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by Charlie Wolcott

Happy New Year! 2020 has ended and many people are hoping the end of the madness of this last year has been is over. There is good news and bad news to each new year. The good news is the bad things from the previous year have passed and there will be good things coming this new year. The bad news is the good things from the previous year have passed and there will be bad things coming this new year. Guess what? No matter how crazy 2020 has been, this is the pattern of every year. There are good years and bad years and there are good parts to bad years and bad parts to good years. But what we as Christians can say throughout it all: God is good and everything that takes place is for His glory.

This post will conclude my series on the “Five Solas.” This week’s is “Sola Gloria Deus,” that is, “For the Glory of God Alone.” This is likely the least known of the Five Solas and at the same time, it’s likely the least practiced. While it is the least practiced, it is also the most directly taught. All that takes place is for the glory of God. Our very purpose and existence are for the glory of God. The creation is for the glory of God. The fall of man was allowed for the glory of God. The worldwide destruction of the Flood was for the glory of God, as was the preservation of Noah and his family. The separation of Abraham to start a new people who would be called by God’s name is for the glory of God. The enslavement in Egypt, the plagues, and the exodus were all for the glory of God. The conquest of Canaan was for the glory of God. The judges and the kings and the captivity were all for the glory of God. The four empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome were established for the glory of God. Jesus came to this earth to die for our sins for the glory of God. He rose for the glory of God. The persecution of the church for 2000 years has been for the glory of God. The establishment of the nations from Rome to England to the U.S. to China to Iraq to Saudi Arabia and Brazil and Australia etc. has all been for the glory of God. And Jesus will return to bring judgment upon the wicked and to rescue His bride, all for the glory of God.

That’s world history. Let’s make it more personal. Your existence is for the glory of God. Your purpose in being alive is to give God glory. But there is a big question: how? How do we give God glory? The fact remains that God is going to get glory out of our lives no matter what we do. God is sovereign and is in control of every situation. He does not make our choices for us, but He sets up every situation and lays out every consequence for our choices. Let me boil it down to the ultimate outcomes: We will give God glory throughout our lives through our reception of His free gift of salvation and our walking in His paths, or we will glorify God as we burn and suffer in Hell under His wrath because of our sin. We will glorify God one way or the other. There is no choice in that matter. Every knee will bow, it’s just a matter of when. We will glorify God, it’s only a matter of how.

Many Christians will readily agree with this, but let’s make it more personal. Are we giving God ALONE the glory? It’s easy to say, “Give glory to God” but in reality, you aren’t give Him alone the glory. The are MANY people out there who try to share God’s glory. I have done this too, and in some areas I still do. What does this look like? There are many athletes who have a great platform and when they get the mic, they say: “This is all for the glory of God.” But is it really? I know for Tim Tebow it really was, because when he was snuffed unfairly from the NFL, he didn’t make an issue about it. He wasn’t concerned about his own platform. He wasn’t concerned that he wasn’t going to be the next Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. But how many others choose to share their platform for their own glory while “sharing” it with God?

The popular preacher has much to worry about in this issue. In an interview, Paul Washer stated that his greatest fear is that when his popularity as a solid preacher dims and he’s no longer followed, would he still be as passionate about preaching the truth and saving souls and making sure God’s name is glorified in his life without the fans as he is now? News flash! God is not going to share His glory with your kingdom, your ministry, your writing, your speaking, your teaching, your science, etc. If it is going to be for the glory of God, it had better be ALL for the glory of God. Hear me; I’m preaching to myself here. One of my greatest passions is that the integrity and the authority of Scripture is upheld, and I utterly despise hearing teachings, especially from other Christians, that undermine it. But when I go to defend Scripture, a battle rages within: whether I am doing this for God’s glory or for my own. How often do I pride myself as being a “champion of the faith”? Way too many times. I often tell myself that any and all that I know about Scripture and how it came about and why we can rely on it is a gift from God. Why? Two reasons: 1) If I don’t, it goes to my head too easily, and 2) I know how susceptible I was to false teachings if someone told me that person was trustworthy. What does this mean? It means any defense I can offer about God and His Word is from God and meant to go back to God.

I’m not alone when I say this: if our top priority is to “win souls,” we’ll miss the point. Our top priority is the glory of God. That means any evangelism we do is not to win souls to our faith, but to proclaim the kingdom of God where His flag is denied from flying. We cannot win souls for Christ if Christ is not our end goal. Paris Reidhead learned this the hard way. He went to Africa so the poor, suffering people there could have hope where they had none. He found out they wanted nothing to do with God, and Reidhead thought he had been tricked. God got a hold of his heart and gave him this message which Reidhead paraphrased: “I didn’t send you to heathen for their sake. I send you there for Me. Am I not worthy of the reward of My suffering?” It totally changed his perception. He no longer went to evangelize and seek the lost so that they might go to heaven; he went out so that God might receive that which He is due. That is what it means to give God the glory. I strongly recommend you check out his sermon “Ten Shekels and a Shirt” because he blasts modern day humanism as it’s crept into the church and now all but taken it over in full force to where everything of Christian doctrine is preached for nothing but the happiness of man. And God is just a means to mankind’s end. He blasts such teaching out of the water, and so will I.

2021 is a new year. We are about to install a new president here in the U.S. (though as of the writing of this post, the election wasn’t fully decided yet). We will have a new set of challenges and a new set of blessings. Every one of them, while for our benefit, will be for the glory of God. However this year goes, let us stand out among all that we’ve seen or done in the past and let us use this year to give ALL the glory to God. Not merely lip service, but let us give him the true praise that we can possibly offer, not caring what we get out of it or what any other person gets out of it. As far as we are concerned, let 2021 be the year in which in all we do, we give the glory to God alone.

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