God’s Flaming Glory – God’s Glory in the Cross, According to Albert Mohler – Post 9

You can read post 8 here!

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                        Introduction

            In the last two posts, we saw Albert Mohler’s view of God’s glory in creation. God’s glory in creation comes from everything being rightly ordered. His power and character are displayed throughout creation, and that is what gives God glory. In this post, I will show how Mohler sees the glory of God in the cross and, more broadly, the whole of redemption.

                        The Drama of Redemption

            Albert Mohler describes God’s redemption plan worked out in time as the ultimate demonstration of His glory. Redemption is like a drama: the drama of redemption played out on the stage of creation. The “established decree before the foundation of the universe” is the ultimate act of God. As Mohler explains:

God’s glory is a redeeming glory. …God’s purpose before the creation of the world was to redeem a people by the Son to His own glory. That His Name would be made great among conscious creature who would observe both in life temporal and throughout eternity, His glory demonstrated in His saving purpose.^[1]

…all of [creation] is here in order that the drama of redemption might have happened, and would take place that we might see it that we might know it, and that we might reflect God’s glory.^[2]

            The cross, therefore, was obviously the place where God demonstrated His glory more powerfully and clearly than anywhere else. Mohler cited both Calvin and Edwards to back him in this:

Calvin went on to say this as he spoke of Genesis, ‘After the world had been created, man was placed in it as in a theater that by beholding the works of God he might reverently adore their Author.’ Edwards spoke of God’s own glory as the end for which He created the world . . . And we have seen that it is a personal glory, a jealous glory, a sovereign glory, a redemptive glory… a creational glory in that that creational glory is not just to tell a story, it is to be the theater of God’s glory and, as in any theater there is story being there displayed; and what is that story? It is the redemptive story of the Son saving a people to the glory of the Father by His shed blood, by His atoning work, by His substitutionary atonement on Calvary’s cross.^[3]

            Mohler describes all of this in theatrical terms. For him, that is what the cross is: the penultimate act of God – the climax of the play. The cross is primarily a demonstration of who God is:

The Father is revealed in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ … Propitiation it’s a demonstration … God put Christ forward as a demonstration of His righteousness in that He demanded a sacrifice for sin. … God the Father is revealed to be both just in demanding the sacrifice, and the justifier.”^[4]

“…what [took place on the cross was] the demonstration of the righteousness of God… it is about demonstrating the righteousness of the Father.”^[5]

            Mohler’s presentation of the cross and the whole of redemption, for all the self-sacrificial love of God, for all his orthodoxy, all returns to his central and binding doctrine: God wanted to demonstrate who He was in the cross. This is a theatrical glory. The cross is a means to an end, and that end is His glory in displaying who He is. And for Christians themselves, they only see the glory. They only have a glimpse (because of the incomprehensibility of the triune God as Creator^[6]). “So we can think of an internal reality of the glory of God that that belongs to God alone and He Himself alone knows, and this external manifestation which is the glory of God manifested in creation and recognized by His creatures, both earthly and heavenly.”[7]

            How different is this from Calvin’s communicative glory perspective! As we saw in Post 5, Calvin saw that, In the cross, propitiation for sin was made that Christ might have His church, and bring His church to His Father. In His triumph, “the cross, the symbol of ignominy, had been converted into a triumphal chariot.”^[8] Not only was His triumph one in which “every knee may bow to Him, (Philippians 2:10)… [by] a magnificent display of His greatness and power….”^[9] But in Christ’s triumph, “from the beginning even to the end, His having assumed the form of a servant, humbled Himself, and become obedient to death, even the death of the cross… followed by His ascension”^[10] “the cross will be, as it were, a chariot, by which He shall raise all men, along with Himself, to His Father.”^[11]

            And this, as Calvin Himself said (see Post 6), means that Jesus shared His “glory, power, and righteousness, with the elect” and gave “Himself to be enjoyed by them.”^[12] Humanity is not meant to be disconnected spectators of His glory. The entire Christian life, and on into eternity, is to be marked by communion with God, and the enjoyment of His fullness.

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[1] Albert Mohler. (2015, April 8). Albert Mohler: In the Beginning: The Glory of God from Eternity. Albertmohler.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Fy2vX2sRY, 36:51-37:22. Emphasis mine.

[2] Albert Mohler. (2015, April 8). Albert Mohler: In the Beginning: The Glory of God from Eternity. Albertmohler.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Fy2vX2sRY, 46:50-47:46. Emphasis mine.

[3] Albert Mohler. (2015, April 8). Albert Mohler: In the Beginning: The Glory of God from Eternity. Albertmohler.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Fy2vX2sRY, 45:33-46:36.

[4] Albert Mohler. (2020, May 14). Albert Mohler—The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God—T4G20. Together for the Gospel (T4G). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l5uZQoNOCg, 58:16-1:00:13. Emphasis mine.

[5] Albert Mohler. (2021, March 7). 47. John 17:1-5. Albertmohler.com. https://albertmohler.com/sermon-series/john, 41:58-42:15. Emphasis mine.

[6] “…our vocabulary runs out, theological fatigue sets in as we understand the difficulty of trying to come to terms with creation much less the Creator…” [Albert Mohler. (2015, April 8). Albert Mohler: In the Beginning: The Glory of God from Eternity. Albertmohler.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Fy2vX2sRY, 41:24-43:08].

[7] Albert Mohler. (2020, May 14). Albert Mohler—The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God—T4G20. Together for the Gospel (T4G). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l5uZQoNOCg, 17:46-18:06.

[8] John Calvin (1845). The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Grand Rapids, MI. p. 316.

[9] John Calvin (n.d.). Commentary on John, Volume Two. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Grand Rapids, MI. p. 100.

[10] John Calvin (1845). The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Grand Rapids, MI. p. 314, 322.

[11] John Calvin (n.d.). Commentary on John, Volume Two. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Grand Rapids, MI. p. 18. Emphasis mine.

[12] John Calvin (1845). The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Grand Rapids, MI. p. 618.