Gospel-centred life - First of a series of extracts

Over the coming year, we will be serialising edited extracts from Gospel-centred Life, a study-guide resource designed to help ordinary Christians think through how the gospel should shape their everyday lives...

A life for God

Principle: It’s not about me—it’s about God and his glory.

Consider this

John walked through the factory gates. The prospect of another shift filled him with dread — endless plastic widgets passing by him on the conveyor belt.

He thought briefly about what was discussed at the Bible study the night before, where they talked about life being all about God’s glory. It sounded plausible enough in Kate’s front room, with a latte in your hand. But here, in the real world, he was struggling to see how any of it applied to his current tedium.

Read all about it

Living for God’s glory contradicts everything we’ve ever been taught and everything we’ve ever wanted to believe. I’m the centre of my universe. I see everything and everyone from my perspective. So my instinct, if I think about God at all, is to think of ‘him’ in relation to ‘me’. God, for example, is just… if I can be persuaded of his justice. God is love… if he expresses it in ways acceptable to me. The net result of this heart-set is that God is brought each day to the bar of human reason and prejudice, and made to answer for his alleged failures, crimes and misdemeanours.

But if my life in every aspect is to be lived for God’s glory, honour and reputation, then it is only about ‘me’ to the extent that ‘I’ relate to ‘him’. Clearly, that puts ‘me’ well and truly in my place. Of course, the gospel assures us there’s no better place to be. But, still, my ego kicks and screams when it’s put there.

When we start with God’s glory, he becomes the reference point. I only understand justice and love in relationship to him. If my life is to be lived for his glory, then I no longer occupy the defining place in the great scheme of things. If my life is all about his glory, then his glory becomes the great, unchangeable principle against which everything is assessed.

Believe me when I say that there are few things quite so liberating!

So what does it actually mean for my life to be all about God’s glory?

It means that the person I am, the life that I live, the things I do, all commend God to others. It means I’m a trophy of his grace. There’s no other explanation for who I am and how I live except the sovereign and supernatural work of the triune God. All this means that a life lived for God’s glory is a truly extraordinary life.

A life that anticipates eternity

Imagine for a moment your arrival in heaven. All the angels are lined up to welcome you, and all the saints who’ve gone before are ready to cheer as you walk through the gates. Those that know you have front-row seats and you instantly recognise their faces, though they’re all much more attractive than you remember.

The noise is deafening and the sense of coming home is almost too much to bear. At first, you think that they’re there for you. But then you realise that no one is patting you on the back and saying well done. All the cheers are for God! All the praise is directed to him for his magnificent work of taking a broken specimen of humanity and transforming him or her into a breathtaking example of what grace can do.

My life is to be of such a calibre that only grace can produce it and only God receives the glory.

I should live my life with this intention: that every aspect of it honours the God who made and saved me. We need to lead thought-full lives. All too often our actions and words have no explicit thought of God. The end result of living such a thought-less life is selfishness, brokenness and sin. But by grace we can live our lives with a ‘glory intentionality’, by constantly asking ourselves: how will this glorify God?

When I’m responding to criticism: how will this glorify God?
When I’m making decisions: how will this glorify God?
When I’m disciplining my children: how will this glorify God?
In every aspect of my life I should be thoughtful and intentional by asking this question: how will this glorify God?
Which is why we can’t put it better than the leaders of the Reformation back in the 16th century: Soli Deo Gloria (‘Glory to God alone’)!

Biblical background: read 1 Corinthians 8.1-11.1.

Questions for reflection

Think about how this principle works out for:
* a mother faced with an obstinate two-year-old flexing his self-will;
* an old person facing his sixth evening in a row alone.

Think about the last 24 hours. In what ways have you not lived for the glory of God? If you’ve not already done so, spend some time asking for God’s forgiveness and thanking God for his grace lavished upon you.

Gospel-centred Life is published by The Good Book Company and includes more in-depth Bible study and discussion questions. It is suitable for individual or group study. Price: £3.00, with discounts for bulk purchase. Visit http://www.thegoodbook.co.uk or call 0845 225 0880 to order.