Our purpose at the Omega Institute is to help the believer understand and appreciate the doctrines of Scripture in a way he or she can truly digest and apply. This series of devotionals cover the spectrum of Evangelical biblical doctrine in such a way that the Christian can meditate each week on a different truth from Scripture so as to master the essentials and better know and serve his or her Lord.
Key Verses:
“33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” —Romans 11:33-36
For all of us who know and love our Savior, we understand that there are times where, upon reflecting on the wonder and the beauty of His Person and His work, we simply are overcome. I can imagine that this was Paul’s experience when, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he penned the eleventh chapter of the book of Romans. By the time we get to this point in this masterful letter, so much has been building up in the heart of both the writer and the reader. Paul has just been expressing how God’s promises to His people: national Israel, would never be forgotten or forsaken and how their salvation will come from their Messiah; the One who has also embraced the Gentiles with His love and grace. Then he comes to the thirty-third verse and, overcome by the wonder and majesty of God’s plan and God’s heart, breaks out into a wonderful benediction that extols the worthiness of our Lord and Savior:
“Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him and to Him and through Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”
Romans 11:33-36
Of all five Solas of the Reformation, this last one is by far my favorite. Soli Deo Gloria: to God alone be the glory – this tribute to the One who is so incredibly worthy of our love and our praise and our loyalty and our gratitude and our awe and our worship … the list goes on and on. This fifth Sola involves so much more, however, than a tribute to the Lord; it expresses the purpose of our lives and the direction that all of our endeavors should face: He alone is the goal, the purpose, the end for which we live. The picture that John’s revelation of Christ gives to us in the fourth chapter so beautifully paints for us the image of what Soli Deo Gloria really means:
“And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed and were created.”
Revelation 4:9-11
What I find most important about this final Sola is that it must exist in more than our affections and emotions – Soli Deo Gloria must not remain simply a sentiment, it must become a passion that is lived out in the practical reality of daily life.
The worthiness of our Lord and our God must translate into actions and words and intentions the flow out of a deliberate prioritization of His glory in all we do. This is what makes a man or woman great in the Kingdom of God. Jesus paid tribute to John the Baptist for his spiritual greatness because he understood his place in view of the awesome character of the Lord for whom he lived. It was John who said, “He [Jesus] must increase and I must decrease.” (John 3:30) For God to receive the glory He deserves, we must put aside aspirations for our own glory and pleasure when God’s will intersects with ours. His glory and His will and His fame must come before ours – it must eclipse ours – it must be put in first place above ours. This involves “dying daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31) to the things we desire which undermine His glory –- things as grand as life pursuits and as mundane as the emotions which can cause us to sin with our mouths or our actions if we give into the passion of the moment.
God’s desire for us to live to His glory in this manner is not due to some morbid desire to steal our joy or cause us to live in a perpetual state of ascetic self-denial for its own sake – His desire is for us to find our greatest joy in putting Him first; above ourselves and above all others and in doing so, declaring that He alone is worthy and that He is “first among all things.” (Colossians 1:18)
—Larry Carrino
