versus power. If we see the law as one way the power of God works in us to make us like Christ, we err. We have already established that we are not made like Christ by obeying the law. But if we see the law as a revelation of the character of Christ, we see rightly. I’m sure you would say that if someone perfectly kept the Law, he would be like Christ. Why would you say that? Because the Law is the revelation of His character.
The law is useful for believers to reveal His character to us (we can gaze upon the beautiful character of Christ through the Law) and as a goal for which we should strive in the power of the Holy Spirit - with the certain knowledge that we will fail daily in this life and then the Law becomes our Tutor to drive us back to Christ (back to the good news of God’s provision for our failure).
It is interesting to note here that the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is essentially the Law at the heart level. The Spirit works to internalize the Law within us (He works love within us which is the summary of the Law). The fruit of the Spirit is just that, the fruit of the Spirit's work in our lives by (again) "shining the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).
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(0)Jesus Himself said, "And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them" (John 17:22) "And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 2:14) "those whom He justified, these He also glorified" (Romans 8:28-30) "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself" (Philippians 3:20-21).
"Christ in you, the hope of glory” is the heart of the gospel - God’s story of glory. In Christ and by the Spirit, we are hallowed (sanctified), glorified, and beautified. This glory is permanent rather than fading (2 Corinthians. 3:18; 4:16-18). It finds its fullest expression in glorified resurrection bodies in a renewed and restored new heavens and new earth. Through the saving work of Jesus, humanity is liberated from sin, and all creation is as well. The earth, created to be a cosmic temple where God’s glory permanently resides, finally fulfills its intended purpose: “And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:22-23).
The glory of God is the source, means, and end of existence. It is the purpose and goal of all things. God will not rest until “all the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord” (Num 14:20) - until all creation is hallowed, glorified, beautified by God. For this reason, the Western church has spoken of the beatific vision - a holy and glorious vision of God that leads to the eternal enjoyment of God’s infinite and inexhaustible glory. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36). (TheoCentric - The Weight of Glory)
"God’s glory is not an attribute as much as it is the sum total of all God’s attributes. In viewing God’s glory, we are not directly viewing God, but the impress and effects of His majestic greatness. ...
Holiness, glory, and beauty are inseparable. We must recognize the connection between them. God’s holiness (otherly presence) is manifested in glory (majestic splendor and brilliance) and the form it takes is beauty. This combination produces both fear and longing within us. God’s “terrible” beauty - God’s “awe-full” beauty - simultaneously repels and attracts. It is both shocking and soothing, disruptive and fascinating, unnerving and restorative. It provokes both fear and love. Unless we embrace this full range of engagement with God’s glory, we evidence that we have not truly encountered it" (Read more: TheoCentric)
The Holy Spirit glories in and magnifies the beauty of the person and work of Jesus by unveiling it to our spiritual understanding (cf. John 14-16; 2 Corinthians 3:18). The essential work of the Spirit is to set Christ before our eyes until in adoration our hearts find Him more beautiful than whatever our flesh desires to have or do.
Are we to say then that the law has no use in the process of sanctification? Absolutely not. The issue at stake in the sanctification/law debate is one of revelation versus power. If we see the law as one way the power of God works in us to make us like Christ, we err. We have already established that we are not made like Christ by obeying the law. But if we see the law as a revelation of the character of Christ, we see rightly. I’m sure you would say that if someone perfectly kept the Law, he would be like Christ. Why would you say that? Because the Law is the revelation of His character.
The law is useful for believers to reveal His character to us (we can gaze upon the beautiful character of Christ through the Law) and as a goal for which we should strive in the power of the Holy Spirit - with the certain knowledge that we will fail daily in this life and then the Law becomes our Tutor to drive us back to Christ (back to the good news of God’s provision for our failure).
It is interesting to note here that the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is essentially the Law at the heart level. The Spirit works to internalize the Law within us (He works love within us which is the summary of the Law). The fruit of the Spirit is just that, the fruit of the Spirit's work in our lives by (again) "shining the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).
