“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” – 1 Peter 2:9

When the words ‘Call to Glory” are uttered, they almost always mean to both the speaker and hearer as death. There is a widely-held belief among those who believe in the existence of God that he dwells in glory so a transition from this world to meet with one’s creator is a call to the glory which God dwells in. While on earth one may have lived a life that never paused to consider the glory of God but at death, ‘Call to Glory’ is used to describe such a person’s passing. That’s not what we are dealing with here. Still, may the time of our death not be the only time we are linked to the glory of God.

What is The Glory of God?

We think of glory as splendour, brightness, majesty, and moral attributes. God possesses all of these but his glory goes further. The glory of God is the infinite perfection of his person; the beauty of his Spirit. This is beyond aesthetic or material beauty; if any, these manifest from the excellent goodness of his essential person. When Moses asked to be shown God’s glory, God responded, “I will cause all of my goodness to pass in front of you” (Exodus 33:18-19), thus equating his glory with his essential goodness. This glory is eternal as God himself is.

The glory of God is the infinite perfection of his person; the beauty of his Spirit.

The Highest Purpose of All Things

I could have said the glory of God is the purpose of all things and that would be correct. However, I have qualified that with the word ‘highest’ because you could settle on the lower rungs of the ladder of God’s purposes and state them as his purpose for doing a thing and be right, but it will not be the highest purpose if you haven’t arrived at the glory of God.

Let me explain further. If you say God created humans to fill the earth, that would be scripturally true, but there would still be a purpose beyond that. To fill the earth for what? In Isaiah 43:7, God speaks of “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.” So, filling the earth and subduing it is a purpose, but higher than it is that all of us were created for his glory. To say the purpose of Christ’s death was to save us is correct, but there is a higher purpose to that. Paul says, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:11-12, my italics). So, the glory of God is the highest reason for our salvation. Jesus once met a man born blind and some religious dudes, who only had the categories of cause and effect, sin and punishment in their theology asked him, “Teacher, whose sin caused this man to be born blind – his own sin or his parents’ sin? (John 9:2).” Where a person sins before birth that they are punished at birth I do not know, but that was what they asked. Jesus replied that the purpose for his congenital blindness “was so that the works of God might be displayed and illustrated in him” (John 9:3). That is to say for the glory of God. When Jesus was told of Lazarus’ illness, the message said “he whom you love is ill”. The Lord’s response was this: “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it” (John 11:3-4). He of course didn’t go there immediately until Lazarus died and was buried for four days. This provided the perfect scenario for the manifestation of the glory of God and for Christ to be known as the resurrection and the life.

So, the glory of God is the highest reason for our salvation.

Everything God has done, everything God does, everything God will do, the purpose behind it is his glory. If you therefore, are able to align your life with the glory of God, you would be living for the highest purpose that there is. If the glory of God is also the prism through which you view the things God does or permits to happen, it will save you a lot of stress, resolve knotty issues and also answer a lot of intriguing questions. It is we humans who judge things simply by cause and effect, God’s glory is higher than that.

I hope that doesn’t come to you as God being vain and self-seeking. The manifestation of his glory is also what provides the room for you to enjoy his pleasures. The character of God is love and love’s earnest desire is to communicate itself and to be manifested and beheld. Earlier I said God’s glory, as revealed to Moses, is the goodness of his person and it is in this manifestation that we see his compassion, patience and forgiveness of our rebellion. This manifest love seeks to draw us to himself.

If the glory of God is also the prism through which you view the things God does or permits to happen, it will save you a lot of stress, resolve knotty issues and also answer a lot of intriguing questions.

Called to Proclaim His Glory

The key text at the top tells us why God has called us. The verse is packed with so much glorious truths but we’ll talk about them in passing and try to stick to the subject of glory. It says you who have been born again of imperishable seed and purified your souls by obedience to the truth (1 Peter 1:22-23) and have tasted the goodness of the Lord (1 Peter 2:3) are a chosen generation, an elect race (not of human genealogy but of the blood of Christ); a royal priesthood – people who have power with God because of the death of Christ and the tearing into two of the temple curtain (Matthew 27:51) have access to the Father to offer spiritual sacrifices; a holy nation by the holiness of Christ; a people peculiarly possessed by God.

What, according to this verse, is God’s purpose in all that lofty calling? It is so “that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” It is so that you may proclaim the glory of God which is the highest purpose for all things. Your life couldn’t find a more useful or higher purpose. God’s intention in creating you and creating you anew in Jesus is that by who you are, how you conduct your affairs, your temperament, your speech, your vocations – everything – will proclaim (show forth to others, announce, broadcast, speak out, tell, demonstrate, display) the excellencies, the glory of God, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Jesus spoke about this by saying your light should “shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). God is excellent and altogether glorious. He has saved and appointed you to be the medium through which this glory is seen by all. It will be so by how you conduct your affairs. This glory is not manifest only when you engage in some ‘spiritual’ activity like praying, witnessing, singing or similar things done in church; it is supposed to be proclaimed in everything. Paul said, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). When Adam was made, his work was to tend the garden and look after the animals and subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28; 2:15). That doesn’t fit into what we call ‘spiritual’ work today, but that was the work of God and how Adam was to declare the excellencies of God who made him. In doing so, his life was accomplishing its highest purpose. It was from shepherding the flock that God called David to the throne (1 Samuel 16:1-13).

God’s intention in creating you and creating you anew in Jesus is that by who you are, how you conduct your affairs, your temperament, your speech, your vocations – everything – will proclaim (show forth to others, announce, broadcast, speak out, tell, demonstrate, display) the excellencies, the glory of God, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Are you a gardener or a cleaner, an animal escort or care worker, a nanny, a cook, a clerk or a typist, an office assistant, a teacher, an usher in church? Do not belittle that vocation of yours. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof and he is concerned about every minute detail of his earth. He expects every part of his earth to be catered for and in that way his glory – goodness, character and essence – is made manifest. Isn’t it a high calling, that mere mortals like you and I have been invited to mirror to the world the excellencies of God? Every legitimate work done on earth is the work of God; if it is done with a consciousness of bringing God glory, it is excellent. Wherever you are at the moment is no accident, God is too sovereign for that. He wants his excellence proclaimed and has you there just for that purpose. As the owner of the work, he may post you to another department tomorrow by prompting you to seek to move there, but while you are here, whatever you do, “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Seek to magnify the worth and the greatness and the beauty of the Lord in all that you do. There is no higher purpose for living. That is a calling. We must redefine our definition of the call of God from only being out of darkness and to being an ordained minister to what it truly is – that all the redeemed are called and everywhere he permits them to labour is his work, meant to declare his virtue.

The Hope of Future Glory

Those who have answered the call to glory – the declaration of God’s glory while here on earth – are those who have the hope of sharing in the glory that will be revealed at the coming of Christ. If we manifest his glory now, we will share in his glory then. Jesus prayed, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world” (John 17:24). You can be sure that is a prayer the Father will grant.

The pursuit of God’s glory may bring difficulty and suffering (it does frequently).  Even though we exist to serve God, God has not given us the “spirit of slavery” through His Spirit. He did not want to merely have a master/servant relationship with us. No, in His Spirit, God gave us the Spirit of adoption that enables us to call Him “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15). Even if we suffer, we have a sure word of promise that, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17). We have been called to glory both in this life and in that to come. Glory!