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“Glorifying God the Hard Way”
Categories: Bulletin Articles, M. W. Bassford
One of the most off-putting visions of praise in the book of Revelation appears at the beginning of Revelation 19. Many of the elements here are familiar. The 24 elders and the living creatures from Revelation 4 and 5 make an appearance, and they are joined by a numberless multitude that also is praising God. The text is filled with hallelujahs.
The behavior of God's servants here does not trouble us, but their motivation does. They are glorifying God because he has judged the notorious prostitute Babylon, and the smoke of her burning is rising up forever. That's not very nice! Shouldn’t they be mourning that God had to reluctantly destroy Babylon instead?
However, this praise that seems so inappropriate to us reveals something vital about God. It is right for His people to rejoice at the humiliation and downfall of His enemies because He is glorified in that too.
The iron law of God's creation is that all of it must bring glory to its Creator. Most of the time, this is a straightforward process. The stars glorify God every night as they have since the fourth day. The birds sing His praises; the mountains are memorials to His majesty. All of these honor Him, and they have no choice but to do so.
At first glance, it seems that the role of human beings is different. God created us with free will. We can choose whether we are going to serve Him or not. A few live for Him, but most serve themselves. They will go to their graves never having glorified Him.
However, human rebellion against God's purpose cannot defeat it. God must be glorified, and indeed God will be glorified. Paul promises us that on the day of judgment, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. No one will be able to avoid honoring Him on that day.
Nor does the working out of God's glory end there. When His enemies are cast out from His presence, He will exhibit their eternal ruin as a sign of their folly and His power. It didn't have to be that way. They could have chosen to use their free will to honor Him in life. Instead, their just punishment will forever commemorate His ultimate triumph and their ultimate defeat.
This presents us with a stark choice. We are going to glorify God, whether we like it or not. We can glorify Him the easy way by offering Him our willing obedience. If we refuse, we will glorify Him the hard way, as the unhappy losers in the cosmic struggle between good and evil.
None of us want to be the eternal equivalent of the Nazis in World War II. We want to be the victorious soldiers in the parade, not the prisoners of war. However, even though the devil likes to confuse the issue, those are the only two options. If we will not choose the first, the second will be chosen for us.
