What is Soli Deo Gloria?
Soli Deo Gloria: “To the glory of God alone. God is the supreme being over everything. He is the creator of heaven and earth. Because He is great, he deserves all praise and glory. Nothing is in existence without Him.
“The Bible is at base a true story of a death-struggle between sworn enemies: God and Satan. Both of these figures want glory, but only one of them—God deserves it” (Strachan, 2019)
Before God created the earth, he had a plan to save humanity from their sins. Salvation is God’s gift. It is through faith alone given to us by God, through grace alone given by God, through Christ alone for the glory of God alone. Salvation glorifies God. Only He can provide it, and He chose to give it to us.
A bit of history…..
The Protestant Reformation, led by figures like Martin Luther and John Calvin, sought to reform the practices and doctrines of the Catholic Church. The five solas, including Soli Deo Gloria, emerged as vital theological pillars that highlighted the essence of the reformers’ beliefs.
While Martin Luther, John Calvin, or any other reformers didn’t use the particular Latin phrase Soli Deo Gloria, they strove to give glory to God. Soli Deo Gloria was often seen at the end of the musical compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel.
In a time when the church had become entangled with corruption and the distortion of biblical teachings, Soli Deo Gloria refocused attention on the centrality of God’s glory.
What does it mean for us today?
We are naturally selfish people. self-love, self-care, and self-preservation are very popular these days. As Christ’s followers, we should not look to ourselves.
We should first look upward.
“The Lord wants to take self-centered glory-seekers and make them God-centered glory seekers” (Strachan, 2019)
We are to live our life to glorify God. We are to make His name great. This is our highest purpose.
God’s glory is all about Him because He is God. Here is one final to help us put glorifying God in perspective.
“While God’s glory should indeed be Christian’s chief motive and goal in all our conduct, we must remember above all that glory is the Lord’s and that in all his work he glorifies himself. With this truth at the center, we are able to recognize our call to glorify God for what it really is: God’s work in us so that he manifests his glory through us.” (Vandrunen, 2015)
References
God’s Glory Alone The Majestic Heart of Christian Faith and Life What the Reformers Taught……and Why It Still Matters (2017) by David Vandrunen (The 5 Solas Series)
Sola How the Five Solas are Still Reforming the Church (2019). Jason K. Allen Gen Editor Contributors Wilson. J., Duesing, J., Barrett, M,. Strachan, O.
