The Westminster Catechism was a document written by the Westminster Assembly between 1643 and 1649. The catechism had two divisions, the larger and the shorter catechism. The shorter catechism is more familiar and was prepared for instructing children in the Christian faith. The shorter catechism contains a series of questions and answers that were meant to be memorized and then rehearsed. Probably the most familiar of the questions and answers is question number one.
Question: What is the chief end of man? (i.e., what should be the main goal of mankind?)
Answer: To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
In this article, I’d like to examine the idea of glorifying God.
Concerning this idea of glorifying God, there are two questions that I want to answer.
I. What does it mean to glorify God?
II. How is God glorified by the believer?
Let’s deal with our first question
What does it mean to Glorify God?
According to the N.T. glorifying God has several meanings. It means, “To show forth His praise”, It means to, “Put God on display”(i.e., to make conspicuous his character and attributes), means, “To honor and celebrate who He is and what He’s done”. Finally, it means, “ to make Him look good”.
Putting all these meanings together we discover that the chief end, the main objective of man is to show forth God’s praise, to put God on display, to honor and celebrate who He is and what He’s done, to make Him look good.
Folks this is important for you to understand, glorifying God in the ways that I’ve just described is not only the responsibility of Christians but all humanity. Isaiah 43:7 states that God created man for his Glory, but because of sin, Rom 3:23 states that mankind falls woefully short of glorifying God. Because of sin, man fails miserably at showing forth God’s praise, because of sin man fails miserably at putting God on display, because of sin mankind fails miserably at honoring and celebrating who God is and what He’s done, and because of sin mankind fails miserably at making God look, God.
But the Good news is that through the finished work of Christ, the born-again believer now has the God-given ability to Glorify God.
This leads me now to our second question:
How is God Glorified by the Believer?
The Scripture mentions many ways, but for the sake of time let me mention three(3):
1. God is glorified through answered prayer (John 14:13)
Contrary to the belief of many, God really does desire to answer the prayers of His people. But here’s the key to answered prayer. It’s found in verse 13, “And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do...”
Asking in Jesus’ name means more than just saying at the end of a prayer request, “In Jesus’ name I pray”. To ask in Jesus’ name means first and foremost to pray according to His will or in light of His will. 1 John 5:14-15 states very clearly in support of this idea, “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him”. So the key to answered prayer is God hearing us and the key to God hearing us is our praying according to His will. If this is the key to answered prayer, let me give you according to John 14:13 the purpose of answered prayer. Let me say this loudly and clearly, the chief purpose of God answering our prayers is not the meeting of our needs, the chief purpose of God answering our prayers is that He Himself will be glorified. In other words when God answers our prayers, certainly we benefit, but ultimately and most importantly God is honored, God is put on display, God is made to look good.
2. God is glorified through our bearing fruit (John 15:8)
John states that when a person is rightly connected to Christ-the vine, the inevitable result is fruit. In other words, if a person is truly connected to Christ he or she will produce fruit(no question). This idea that a person can come to Christ and never demonstrate the fruit of that union is foreign to the Scripture. In fact, Jesus clearly states in verse 5, “...apart from me you can do nothing”. If a person claims to be saved yet never produces fruit, that fruitlessness demonstrates that that person was never in Christ.
I’ve been talking about fruit, what does this fruit look like. In other words, when a person is rightly connected to Christ what fruit does Christ produce in that person's life.
1. The fruit of the Spirit(Gal 5:22)[Godly character]
2. The fruit of righteousness(Phil 1:11)[Godly living]
3. The fruit of souls(Rom 1:13)[Godly offspring]
And here’s the central purpose of fruit-bearing according to John 15:8, “that God may be glorified”. When Christ produces through us Godly character, Godly living, and Godly offspring, God is made to look good.
3. God is glorified through holy living (1 Cor 6:12-20)
The Apostle Paul encourages the Corinthian believers to glorify God in their physical bodies(vs 20).
Two reasons why we are to glorify God with our physical bodies:
Number one: Our bodies don’t belong to us (vs 19)
When God saved you He not only purchased your soul/spirit, but your body as well. Our bodies belong to God. This means that contrary to popular belief, we can’t do anything we want with this body.
Number two: We were bought with a price (vs 20)
The Apostle Peter states in his first letter, “...you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect”.
Side Bar comment
I don’t know about you, but as a former pastor, I know that I have told people- young people, married people, single people that sexual immorality is wrong and that engaging in it can have disastrous results. We know that this is true, but as I reflect on what we’ve been talking about, maybe what we’ve been telling people is an inadequate message. I believe we need to begin telling people especially Christian people that the reason they should not engage in immoral behavior is not just because they might get a divorce or catch a disease or get pregnant but first and foremost we should communicate that to involve ourselves in behavior that’s contrary to God’s righteous standard is to put God’s glory is at stake. I think undermining God's glory is far more detrimental than getting pregnant, getting a divorce, or getting a disease. I’m convinced that we need to get away from our man-centered approach to man’s problems and get back to a God-centered approach.
As Christians God’s glory must be our controlling motivation
The Apostle Paul said it this way, “...whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God”.
Soli Deo Gloria
