The glory of God is man fully alive. - Saint Ireneausand
A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. - C.S. Lewis
So are these statements contradictory or are both true and need to beld in tension with each other? Can the glory of God ever be added to or diminished from? Or is it simply a matter of how fully or dimly we are aware of and appreciate it?
4 comments:
I say both are true - but I don't know the full context of either....
But it got me thinking - what does Ireneaus mean by "fully alive?"
John 10:10 ..."I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."
Galatians 2:20..."I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Perhaps what Ireneaus means is that we are fully alive when we have allowed Christ to live in us and His will to direct us. When we choose to share in this, it brings glory to God because we have freely chosen to love Him in return.
(I'm of the mind that all creation brings glory to God in some way or another.)
Then what is the meaning of glory?
Then there is a scientific term for glory which is as follows: "an optical phenomenon produced by light reflected toward its source by a cloud of uniformly-sized water droplets."
It would make sense to carry on that sun metaphor... We can not add to it's light, yet we can choose to magnify it so that others may see it more clearly. If we do not, we have not dimished its brilliance, it is we who are left in the dark.
I think both are true. Certainly the second statement is true - God's glory is what it is, and we cannot add to it or subtract from it just because we refuse to acknowledge it. We can exhibit His glory in our lives and share it with people and in that sense add to it, but His glory is complete and infinite - how can we add to something that is already complete? And adding our little speck to an infinity does what?
You could look at it - in a way - from a self-esteem perspective (which shows my tendencies of thought...): I am who I am. Someone insulting me or complimenting me does not actually change who I am.
As far as the first statement, if a man is living life God's way and in His will, he is reflecting God's glory to his utmost ability. Adam was supposed to do this, and he was regarded as the height of Creation. Jesus fulfilled this and showed God as He is, even if people didn't (and still don't) recognize Him.
- Patrick
Who is this Mei-Ling person :) ?
Anyway, I would say that they are not contradictory, but that is assuming that my interpretation of the context of the statements are true. Context is king, Steve. As Mei-Ling already said, define the first man's idea of "a living man".
CS Lewis is right in his statement because God will be glorified either way. This has to do with punishment and salvation. If we are saved and worship him and act in love, He is glorified because he brought about the change and because love and joy is how he intended us to be in the first place (and is the best way, and therefore the way that glorifies him in this way).
If a man is not saved and is cast out into the darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth, then God's glory will be delayed until the day of judgment, but He will have it all in the end. He is STILL glorified through his justice. He is also glorified through his consistency: he has allowed that person's belief, chosen by their own free will, to carry on to its logical terminus (the second death), even though He knows it is stupid because He will uphold the free will he gave us. He will not give the gift of free will and then suddenly take it away, and so he is glorified through His fairness and integrity. When the man who opposes Him is cast away and is suppressed in the lake of fire because of his choice, God is glorified through his supreme authority, that no man or daemon may surpass his desire for the existence of all things.
A good way to put it is that from our perspective, God WILL receive all of the glory in due time. For Him, because He exists outside of time, he has the glory already.
"The glory of God is man fully alive." - Saint Ireneaus
mei-ling asks the appropriate question: "what does fully alive mean?"
The short answer is to refer back to creation so that man was created in God's image in His likeness. Therefore man being fully alive is when he reflects the image of God.
So when does man do this? Again I'll refer to mei-ling's quotes - That it is through union with Christ (deep personal relationship - Christ in us and we are in Him) that man reflects this image. The image of light shining in the darkness comes to mind very clearly here.
"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." - C.S. Lewis
Lewis can be looked at in a number of ways but I'll connect it with the first quote. So that there is another aspect of the image of God in man that Lewis is touching on. Question, when man sinned how much of the image of God did man lose? Again the short answer is that man's sinfulness touches man in every aspect, but the image of God still remains - there is a remnant. Therefore even sinful man who hates God (Romans 1) in some way can glorify God, though it is only a shadow of what those in Christ will show.
Lewis also touches on the aspect that God is not a beggar for glory. His glory is fully revealed in Christ, His death, and resurrection; not in man's acceptance of Him.
I must also caviate this by quoting Piper where he says, "God is most glorified IN US when we are most satisfied in him." It can be connected that God is most glorified in us when we reflect His image by being satisfied in Him, which is when we are in union with Christ.
I must now get back to studying.
Aaron
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