God's Glory Revealed in Christ

Essays on Biblical Theology in Honor of Thomas R. Schreiner

James Hamilton, Denny Burk, Brian J. Vickers, James Hamilton, Denny Burk, Brian J. Vickers

• Editorial: B&H Academic
• Año: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781462795598
• Categoría: Teologia e religione
• Categoría: Teologia cristiana

Over his decades in Christian academia, Thomas R. Schreiner has created a diverse body of work in New Testament studies, biblical theology, and pastoral ministry. In honor of Schreiner's ongoing work and commitment to faithful, winsome conversations about the central issues of our faith, editors Denny Burk, James M. Hamilton Jr. and Brian Vickers compiled nineteen essays addressing different aspects of biblical theology. These essays fall into four categories: Whole Bible Approaches to Biblical Theology as well as Major Themes and Issues, Background Issues, and Applications in Biblical Theology. Contributors discuss important topics, such as: dispensationalism, covenant theology, sanctification, and the kingdom of God and the public square. Readers of God's Glory Revealed in Christ will deepen their understanding of biblical theology, learning, as Tom Schreiner has consistently modeled, how to apply biblical theology to life. Contributors:
Clinton E. Arnold, Ardel Caneday, Denny Burk, D. A. Carson, Simon Gathercole, Joshua Greever, Donald A. Hagner, James M. Hamilton Jr., Barry Joslin, John Kimbell, Jason Meyer, Russell D. Moore, John Piper, Rob Plummer, Patrick Schreiner, Mark A. Seifrid, Ray Van Neste, Brian Vickers, Bruce Ware, Jarvis J. Williams, Shawn D. Wright, Robert W. Yarbrough

MAJOR THEMES AND ISSUES IN BIBLICAL THEOLOGY

Chapter 6

Sanctification for the Magnifying of God in Christ: How God Glorifies His Children for His Own Glory

by John Piper

Thomas Schreiner holds a unique place among contemporary biblical scholars. I am unaware of anyone in our day who has more consistently, extensively, or carefully shown that the supremacy of God in Christ is the “most important” reality in Scripture,¹ and that “the reason” for the entire history of redemption, including its ethical implications, is that God “be glorified in all things and by all people.”² Or, as Schreiner puts it in his New Testament Theology, “God’s purpose in all that he does is to bring honor to himself and to Jesus Christ. The NT is radically God-centered. We could say that the NT is about God magnifying himself in Christ through the Spirit.”³

THOMAS SCHREINER AND JONATHAN EDWARDS

Jonathan Edwards made this case philosophically and exegetically in The End for Which God Created the World: “All that is ever spoken of in Scripture as an ultimate end of God’s works, is included in that one phrase, the glory of God.”⁴ At the end of his life, Edwards wanted to demonstrate this truth in a new kind of book. He wrote to the College of New Jersey that one of the reasons he hesitated to accept the call to be president was that

I have had on my mind and heart . . . a great work, which I call a History of the Work of Redemption, a body of divinity in an entire new method, being thrown into the form of a history; . . . introducing all parts of divinity in that order which is most scriptural and most natural.⁵

Edwards died at the age of fifty-four and never completed the project. Mercifully, God spared Tom Schreiner in his sixth decade to clarify “the reason” for the story of redemption while unfolding the story itself. “Scripture unfolds the story of the kingdom, and God’s glory is the reason for the story.”⁶

No Single Theme, One Ultimate Goal

Schreiner is keenly aware that “the centrality of God in Christ leads to abstraction if it is not closely related to the history of salvation.” So he invites us to “consider New Testament theology from a twofold perspective.”

First, God’s purpose in all that he does is to bring honor to himself and to Jesus Christ. . . . (Second is the unfolding of how God achieves that purpose in history.) No one can grasp the message of the New Testament if redemptive history is slighted. . . . God’s ultimate purpose is reflected in the fulfillment of his plan. . . . God works out his saving plan so that he would be magnified in Christ, so that his name would be honored.⁷

In unfolding the story of redemption, Schreiner does not argue that a single “theme” or “center” can shed sufficient light on all of Scripture. “It is common consensus that no one theme adequately captures the message of the Scriptures.”⁸ He makes clear that the glory of God—the majesty of God in Christ—is a uniting reality in Scripture not as “theme” or “center,” but as the ultimate goal, “the ultimate reason for the story.” And since God plans his goals, and reveals his plans, magnifying God in Christ also can be spoken of as the “animating principle” of the inspired biblical writers.⁹

Ultimate Aim of Romans and God

Schreiner’s main scholarly attention has been devoted to the apostle Paul. He is the star witness in Schreiner’s case that the ultimate purpose of history is that God “be glorified in all things and by all people.” “Magnifying God in Christ was the animating principle of Paul’s life and the foundational principle of his theology.”¹⁰ Schreiner even insists that the gospel itself, as Paul proclaims it, is not supreme. Only God is supreme.

Paul devoted the bulk of his life to preaching the gospel and planting churches, and he is filled with joy when his converts stay true to the gospel (1 Thessalonians 3) and deeply grieved when they abandon it (Gal 1:6–9). The gospel, however, is “the gospel of God” (Rom 1:1), indicating that the gospel cannot be prized over the God who makes it a reality. The gospel is nothing less than “the glory of Christ [who is the image of God]” (2 Cor 4:4).¹¹

Indeed! It is “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God” (1 Tim 1:11 ESV¹²).

At the apex of Paul’s inspired writings is his letter to the Romans. As with the totality of Scripture, Schreiner acknowledges that the book has “various purposes” but again asks, “Which purpose is ultimate?” His answer:

Paul ultimately wrote Romans as a servant of God to honor his Lord. I have endeavored to show inductively in my exegesis of the letter that God’s glory is indeed ultimate, and the credibility of my hypothesis stands or falls with my exegesis of the letter.¹³

Ultimate Purpose in All Things

In fact, Paul seems to delight in repeatedly expressing the glory of God as the ultimate purpose of what he does. From predestination to incarnation to sanctification to consummation, the ultimate purpose is the same: that God in Christ be magnified as supremely glorious. For example (and these are only examples that use the term “glory” or “glorify”):

The purpose of election and predestination in Christ:

In love [God the Father] predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace. (Eph 1:4–6 ESV)

The purpose of why Christ was incarnate as a Jew:

Christ became a servant to the circumcised . . . in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. (Rom 15:8–9 ESV)

The purpose of Paul’s apostolic ministry:

It is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. (2 Cor 4:15 ESV)

The purpose of why Christians welcome each other:

Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, to the glory of God. (Rom 15:7 ESV)

The purpose of Paul’s collection for the poor:

He has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us, for the glory of the Lord himself. (2 Cor 8:19 ESV)

The purpose of God’s working all things according to his will:

He works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. (Eph 1:11–12 ESV)

The purpose of being sealed by the Spirit:

You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Eph 1:13–14 ESV)

The purpose of being filled with the fruit of righteousness:

[I pray that you will be] filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Phil 1:11 ESV)

The purpose of every tongue confessing Christ as Lord:

Every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:11 ESV)

The purpose of all promises being Yes in Christ:

All the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Cor 1:20 ESV)

The purpose of the second coming of Christ:

He comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. (2 Thess 1:10 ESV)

Overflow of Worshiping Hearts

Besides these explicit statements of purpose, Paul overflows with doxologies that express the ultimate aim of the worshiping heart—that all glory be ascribed to God.

• For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Rom 11:36 ESV)

• To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Rom 16:27 ESV)

• To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph 3:21 ESV)

• To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Phil 4:20 ESV)

• To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (2 Tim 4:18 ESV)

Paul’s God-centered Ethics

Descending from the macrovision of redemptive history and the consummation of all things, Schreiner shows that this God-centered vision of reality is essential to all Christian behavior. “The centrality of God and Christ in the warp and woof of life is woven into the fabric of Pauline ethics.”¹⁴ “Honoring God should be the goal of ethics”¹⁵ because Paul exhorts us to “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col 3:17) and “to eat and drink . . . or whatever . . . to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31). In short, “Glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:20 ESV).

My Aim

Here is where I would like to test Schreiner’s thesis about Pauline ethics by probing into the relationship between God’s glory and our sanctification. I am going to assume that sanctification is Paul’s way of talking about “ethics.” Therefore, my aim is to see how our sanctification relates to the glory of God in Paul. Is the goal of sanctification (ethics) “honoring God”? Or, as the title of this essay puts it, is sanctification for the magnifying of God in Christ? How does God glorify his children for his own glory?

Our Destiny of Seeing the Glory of God

It is clear from the many texts cited above about God’s aim to be glorified that the consummation of all things will include the sight of God’s glory by the redeemed. If we are going to savor and speak and sing and celebrate his glory, we will have to see it—no longer “in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (1 Cor 13:12 ESV).

This seeing will not be only a physical sight of material brightness, but a true spiritual sight with the “eyes of the heart” (Eph 1:18 ESV). God’s glory is not only the brightness that is manifest in the world, but is primarily, and most essentially, the internal, spiritual beauty—the array of his essential, invisible, eternal perfections.

Jonathan Edwards concludes from a survey of many biblical texts that there is an “internal glory” and “external glory.”

As to internal glory. When the word is used to signify what is within, inherent or in the possession of the subject, it very commonly signifies excellency, or great valuableness, dignity, or worthiness of regard. . . . [As to the external glory.] The word “glory” is used in Scripture often to express the exhibition, emanation or communication of the internal glory. Hence it often signifies a visible exhibition of glory; as in an effulgence or shining brightness, by an emanation of beams of light.¹⁶

Since the resurrection of the redeemed will be a bodily resurrection—albeit a “spiritual body”—there will be both material and spiritual manifestations of the glory of God in the age to come. B...