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A skeptic friend once shared this insight about God and His glory that really threw me off balance for a short while. He told me “God is so selfish because all He wants is glory.”
This statement and its soundness really threw me off because at the onset, the argument does sound rather sound. It got me thinking about God and who He was and caused me to dig deep in thought (note: This is why skeptic friends are so good – because they provoke you to keep digging into God and His Word.)
The problem really lies in us all so wrongly assuming that God is thirsty and hungry for man-given glory. We act as if God is desperate for us to praise and worship Him and that if we don’t God’s at a loss. However, truth be told God does not need our glory and in no way is desperate for it. Though we were created by God to glorify God, God existed for an infinity without us and He was fine that way.
It seems so far-fetched and yet is so obvious that Jesus doesn’t want glory, but acts instead in humility. Philippians 2:6-8 so quickly reminds us, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”
Why is it that we as human beings are so attracted to humility? It’s because the very hands that created us were those of a humble man who seeks not selfish ambition, but who simply radiates with so many characteristics that would be worthy of praise and honour yet still does not demand it like a megalomaniac who is ready to zap you if you don’t sing aloud or raise your hands in corporate worship. Aren’t you glad Jesus isn’t like that?
Jesus definitely deserves all glory and honour, and it should definitely go to no one except Him. But even in that, Jesus never forces it. He simply exists so full and radiant in glory and anyone who experiences Him can’t help but just give Him honour not because He wrings it out of us but because it simply comes out.
And the most amazing thing is that Jesus, though receiving all glory, does not keep it all to Himself, but instead shares it with all of us who believe and put our faith in Him. Romans 8:30 says, “And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” We serve a Lord who is not glory-hungry, but still undoubtedly deserves every ounce of it and who shares it with all who abide in Him.
