You are not answering my prayers, I repeated, a scowl in my voice that sounded more murderer than missionary.

My arms were about to give out after fifteen hours of flying with my double-ear-infection infant, whose screams drew every eye toward me, either in pity or loathing. My hands still reeked of my six-year-old’s vomit, which I had caught an hour earlier. My husband might have given me a break if he weren’t in the bathroom scrubbing his pants after our toddler’s diaper leaked brown everywhere. The stink polluted economy class, as if the sounds we contributed weren’t offensive enough.

It wasn’t our first rodeo traveling halfway around the world like beetles flipped on our backs. Our international travels form an ugly scrapbook of mishaps, with photos of feverish kids trying to sleep on airport carpet. I thought this time around would be different. How could it not be? Hundreds of people were praying. I imagined the golden bowls in heaven swirling with the incense of our friends’ and family’s prayers (Revelation 5:8). Surely, Jesus inhaled it with pleasure. The slightest wink or grin from my Father’s sunny face could keep our children at 98.6 degrees, their bodily fluids internal, and our plane punctual.

Where were those hundreds of prayers now? Had God misplaced them like a set of keys or muted them like an obnoxious ad? The Lord’s “no” stabbed like the throbbing inside my infant’s ears.

Praying While Weatherworn

This story isn’t special. Every one of us has extended a precious prayer and received what feels like a hailstorm in return. Or if not a hailstorm, maybe the cold silence of space. We are disturbed. What does this mean? How can we risk asking again, with its emotional toll? Are our longings safe with God? Can we receive the Lord’s “no” while reclining all the heavier against his chest, or should we question the safety of his embrace?

If only bad travel were the worst of it. Perhaps the Lord’s “no” grows fangs when your child stays sick, your marriage breaks, or cars collide. What happens when, after years of living desperately on your knees, the prodigal doesn’t return, mental illness gains momentum, or progress fighting besetting sin has little praise to report? We may ask, like Joni Eareckson Tada, “Who is this God I thought I knew? Who is this God who bids us crawl over broken glass just for the pleasure of his company?” (When God Weeps, 78).

Let’s zoom out and take a breath. Our disappointment with God can shrink our world. Without realizing it, we’re the horse with blinders, the scientist glued to his microscope, the painter shading in a nose’s shadow — so fixated on a part that we forget the whole. Just as we break from the office for a walk in the woods, we need the fresh air of a wider perspective.

“Can we receive the Lord’s ‘no’ while reclining all the heavier against his chest?”

Stepping back does not dismiss the painful mysteries of unanswered prayer and disappointment with God. When we look outside our experience, we are not forgetting or minimizing. We are saying, “I’m drowning, and I need a rock to hold onto. This one, gut-wrenching experience is sand I cannot stand on. Give me a place to put my feet.”

Thankfully, some thousands of years ago, King David turned the same cries into Psalm 69.

No Match for Majesty

He begins by saying, “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold” (Psalm 69:1–2). Counselors advise paying special attention to the word-pictures people use to describe themselves. But it doesn’t take a professional to see that David’s drowning language means he’s not feeling too hot.

David is overwhelmed by sorrow. He’s brokenhearted, ashamed, and afflicted. He laments, “More in number than the hairs on my head are those who hate me without cause” (verse 4). Is there a friend to be found for David? Perhaps the loneliness would have been tolerable if the Lord had spoken up sooner. Instead, David admits, “I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God” (verse 3).

But as we read on, we watch David leave the cubicle for somewhere greener. He rightly speaks his hurts and complaints — to a point. Honesty is God’s prescription for prayer, but if David stopped at his life-and-death feelings, it would make for little more than a juicy coffee date. The magic happens when he sets aside mystery for majesty.

The majesty of a God who plucks us from the sea of our circumstances by his “saving faithfulness” (verse 13). The majesty of a God whose love does not flicker like a tired lightbulb but shines steadfastly (verse 16). The majesty of his abundant mercy, heaped up and spilling over like plates at Thanksgiving dinner (verse 16). Majesty of such magnitude that his imprisoned people revive and sing (verse 32).

Majesty louder than man’s contempt (verse 12) and available to the sackcloth-clad (verse 11). Majesty that transforms lone-rider men and women into decisive followers, those who can say in seasons of hailstorm and silence, “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord” (verse 13). David is like the mountain climber motivated by the view from the top, only the panorama David is after holds the majesty of Zion (verse 35).

If majesty is heavyweight our world, we will make songs in the muck like David (verse 30). We will learn to give thanks while friendless and think of the precious reality ahead more than the presently disappointing one (verse 35). When our circumstances scream, “God is absent,” our prayers will reflect the confidence that “the Lord hears the needy” (verse 33).

Jesus Sang It Better

David prays this way, but so does Jesus. David may have felt like his old friends were now offering him poison for food and sour wine for drink (Psalm 69:21), but Jesus literally put his lips to a sour sponge on the cross (Matthew 27:34). Matthew Henry connects Christ to Psalm 69: “His throat is dried, but his heart is not; his eyes fail, but his faith does not. Thus our Lord Jesus, on the cross, cried out, Why hast thou forsaken me? Yet, at the same time, he kept hold of his relation to him: my God, my God.”

David sings Psalm 69 well, but Jesus sings it better. For Christ’s words rang out even as the world went black, with hell’s fury before him and a rag stuffed down his throat. David felt underwater, but Jesus suffocated and drowned. While we are continually with the Lord (Psalm 73:23), Jesus was the Lamb left to the wolves. If Jesus trusted God there, can we not trust him here?

Here — in the majesty of a love that, as the old hymn says, is “vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me” (“O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus”). Those who swim in that ocean endure hailstorms and silence without turning to stone. They may wince at their ugly travel scrapbook, but they count on a last page that glitters. Their hearts are soft, their prayers frequent, their requests risky. Instead of withdrawing at the Lord’s “no,” they pray all the more, knowing George Herbert to be right when he calls prayer the “soul’s blood” and the “church’s banquet.”

When the mysteries of life are rightly ordered by the majesty of God, we sing like Jesus, David, and all the saints resting in “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

Audio Transcript

Authenticity is the theme of the week here on the podcast. On Monday, we heard from Mark, who struggled to reconcile how Jesus’s life and death could have been fully scripted out by God, fully acted out by Christ, and all be authentically lived out by Christ. It was a really interesting discussion to start the week.

But today we look at our own authentic living, living authentically with our affections. It’s a topic on the table because we read Romans 12:9–13 together today. Here’s the question it inspired in a young man, a 23-year-old listener named Francisco who lives in Mexico City.

“Pastor John, hello to you! I desperately want to be the type of man who exhibits Romans 12:9–13 in his life. ‘Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.’ I have sought to make this the mantra of my life for the next year. There’s a lot here to digest. As you read this text, what stands out to you? Are there any keys in here that you would see to help me live out such a godly life, not from duty, but from a genuine affection inside of me?”

Oh yes, there are some things in this text that I think are going to be very helpful. At least, they help me. I think they are designed by God to help all of us live the Christian life. And I love this question, Francisco (and greetings to Mexico City). I love this question because it gives me a chance to say some things about living the Christian life, things in this text that I think are broadly relevant to virtually everybody, not just you.

The list of thirteen commands in Romans 12:9–13, thirteen short commands, presents us with the very common question of how to go about obeying commands (thirteen commands) in a Christian way — a Christian way, not to earn salvation and not to fall into lawlessness and say, “Oh, commands don’t matter. It’s all grace. You don’t need to do anything.” Between those two mistakes, there’s a way to live the Christian life. So, that’s what I want to think about from Romans 12.

Affectional, Impossible Change

The first thing I notice is that six of these thirteen commands are directed straight to the affections, the emotions, the feelings, the heart — not to bodily action first. Don’t do something first, but rather, go straight to your heart. “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. . . . Love . . . with brotherly affection. . . . Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit. . . . Rejoice in hope” (Romans 12:9–12). And the other seven are really specific ways to love.

Romans 12:8, the verse just before this paragraph, says that such merciful service, all these seven ways of loving, are to be done with cheerfulness. “[Let] the one who does acts of mercy [do them] with cheerfulness,” which is an affection and emotion. In effect, all these commands, every one of them, involve the heart, the affections, the desires. Paul is not commanding outward behavior that comes from a wrong kind of heart. He’s not interested in that. That’s why that first word is, “Let love be genuine” (Romans 12:9). And really, the word is anypokritos. You can even see it in English: an-hypokritos — not hypocritical. Let love not be hypocritical.

“This is the transforming power of the mercies of God. They take away fear.”

I hate sham love. In other words, I don’t like outward behavior that looks Christian but isn’t coming from a new heart. He never says just, “Serve,” but “Rejoice to serve.” He doesn’t say just, “Avoid evil”; he says, “Abhor evil.” He doesn’t say just, “Know about hopeful promises”; he says, “Rejoice in hope.” He doesn’t just say to Christians that they should love others; he says, “Love with brotherly affection.” These are just stunning commands, straight to our emotions, our affections, our heart.

One reason it’s crucial to see the necessity of changed feelings is that it confronts us with the impossibility of doing this without God’s supernatural power. That’s one of the points. You can put on a show at church, right? You can make yourself smile. You can make yourself sing. You can make yourself do stuff. But you cannot make yourself abhor what you don’t abhor, or love what you don’t love, or rejoice in what you don’t rejoice in. You can’t do it. So, these commands confront us with the impossibility of doing them without God’s supernatural help. By commanding our emotions, Paul is signaling that we must have a profound change from the inside out.

So, the way to pursue obedience to these commands, Francisco, is this: indirectly, we have to pursue a new heart, a new set of desires, a new constellation of preferences. That’s the work of God through his word, by the Spirit.

Preparing to Approve

This takes us back to the beginning of the chapter, because Paul knows what he’s going to do here, and he’s helping us prepare our lives to do it. Chapter 12 starts like this: “I appeal to you therefore” — and we’ll come back to that therefore — “brothers, by the mercies of God.” So, I’m appealing to you, in all these commands, “by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, [so that you approve] what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1–2).

That word “approve” (dokimazō) means more than “test and discern,” the way it’s translated in the ESV. It means “test and discern and approve.” It’s not just a mental calculation. It’s a heart evaluation. Paul is saying, “Be transformed with a renewed mind such that your mind and heart assess, evaluate, prioritize, and feel things differently — and approve of different things than the world does. Don’t be conformed to this age. Be deeply changed. Have new preferences. Approve and disapprove of different things than the world does, and which you once did.”

Romans 12:1 gives the key to how that happens: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God . . .” Don’t be conformed to the world. Be transformed. That is, be amazed and humbled and happy and empowered by the unspeakable mercies of God toward you in your unworthiness. Be so amazed, so humbled, so happy, so empowered that you are transformed with a mind and heart that have new affections, new desires, new preferences, new approvings and disapprovings.

Transforming Mercies

Then we notice the therefore. The whole section of Romans 12–15 begins with therefore — meaning, on the basis of Romans 1–11. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God” (Romans 12:1). That word therefore signals that Paul is saying to us, as we consider his several dozen commands in chapter 12, “Go back now. Go back now and review eleven chapters of God’s stunning mercies to you. Go back! Review God’s stunning mercies to you.”

Why does he make that connection? Because the way we are transformed is by seeing the greatness of the glory of the mercies of God toward us in our hopeless sinful condition. Romans 6:6: “Our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing.” It’s the truth of what happened to us in Christ that does away with our old affections of sin. Or in Romans 6:14: “Sin will have no dominion over you” — that means chapter 12 is going to come true for you — “since you are not under law but under grace.” You’re under these mercies of God that are laid out in chapters 1–11. Or Romans 8:3–4: “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

So, when Paul says in Romans 12:12, “Rejoice in hope,” what is he referring to? He’s referring to the great Romans 8: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died” (Romans 8:32–34). In other words, nobody can separate us from the love of Christ or the love of God. These chapters 1–11 are the mercies of Romans 12:1: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,” be transformed before you try to put on a show of outward godliness.

This is the transforming power of the mercies of God. They take away fear. They take away craving greed for the world. They take away craving for revenge. They make us deeply confident and happy in the care of God. And that changes everything.

Become What You Are

The thirteen commands of Romans 12:9–13 describe who we are — not just who we ought to be but really who we have become in the mercies of God, as we die with Christ and rise with Christ and are indwelt by the Spirit. “Become what you are,” Paul says several times in his letters. And 2 Corinthians 3:18 puts it like this: “Beholding the glory of the Lord” — that is, in this case, the glory of these precious mercies. Beholding these mercies, “[we] are being transformed . . . from one degree of glory to another.”

So, Francisco, the key to obeying these commands in Romans 12 is to come at them indirectly through the doorway of Romans 12:1–2, and through all the glorious mercies of God in chapters 1–11. Immerse yourself in these. Let these be your treasure. God will transform you into the kind of person that can gladly obey these verses in chapter 12 from your heart.

Four decades ago, when I got married, I asked to have the words “and to obey” removed from my wedding vows: “for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey . . .” As a female executive and partner in an advertising agency, my egalitarian instincts ran deep. I was a Christian, and I also wholeheartedly believed a woman could and should hold any position a man might if she were able. It hadn’t occurred to me that some callings might have been designed by God for men and others for women. It felt normal to be part of a church with women in pastoral and other leadership positions. Submitting as a woman seemed like an old-fashioned idea.

Today, however, I joyfully embrace the biblical vision of sexual complementarity. I am living proof that a wife can change from being offended at the very word submit to celebrating the beauty of God’s plan for men and women, husbands and wives. I want to offer my story as an encouragement to men whose wives have not yet seen the beauty and the kindness of the Lord in assigning them the calling to follow and support a godly man.

So, what happened? And how did my husband help me to change?

Revolution by Revelation

In embracing biblical femininity, I clearly did not take my cues from our society. The world we live in today has moved radically to deny the differences between men and women. It scoffs at the idea that God might have created men for greater authority and responsibility and accountability. Even some evangelicals deny male headship.

The mainline Protestant church I attended certainly did. We had women in leadership at every level. Yet by God’s grace, that’s where my change began.

The church appointed me as the lay leader of the congregation, the highest role a layperson could hold, and they chose me over — wait for it — my own husband. Our pastor had put my husband’s name before the committee, and when an objection was raised against him, they selected me.

This appointment cast a dark shadow over our marriage. Both my husband and I felt something was deeply wrong. Eventually, we left that egalitarian church (and all the controversy that boiled in that denomination) and found a wonderful church that preached through the Bible line by line. My husband and I fell in love with Scripture, including God’s good design for men and women. And my understanding changed as I grew to see God’s good plan.

This new church was led by a team of good, kind, godly men. These pastors believed God. They believed he had designed men and women differently and had assigned men primary leadership responsibility. They knew their Bibles and demonstrated godly character. They led, taught, shepherded, and counseled courageously. There was a palpable sense of God’s power that seemed to flow through the obedience of these men. Under their care, I felt such a tremendous sense of relief. My husband did too.

Our souls flourished. Our church life flourished. Our marriage flourished. And 26 years later, God’s design continues to feel more and more right.

The Man of My Change

In telling my story of change, my particular burden is to encourage godly men whose wives are still captured by the siren song of feminism. The call for women to claim their “rights” and not be denied the opportunity to use their gifts any way they desire is loud and alluring. The propaganda hides the pride at the root of this demand. Like Eve, some women believe the lie that God (through men) has denied her something she is entitled to. Did God really say . . . ? In misunderstanding, women have missed the beautiful, privileged calling God has assigned to us.

God was kind to take my husband and me along the road to understanding and embracing his plan together, but I know that is not true for everyone. To faithful husbands with wives who won’t follow, I say there is hope. Do not lose heart. I was once a woman like your wife, and God used my husband to help change me. So, allow me to share five things I saw God doing in my husband that helped me to embrace my biblical calling.

1. He walked more closely with Jesus.

Even more than your calling as husband, you are first a man of God. God calls you to be transformed day by day as you walk with Christ (1 John 2:6; Ephesians 5:1–2). When this is your aim, Christ will help you lead with his strength. The teaching we were receiving in our new church inspired my husband to spend more time in the word, to be more involved in friendships with other godly men, and, gradually, to be more convicted by and repentant of his own sin. When we were praying together, he would often confess in ways that melted my heart. I could see God’s hand working in him, and it touched me deeply.

What does Paul pray unceasingly for the Colossian church? That they “may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9–10). This is what God wants for all Christians: walk well, bear fruit, know God. If you are faithful in this, you will bless your marriage and be an example for your wife.

2. He became a more godly man.

You may be tempted to focus on changing your wife, but only God can change her heart. God can use you, however. A good place to begin is by being the kind of man your wife will respect.

“Like Eve, some women believe the lie that God (through men) has denied her something she is entitled to.”

If you “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:1–2); if you are “tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32); if your love is patient and kind, if it doesn’t boast, if it isn’t arrogant or rude, if you don’t insist on your own way, and if you are not irritable or resentful (1 Corinthians 13:4–5); if you keep your word, letting your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no (James 5:12); if you strive to display these qualities and bear the fruit of the Spirit, you will create a climate in your home that God may use to soften the heart of your wife. I saw more of all of these qualities emerging in my husband as we grew in right understanding of God’s word. (It also doesn’t hurt that my husband has a great sense of humor and can apply it to his own faults and in his correction of me.)

Of course, God calls your wife to embrace these qualities too, but don’t worry about her for now. Are you striving to be a godly man? If so, wait and see what God will do. My husband’s example still blesses me and stirs in me a desire to be a better woman.

3. He heartily embraced God’s call to husbands.

In God’s kindness, the first Sunday school class my husband and I attended in our new church was on Ephesians 5:22–33. That class deeply convicted my husband about his responsibility to strive to present me before Christ without spot or wrinkle.

What did Ephesians 5:26 tell him to do? Wash her in the word! He has been washing me in the word nearly every morning since. Are you washing your wife in the word? Are you reading Scripture together and talking about what you see? Are you eager to tell her something you read in the Bible that encouraged you and might encourage her? Are you bathing her with gospel truth when she is discouraged? Do you want to cherish and nourish her as much as you cherish and nourish yourself? Are you in a church that preaches God’s word faithfully, even the most challenging portions?

If your wife embraces egalitarianism, immersing yourself and her in God’s word may help her see God as loving and trustworthy and his plans as glorious — including his plans for husbands and wives.

4. He showed patience.

We all struggle with patience, that difficult fruit of the Spirit, but trusting God’s timing is so good. Does your desire for your wife accord with God’s plan? Then trust that he is working, even when you can’t see it happening. We were in that egalitarian church for eighteen years, and I served as lay leader for several years, and you know what? God was working throughout that whole time. I am still naturally strong-willed and sometimes struggle with speaking before carefully thinking and praying, and most of the time my husband remains patient. I am so grateful!

“With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone” (Proverbs 25:15). If patience can persuade a ruler, then it can certainly persuade a mistaken wife.

5. He prayed for me.

One of the ways God has transformed my heart is by revealing more and more of the incredible power of prayer. My husband prays with me and for me nearly every day in our devotional time. Nearly every day, he thanks God for the gift of being married to me! Do you pray fully confident that God hears and has the power to change your wife’s heart? Dear reader, pray scriptural truth boldly for yourself and your wife. Pray for God to help you be the man and husband he calls you to be. Pray for God to bless your wife and cause her faith to flourish.

More privately, pray for God to help your wife’s love for Christ and her respect for you to grow. Pray for God to soften your wife’s heart so she can see his beautiful plan for men and women. Pray for God to strengthen your faith and help you believe he can do all these things and more. Because he can.

God’s plans for men and women are truly glorious. Husbands and wives will never be satisfied until we align our will with God’s and live the way he intended. Husbands, lead your wives in a way that displays the glorious plan of God. This is his will for you and your marriage. Do your part with joy and faith, and leave the results to him. If your wife doesn’t change, remain godly and faithful anyway. No matter what your wife chooses to do, God’s will for you remains.

And do not give up. “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12).

J.I. Packer wrote,

[John Owen] is by common consent not the most versatile, but the greatest among Puritan theologians. For solidity, profundity, massiveness and majesty in exhibiting from Scripture God’s ways with sinful mankind there is no one to touch him. (A Quest for Godliness, 81)

In an age of giants, he overtopped them all. (191)

The first volume of Owen’s collected works contains three major essays on the glory of Christ, which is my theme in this message. He wrote A Declaration of the Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ, Meditations and Discourses Concerning the Glory of Christ, Applied. No other works have increased my understanding and admiration of the glory of Christ more than these, with the possible exception of Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “The Excellency of Christ.”

So, as we focus together on the glory of Christ, the music playing in the background of my mind will be the music of John Owen. And every now and then, I’ll let you hear some of its remarkable strains.

Seeing Glory, Being Glorious

I share Owen’s conviction that the more clearly we see and savor the glory of Christ, the more freedom we will enjoy from the power of temptation. He based this largely on 2 Corinthians 3:18: “Beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” Owen said,

Herein would I live [in beholding the glory of Christ], hereon would I dwell in my thoughts and affections, to the withering and consumption of all the painted beauties of this world, unto the crucifying all things here below, until they become unto me a dead and deformed thing, no way meet for affectionate embraces. (The Works of John Owen, 1:291)

In other words, the path of holiness is achieved by having such clear views of the superior beauties of Christ that lesser sinful attractions wither and die. Owen was always combining the highest views of Christ with practical holiness. “No man,” he said, “can by faith take a real view of [Christ’s] glory, but virtue will proceed from it in a transforming power to change him into the same image” (Works, 1:292).

I have a picture in my mind of the glory of Christ like the sun at the center of the solar system of your life. The massive sun — 333,000 times the mass of the earth — holds all the planets in orbit, even little Pluto, which is 3.6 billion miles away. And so it is with the glory of Christ in your life. All the planets of your life — your sexuality and desires, your commitments and beliefs, your aspirations and dreams, your attitudes and convictions, your habits and disciplines, your solitude and relationships, your labor and leisure, your thinking and feeling — are held in proper orbit by the greatness and gravity and blazing brightness of the glory of Christ at the center of your life. And if he ceases to be the bright, blazing, satisfying beauty at the center of your life, the planets will fly into confusion, a hundred things will be out of control, and sooner or later they will crash into destruction.

We were made to know and enjoy Christ as he really is. We were created to comprehend — as much as a creature can — the glory of Christ. And this comprehending, this knowing, is not the knowing of disinterested awareness, but the knowing of admiration and wonder and awe and intimacy and ecstasy and embrace.

“If there is anything worthy of praise anywhere in the universe, it is summed up supremely in Jesus Christ.”

We were made to see and savor, with everlasting satisfaction, the glory of Christ. Jesus prayed for this in John 17:24: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.” Owen said, “Such a manifestation of his glory unto his disciples doth the Lord Christ here desire, as might fill them with blessed satisfaction for evermore” (Works, 1:286). We were made for this “blessed satisfaction.” It is precisely the power of this superior satisfaction in the glory of Christ that severs the root of sin.

Immensity of Christ’s Glory

My prayer for this conference, and for all of you one by one, is that you will see and savor the glory of Christ — married or single, male or female, old or young, devastated by disordered desires or walking in a measure of holiness — that all of you will behold and embrace the glory of Christ as the blazing sun at the center of your life, and that the planets of all your desires will orbit in their proper place. Oh, that the risen, living Christ would come to us (even now) by his Spirit and through his word and reveal to us his glory!

The glory of his deity, equal with God the Father in all his attributes — the radiance of his glory and the exact imprint of his nature, infinite, boundless in all his excellencies
The glory of his eternality that makes the mind of man explode with the unsearchable thought that Christ never had a beginning, but simply always was — sheer, absolute reality while all the universe is fragile, contingent, like a shadow by comparison to his all-defining, ever-existing substance
The glory of his never-changing constancy in all his virtues and all his character and all his commitments — the same yesterday, today, and forever
The glory of his knowledge that makes the Library of Congress and the British Library look like little matchboxes, and makes all the information on the Internet look like a little 1940s farmers’ almanac, and makes quantum physics seem like a first-grade reader
The glory of his wisdom that has never been perplexed by any complication and can never be counseled by the wisest of men
The glory of his authority over heaven and earth and hell, without whose permission no man and no demon can move one inch — who changes times and seasons, removes kings and sets up kings, who does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, so none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
The glory of his providence, without which not a single bird falls to the ground in the farthest reaches of the Amazon forest, or a single hair of any head turns black or white
The glory of his word that moment by moment upholds the universe and holds in being all the molecules and atoms and subatomic particles we have never yet dreamed of
The glory of his power to walk on water, cleanse lepers, heal the lame, open the eyes of the blind, cause the deaf to hear and storms to cease and the dead to rise — with a single word, or even a thought
The glory of his purity never to sin or to have one millisecond of a bad attitude or an evil, lustful thought
The glory of his trustworthiness never to break his word or let one promise fall to the ground
The glory of his justice to render in due time all moral accounts in the universe, settled either on the cross or in hell
The glory of his patience to endure our dullness decade after decade and to hold back his final judgment on this world, that many might repent
The glory of his sovereign, servant obedience to keep his Father’s commandments perfectly and then embrace the excruciating pain of the cross willingly
The glory of his meekness and lowliness and tenderness that will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick
The glory of his wrath that will one day explode against this world with such fierceness that people will call out for the rocks and the mountains to crush them rather than face the wrath of the Lamb
The glory of his grace that gives life to spiritually dead rebels and awakens faith in hell-bound haters of God and justifies the ungodly with his own righteousness
The glory of his love that willingly dies for us even while we were sinners, and frees us for the ever-increasing joy of making much of him forever
The glory of his own inexhaustible gladness in the fellowship of the Trinity, the infinite power and energy that gave rise to all the universe and will one day be the inheritance of every struggling saint, when he says, “Enter into the joy of your master.”

Knowing the Incomprehensible Christ

If he should grant us to know him like this, it would be but the outskirts of his glory. Time would fail to speak of the glory of his severity, invincibility, dignity, simplicity, complexity, resoluteness, calmness, depth, and courage. If there is anything admirable, if there is anything worthy of praise anywhere in the universe, it is summed up supremely in Jesus Christ. He is supremely glorious in every admirable way over everything:

Over galaxies and endless reaches of space
Over the earth, from the top of Mount Everest (29,000 feet up) to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean (36,000 feet down into the Mariana Trench)
Over all plants and animals, from the peaceful blue whale to the microscopic killer viruses
Over all weather and movements of the earth: hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, earthquakes, avalanches, floods, snow, rain, sleet
Over all chemical processes that heal and destroy: cancer, AIDS, malaria, flu, and all the workings of antibiotics and a thousand healing medicines.
Over all countries and all governments and all armies
Over the Taliban and Al Qaeda and ISIS and Hamas and Hezbollah and all terrorists and kidnappings and suicide bombings and mass murders
Over Putin, Zelensky, Trump, Xi Jinping, and Netanyahu
Over all nuclear threats from Iran or Russia or North Korea or America
Over all politics and elections
Over all media and news and entertainment and sports and leisure
Over all education and universities and scholarship and science and research
Over all business and finance and industry and manufacturing and transportation
Over all the Internet and information systems and artificial intelligence

And though it may not seem so now, it is only a matter of time until he is revealed from heaven in flaming fire to give relief to those who trust him and righteous vengeance on those who don’t.

Ask, Seek, Knock, Behold

Oh, that the almighty God would help us see and savor the glory of his Son. Give yourself to this. Study this. Cultivate this passion. Eat and drink and sleep this quest to know the glory of Christ. Pray for God to show you these things in his word. Owen said that the main motive for contending for the Scriptures and resisting those who would take them from us is “that they would take from us the only glass wherein we may behold the glory of Christ” (Works, 1:316). Swim in the ocean of the Bible every day. And with all you’re getting — whatever it takes — get the all-satisfying glory of Christ at the center of your life.

“The deepest cure to our pitiful addictions is to be staggered by the infinite, all-satisfying glory of Christ.”

This is the blazing sun at the center of your solar system, holding the planet of mental health, family life, vocation, ministry, and sexuality in sacred orbit. This is the ballast at the bottom of your little boat, keeping it from being capsized by the waves of temptation. This is the foundation that holds up the building of your life. Without this — without knowing and embracing the glory of Christ — the planets fly apart, the waves overwhelm, and the building will one day fall.

Obstacles to Our Enjoyment

So, what stands in the way? What is the main obstacle to seeing the glory of Christ, with a deeply satisfying and life-transforming sight of that glory? The biblical answer to that question is this: the absolutely just and holy wrath of God. We cannot know Christ in our sin because the wrath of God rests on us in our sin. What we deserve in our fallen sinfulness is not the knowledge of Christ’s glory but the judgment of God’s wrath. And since we are cut off from the knowledge of Christ by the wrath of God, we are cut off from the holiness without which we will not see the Lord. God doesn’t owe us holiness; he owes us punishment. Therefore, we are hopelessly depraved and hopelessly condemned.

Except for one thing: the good news that Christ has become for us the curse to bear God’s wrath and the righteousness to meet God’s demand. This is the heart of the gospel. And it is the apex of the glory of Christ. Without it, there is no hope to escape God’s wrath and no hope to know Christ’s glory. But here it is for everyone who believes. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” Romans 8:3 says, “God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” Colossians 2:14 says, “[God canceled] the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

Of this saving work of Christ, Owen said, “An unseen glory accompanied him in all that he did, in all that he suffered. Unseen it was unto the eyes of the world, but not in his who alone can judge of it” (Works, 1:338). “For him, who was Lord of all universally, thus to submit himself to universal obedience, carrieth along with it an evidence of glorious grace” (Works, 1:339).

What could be more glorious than God himself in Christ enduring the condemnation of divine wrath, so that now every thought of God and every act of God toward us in Christ is designed for our eternal happiness! “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

And what is the greatest gift purchased by the glorious sufferings of Christ? The best gift is not the imputed righteousness of Christ. The best gift is not the forgiveness of sins. The best gift is not eternal life. The best gift is the everlasting, all-satisfying seeing and savoring of the glory of Christ himself. The glory of the cross achieved the enjoyment of the glory of Christ. Christ was the price, and Christ was the prize.

Souls Enlarged and Sanctified

To close, I want to circle back to where we began and recall the connection Owen made between seeing the glory of Christ and practical holiness. He said that the reason Jesus prayed for us in John 17:24 that we would see his glory is because this sight would “fill them with blessed satisfaction forevermore” (Works, 1:286). The reason that is so is because the human soul was made to see Christ, to know Christ, to love Christ, to enjoy Christ, and to be enlarged by the greatness of the glory of Christ. Without this, our souls shrink. And little souls make little lusts have great power. The soul, as it were, contracts or expands to encompass the magnitude or minuteness of its treasure. The human soul was made to see and savor the glory of Christ. Nothing else is big enough to enlarge the soul as God intended and make little lusts lose their power.

I know that vast, starry skies seen from a mountaintop in Utah, and four layers of moving clouds on a seemingly endless plain in Montana, and standing on the edge of a mile-deep drop in the Grand Canyon can all have a wonderfully supplementary role in enlarging the soul with the glory of creation. But nothing can take the place of the glory of Christ. As Jonathan Edwards said, if you embrace all creation with goodwill, but not Christ, you are infinitely parochial. Our hearts were made to be enlarged by Christ, and all creation cannot replace his glory.

My conviction is — and I think I learn it from Owen — that one of the main reasons the world and the church are awash in lust and pornography (by men and women) is that our lives are disconnected from the infinite, soul-staggering grandeur for which we were made: the glory of Christ. Inside and outside the church, modern culture is drowning in a sea of triviality, pettiness, banality, and silliness. It is inevitable that the human heart, which was made to be staggered with the glory of Christ but instead is drowning in a sea of banal entertainment, will reach for the best natural buzz that life can give: sex.

Therefore, the deepest cure to our pitiful addictions is to be staggered by the infinite, everlasting, unchanging, all-satisfying glory of Christ. This is what it means to know him. Christ has purchased this gift for us at the cost of his life. Therefore, I say with Hosea, “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord” (Hosea 6:3).

ABSTRACT: When the New Testament authors quote or allude to the book of Proverbs, they only occasionally draw explicit links to Christ’s person and work. Much more often, they use this book of ancient wisdom to teach, reprove, correct, and train Christians in righteousness. As Christian Scripture, Proverbs does indeed highlight Christ as the wisdom of God, but more than that, it illustrates the wise, God-fearing life that flows from vibrant faith in him.

For our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors and Christian leaders, we asked Dan Estes (PhD, Cambridge University), Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Cedarville University, to help pastors preach the book of Proverbs as Christian Scripture.

Viewing all the Scriptures through the lens of Christ has a long history in Christian interpretation. In the past half-century, this long-standing approach has received renewed impetus by influential scholars and preachers as well as new commentary series, all of which have championed an emphasis on preaching Christ in all the Scriptures.

This approach prioritizes the biblical metanarrative that culminates in Christ. According to Edmund Clowney, “All the Old Testament Scriptures, not merely the few passages that have been recognized as messianic, point us to Christ.”1 In making this claim, the Christological hermeneutic examines every biblical text in its place in the unified redemptive plan of God that is centered in the work of Christ.

However, many have struggled to apply this Christological hermeneutic to the Wisdom Literature, including the book of Proverbs. So how can one preach Proverbs as distinctly Christian Scripture?

Identifying the Problem

Many New Testament texts cite the legal, historical, and prophetic books in the Old Testament as anticipating Christ through sacrifice and covenant. In addition, several psalms are explicitly linked to Christ (as, for example, Psalm 110 in Hebrews 5:6; 7:17, 21). However, numerous psalms, as well as many other parts of the Bible’s Wisdom Literature, are difficult to relate to Christ.2

When we come to the Old Testament wisdom books, and to the book of Proverbs specifically, an essential question arises: Do the wisdom sayings in Proverbs speak directly of Christ, or do they have broader reference to the people of God as they challenge them to live wisely in the fear of the Lord? Contending for a Christological reference, Benjamin Quinn writes, “When teaching Proverbs, we must remember and recognize Jesus all along the way. We remember Jesus as the one who is Wisdom incarnate, and we remember Jesus as the one who walked in wisdom perfectly, manifesting wisdom’s way in the world and modeling wisdom’s way to the world. Jesus is thus the hero of Proverbs.”3

However, proponents of preaching Christ in all the Scriptures acknowledge at least tacitly the considerable challenges of attempting to do that in the book of Proverbs. Many books that advocate preaching Christ from all the Bible leave Proverbs virtually untouched.4 In view of the infrequent references to Proverbs in such books, where does that leave us? How do the proverbs relate to Christ? To answer that question, we will need to consider some crucial exegetical data.

Examining the Evidence

Two passages in Proverbs that have most often been interpreted Christologically are Proverbs 8:22–31 and Proverbs 30:4. Proverbs 8:22–31 has had a long and contentious interpretive history; in particular, it played a significant role in the Arian controversy in the fourth century A.D.5 Some scholars contend that this passage depicts Wisdom as the Son of God and anticipates the coming of Christ as Wisdom incarnate.6 However, numerous proponents of preaching Christ from the Old Testament acknowledge that although this passage may foreshadow the role of Christ as the wisdom of God in 1 Corinthians 1:24, 30 and Colossians 2:3, it is better viewed as a poetic personification of wisdom. For example, Richard Belcher concludes, “It is difficult from an OT standpoint to argue that Lady Wisdom in Proverbs 8 is a divine hypostasis of Christ’s eternal divine nature. Lady Wisdom is consistently presented in Proverbs 1–9 as a personification of wisdom.”7

Similar uncertainties attend Proverbs 30:4. Agur’s question, “What is his name, and what is his son’s name?” has been directly linked with the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3:13 by Clowney, who reasons, “Agur implies that to know God we need to have access to God: to have someone go up to heaven and bring back God’s word. Jesus affirms that the One who would ascend to heaven must first come down from heaven; indeed, that coming, He must also remain in heaven, His own home. He is the Son of Man; He will indeed ascend to heaven, but He has first come down from heaven, and can therefore speak of heavenly things.”8 Waltke, however, counters by reasoning, “The answer to Agur’s question . . . must be deduced from the firm lexical evidence that in Proverbs ‘son’ always refers to a student who listens to his teacher. The son whom Agur had in mind is Israel, as can be seen in many Old Testament passages, such as Exodus 4:22, where God called Israel His unique son.”9

Foundational for assessing how to preach Christ from the book of Proverbs is the narrative about Jesus in Luke 24:27, 44. Clowney argues, “If we are to preach from the whole Bible, we must be able to see how the whole Bible bears witness to Jesus Christ. The Bible has a key, one that unlocks the use of the Old Testament by the New. That key is presented at the end of the Gospel of Luke (Luke 24:13–27; 44–48).”10 Chapell makes the same point, although with a caveat: “Jesus related all portions of Scripture to his own ministry. This does not mean that every phrase, punctuation mark, or verse directly reveals Christ but rather that all passages in their context serve our understanding of his nature and necessity. Such an understanding compels us to recognize that failure to relate a passage’s explanation to preparation, aspects, or results of Christ’s ministry is to neglect saying what Jesus said all Scripture was designed to reveal. Full exposition of any text requires explanation of its relation to the One to whom all Scripture ultimately points.”11

Chapell’s caveat points the way toward a crucial corrective to those who might search for clear links to Christ in every Old Testament verse. As Daniel Block has reasoned, in the Old Testament the explicit references to the Messiah are precious, but they are rare, so “the Messiah is indeed an important theme of the Old Testament, but we exaggerate Luke’s interpretation of the significance of Jesus’ speech . . . if we assume that this is the theme of the Bible and look for the Messiah on every page.”12 Another factor to be considered is Luke’s frequent use of forms of pas (“all”) in an exaggerated sense, as for example in Luke 2:1, 3; 5:17; 6:17; 7:29; 12:7; 19:7; 21:17. I have argued elsewhere, “This interpretive issue could be compared to the difference between a political candidate claiming that every voter in all the fifty states supports him, and saying that voters in all of the fifty states support him.”13 In the context in Luke 24, it seems more feasible to envision Jesus explaining selected Old Testament scriptures that testified of him than to insist that in the short period of time with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus Jesus managed to elucidate all that was said about him in every Old Testament text.

It is also crucial to examine how the New Testament makes use of the language of Proverbs. Of the six direct quotations of Proverbs in the New Testament, all of them have referents other than Christ. Hebrews 12:5–6 cites Proverbs 3:11–12 in a reproof directed toward Christians. Proverbs 3:34 is quoted twice, in James 4:6 as correction to Christians and in 1 Peter 5:5 as instruction for younger Christians. Proverbs 11:31 in 1 Peter 4:18 functions as reproof for the household of God, that is, the Christian community. Proverbs 25:21–22 is used in Romans 12:20 as a corrective directed to Christians. Finally, in 2 Peter 2:22, Proverbs 26:11 is used in an extended condemnation of false teachers.

When the 53 allusions to Proverbs in the New Testament are examined,14 in 12 cases texts from the book of Proverbs are applied directly to Christ, the Son of God (Matthew 16:27; 25:40; Luke 2:52; John 3:13; 7:38; 9:31; Colossians 2:3; Revelation 2:23; 3:14, 19; 20:12–13; 22:12). In several other cases, the allusion relates more generally to God (Luke 16:15; Romans 2:6; 13:1; 2 Timothy 4:14) or specifically to the Father (1 Peter 1:17) or the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11). By far, however, the allusions to Proverbs are directed toward mere humans, with 62 percent (3315 out of 53) functioning not as references to Christ but as teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness directed toward Christians.16 This biblical data demonstrates that in the New Testament, texts from Proverbs most often speak of the behaviors that should characterize the lives of wise, godly people, rather than referring specifically to Christ.

Approaching a Solution

In his essay “Meditation in a Toolshed,” C.S. Lewis differentiates between looking at a sunbeam and looking along a sunbeam.17 It has already been seen that only about a dozen of the wisdom sayings in Proverbs are applied directly to Christ in the New Testament, as they look at him. In 80 percent of the cases, quotations and allusions from Proverbs instead look along Christ as they teach, reprove, correct, and train Christians in their behavior. Paul Koptak reasons, “The larger context of wisdom literature supports the suggestion that the book is to be read as the education of a young man receiving the instruction of those older and more experienced than he.”18 Ernest Lucas adds the important point that “the sages are concerned with character formation. They want to produce better people who will produce a better world. The key to this is people whose ‘being’ is shaped by ‘the fear of Yahweh.’ This will then determine their ‘doing.’”19

When texts from Proverbs are alluded to in the New Testament, in most cases their original focus on the character formation of the youth is retained, but it is applied more broadly to all Christians. Thus, this anthology of wisdom sayings “provides a pedagogical resource for sanctification”20 pertaining to the believer’s completion in Christ (Colossians 1:28). What Proverbs enjoins is the quality of life of those whom Paul describes as spiritual people (1 Corinthians 2:15–16; Galatians 6:1), whose lives manifest a consistent pattern of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). Duane Garrett argues well, “The function of the Scriptures is not only to lead unbelievers to repentance and faith in Christ but also to instruct and nurture believers with truth that transforms our understanding and our lives. If this is so, then the believer must study the wisdom literature of the Bible . . . and the Christian minister must preach it. . . . Here we can learn to reject wrong and harmful behavior and to choose the paths that please God and bring happiness, the way of life that arises from faith in the Lord.”21

Proverbs invites us to preach to believers in way that endeavors to transform their actions, attitudes, and values more and more in the direction of Christlikeness, of being complete in Christ, which Paul stated was the goal of his ministry (Colossians 1:28).

Preaching Proverbs as Christian Scripture

How then can we preach Proverbs as Christian Scripture?

Following the pattern of the New Testament, we can occasionally draw connections between descriptions of wisdom in Proverbs and aspects of Christ, who is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24) and in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). In these cases, we preach Proverbs by looking at Christ.

“Only Christ in us can produce the desire and the ability to live wisely and to please God.”

However, much more often in the New Testament, texts from Proverbs are used to teach believers how to walk in the way of God’s wisdom. By this means, believers are exhorted to obey the imperative to work out their salvation (Philippians 2:12), grounded in the indicative that God is at work within them by his indwelling Spirit, thus giving them both the desire and the ability to do what pleases him (Philippians 2:13). In effect, the New Testament writers show us how to look along Christ as texts from Proverbs provide teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness for Christians.

As we preach Proverbs as Christian Scripture, we must keep several things in mind. First, read Proverbs as God’s wisdom for life, as its prologue indicates (Proverbs 1:1–7). In Proverbs, the wise person is one who is skilled in living according to the righteous standard of God — that is, living by the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning or essence of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). In writing about the Psalms, C.S. Lewis insisted that they must be read as poems if they are to be understood properly, or “we shall miss what is in them and think we see what is not.”22 Similarly, as we preach Proverbs, we must read and apply its sayings as wisdom, or we may miss what they do teach.

Second, link the imperatives of wise behavior with the indicatives of what God has done for and in the believer through Christ. If Proverbs is preached only as a moralistic call to shrewd living that is not grounded in the gospel, then it can be heard merely as a challenge to turn over a new leaf in an effort to achieve a happier, more successful life. However, if Proverbs is presented as God’s call to his people to revere him in all their actions and attitudes, then that requires a transformation rooted in the righteousness of Christ that is imputed to those who have placed their faith in him. Only the Spirit of Christ in us can produce the desire and the ability to live wisely and to please God.

Third, preach Proverbs as wisdom sayings, not as absolutes or guarantees. In every culture, wisdom sayings are memorable generalizations rather than comprehensive or precise teachings, and that is why they are often balanced by other maxims. For example, we say that “the early bird gets the worm,” but also that “haste makes waste.” Proverbs 26:4 counsels, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself,” but the next verse urges, “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.” Neither saying is intended to be taken absolutely; rather, the wise person knows when to ignore the fool and also when to call the fool out. The familiar saying in Proverbs 22:6 has too often been touted as a formulaic guarantee that good parenting will produce good children, but that hardly explains the family in which some of the children follow their godly parents but others depart from the faith. In fact, Proverbs has much to say about the child’s responsibility as well as that of the parents.

Fourth, for the most part, preach topics from Proverbs rather than individual sayings. Several individual proverbs (such as Proverbs 3:5–6) and some groups of related wisdom sayings (for example Proverbs 26:13–16) can be expounded as independent literary units. However, the book of Proverbs most often presents a collection of sayings that do not appear to be set in an easily discernible context. To preach these, some diligent forethought and planning will be required. Read through Proverbs and select the sayings that relate to a particular theme, study each saying individually, and then synthesize them into a topical outline. Using this process, I once developed a sermon series from Proverbs on uncommon virtues that should be cultivated in the Christian life.23

Because the Old Testament is part of Christian Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16), the themes found in Proverbs are God’s word, by which “the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17). In addition, they often can be linked with exhortations to godly living in the New Testament. Ultimately, the righteous behavior exhorted in Proverbs is rooted in the imputed righteousness of Christ, which empowers those who are in Christ to walk in wisdom.

Audio Transcript

This week we look at authenticity — living out the authentic life. Francisco, a 23-year-old from Mexico City, wants to embody the qualities of Romans 12:9–13 in his life over the next year. He asks for insights on living out this passage authentically, a life of genuine affection. That’s on Thursday.

But today we have a question about the life of Christ and his authenticity: “Hi, Pastor John! My name is Mark, and I have a question for you that I’m having trouble putting into words, but I’ll try my best. When I read the Bible, I keep coming back to something Jesus says at Passover as he’s looking toward the cross: ‘The Son of Man goes as it is written of him.’ That’s Matthew 26:24. I don’t quite understand how the cross can be both fully planned out and still come from Jesus’s totally willing heart. I believe he ‘gave himself as a ransom for all’ (1 Timothy 2:6). But when I think of actors following a script, it doesn’t feel like they’re acting freely or authentically — it’s someone else’s will, not their own. So, how can Jesus’s life and death be fully scripted out and authentically yielded at the same time?”

Well, I probably should make the problem more difficult before I make it less difficult. Not only is the life of Jesus fully scripted, but so is Judas’s — indeed, so is every person’s life fully scripted by God. We’re all living, acting, speaking, thinking, feeling according to God’s providence, God’s decree, God’s script.

When Jesus had been betrayed by Judas and arrested (let’s just take Judas as an example), Matthew writes in Matthew 26:56, “All this has taken place that the Scriptures” — the script — “of the prophets might be fulfilled.” And Jesus said to the disciples about Judas at the Last Supper, “I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me’” (John 13:18). So, everything is happening that night according to divine script.

Then there are the sweeping statements in the Bible that cover all people. Proverbs 16:1: “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” In other words, our hearts are indeed significant in shaping what we say, but the will of the Lord is decisive as to what comes out of our mouths. And Jeremiah says, “I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). And Proverbs 20:24 says, “A man’s steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?”

So, we have good reason to believe that when Paul says in Ephesians 1:11, “[God] works all things according to the counsel of his will” — that’s the script — he means “all things,” including the words and deeds of every person. All persons are acting out, speaking a script ultimately written by God.

Addressing a Reasonable Question

Mark’s question to us is this: I don’t quite understand how the cross can be fully planned and still come from Jesus’s totally willing heart. He says, “When I think of actors following a script, it doesn’t feel like they’re acting freely or authentically — it’s someone else’s will, not their own.”

“We’re all living, acting, speaking, thinking, feeling according to God’s providence, God’s decree, God’s script.”

Now, that’s, of course, totally reasonable. That last question is totally reasonable. If you conceive of an actor reading a script and memorizing it and speaking it in a play, then, clearly, what he says is not necessarily his own. He’s an actor; he’s playacting. He’s letting himself be totally and consciously — that’s important — governed in what he says by memorizing and repeating a script. And that’s the danger of all analogies. Analogies are wonderful and they’re horrible, aren’t they? They’re just so illuminating and so confusing.

There are true things about the analogy between God’s detailed providence and the script of a play. There’s an analogy there, and there are true things. And there are wrong things in the analogy between God’s providence and the script of a play. What’s true about the analogy is that God does indeed write the script for everything that happens in the world, and he sees to it that everybody acts according to his script. That’s the meaning of divine providence. But what’s not true about the analogy is that, in reality, no human being can read the script of divine providence before it happens. Nobody is reading and memorizing the script of divine providence and then acting it out like in a play. The script is secret in every individual life, until it’s acted out — except for Jesus.

Jesus is divine. He is God. His mind and his will are totally one with the Father. Jesus was there in eternity past, sharing in the act of writing the script when it was written for him. He wrote it with the Father. So, unlike everyone else, he did know in detail what he was to do at every moment, because he himself planned to do it. And so, he did not act against his will when following the script. It’s his script.

The words in the garden, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done,” did not mean that God the Son was out of step with God the Father (Luke 22:42). It meant that the truly human nature of Jesus found the prospect of the crucifixion horrific and undesirable in itself, but the unity of the will between the Son and the Father prevailed. So, there’s no sense in which Jesus was following a script contrary to his ultimate desires. He wrote the script together with his Father. He loved the script, and he wholeheartedly acted the script from his whole soul, eternity to eternity.

Addressing a More Difficult Question

But Mark’s question to us is much more difficult when it comes to Judas and everybody else. We didn’t write the script of providence. We can’t read the script of providence before it is acted. We don’t know God’s detailed plans for us the rest of this afternoon or this evening or tomorrow morning, but we will all act and speak in perfect accord with the script of providence.

Now, to deal with this — I have maybe one minute left, which is why I wrote a 750-page book to answer this one-minute-long issue. And so, I feel just a little bit of comfort that if somebody finds this next minute inadequate, I can at least say, “Would you please consult my book Providence, which has 750 pages of defense and explanation of this doctrine?” So, I take some comfort in that.

The essential mystery regarding providence, the divine script, is how — that’s the key question. How does God govern all things in such a way that human choices are still blameworthy or praiseworthy — that is, humans are still real moral agents and are really accountable for our actions? That God governs the world this way is clearly revealed in Scripture. How he does it is not clearly revealed in Scripture. So, let me close with two verses for you to think about in this mystery.

Second Corinthians 8:16–17: “Thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. For . . . he is going to you of his own accord.” God put it in the heart of Titus to do something, and the result is that he’s doing it of his own accord. That’s the mystery.

You can see the same thing in Romans 6:17: “Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart.” So, Paul thanks God, not the Roman Christians, that they have become obedient from their own heart — authentic, real, heartfelt choosing and obedience. It is really their choice, and God is the one who ultimately brought it to pass.

Oh, there is so much more to say, but I end with this. John Piper owes — this is why I love this doctrine — we owe our eternal lives to the sovereign grace of God to overcome our sinful will and make us new creatures in Christ, who is at work in us to will and to do his good pleasure.

When God unites a husband and wife, he forms a unique partnership with one primary aim: to glorify God by helping each other to heaven. Until death separates them, husbands should lovingly lead their wives in following Jesus, and wives should tenderly help their husbands to do the same. They are pilgrim partners traveling to glory.

In sweet seasons, you will take strong strides together. But at times (or even much of the time), you may feel like you’re dragging your spouse along. Sin, sorrow, and suffering all take their toll on a marriage. When a husband neglects his calling to lovingly lead his wife, she can be tempted to despair.

Functionally, spiritual leadership in the home is not a one-size-fits-all calling. God allows freedom and flexibility in families depending on the abilities of those in it. That said, God expects a husband to lead by sacrificial love (Ephesians 5:25), to honor his wife and live mindful of her needs (1 Peter 3:7), to be gentle, not harsh (Colossians 3:19), and to ensure God’s word governs their home (Genesis 2:15–17; Deuteronomy 6:4–7; Ephesians 5:26).

But what happens when a husband won’t lead? How should his wife respond? How can she pursue her husband in a way that encourages him to seek Jesus and, in turn, to lead her?

Seven Helps for Weary Helpers

While no formula can fix a husband’s lack of leadership, wives are not left without hope. As his helper, you are not only free but expected to encourage him in his leading. So, consider seven practical ways you might help your husband to lead. All of these are for you individually, but you need other godly sisters and pastors to help you live them faithfully. Don’t do this alone.

1. Pray.

A wise sister once said of her husband, “It is my job to love him. It is God’s job to change him.” Since only God can change a heart, perseveringly pray for your husband. Believe that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

Do you wish that your husband would have greater fervency for God and his word? Pray. Do you hope for him to care about your spiritual well-being and pursue you affectionately? Pray. Do you desire for him to show more spiritual sensitivity and become more heavenly-minded? Pray. Do you long for him to initiate family devotions or express more joy in Christ? Pray. Do you want him to develop meaningful relationships with other godly men? Pray.

Wives can do more than pray for their husbands, but they certainly should not do less. A praying wife is a husband’s best friend. But he isn’t the only one who needs prayer. You are also in need of God’s sustaining and strengthening grace.

Do you need wisdom to help your husband follow God? Pray. Do you need courage to trust God when things aren’t going well? Pray. Do you need humility to not grow proud and self-righteous? Pray. Do you need grace to cultivate a tender and gentle heart? Pray. Do you need strength to endure when hope is endangered? Pray.

Jesus assures us, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). So, if anything must characterize you, let it be prayerfulness.

2. Maintain realistic expectations.

Unmet expectations often birth frustration. What do you expect his leadership to look like? Some expectations are realistic, like remaining faithful to the marriage covenant (Exodus 20:14; Hebrews 13:4), attending church gatherings (Hebrews 10:24–25), and pointing your children to Jesus (Ephesians 6:4). God commands him to do these things. But some expectations are unrealistic. Not all husbands will initiate morning devotions over coffee or take their families on mission trips. Not all husbands will read books at night by the fire or set up weekly date nights. You may desire your husband to lead in ways that would be nice, perhaps even wise, but are not required by the Lord.

“Remember that God is not only working in your husband. He is also working in you.”

Communication can help to clarify expectations. Have you humbly spent time with your Lord and godly sisters to discern what healthy marital expectations look like? Have you asked your husband to discuss how best to follow Jesus as a couple? Have you asked him if he has considered meeting with another godly man to talk through realistic expectations for his leadership and your helping?

Develop and base your expectations on Scripture, not on what others do or what you wish your husband would do. Wisely discern the right time to share your dreams and desires, but don’t hold him to a standard God does not.

3. Protect your heart.

As you help your husband, guard your heart from temptation. Paul warned the spiritually mature in Galatia, “Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). What temptations might accompany your efforts? I’ll suggest eight.

Pride: Do you look down on your husband because of how well you’re following Jesus compared to him?
Entitlement: Do you feel like God owes you? Do you think that your faithfulness to him before marriage (or since) has earned you something better than what he has given you in marriage?
Apathy: Have you grown cold and uncaring toward your husband? Are you going through the motions or striving by faith?
Manipulation: Do you use sex, cleaning, spending, or anything else in hopes of changing him? Is freely serving Jesus more important to you than changing your husband?
Bitterness: Does your soul seethe with resentment toward him? Do you dream of not being with him — or worse, that he were dead? Do you withhold good from him to spite him? Do you punish him actively or passively?
Disrespect: Do you withhold respect because you don’t see him as respectable? Are you sharp with your words in private? Do you tear him down in public?
Coveting: Do you compare your husband with other men? Do you daydream of what life would be like with another man?
Adultery: Are you too close to someone else? Are you humble enough to know that even you could be seduced into an affair?

Satan is a patient prowler with devious schemes. Be on guard, and remain honest with both other godly sisters and your husband to help you to resist the attacks.

4. Encourage him.

You can always find ways your husband falls short. And there is a time to help him see his sins and shortcomings (Matthew 18:15; Luke 17:3). But do you consistently highlight areas of encouragement in his life? Have you asked God to help you see areas where he is growing (even slightly) so that you can specifically encourage him? Do you see his gifts and commend him for the ways he uses them? Do you regularly thank your husband for the good he does? Does your encouragement to him outpace your criticism of him? Does he feel, without a doubt, that you are on his side? Are you?

If you can’t think of anything encouraging, ask God to help you see and to remove any log that may be blinding your sight (Matthew 7:1–5). The Spirit will help you. Ask him to show you how he is working in your husband so that you can encourage him.

5. Examine yourself.

While you are never to blame for any of his actions or inactions, it is still helpful to inquire if you’re doing anything unhelpful. Could there be ways you make his leading difficult? Are you high-maintenance, exacting, or demeaning? How can you make his leading more enjoyable? Ask him. Consider discussing these questions with another godly sister to ensure your heart is as pure as it can be before God.

6. Gently prod him.

Submission isn’t a call to passivity or subjugation but a call to flourish under the wing of your husband. This means that you are free and at times even responsible for initiating your family’s pursuit of God. His leadership is helped by your active assistance. I can’t tell you how many times God has used my wife’s thoughtful suggestions and godly example to help me step up.

Maybe you could invite him to use an evening differently: “I think I’m going to do some reading and praying tonight rather than watch our show. Feel free to relax or to join me.” Or, “I thought we could read some Scripture with the kids after dinner tonight. Do you have any suggestions?” Or, “I think God wants us to share our faith with our neighbors. What do you think about having them over for dinner?”

Prayerfully consider creative ways to encourage godly relationships for your husband. Offer for him to take the night and hang out with friends from church. Consider asking him if it’s okay to go on a double date with a couple that could be a good influence on your family. Be willing, as you’re able, to sacrifice in order to make these relationships happen.

There’s often a fine line between trying to help and manipulating. You’ll slip past that line at times, but God’s grace abounds, and he will help you (Hebrews 4:14–16).

7. Value perspective and perseverance.

Change rarely happens quickly. Waiting can be painful, especially if you sense you are withering. But remember that God is not only working in your husband. He is also working in you. As you wait upon the Lord, remember that opportunities abound for you to grow. Some of the godliest women I know are ones who have endured long, challenging seasons with spiritually lethargic husbands. As they have waited, God has helped them to grow in desperation for Jesus, not their husband. Remember: you do not need your husband to be what only Jesus can be.

Whatever your circumstance, keep looking to Jesus and pleading with him to grow your husband’s faith. And as you do, your faith will grow as well. Why? Because you’re focused on the glory of Jesus, not the grief of your circumstances. Here, you will mature in prayer, find joy in God, and deepen your dependence on him.

Look to That Day

Alongside these seven suggestions, I will add a brief word about dangerous marriages. Living with a fellow sinner will be difficult and disappointing. Any sin against us hurts. However, some marriages are truly dangerous because a husband harms his wife verbally, physically, or sexually. While you must be careful not to bear false witness against your husband (Exodus 20:16), God does not call you to suffer genuine harm in silence. He has given pastors and police to protect you (Acts 20:28–30; Romans 13:4). If you are in real danger, please seek help.

But for all other wives, remember that someday soon, you and your husband will stand before Jesus. On that great day, you will give an account not for how he lived but for how you lived. Lean upon God’s grace today, no matter what difficulty may come. Because when you hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” all your pains will be worth it. And, Lord willing, your husband will look over at you and say, “Because of your help, I gave a better account. Thank you.” The Lord is able. Keep trusting.

You don’t feel ready to preach.

You desired to be more prepared, to spend much time in the text and prayer, to enter the pulpit with full health, but life had other plans. God had other plans.

The last song has started; it is nearly time for you to speak. You look around and notice a visitor. This is not usually how thin my outline is. You see a wandering sheep who chose this Sunday to return. Why didn’t he come last week? The people seem hungry; the Spirit seems present. Will you now let them down?

You ascend the pulpit. Eyes gaze up at you. And then you say it. “Good morning . . . I beg your forgiveness beforehand. My oldest son was sick all week, and I had less time to prepare than I hoped.” Or, “Good morning . . . please excuse my voice. I’m just getting over a cold.”

Is anything wrong with such remarks? Hopefully not. But that hasn’t been the case with me. I have found that we might offer excuses beforehand, not because we are full of love for God and the souls before us, but because we are too full of self. Pride makes us anxious and insecure of what they will think of us.

Now, is it always wrong to highlight obstacles you’ve faced during the week of the sermon? I doubt it. Is it always from self-love that you explain a lacking ingredient? No. I do not bring a new law, “Thou shalt never disclose setbacks.”

But is this not sometimes a whimpering, flesh-pleasing, pride-pampering, excuse-making introduction that betrays an unworthy sensitivity to what man thinks about you, your delivery, and your sermon? And wouldn’t it be more faithful and manly to simply pray that the Lord would increase his name — however much you decrease — and get straight to what God has for you to tell the people? Let each man answer for himself, but for my part, I answer yes.

What Swims Beneath

This conversation may not rise to the level of alarm for you. It may seem rather harmless either way. But when a sailor sees Leviathan surface in the distance, he is troubled not because the beast merely came up for air (as opposed to devouring a ship). He is troubled because he sees Leviathan. To rise for air is innocent enough, but what swims below destroys without warning. The apology may be meaningless, but self-importance never is. Pride is to be killed, not allowed to apologize for itself.

Making excuses for our leaner sermons is but one possible expression of being drunk on self. Shattering at negative feedback is another. Salivating after compliments still another. Richard Baxter described it:

Were it not for shame, [some preachers] could find in their hearts to ask people how they liked them, and to draw out their commendations. If they perceive that they are highly thought of, they rejoice, as having attained their end; but if they see that they are considered but weak and common men, they are displeased, as having missed the prize they had in view. (The Reformed Pastor, 126)

A man wanting to be thought great is in great danger. A high esteem of self is frightened by low opinions of others. Secret pride makes a man fragile. Such a heart is that of an actor performing before a critic, not a herald concerned with delivering his Master’s message. What would you think of this town crier?

Hear ye, hear ye, my good citizens. I have a message from the King of kings that demands closest attention. But before I deliver that which is your very life or death to receive, I want you all to know that I’ve had a stressful week, less time to polish as I’d like, and (I hate to mention it) but I’ve developed a bit of a sniffle since yesterday. Please excuse my ensuing performance. Truth be told, I have been more than a little anxious about it.

Sit that man down and get someone else to speak to the people. Such a heart would, if not rightfully ashamed, meet everyone at the door after the sermon, fishing, not for men, but for compliments and asking what they especially loved. And should anyone offer an opportunity for improvement, the man would begin to sink. Such a man is an ingrown toenail, burrowing deeper and deeper into himself. Lord, have mercy on all of us heralds.

Excusing Weakness

The apostle Paul renounced the need for head pats and belly scratches. For him, man-pleasing and ministry couldn’t coexist (Galatians 1:10). And while Paul did mention setbacks and difficulties in his ministry, he presented them altogether differently. He boasted in his weaknesses rather than angling for excuses.

Paul really was someone great; he really was that man the demons knew by name. Yet hear how he went about his business in the Lord:

If I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. (2 Corinthians 12:6)

Paul let himself be known for his weakness because he wanted people to know God’s strength. I, on the other hand, mention my weakness only to highlight my usual strength. I don’t boast in my weakness; I explain it away. My pride wants others to know I am usually much better than this. Yet Paul hid his accomplishments and boasted in his weaknesses; he didn’t want boasting in his strengths to eclipse God’s strength. He didn’t want others to think more of him than what they saw.

Don’t Let Pride Apologize

Paul knew what it was to put confidence in the flesh and despise weakness. But it seems he quit campaigning for himself when he exchanged his righteousness for Christ’s. Remember, he was that guy all the Jewish men wanted to be before coming to Christ. But now he writes, “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7–8).

All-important me is replaced by all-worthy Christ.

Pastors, as you mount the pulpit, stand confident in Christ and don’t give any provision for the flesh. If you have no business up there, don’t be up there. But if God still calls you to preach, stand up with whatever notes, voice, or limitation you possess and herald Jesus Christ. If he wants you low, go forth on your knees. If he wants you to stumble more than usual, bless his name in that ruggedness! But don’t stoop to justify why you’re not as impressive as usual. Forget about yourself and preach the Savior to saints and lost souls, especially in weakness, for these are the times Christ’s power will best rest upon you.

One of the most fruitful places to see the intersection between Puritan theology and the glory of God is the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Question: What is man’s chief end?

Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Puritan fingerprints are all over the Westminster Standards, which is not surprising since among the Westminster divines were the likes of Thomas Goodwin, Jeremiah Burroughs, and Samuel Rutherford.

The implications of the way this first question is answered are more far reaching than some of us realize. We will see that the formulation “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever” touches on the nature of God’s glory, the nature of the human soul, the aim of creation and redemption, and the consummation of all things. The implications of this formulation are vast and worthy of our most careful meditation.

Man’s Happiness, God’s Glory

B.B. Warfield gave himself to this kind of careful meditation on the first question of the Westminster Catechism. Let’s launch us into our own reflections by listening to his.

He highlights the peculiar content of the first question by contrasting it with Calvin’s Geneva Catechism.

Question 1: What is the chief end of man?

Answer: It is to know God his Creator.

Question 2: What reason have you for this answer?

Answer: Because God has created us and placed us in this world that he may be glorified in us. It is certainly right, as he is the author of our life, that it should advance his glory.

Question 3: What is the chief good of man?

Answer: It is the same thing.

Question 4: Why do you account the knowledge of God the chief good?

Answer: Because without it, our condition is more miserable than that of any of the brute creatures.

Calvin is content in his catechism to define the chief end of man and the chief good of man in terms of knowing God. This doesn’t mean there’s no place in Calvin’s theology for the enjoyment of God. In fact, he says in the Institutes, “The ultimate happiness is to enjoy the presence of God” (On the Christian Life, 52). But it does seem to mean that he doesn’t put the same weight on the subjective experience of God’s glory — namely, the enjoyment of it — that the Puritans did.

Warfield takes note of this and says that the Westminster divines “improve on” Calvin’s answer (The Works of Benjamin Warfield, 6:396).

Then he explains,

The peculiarity of this question and answer of the Westminster Catechism . . . is the felicity with which it brings to concise expression the whole Reformed conception of the significance of human life. We say the whole Reformed conception. For justice is not done that conception if we say merely that man’s chief end is to glorify God. That certainly: and certainly, that first. But according to the Reformed conception man exists not merely that God may be glorified in him, but that he may delight in this glorious God. It does justice to the subjective as well as the objective side of the case. The Reformed conception is not fully or fairly stated if it . . . conceiv[es of] man merely as the object on which God manifests his glory. . . . It conceives man also as the subject in which the gloriousness of God is perceived and delighted in. No man is truly Reformed in his thought, then, unless he conceives of men, not merely as destined to be the instrument of the divine glory, but also as destined to reflect the glory of God in his own consciousness, to exult in God: unless he himself delights in God as the all-glorious one.

Then Warfield brings his meditation to a close with these ringing words about the relationship between glorifying God and enjoying God:

The distinction of the opening question and answer of the Westminster shorter catechism is that it moves on this high plane and says all this in the compressed compass of felicitous words: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Not to enjoy God certainly without glorifying him, for how can he to whom glory inherently belongs be enjoyed without being glorified? But just as certainly not to glorify God without enjoying him, for how can he whose glory is his perfections be glorified if he be not also enjoyed?

But if you look at those words very carefully, you realize that Warfield does not come right out and say what some Puritans were saying and what Jonathan Edwards made crystal clear — namely, that God is glorified by our enjoyment of him.

Spiritual Affections

For example, Puritan pastor John Howe (1630–1704) wrote a long treatise titled Delighting in God, in which he said,

We are to desire the enjoyment of [God] for his own glory. And yet here is a strange and admirable complication of these with one another. For if we enjoy him, delight and rest in him, as our best and most satisfying good, we thereby glorify him as God. (The Works of the Reverend John Howe, 1:559)

There is debate about how the Westminster divines understood the connection between glorifying God and enjoying God (even though John Howe was clear on it), but it is provocative, to say the least, that their formulation was singular, not plural: man’s chief end (not ends) is to glorify him and enjoy him. If that singular word “end” doesn’t unite the two, it at least makes them inseparable. Some Puritans — and Edwards after them — make explicit that we glorify God by enjoying him. More on that later.

What is obvious at this point from the first question of the catechism is that the affections of the human soul are elevated to a place of importance that is far higher than most people realize. The enjoyment of God is essential to the right worship of God and thus the end for which God created the world. We are in another world from those who treat spiritual emotions, spiritual affections, as marginal or incidental or secondary. That is not the Puritan world.

According to the Westminster Catechism, the Puritans, and Edwards, spiritual affections are as important as the glorification of God himself, because they are part of that glorification, which is the reason that the universe exists.

It’s not surprising then that, as the Reformed movement matured and deepened, the Puritans became keenly aware of the centrality of the workings of the human soul in the glorification of God. And they instinctively then became doctors of the soul as well as doctors of theology. This is one of the things that puts them in a class by themselves. They put such a high premium on what’s going on in the human heart. And it’s not surprising why they would do that given the answer to the first question of the Westminster Catechism: glorifying God and enjoying God is the end for which man was created. That is, what’s happening in the soul makes or breaks the purpose of creation and redemption!

Essential Reflection of God’s Glory

What I want to do in the rest of our time together is to press into some implications of the first question of the Westminster Catechism as it relates to God’s glory. Warfield referred to the objective and the subjective side of God’s glorification. God is glorious whether anybody sees it or enjoys it. That’s the objective reality of God and his glory. He is infinitely great, infinitely beautiful, and infinitely valuable. This is true objectively. And God created the world to set forth and manifest that objective glory. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). Isaiah 43:6–7 says, “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth . . . whom I created for my glory.”

Then there is the subjective reflection of that glory in man’s perception and enjoyment of it. Ephesians 1:5–6 says, “He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.” He objectively manifests the glory of his grace, and we subjectively praise the glory of his grace. And in that objective and subjective glorification, God’s purpose in creation is achieved.

“The enjoyment of God is essential to the right worship of God.”

What the first question of the catechism does not make explicit is that the right enjoyment of God presumes the right knowledge of God. Calvin made this explicit when he said that the chief end of man is to know God. The Westminster divines assume that and put all the emphasis on the enjoyment of God. Edwards makes both ways of glorifying God explicit:

God glorifies Himself toward the creatures also in two ways: 1. By appearing to . . . their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts. . . . God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 13:495)

Implicit in that statement of Edwards — which I think is fully biblical and is also implicit in the Westminster Catechism — is the implication that the glory of God is the ground of the mind’s certainty and the goal of the soul’s satisfaction. In other words, if you ask, “How does the human mind come to know God with certainty?” the answer is, “By the revelation of the glory of God.” And if you ask, “How does the human heart come to enjoy God with satisfaction?” the answer is, “By the revelation of the glory of God.” The glory of God reveals itself to be inescapably real to the mind and incomparably rewarding to the heart.

The Place of God’s Glory

This has an amazing implication concerning the place of the glory of God in the Christian life, and I’ll state it three ways:

The quest for truth and the quest for joy turn out to be the same quest.
The path to unshakable conviction and the path to unending contentment are the same path.
Knowing for sure and rejoicing forever happen by the same discovery of the glory of God in the word of God.

This was simply astonishing to me — that the self-authenticating revelation of the glory of God turns out to be both the ground of my most confident knowing and the ground of my most satisfying enjoyment.

Ground of Enjoying God

Let’s take these one at a time. First, consider the glory of God as the ground of our most satisfying enjoyment.

The Bible makes clear that the fullest and longest pleasure is found only in God. Psalm 16:11 says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” There is nothing fuller than full, and there is nothing longer than forever. Therefore, the enjoyment of the presence of the all-glorious God cannot be exceeded. It is inconceivable that there be a joy greater than full or a pleasure longer than forever.

Therefore, the Bible continually tells us not to be idiots, but rather commands us, “Delight yourself in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4). “Be glad in the Lord” (Psalm 32:11). “Rejoice in the Lord” (Philippians 4:4). It tells us that when a man finds the treasure of God’s glorious kingdom hidden in a field, “then in his joy he goes and sells all he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44). And so, it tells us to long for the Lord:

As a deer pants for flowing streams,     so pants my soul for you, O God.My soul thirsts for God,     for the living God. (Psalm 42:1–2)

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;     my soul thirsts for you;my flesh faints for you,     as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. . . .Because your steadfast love is better than life,     my lips will praise you. (Psalm 63:1, 3)

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,     that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. (Psalm 90:14)

What is obvious from the Bible is that God intends for his glory — himself — to be the ground of our fullest and longest happiness. Human beings were created with an insatiable desire to be happy. This is because God designed that he would be the end of that quest. And being the end of that quest, he would thus be shown to be supremely glorious. Being satisfied in the glory of God is not icing on the cake of Christianity; it is the essence and the heart of experiential Christianity. It is the end. The chief end of man is to enjoy God and thus make plain his all-satisfying glory.

Christianity is not a religion of willpower and decisions to do things we don’t really want to do. We are not more virtuous for overcoming our real preferences to do what we don’t want to do just because of some pressure to do what is right. That is not Christianity. That is Stoicism. Christianity is a life lived from a supernatural new birth of the human heart to want God more than we want anything. Desires for God are not peripheral. They are demanded, and they are essential.

And what makes the universal human quest for happiness God-glorifying rather than self-exalting is that, by the new birth, the glory of God becomes the ground of our joy. We do not make a god out of joy. We show to be God what we find most joy in. And when the glory of God is the end of our quest for joy, God is exalted, not us.

Ground of Knowing God

That’s the first half of the amazing implication implicit in the Westminster Catechism and in the Puritan mind — namely, that the glory of God is the ground of both knowing and enjoying God. Knowing God for sure and rejoicing forever happen by the same discovery of the glory of God in the word of God. And we have seen that the glory of God is indeed the ground of our most satisfying enjoyment. It is the end of the human quest to be happy.

Now we turn to the other half of the implication — namely, that the glory of God is also the end of the human quest for assured knowledge. The glory of God is the ground of our most confident knowing. The way that God has planned for us to know for sure what is true, and the way he planned for us to find our all-satisfying treasure, are the same — namely, by seeing the glory of God in the word of God.

Let me try to show what I mean by this and how I came to see it.

From 1751 to 1758, Jonathan Edwards was pastor of the church in the frontier town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and was a missionary to the Indians. His concern for Indian evangelization extends back into his pastorate at Northampton. And you can see this in these comments from Religious Affections, which were written about ten years earlier. His concern is this: How can they come to a justifiable knowledge of the truth when they know so little?

Miserable is the condition of the Houssatunnuck Indians and others, who have lately manifested a desire to be instructed in Christianity, if they can come at no evidence of the truth of Christianity, sufficient to induce them to sell all for Christ, in any other way but the [path of historical reasoning]. (Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2:304)

What then?

The mind ascends to the truth of the gospel but by one step, and that is its divine glory. . . . Unless men may come to a reasonable solid persuasion and conviction of the truth of the gospel, by the internal evidences of it, . . . by a sight of its glory; it is impossible that those who are illiterate, and unacquainted with history, should have any thorough and effectual conviction of it at all. (2:299, 303)

Edwards is arguing that the path to a well-grounded conviction of the truth of the gospel, and of the Scriptures that tell that story, is a path that the poorest people in your country, with little education — and the Papuan tribesmen and the “Houssatunnuck Indians” of the eighteenth century — can follow. It is the path of seeing the glory of God in the word of God.

Edwards bases this contention on 2 Corinthians 4:4: “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The gospel — the story of how God came to save sinners — emits a “light” (Edwards calls it a “divine and supernatural light”) to the eyes of the heart. Paul calls it “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” Christ’s self-authenticating glory shines through the gospel. To make it possible for the darkened human heart to see this, God shatters the blindness. Paul describes how God does this in 2 Corinthians 4:6: “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

That is what happens in the creation of a Christian. We are given eyes to see the glory of God in the gospel. This is how the most uneducated person, with the least background in history, logic, or biblical doctrine, can be so convinced of the truth of the gospel that he is willing to die for it and not be a fool. He is not a fool, because he sees real grounds for the divine truth of the gospel. His faith is warranted on good grounds. He sees “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” Thus, the gospel is vindicated by the divine glory it reveals.

Door to Certainty and Satisfaction

Thus, the glory of God proves to be both the ground of the soul’s grateful satisfaction and the ground of the mind’s deepest certainty. I said that this is implicit in the Westminster Catechism and in the Puritan mind. I base that on question 4 of the Larger Catechism, which says this:

Question 4: How does it appear that the Scriptures are the Word of God?

Answer: The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the Word of God, by their majesty and purity; by the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation: but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very Word of God.

I think that phrase “the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God” is essentially what I’m saying — namely, that the glory of God stands forth from the Scriptures in a self-authenticating way that gives the regenerate mind good evidence of divine reality. The glory of God becomes the ground for solid conviction as well as the ground of solid satisfaction.

I conclude, therefore, that seeing the glory of God with the eyes of the heart is the door to full satisfaction in God and full certainty of God. The glory of God is the ground of both. In creating a Christian, God reveals to us in the gospel his glory in the face of Christ, which becomes both the ground of the mind’s certainty and the goal of the soul’s satisfaction.

In one miracle moment, the sight of his glory implants solid conviction and sweet contentment. The quest for the fountain of truth and the fountain of joy is over. They are the same fountain — the glory of God.

Here’s one last observation: when the first question of the Westminster Catechism parallels the glorification of God and the enjoyment of God rather than paralleling the glorification of God and the knowledge of God, it is choosing, I think, to say that the knowledge of God is not man’s chief end. Knowing is a means to enjoying, not the other way around. The chief end (final, eternal end!) really is the happiness of the people of God in the glory of God.

God requires much of men. Men are called to go, subdue, lead, labor, serve, and sacrifice. Whether they believe it or not, husbands are heads endowed with covenantal responsibility before God for their families (Ephesians 5:23). Work, children, wives, aging parents, churches, and more — God calls men to bear peculiar responsibility in each of these areas. And none are insignificant. By way of success, negligence, or failure, a man’s leadership carries present and eternal consequences.

In short, masculinity demands men to take responsibility and sacrifice for the people and places under their care. This is no small task.

Burden of Atlas

For many men, the weight of such responsibilities can feel overwhelming, like a great stack of burdens poised to crush at any moment. Many who take their duties seriously may feel a kinship to Atlas, the Greek Titan of myth. As Hesiod wrote,

Atlas through hard constraintupholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms,standing at the borders of the earth. (Theogony 517–519)

Doomed by the judgment of Zeus, Atlas must bear the weight of the heavens on his shoulders.

Now, maybe that comparison sounds a bit melodramatic. But the responsibilities and burdens men carry are real and sometimes overwhelming. Some men abdicate, following Adam in his neglect. Others bear the work, suppressing the difficulty, only to crack under the strain.

All throughout our world, men are looking for answers and guidance. Much of the online “manosphere” exists to help men take responsibility. Deep down, men are drawn to such responsibility and know it’s what they are made for. So many of our stories (including the backyard fantasies of little boys) testify to our knowledge of this. We sense that a meaningful life is filled with good stewardship and Atlas-like work. Yet the everyday dragons appear mundane, faithfulness so easily becomes drudgery, and drudgery often gives way to defeat.

So, how can men persevere in their responsibilities? Are we left to our own devices — or that of masculinity gurus — to shoulder the burden? No, God did not give men such weighty obligations without providing a way to uphold them well. The biblical path to bearing responsibility is deep and enduring gladness in the God who made us and redeems us.

Mature Masculinity Is Glad

Mature masculinity must be glad. God made mirth to mark the task of men. Rooted men do not simply love and fight, lead and lay down their lives for the weak. They do so happily. Glad gravitas flavors all their working, serving, and sacrificing.

Consider Adam. When he first sees Eve, how does he respond?

This at last is bone of my bonesand flesh of my flesh;she shall be called Woman,because she was taken out of Man. (Genesis 2:23)

Adam’s joy erupts into poetry. Note that Adam is not ignorant of his particular calling. He is man and she woman; he the head and she his glory (1 Corinthians 11:3–12). He is God’s king in the newly created world, the namer of all creatures, and the gardener given dominion over the earth. He is responsible for Eve, he knows it, and he is glad. Duty was given to man not to be a burden but to be a work of delight.

Even better, recall the second Adam, Christ. All of his life and death perfectly pictures mature masculinity. In unflinching obedience to his Father, Jesus assumed responsibility for his people and fulfilled his divine calling. In all these things, duty was not drudgery to Christ — not even his death.

“Masculinity demands men to take responsibility and sacrifice for the people and places under their care.”

Christ’s death on the cross was a sacrifice of immeasurable cost, for the sinless Son of God bore the weight of the sins of the world and the wrath of God. No burden could be greater; Atlas pales in comparison. Jesus served his people and sacrificed for them, though it cost him everything. In the hours before his trial, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). Yet Jesus did not fail to embrace the will of the Father. He did not shrink back from the terrors of his responsibility.

So, why did he suffer? How did he persevere and accomplish the greatest of all sacrifices? “For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus did not take responsibility begrudgingly. He did not sacrifice out of mere duty. Jesus sacrificed and served his bride for joy. Joy gave Christ the strength to assume the sins of the world and bear the wrath of God.

Unshakable Joy

Men who take responsibility without God-fed gladness are missing the heart of masculinity. At root, masculinity in men is meant to image God. Without joy, our work is but a half-portrait of God, misrepresenting his character. Gladness is the overflowing heart of God that colors all his good works, for he is a gloriously happy God (1 Timothy 1:11). God sings over his children with gladness (Zephaniah 3:17) and rejoices in doing good for his people (Jeremiah 32:41). The Father delights in the person and work of his Son (Matthew 3:17). And Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him — the reward of his people redeemed and his exaltation at his Father’s right hand (Hebrews 12:2).

Because we are made in the image of the gloriously happy God, masculinity is to be glad-hearted. Mature masculinity takes responsibility, forgoes sleep, works hard, serves selflessly, gives generously, sacrifices freely, even changes diapers, and does all gladly.

Does this mean men must plaster on a smile while they work, no matter how they feel? No. The serious gladness of mature masculinity is not forced or affected but genuinely joyful. The calling of masculine mirth is not a command to pretend but to know what God has made you for, to know he has given you responsibilities and he is with you in success and failure, in life and death. It is a joy rooted in the Rock who never moves so that, no matter what comes, a man can laugh and labor because he trusts God. All will be well. God is on the throne. Jesus is Lord. God wins. So, we can really and truly pour out our lives with gladness in our hearts.

Sacrifice and service are hard responsibilities. But we can bear them because God carries the load with us. With God, you can say with the apostle Paul, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (2 Corinthians 12:15). Jesus has suffered for us with indomitable joy, and he bids us follow (Matthew 16:24; Hebrews 12:2). He walks with us and bears us up by his Spirit so that our labors are not alone. Masculinity that accepts responsibility really is like Atlas — but Atlas with a smile. So, bear and be glad. Sacrifice and smile. Hold up the corner of your world that God has given you and be happy in him.