Jesus left his lofty place to rescue glory thieves who insert themselves into his place and make it all about them.
In 2 Corinthians 5:15, Paul is quite clear about the reason for the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
He says, “And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Cor 5:15).
No human being has ever successfully escaped the draw of sin that Paul points to here. Sin draws us away from God’s glory toward our glory.
Sin pulls us away from God’s kingdom and produces in us an obsessive allegiance to not what God wants and more concerned about what we want.
Sin causes us to be more excited about our personal plans than we are about the things that God has planned for us. Sin makes us more focused on our feelings than we are about God’s will.
Here’s what sin does. It causes each of us to place ourselves in the center of our worlds and make life all about us. So, we always feel the need to be in control.
Our problem is not just that we live in a broken world and that is brokenness enters our doors; beneath that reality is a much deeper problem. We have glory problem.
We have preferred living for ourselves over living for something and someone bigger than ourselves.
Glory Thieves that are Drawn Because of the Cross
This is where we are confronted and comforted by the glorious goodness of God and the radical humility of Jesus. Our God of infinite glory looked on glory thieves not with jealous derision but with redeeming love.
And because he did, he commissioned his Son to leave his rightful glory position to become a servant even to death, so that you and I could be liberated form the prison of self0glory that is the doom of every sinner.
Not only that, but the saving work of Jesus unleashes God’s glory onto us. As his children we are showered with the glory of his forgiveness, the glory of his love, the glory of his wisdom, the glory of his power, the glory of his mercy, the glory of his sovereign rule, the glory of his promises, and the glory of his presence.
And the showering of glory on us progressively turns our hearts away from our individualistic commitment to our own glory to once again live for the thing for which we were created: the glory of God.
The Miracle of the Christmas Story
Here is the movement of the Christmas story:
- Glory forsaken (Jesus)
- Glory liberated (Our self-glory)
- Glory restored (Our living for the glory of God).
The Son of Glory came to fight our glory battle so that we would be freed from our bondage to any glory but the glory of God.
May your celebration today be bigger and deeper than awesome Christmas decorations, wonderful Christmas food, and cool Christmas gifts.
May Your Glory in the Real Glory of this Season
May you celebrate your glory-liberation while you recognize your need for further freedom, and may you remember you Savior.
His humiliation is your liberation. And may you always be blown away by the stunning catalog of glories that have been showered down on you because of the amazing goodness of God and the humble willingness of Jesus.[1]
[1] Paul David Tripp, Come, Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2017).