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letra de vain glory interlude - believin' stephen

[brian davis, aka god’s servant]

if you tell me you don’t long for self-glory i simply don’t believe you. you do need to be warned against this. you do need to be admonished about this because jesus thinks we need to be and he knows us best. the old-school phrase for this kind of self-seeking, this abundant pride that’s out for self, was “vain-glory.”

living for the praise of people suffocates faith. so in john 12:43 he says they actually love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from god. indeed, it is identified as the way opposite of a follower of jesus… to be about your own thing or to care about what people say about you. paul in galatians 1:10– he says, “for am i now seeking the approval of man or of god? or am i trying to please man? if i were trying to please man i wouldn’t be a servant of christ.”

because when someone lives for the glory of people, they’re, in essence, perverting the entire purpose of life. the entire purpose of everything; which is exclusively for the glory of god. it’s as though in doing that we’re seeking to re-arrange the very created order. to kind of demote god from being at the center of all things and promote man to being in his place. because what you’re suggesting when we do this is that what man says of us is significantly more important than what god says of us. we’re actually saying that from us, and through us, and to us are all things; to us be the glory forever; and there’s no “amen”s at the end of that one

to make anything we do about us and our glory is sinful; it’s backwards and it’s foolish. no, nothing is about us. friend, i hope you understand that nothing in your life is about you. whether you’re a christian or not a christian it’s true. because you’re not yours, you didn’t make you, you didn’t make the universe, you didn’t make the sky, you didn’t make the planets, you didn’t make anything.; it’s not from you so it cannot be for you. as the psalmist says in psalm 115, “not to us, o lord, not to us, but to your name give glory.”

that’s how people work rightly when they want god to be glorified only. it’s to put to death our pride, to crucify ourselves, that we might have christ and be found in him. this is what jesus did. though he never sought his own glory he died as one who did. he died as if an enemy of god when he was not. he died as if he was a glory thief when he was not

because when you don’t give him thanks for what he’s done, we give us thanks for what we’ve done. and that puts us at odds with him. it seeks to reduce or shrink him to our size as if that was possible. and god says, “i will not have that. no, my wrath is reserved for that. my wrath gets revealed against that.” and jesus took that wrath for his people. not so that they can keep on being vain glory thieves… glory seekers… no, to make us different!

like, you know the people of god who know god most when they want god’s glory to be most reserved to him. because they know he’s the only one who deserves it. that’s why the most heavenly place–heaven is not about a glory battle but everybody there fully, totally recognizes — from the seraphim to the lowest saint — who deserves all the glory!

- believin stephen

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