A Biblical Theology Of God’s Glory

By Elliott E. Johnson

[Elliott E. Johnson is Senior Professor of Bible Exposition, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.]

Many evangelicals have long accepted dispensationalism as a mainspring in the study of the Scriptures. For example Ladd wrote of the influence of dispensational teachers: “It is doubtful if there has been any other circle of men who have done more by their influence in preaching, teaching, and writing to promote a love for Bible Study, a hunger for the deeper Christian life, a passion for evangelism and zeal for missions in the history of American Christianity.”[1] This model of interpretation can be seen also as contributing to a biblical theology.[2]

Ryrie, a strong proponent of dispensational theology, suggests that three elements are essential in dispensationalism: (a) a distinction between Israel and the church, (b) historical-grammatical interpretation of the Scriptures, and (c) God’s purpose in the world in bringing glory to Himself.[3]

This present study focuses on Ryrie’s third sine qua non and seeks to show that God’s overarching purpose in history is to reveal His own glory. While the theme of God’s glory is shared by other biblical theologies,[4] dispensationalism has a unique perspective. It focuses on God’s glory revealed through the progress of revelation from creation to the new heavens and the new earth. Also the full range of historic divine purposes, when fulfilled, displays God’s glory. Regarding this theme Walvoord wrote, “The larger purpose of God is the manifestation of His own glory. To this end, each dispensation, each successive revelation of God’s plan for the ages, His dealings with the non-elect as with the elect . . . combine to manifest divine glory.”[5]

This study seeks to consider how each person of the Godhead contributes to the fulfillment of God’s historic purposes in human history. God the Father is revealed in His Word as Governor. God the Son is revealed as Servant. And God the Spirit is the Enabler in fulfilling God’s plans. As God accomplishes His purposes in history, His glory is revealed and shared “with those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

In this author’s view dispensationalists have not always given adequate attention to the glory of God in their teaching on dispensationalism. Yet the Bible repeatedly focuses on this aspect of God’s program.[6]

The Setting Of God’s Story (Gen. 1-11)

Biblical theology appropriately begins with a view of Scripture as a whole that records the telling of God’s story.[7] As with any story the biblical story involves a setting, a plot conflict, and a conflict resolution. The setting sets the stage for the story and introduces the plot conflict. The plot involves the working out of God’s historic purposes that conflict with the purposes of evil. So a working out of God’s purposes in successive dispensations begins only after the stage is set.

God’s initial historic purpose is introduced in the creation account, in which He delegated to Adam the right to rule the earth and thus to accomplish God’s plan (Gen. 1:26, 28). This was God’s initial purpose for mankind. And in Adam the role of human responsibility as God’s stewards was introduced (2:15-17).

However, Adam’s stewardship and God’s purpose were quickly challenged by the serpent (Satan; Rev. 12:9; 20:2). The serpent emerged as the enemy of God when he questioned and then denied God’s Word (Gen. 3:1-5). The serpent proposed that Adam and Eve rebel (instead of obeying God’s command) for in that way they could be like gods themselves.

When Adam accepted the serpent’s word and ate the fruit (3:6), he lost his position as ruled by God and found himself ruled by the serpent’s word. Further, in eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge (2:17), death set in and Adam and Eve lost their immediate relationship with God in the garden.

In Adam’s fall the serpent had gained rule over man and enforced his rule by the power of death (Eph. 2:2). While death came as a judgment from God, it was occasioned by the serpent’s temptation and lie. Under God’s permission evil entered the human race, and Satan’s lie now controlled Adam and his descendants. In the following history of the human race all were ruled by sin and death (Gen. 4-11).

God’s revelation of His historic purposes for human history was now completed. First, salvation would be provided by God for all who would receive it. Second, God announced a plan to combat and defeat the serpent. Third, rule would be restored to a future descendant of the woman (3:15).[8] These purposes would now be the basis for God’s further revelation to be entrusted to His stewards.

God’s Story (Gen. 12–Rev. 3)

God The Father As Governor

God’s revelation to His stewards governed the course of salvation history with the sequence of dispensations featuring that governance. This work of God is an aspect of His comprehensive providence in human history.[9] God guides and directs the course of salvation history as He speaks to those called to be His stewards.

The certainty of God’s word. God’s governance had been predestined and will be realized. In both creation and history God speaks, and what He intends to happen is realized. In creation God spoke, and the universe came into existence (Gen. 1:3-31). God’s words had the force of a fiat statement. Nothing could challenge what God had decreed.

In history God continues to speak and govern the creation by His word. And since God is sovereign over creation, His word concerning its course is certain. Yet now God speaks to chosen stewards who are to manage their lives and ministries by His word. So while God’s word is certain, the outcome of His plan is dependent on the creatures’ response. These stewards are created in God’s image and are also sinners, fallen in Adam. Thus stewards are both appointed to a role and are weak and sinful in their response.

How can God’s word be certain if the outworking is contingent on the responses of creatures who are independent of the Creator? The answer is that God’s word determines the course of history without excluding the participation of stewards. Caird addresses the interaction between God’s word and the stewards’ responses: “In the Bible, predestination is never confused with determinism, God’s appointments have absolute performative force, but their causal power never dispenses with human response. . . . [Paul] never had any doubt that the power to which he surrendered was the constraint of love (2 Cor. 5:14; Gal. 2:20).”[10] Contrary to God’s fiat decree in creation, in human history God allows His word to be challenged both by evil and by the independent response of stewards.

Caird distinguishes between the performative intent stated in God’s word and the causal power of God’s word (Heb. 4:12). The performative force of a promise by God commits Him to act on behalf of the steward at some time in the future. The performative force of law expects those under law to perform. It depends for its effectiveness on a response of a steward. “An order does not produce the intended result unless it is obeyed; otherwise it will only have the unintended, though possibly foreseen, effect of rendering its recipient disobedient (cf. Rom 5:20).”[11]

The plan based on God’s word. God’s governance unfolds in history, as He works out three purposes: (a) to lead some to be saved from sin and its consequences; (b) to overcome the enemy and in the end to defeat him, and (c) to have mankind mediate God’s rule on earth.

In addition the setting of God’s story (Gen. 1-11) anticipates the descendant of the woman (a singular descendant, “he, him”) who will defeat the serpent (3:15).

Four stages of revelation may be noted.

First is promise. At the outset God committed Himself to act according to His promises, which reveal His plan. The force of the promises committed God both to bless the chosen stewards (by justification by faith; 15:6) and to use the stewards to mediate God’s blessings to the nations (12:3). In the time of the patriarchs Joseph was first blessed by God, and He blessed nations through Joseph as ruler in Egypt. This climax anticipated an ultimate Steward (the Messiah) of the same type.

Second is Law. The law specified what God demanded from Israel if they were to receive what had been promised. However, Israel’s national rebellion and failure in her stewardship resulted in her captivity among Gentile nations.

From the remnant that returned to Jerusalem, the ultimate Steward, Jesus Christ, arose “born of a woman [Gen. 3:15], born under the Law so that He might redeem those who were under the Law” (Gal. 4:4). And in Christ the law was fulfilled and God’s initial purpose in providing salvation was fulfilled.

Third is grace. This stage of revelation is called grace because in the cross God the Son provided for salvation for man. Of course God’s grace was also present in earlier stages of biblical history. But based on the finished work of the ultimate Steward on the cross, the day of salvation had come (2 Cor. 6:2). Based on the Messiah’s first-advent accomplishments, believers today enjoy God’s salvation and they also communicate the message of salvation throughout the nations worldwide. As such, they are stewards of this word of grace.

Fourth is the kingdom. In the Steward’s (Jesus’) second advent, the mediated kingdom of God on earth will be centered in Jerusalem. This will fulfill God’s creation purpose and His plan for the history of the creation. The serpent (Satan) will be imprisoned during Christ’s millennial kingdom and then released and defeated. Both Israel and the church will fulfill their stewardships, sharing Messiah’s reign for a thousand years.

And in these events of history, in spite of conflict with evil, God’s governance will shine forth in glory.

God The Son As Servant

One of the perplexing questions in a biblical theology is what best accounts for the progressive changes in revelation. Two dispensational explanations may be considered.

A dispensational inference. Dispensationalism does not give a direct answer to that question of changes in revelation. Rather, people often draw inferences from the following description of a dispensation. Ryrie states, “The usual characteristics listed for a new dispensation [are] a test, a failure, and a judgment.”[12] That is, in this view God changed the revelation because of man’s failure in the previous dispensation. Human failure in stewardship was the basis for an occasion for change. But this gives no reason to believe that the next dispensation would be any different. Why would another fallen generation do any better?

A dispensational messianic explanation. By the close of the Old Testament God’s partnership with Israel seemed stalemated. The stalemate focused on the apparent ineffectiveness of the causal force of the law to produce a righteous people. In fact the problem was not with the law, but with the people who were unwilling to obey (Exod. 32:1-6). As a result, in time Israel was judged and dispersed into Gentile nations. Only a remnant would return to Jerusalem to rebuild a second temple (Ezra, Nehemiah).

Yet God’s word of promise remained certain (Gen. 3:15). In time David was anointed by God (1 Sam. 16:12-13), and he received a covenant that promised an anointed Messiah, an eternal Heir (2 Sam. 7:16). What is common in each stage of anticipation was a partnership between God’s word and a chosen steward.

In the Messiah, the promised Anointed One, two natures (divine and human) were present in one person. In Christ “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14). God’s revelation of promise and Law revealed an expectation that only the Messiah would fulfill. This anticipation of the Messiah is seen in the Old Testament.

Adam was the first steward, created in God’s image and entrusted with the revelation that he would eventually rule the whole creation (Gen. 1:26, 28). The task was great. Psalm 8:4 later asked the question that this situation demanded, “What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” Only a deepened partnership between God and Adam would mean God’s rule on earth could be accomplished through man.

God called Abraham to sacrifice his promised son. In obedience he immediately set out to do so (Gen. 22:3). As he traveled, he expressed what he came to believe: “God will provide . . . the burnt offering” (v. 8). Isaac was bound on the altar for Abraham to sacrifice. Only then, on the occasion of Abraham’s complete obedience, did God act to provide a ram as the offering (v. 13). And Abraham’s faith and obedience were acknowledged as God repeated His original promises (v. 18). Yet this time God added that the promises stood firm “because you have obeyed My voice.” So Abraham was a faithful steward, but God’s work through him was not yet completed. Abraham’s action anticipated a future sacrifice that God would provide.

Israel did not have a king like other nations (Judg. 21:25), and God permitted Israel to reject Him as king (1 Sam. 8:7). What followed was an opportunity to focus on the kings’ stewardships and failures. God then promised that the ultimate Steward would be king. “The Psalter loses little time in introducing the figure of the king, who will play so large a part in it. As early as Psalm 2, he is presented in terms which leave the limitations of local kingship far behind.”[13] Further, “the poem draws out the logic of the fact that the Davidic king reigns on behalf of God, whose throne is in heaven.”[14]

This one who had been promised and anticipated was born in Bethlehem of Judah, the heir of David, and named Jesus (Matt. 2:5). He was both divine, as conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), and human, as Mary gave birth to her firstborn Son (2:7). Jesus ministered as a human: “The Son can do nothing [of a miraculous sort] of Himself” (John 5:19). But He is also the Son of God (10:36; 11:4; 20:31).

Paul spoke of Jesus’ humiliation in His first advent when he wrote that He “emptied Himself” (Phil. 2:7). By these words Paul did not mean Jesus ceased to be God. Instead Paul meant Jesus surrendered the independent exercise of His deity. Thus He lived as a human fully trusting the Father. As God’s ultimate Steward, He acted according to His word, and the Father acted in and through Him. As Jesus neared death, He agonized, “Now my soul has become troubled, and what shall I say, ‘Father save Me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name” (John 12: 27-28).

Jesus became “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). And in doing so, He served God the Father and His purposes, and He also served man who was unable to accomplish those purposes.

The Spirit As God The Enabler

While God the Father governs the world and God the Son serves the Father on behalf of the world, God the Spirit empowers His people to be stewards of His word. This empowerment does not replace individuals nor disregard their independent response. The Spirit’s presence can be grieved by disobedience or quenched by rebellion. The Spirit indwells believers to empower them in their lives and ministries.

The work of the Spirit is seen throughout Scripture, though it was enhanced following the finished work of Christ (John 7:37-39). The Spirit is the source of regeneration (John 3:5). Also the Spirit enabled Old Testament leaders in their mighty works, and kings were anointed by the Spirit (1 Sam. 16:12-14).

To accomplish God’s will requires divine enablement. Without question, the most dramatic display of God’s empowerment featured the Holy Spirit raising Jesus to life. Jesus had submitted to death according to God’s plan (Acts 2:23), the Spirit raised Him out from among the dead (Rom. 1:4), and the Spirit glorified the Son in His ascension (John 16:14).

While the ministry of the Spirit was awe-inspiring before Christ’s ascension, after Jesus’ glorification the Spirit was given to establish the identity of Christ’s presence on earth in the church. In His ascended state in heaven, He was glorified with the Father “with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5).

This gift given by the ascended Christ was first announced by John the Baptist (Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16; John 1:33). The promise of Spirit baptism was repeated by the Lord when He addressed His disciples after His resurrection (Acts 1:5). Dunn advanced an intriguing synthesis of the ministry of Spirit baptism as introduced by John and Jesus and as explained by Peter and Paul.[15] The Spirit’s ministry is central now while Jesus is in heaven, and the Spirit identifies God’s people as Christ’s body.

Jesus introduced the ministry of the Holy Spirit after His resurrection and before His ascension. In a few days they would be “baptized with [or in] the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5). On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out according to the Father’s promise (2:33). The gift of the Holy Spirit’s baptism was not specified until later when Cornelius had the same experience (11:15-16).

Several Pauline passages refer to baptism with or in the Spirit. There are three aspects of Paul’s teaching.

First, alluding back to John the Baptist’s comparison, water and the Spirit refer to the substances into which/whom the believer is immersed. The image portrays a believer immersed into the Spirit.

Second, the Spirit is both the Substance in whom one is immersed and the Agent with whom believers are related to Christ and to each other. The Spirit unites individual believers into one body (1 Cor. 12:13). Earlier Paul had used the same language to refer to Christ’s body when he said believers are “baptized into Christ” (Gal. 3:27). Paul later noted that this union between Christ and the believers forms the church, Christ’s body, on earth in His absence (Eph. 2:22).

Third, Dunn proposed an additional aspect of the image. Baptism into Christ’s body includes union with Christ’s death (Rom. 6:3). And that union extends to His burial and resurrection “just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (v. 4). While believers await a bodily resurrection from the dead (1 Cor. 15:22-23), they have already been resurrected spiritually, and thus are enabled to live as stewards of His word.

As every believer is indwelt by the Spirit, each is positioned to produce fruit (Gal. 5:22-23), to receive gifts (1 Cor. 12:4, 8-10), and to be empowered by His presence (Eph. 5:18; Acts 6:3, 5). This extensive ministry of the Spirit in God’s stewards displays God’s glory as His purposes are accomplished in the church.

Conclusion

An essential distinctive of a dispensational theology is God’s bringing glory to Himself.[16] At first reading this may sound as if God created mankind for purely selfish reasons. But that is to misunderstand God’s creative purposes. This overlooks the goodness of God. “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with Him there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17). When God created man, He put him in a good garden. God shared His goodness with His stewards, Adam and Eve. But God’s enemy, the serpent, brought deception and evil into the world. As a result God established vast purposes for mankind’s good. These included His plan to save whoever received what He provided, to defeat the enemy, and to restore man to rule over the creation.

God is glorified as He accomplishes these historic purposes, and His own people are the objects of His benevolent works. So His people who partner with Him share in the glory of His accomplishments (Rom. 8:18-30). Thus God is glorified and His people share in that glory.

God the Father is glorified as He governs the purpose of creation until it is accomplished. God the Son was glorified when He took on human flesh and was born as one person with two natures. The Son is glorified when by means of His human nature He serves, trusting the Father to overcome death and to defeat the enemy in judgment. God the Spirit is glorified as He works in believers to accomplish their roles in God’s purposes. That work includes regeneration, baptism of believers to establish the identity of His body, the church, and empowerment to accomplish their roles. Thus the three persons of the Godhead together accomplish God’s historic purposes that contribute to His glory.

Notes

1. George E. Ladd, Crucial Questions about the Kingdom of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952), 49.
2. Frank Gaebelein contended that “dispensationalism should be understood as a method of interpretation helpful in grasping the progress of revelation of the Bible” (“Foreword,” in Dispensationalism Today, by Charles C. Ryrie [Chicago: Moody, 1965], 8). On the other hand Ryrie presented dispensationalism as a theology (a study of God) that focuses on God’s glory as the ultimate goal in history (ibid., 17). The two points of view differ, but are not in conflict.
3. Ibid., 39-41.
4. Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism (Chicago: Moody, 1995). Dispensationalism reflects the basic purposes of God in all His dealings with mankind, that is, glorifying Himself through salvation and other purposes (ibid., 40).
5. John F. Walvoord, “Review of Crucial Questions about the Kingdom of God, by George E. Ladd,” Bibliothecra Sacra 110 (January–March 1953): 3-4.
6. For example, when David brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, he gave a lengthy prayer of thanksgiving (1 Chron. 16:8-36), in which he included the words, “Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name” (vv. 28b–29a). In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus urged His followers, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may . . . glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). In a doxology Paul wrote, “To Him be the glory forever” (Rom. 11:36). And he encouraged believers to “with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:6). Because believers have been “bought with a price,” namely, the blood of Christ, they should “therefore glorify God” (1 Cor. 6:20). And Paul prayed that “the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified” in Thessalonian believers (2 Thess. 1:12). Spiritual gifts, Peter stated, should be exercised by God’s strength “so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 4:11). In the tribulation an angel will say to everyone, “Fear God, and give Him glory” (Rev. 14:7).
7. Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Gokeen, “Story and Biblical Theology,” in Out of Egypt, ed. Craig G. Bartholomew, Mary Healy, Karl Möller, and Robin Parry (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 153.
8. “There is good New Testament authority for seeing here the protevangelium, the first glimmer of the gospel. Remarkably, it makes its début as a sentence passed on the enemy (cf.Col. 2:15), not a direct promise to man, for redemption is about God’s rule as much as about man’s need (cf.Ezek. 36:22)” (Derek Kidner, Genesis [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1967], 70).
9. “The Reformed tradition characterizes God’s providential activity as a threefold work encompassing his preservation of creation, his cooperation with all created things, and his direction and guidance of all things toward his ultimate purposes and their highest fulfillment in Christ Jesus” (Benjamin Wirt Farley, The Providence of God [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988], 31).
10. G. B. Caird, The Language and Imagery of the Bible (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1980), 24.
11. Ibid., 22.
12. Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today, 38.
13. Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1973), 18.
14. Ibid., 19.
15. James D. G. Dunn, Pneumatology, vol. 2 of The Christ and the Spirit: Collected Essays of James D. G. Dunn (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 93-117.
16. Ryrie, Dispensationalism, 40.