Scripture
During this fall, we are focusing our attention on the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation began when an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. His propositions sparked a debate that eventually gave us five key Reformation doctrines that are usually referred to by their Latin names: sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), sola gratia (grace alone), sola fide (faith alone), and soli deo Gloria (glory to God alone). Today, I would like to examine glory to God alone.
Let’s read Romans 11:36:
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)
Introduction
Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses sparked a debate that eventually gave us five key Reformation doctrines.
First, the Reformers gave us sola Scriptura, which means “Scripture alone.” Their concern in using this phrase was with authority. They insisted that the Bible alone is our ultimate and supreme authority. They did not agree that other authorities, such as the pope, councils, traditions, the church, or even subjective feelings were equal in authority to the Bible. These other sources of authority may have a place, but in the end, the Bible alone is the supreme authority. Therefore, if there is a question to be answered, or a matter to be addressed, the supreme and final authority is the Word of God, and not anything or anyone else.
Second, the Reformers gave us solus Christus, which means “Christ alone.” They were saying that salvation has been achieved for us by Jesus Christ alone. Moreover, Christ accomplished our salvation apart from anything we have done or might do. Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross as our substitute has completely satisfied the justice of God the Father. There is nothing that we can do or contribute to our salvation.
Third, the Reformers gave us sola gratia, which means “grace alone.” They insisted that we sinners have no claim on God at all, that God owes us nothing but punishment for our sins, and that, if he saves us, it is only because he is pleased to do so. Our salvation is entirely due to the grace of God, and not because of anything in us at all.
Fourth, the Reformers gave us sola fide, which means “faith alone.” They were concerned with how God saves sinners, and affirmed that sinners are justified—declared “not guilty”—by faith alone. No merit saves, no good works saves, no obedience to God’s Law saves; only faith alone in Christ saves. Justification by faith alone became the hallmark doctrine of the Reformation.
And fifth, the Reformers gave us soli deo Gloria, which means “glory to God alone.” There is a sense in which each of the previous four solas leads to and, indeed, is even contained in this final sola. Romans 11:36 says, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Because all things really are “from him and through him and to him,” we say, “To him be glory forever. Amen.”
David VanDrunen notes in his book, God’s Glory Alone, that the Reformers did not actually coin the five terms of these five Reformation doctrines. He writes:
The Reformers may not have spoken explicitly of “the five solas,” but the magnification of Christ, grace, faith, Scripture, and God’s glory—and these alone—suffused their theology and ethics, their worship and piety. Christ alone, and no other redeemer, is the mediator of our salvation. Grace alone, and not any human contribution, saves us. Faith alone, and no other human action, is the instrument by which we’re saved. Scripture, and no merely human word, is our ultimate standard of authority. God’s glory alone, and that of no creature, is the supreme end of all things.
Lesson
Romans 11:36 shows us that God alone is to be glorified.
Let’s use the following outline:
1. Paul Begins with a Theological Affirmation (11:36a)
2. Paul Concludes with a Doxological Ascription (11:36b)
I. Paul Begins with a Theological Affirmation (11:36a)
First, Paul begins with a theological affirmation.
The Apostle Paul has given a comprehensive analysis of the gospel in the first eleven chapters of Romans. As John Stott says, “Step by step he has shown how God has revealed his way of putting sinners right with himself, how Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification, how we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection, how the Christian life is lived not under the law but in the Spirit, and how God plans to incorporate the fullness of Israel and of the Gentiles into his new community. Paul’s horizons are vast. He takes in time and eternity, history and eschatology, justification, sanctification and glorification. Now he stops, out of breath.” Before he concludes with a doxological ascription, he begins with a theological affirmation about God in verse 36a, “For from him and through him and to him are all things.”
All things most certainly refers to the material creation. However, it could also refer to the new creation, that is, the creation of a new multinational, multiethnic people because of the gospel. So, with that in mind, let us ask three questions of the text.
First, where do all things come from? Paul says, “from him.” That is, all things come from God. The entire universe came into existence by God. God planned every single aspect of creation. There is nothing in all of creation that did not originate in the mind and plan of God. And as far as the new creation is concerned, God also planned the salvation that is able to save sinners completely.
Second, how do all things come into being? Paul says, “through him.” That is, all things come into being through God. God created all things. Nothing exists that was not created by God. God simply spoke, and it was created. And, as far as the new creation is concerned, God also is the one who saves sinners through his Son, Jesus Christ.
And third, why do all things come into being? Paul says, “to him.” That is, all things come into being to glorify God. We think that God created this universe for us. When God decided to create the universe, he did not do so in order that humanity might be glorified. No, he created the universe in order that he might be glorified. Commentator Albert Barnes is right in his Notes on the New Testament when he says, “The reason or end for which all things were formed…is to promote his honor and glory…. It is not to promote his happiness, for he was eternally happy; not to add anything to him, for he is infinite; but that he might act as God, and have the honor and praise that is due to God.” And, as far as the new creation is concerned, even our salvation is for the glory of God. When we get to heaven, we will fully realize that our salvation was not primarily for our happiness, but rather it was for God’s glory. And if we should ask, “Why are some chosen to be saved while others are passed over? Why are some brought to faith in Christ while others do not trust in Christ?” we will realize that in every case it is for the glory of God. As James Montgomery Boice says, “In the case of the elect, the love, mercy, and grace of God are abundantly displayed. In the case of the lost, the patience, power, and wrath of God are equally lifted up.”
Theologian John Murray summarizes verse 36a when he says that God “is the source of all things in that they have proceeded from him; he is the Creator. He is the agent through whom all things subsist and are directed to their proper end. And he is the last end to whose glory all things will redound.”
So, Paul begins with a theological affirmation.
II. Paul Concludes with a Doxological Ascription (11:36b)
And second, Paul concludes with a doxological ascription.
He writes about God in verse 36b, “To him be glory forever. Amen.” Let’s ask two questions that will help us understand Paul’s doxological ascription.
First, who is glorified? It is God who is to be glorified. We think of ourselves far too much. Even in a worship service, we think of other things rather than about God. John Calvin wrote in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, “We never truly glory in [God] until we have utterly discarded our own glory. It must, therefore, be regarded as a universal proposition, that whoso glories in himself glories against God…. The elect are justified by the Lord, in order that they may glory in him, and in none else.”
A. W. Tozer wrote in his book titled, The Knowledge of the Holy:
The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.
This low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.
With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words, “Be still, and know that I am God,” mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshiper in this middle period of the twentieth century.
This loss of the concept of majesty has come just when the forces of religion are making dramatic gains and the churches are more prosperous than at any time within the past several hundred years. But the alarming thing is that our gains are mostly external and our losses wholly internal; and since it is the quality of our religion that is affected by internal conditions, it may be that our supposed gains are but losses spread over a wider field.
On January 7, 1855, a young twenty-year-old Baptist minister called Charles Haddon Spurgeon of New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, England, opened his morning sermon as follows:
The proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.
And second, why should God be glorified? God should be glorified because “from him and through him and to him are all things.” God should be glorified because of his material creation, but God should especially be glorified because of his new creation, that is, his work of salvation. James Boice asks and answers a number of questions in this regard:
Why is man saved? It is not because of anything in men and women themselves but because of God’s grace. It is because God has elected us to it. God has predestinated his elect people to salvation from before the foundation of the world. How is man saved? The answer is by the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus, the very Son of God. We could not save ourselves, but God saved us through the vicarious, atoning death of Jesus Christ. By what power are we brought to faith in Jesus? The answer is by the power of the Holy Spirit through what theologians call effectual calling. God’s call quickens us to new life. How can we become holy? Holiness is not something that originates in us, is achieved by us, or is sustained by us. It is due to God’s joining us to Jesus so that we have become different persons than we were before he did it. We have died to sin and been made alive to righteousness. Now there is no direction for us to go in the Christian life but forward. Where are we headed? Answer: to heaven, because Jesus is preparing a place in heaven for us. How can we be sure of arriving there? It is because God, who began the work of our salvation, will continue it until we do. God never begins a work that he does not eventually bring to a happy and complete conclusion.
Conclusion
Therefore, having analyzed the doctrine of glory to God alone as set forth in Romans 11:36, let us glorify God and enjoy him forever.
The very first question of The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” The well-known answer is: “Man’ s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” To glorify God is indeed our supreme purpose in life.
In his commentary on Romans, James Montgomery Boice tells the story about a revival that took place in Geneva, Switzerland, under the leadership of a remarkable Scotsman named Robert Haldane (1764–1842). He was one of two brothers who were members of the Scottish aristocracy in the late eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. His brother, James Haldane (1768–1851), was a captain with the British East India Company. Robert was the owner of Gleneerie and other estates in Perthshire. When he was converted in the decade before 1800, Robert sold a major part of his lands and applied the proceeds to advancing the cause of Jesus Christ in Europe. James became an evangelist and later an influential pastor in Edinburgh, where he served for fifty-two years.
In the year 1815, Robert Haldane visited Geneva. One day when he was in a park reading his Bible, he got into a discussion with some young men who turned out to be theology students. They had not the faintest understanding of the gospel, so Haldane invited them to come to his rooms twice a week for Bible study. They studied Romans, and the result of those studies was the great Exposition of Romans by Robert Haldane.
All those students were converted and in time became leaders in church circles throughout Europe. One was Merle d’Aubigné, who became famous for his classic History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century. We know the first part of it as The Life and Times of Martin Luther. Another of these men was Louis Gaussen, author of Theopneustia, a book on the inspiration of the Scriptures. Others were Frédéric Monod, the chief architect and founder of the Free Churches in France; Bonifas, who became an important theologian; and César Malan, another distinguished leader. These men were so influential that the work of which they became a part was known as Haldane’s Revival.
What was it that got through to these young men, lifting them out of the deadly liberalism of their day and transforming them into the powerful force they became? The answer is: the theme and wording of our text in Romans 11:36.
We know this because of a letter from Haldane to Monsieur Cheneviere, a pastor of the Swiss Reformed Church and Professor of Divinity at the University of Geneva. Cheneviere was an Arminian, as were all the Geneva faculty, but Haldane wrote to him to explain how appreciation of the greatness of God alone produced the changes in these men. Here is his explanation:
There was nothing brought under the consideration of the students of divinity who attended me at Geneva which appeared to contribute so effectually to overthrow their false system of religion, founded on philosophy and vain deceit, as the sublime view of the majesty of God presented in the four concluding verses of this part of the epistle: Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. Here God is described as his own last end in everything that he does.
Judging of God as such an one as themselves, they were at first startled at the idea that he must love himself supremely, infinitely more than the whole universe, and consequently must prefer his own glory to everything besides. But when they were reminded that God in reality is infinitely more amiable and more valuable than the whole creation and that consequently, if he views things as they really are, he must regard himself as infinitely worthy of being more valued and loved, they saw that this truth was incontrovertible.
Their attention was at the same time directed to numerous passages of Scripture, which assert that the manifestation of the glory of God is the great end of creation, that he has himself chiefly in view in all his works and dispensations, and that it is a purpose in which he requires that all his intelligent creatures should acquiesce, and seek and promote it as their first and paramount duty.
Boice concludes this story by saying that a testimony like that leads him to suggest that the reason we do not see great periods of revival today is that the glory of God in all things has been largely forgotten by the contemporary church. It follows that we are not likely to see revival again until the truths that exalt and glorify God in salvation are recovered. Surely we cannot expect God to move among us greatly again until we can again truthfully say, “To him [alone] be the glory forever! Amen.”
