We Live for His Glory

The most difficult thing to explain to Christians is the full meaning of embracing the demands of God’s glory.
From the very earliest days of my spiritual awareness, going back to the 1970s, was the mission of communicating the divine truth in our modern cultural context. I considered myself a cultural translator then, and still do today. Dr. Robert Clarke at OBU set my feet on a long path of understanding the intellectual assumptions of our Western world, providing the clues I needed to realize the vast gulf between us and the people of the Bible. It took a very long time to break free of the bondage on my own thinking, but I had a map with vague references and basic features, and I was determined to explore.
If it’s this hard to move from our deeply flawed Western understanding to a truly biblical perspective, is it worth the trouble? You certainly can’t answer that question from our broken Western assumptions. The answer of what it’s worth comes after paying the costs and seeing what it buys. I can’t decide for you to pay that price; all I can do is point out the possibilities. Here I am at an age where the end of my days is within sight. I’m pretty sure I haven’t discovered all the places on that map. I’m pretty sure I’ll die before I see it all. In Western terms, I’ve wasted all those years on something which is demonstrably unproductive.
In biblical terms, I’m near the peak of achievement.
At the end of his deepest philosophical genius, King Solomon wrote: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13) Living by God’s Laws is why we exist. Failing that, we might as well walk straight into Hell. From the context of his book and the world in which he lived, we could translate that as, “The only reason God keeps this operation running is for His own glory.” If you could peruse the rest of the Hebrew Scripture, you’d understand how the context of the Bible shows us that God’s glory is in our best interest, both here and eternally. He will have glory; if you chose to participate, you get the warm reflection of it in your existence.
It’s not possible for me to pass from my soul to yours the depth of what this really demands. You may well be saying and writing often how the only reason we exist is to glorify God. I know I did, way back as a kid. Yet, I realize now I’m just beginning to understand what that means. I honestly don’t care about anything else on this earth, at least by comparison. Everything that really matters is in the Spirit Realm, and nothing here matters much at all. By glorifying God, I am pointing out to everyone how essential it is that we stop focusing on this Realm of Shadows and focus instead on the eternal meaning of things. I can’t make that as important to you as it is to me.
I can’t wait to see Heaven. You recognize the metaphorical expression, that I don’t plan to kill myself so I can get to Heaven right away. You rightly understand I’m saying that what I have and experience here, at its very best, is a pale reflection of what I already have there. In intellectual terms, I really don’t understand why God keeps me here and won’t let me come home. My brain can’t answer that, but my convictions hold up a truth my brain is required to accept: He isn’t finished with me here. That is, what I would consider in my best interest is not the truth of the matter. This is not about rescuing me from sorrow; it’s about making Him look good. Everything I experience here is part of His plan to reveal His glory. Something in His nature and character demands that. As one accountable to Him as Creator, it’s my duty to hang out here and do what it takes to maximize that revelation.
His glory shines brightest when I obey His Laws. That sounds easy until you realize His Laws were revealed entirely in that other, Hebrew Mystical context, not in our Western rationalist intellectual tradition. Even decent Western scholars realize the vast difference between the two. Dr. Clarke was a Western scholar; he was the one who helped me start examining the differences. I honestly missed most of what he said, but the Lord burned it into my consciousness until His Spirit could reveal the importance of what Dr. Clarke taught. It’s the same kind of thing Jesus indicated when He told His disciples that He realized they didn’t get what He was teaching, but that the Holy Spirit would bring it to their remembrance after the Ascension. The key to making the most of our knowledge is the Holy Spirit bringing it to life. I’m not Him by any means; I’m just another poor copy of whatever Dr. Clarke was for his students. But he would tell you himself it wasn’t about him or us, but about the truth. It’s how that truth changes us into a force that shines a light into this Shadow Realm.
It’s all about the glory of God.