Threads of Grace and Glory

From the start in the garden of Genesis to the finish in the city of Revelation, there are threads of ideas and narratives woven throughout the Scripture. Across all 66 books, in every season and every story, we see traces of worship, love, and the echoes of a relationship between God and humanity. But more than almost anything else, there are consistent and clear threads of grace and glory woven from page to page and chapter to chapter.

Why did God create the world? For His glory. Why did He make mankind in His image? Why did God call Abraham to be the father of many nations, protect Joseph from his brothers, rescue the Israelites from Egypt, or give them a law and a new land of promise? Why did He select David as king or anoint the prophets to preach the Word with courage and wisdom? He did it all for His glory, or as Isaiah would say in chapter 48, “for his name’s sake.” God’s glory is why Jesus came to Earth, why the Church was born, why the apostles evangelized without fear—and God’s glory will be the main motivation and emphasis of Christ’s return when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that He is Lord, “to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).

For every mention of glory, grace is lingering nearby. Why did God question Adam and Eve in the garden rather than simply starting over with His creation? Grace. Why did He spare Noah and his family? Why did He provide manna for the Israelites in the wilderness? Why did He appoint judge after judge, even though the spiral of sin kept going deeper and deeper? Because as Psalm 145 says, the Lord is “gracious . . . and slow to anger.” Why did Jesus endure the cross, and why does the Spirit help us in our weakness? Because it is by grace that we have been saved, not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:5, 9).

In a society and culture that tends to tip everything towards ourselves, it is essential to realize that Scripture is not solely and specifically about me or about you. It is about God and His grace and His glory. Once our eyes are opened to this revelation, we begin to see the numerous ways and places that these truths are highlighted throughout God’s Word.

We begin to live with a sense of humility and joy. We begin to embrace the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:25, which say, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” This is why Paul would go on to write in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

God, in His infinite wisdom and awesome power, saw fit to give us a book of Spirit-inspired Scripture to help us see that His grace and His glory are at the center of all that He does and is. And this changes everything for us. No longer do we have to prove our worth or our identity. God gets to define our value. No longer do we have to entertain anxiety or worry about our future. God will work on our behalf for His glory and our good. No longer do we have to sit in shame and guilt over our sins—if we are in Christ, through His grace, we are new creations, and shame has no seat at our table.

These threads of grace and glory change our hearts, our minds, our souls, our relationships, our marriages, our parenting, our businesses, and our work. They change our worship, our serving, our giving, and our prayers.

So, as you engage with God and His Word, keep your eyes open and ask the Spirit to reveal the threads of grace and glory that are on every page. Pray that God, in His goodness and mercy, would enlighten the eyes of your heart, that in seeing His grace, you would find freedom and hope, and that in seeing His glory, you would find purpose and meaning in the moment-by-moment and day-by-day of this wonderful gift of life on planet Earth.

Drawn from Grace & Glory by Louis Giglio.