In a very short Zoom session with our children in the USA and good friends in England today, the children said they were going to sing the song “All Glory Be to Christ” once their friends arrived for a potjiekos meal later in the day. The tune to this song is the same as that of “Auld Lang Syne” (New Year’s Eve). Here are the lyrics of “All Glory Be to Christ”:
Should nothing of our efforts stand,
No legacy survive,
Unless the Lord does raise the house,
In vain its builders strive.
To you who boast tomorrow’s gain,
Tell me, what is your life?
A mist that vanishes at dawn–
All glory be to Christ!
All glory be to Christ our king!
All glory be to Christ!
His rule and reign we’ll ever sing,
All glory be to Christ!
His will be done, His kingdom come,
On earth as is above.
Who is Himself our daily bread,
Praise Him, the Lord of love.
Let living water satisfy
The thirsty without price.
We’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
All glory be to Christ!
All glory be to Christ our king!
All glory be to Christ!
His rule and reign we’ll ever sing,
All glory be to Christ!
When on the day the great I Am,
The faithful and the true,
The Lamb who was for sinners slain
Is making all things new.
Behold, our God shall live with us
And be our steadfast light,
And we shall ere his people be,
All glory be to Christ!
All glory be to Christ our king!
All glory be to Christ!
His rule and reign we’ll ever sing,
All glory be to Christ!
(If you are able, I would encourage you to listen to the song on YouTube here.)
What an expression of the Gospel and Gospel living. How about us making our 2021 motto to live by: “All glory be to Christ our king! All glory be to Christ! His rule and reign we’ll ever sing, All glory be to Christ!” Naturally, the whole song is powerful as an expression of focused living, but the refrain is really what our life needs to be about. Living under His rule means giving Him all the glory all the time!
Have you ever thought about what could have been the very first sin in the Garden of Eden? Let’s consider the passage briefly:
Ge 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Never forget that the Book of Revelation informs us that the enemy of the soul is the devil, the ancient serpent. He is cunning and deceitful in his approach to the woman … “Did God really say?” Although there is the acknowledgement of God, he seeks to challenge God’s credibility by the rest of the question. Sadly, the woman responds and interacts with the enemy. She is gullible and naïve. Her interaction is exactly what the enemy desired. She gives her interpretation of the probationary commandment of God to Adam in chapter 2:16-17 and falls into the trap, to which the enemy responds:
Ge 3:4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
This challenges God’s sovereignty and omniscience, and as soon as the woman hears “you will be like God, knowing good and evil”, she falls headfirst into the deceitful trap. What do you think the first sin was? Pride! “Be like God, knowing good and evil.” It’s not just knowing the difference between good and evil but “be like God”. That’s pride, and that is the first sin.
Getting back to the song … each time we steal glory due to Christ, we sin, and the shape of that sin is pride. You see, we want the glory due to Him … we want to be like Him. When we try to steal Jesus’ glory, we are deceitful because we know glory is His and not ours, yet we want it. If we who are born again, who ought to be living for God’s pleasure and glory, take even the slightest bit of the glory due to Him from Him, we sin and that is pride. Pride is taking for self what belongs to God. Pride is thinking we are “like” God.
The reason I feel the song is so good is because it literally forces us to remember that all glory is Christ’s. To live under His reign and Lordship means we will seek to remember that actively. Think of it like this. When you do something for someone to bless them, you are blessed and satisfied. When you ensure every bit of congratulations or blessing or praise or glory is Jesus’ … because your intent is that He be pleasured … you in turn will be blessed and satisfied. Why? Because it is your pleasure and privilege to give all the glory to Him. He deserves it because only in Him does everything exist and have its being. True love and true worship is giving Him all the glory.
A suggested exercise for us is to examine our motives in what we do. Who are we doing this for? Why are we doing this? If there is glory, who is receiving the glory?
Dear God, help us to constantly direct all glory to You all the time. Help us to demonstrate true worship. Amen.