Day 16: To the praise of the glory of His grace…

Yesterday we’ve begun to look at Romans 11:33-36 and we’ve seen that, ultimately, our objective must be that God may be glorified.

Let's look at some other scriptures that state the same objective. Psalm 104, verse 31:

“May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works.” (NIV)

So what's the objective? God's glory. What will be the outcome of that? God will rejoice in His works. He'll be satisfied. There is no higher purpose than to satisfy God. And a similar statement is Psalm 145, verses 9 through 11.

“The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. All your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your saints shall bless You. All your works shall praise You, and your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of Your power.” (NKJ)

So always, it's God's delight in His own creation and His glory that are the ultimate. That's the primary objective that we have to learn to share with God.

The same principle applies no less in the new creation that has come about through the work of Jesus Christ. Listen to what Paul says about this in Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 5 and 6. He says:

“God has predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.” (NKJ)

So God has a plan from eternity. It's called the good pleasure of His will and it centers around those who become His children through faith in Jesus Christ, but its objective is to the praise of the glory of God's grace. That's true whatever God does: ultimately it's for His glory. And I want to point that out particularly in connection with His grace that we receive through Jesus Christ. Ultimately God's grace always works out for His glory. If there's anything in our lives which is not producing glory to God, it's not the product of God's grace.