Grace vs Glory

Another benefit to having your best friend be your spouse is the fact you can enjoy a great book together. My beloved and I recently started a book together entitled, "The Good New We Almost Forgot" by Kevin DeYoung. The book is a study of the Heidelberg Catechism. The reason I bring this up is because in the opening of the first chapter he talks about how the the Heidelberg starts off talking about grace where as the more famous brother catechism, the Westminster starts off by talking about God's glory first.

I think this is an interesting idea to think about. Both grace and glory are important topics from the Bible to think, talk, and pray about. Each topic has it's place in Christian doctrine and even in the every day life of a lover of Jesus. So lets take a look at each word and see how it fits into the life of a Christian.

The Westminster catechism starts off by talking about the chief end of man, which is to give God glory and praise Him. God created for His own good pleasure. So the natural response by creation should be to give the Creator glory and show off the mighty works of our Creator. A reading of the book of psalms cannot go more than a few verses and you will find that glory is due God. Giving God glory is also called worship. Again, the Bible continually speaks volumes of the act of worshiping God. We are called to worship God as Creator, Savior, Provider, Ruler, King, and many other titles because that is the reason humans exist. God ultimately provided salvation for humanity because of His glory and so that He will be praised and worshiped. Everything we do should be worshiping God. Everything we say and how we respond should be to the praise and worship of God. God's glory is the heart beat of the church and should be at the root of everything done by those who love Him.

But grace is also just as important in its place in the mouth of Christians. Grace is the root of salvation. God chose in His free will to give us something He did not have to, salvation. If the grace of God was never shown to humanity in Jesus, then all humans will spend eternity in Hell and have no hope for anything. The grace of God is a topic that the Bible also speaks volumes about and is brought up almost as much as glory. Without the grace of God we would have no reason to worship and give God glory. The grace of God in salvation and also the grace in the daily moments should be driving us to our knees in worship. The glory of God has its foundation in the grace bestowed on us by God. As Ephesians 2: 6 reminds us, "it is by grace you have been saved". Without grace in our life we would be walking around as dead men with no hope and our lives would look totally different. Even the common grace of God in the small things is important to have. God in His amazing love is continually giving us amazing gifts out of His grace towards us. Grace is the bedrock of the Christian life.

So which word should we start with? Well, if I was talking to a non-christian, I would probably start by talking about grace because after their state of sin is pointed out grace must come next. The person who needs to know Jesus needs to know of God's grace and the act of Jesus in that grace. But if I was talking to a member of my church, I might start at glory. Continually giving God worship and praise in our lives is vital for Jesus' church. If we as Christians are not worshiping God then we probably have an idol in our hearts in place of God. So glory must be a first word in the church.

So each has it place and importance in our lives. I say we cannot separate them because they are too interconnected and they are both at the root of the gospel. So we should not chose one word over the other but instead work them together hand in hand. They both shout, JESUS GRACEFULLY DIED FOR OUR SINS AND WE SHOULD GIVE HIM THE GLORY AND PRAISE FOR RESCUING US WHEN HE DID NOT HAVE TO. Amen