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Vincent Kajuma, Herald Correspondent
I was discussing the news about Ravi Zacharias over dinner with some friends recently. The discussion brought light to a serious but subtle sin—not Ravi’s, but ours.
This sin needs to be brought into the penetrating gospel light. The revelations about Zacharias have been incredibly confusing and painfully destructive.
It is not an overstatement to say that his sin has hurt people in ways that only the new creation can undo. Without making little of the lives Zacharias ruined, I have noticed that many conversations about his serious moral failings are wide off the mark. I worry that our primary concern in these matters may have shifted. Has our thinking about our sin become centred on ourselves and on our salvation, rather than on God and his glory?
Has our thinking about our sin become centred on ourselves, rather than God’s glory?
The questions that came instinctively when we thought about Zacharias’ sins are probably the very ones that come when we think about our own sin.
Many people are asking the same question: “Will Ravi be saved in the end?” This is not surprising. For it is the question that naturally haunts us in our own private encounters with sin: How will this affect my eternal fate? Does this sin endanger my salvation? But in focusing on these sorts of questions, we skew biblical priorities.
God’s glory matters most
As people who have been brought into relationship with God, there exists a far more important question. We can ask this both prior to and in the wake of personal sin. That question is: “Will this glorify God?” Put another way: “How will this affect God’s glory?” The glory of God, not our eternal fate, is the most important thing at stake when we are confronted by sin. Could it be that we have reversed God’s priorities? We often worry about the injuries we suffer because of our sin rather than the damage it does to God’s glory and fame.
The glory of God, not our eternal fate, is the most important thing.
This reversed priority is very likely one of the reasons we flounder in our fight against sin. Because we fixate on ourselves (how sin will impact us) and quickly forget God’s glory (how does this look before God’s holy presence?) sin thrives.
Sin is easy when God’s glory does not matter
If you have made this unfortunate reversal of placing yourself at the centre of your obedience and disobedience, you will probably ask yourself: “If I did this act, would I still retain my salvation?” But what we should first be asking is: “Will this honour God?”
The tragic conclusion we make is that if sin is not consequential for salvation then it is not consequential. If I can do the act and retain my salvation, then it does not really matter whether I do it or not.
Glorifying God has become subservient to getting saved.
Often this means that I will go ahead and do it. This is done without considering that it does not honour God. God’s glory is simply not a category we use when we evaluate the seriousness of an action. Therefore we may be tempted to conclude that Ravi’s sins were not as significant or consequential if they did not jeopardise his salvation.
Glorifying God has, in this case, become subservient to getting saved.
In reality, it ought to be the other way round. We are saved as a subordinate means for the greater end of glorifying God. If it dishonours God then it is tragic and worth recoiling from, whether the sinner himself will be saved or not.
Honour God above fearing hell
It therefore comes as no surprise that when the apostle Paul is asked the ambiguous questions of whether people should eat meat or observe special days or not, he responds by removing the question from the realm of sheer obedience and disobedience.
Instead he focuses it on God’s honour. Thus Paul writes: “The one who observes the day observes it in honour of the Lord. The one who eats eats in honour of the Lord.” (Romans 14:6).
God’s glory should be the primary consideration when we weigh an action.
In a parallel passage in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul again locates obedience within the glory of God, rather than whether it brings spiritual qualification or disqualification.
“Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Paul orders priorities. God’s glory should be the first and primary consideration when we weigh an action, thought, or attitude. – thegospelcoalition.com
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