All Glory be to Christ

Have you ever been driving somewhere in such a mindless “autopilot” state that, upon arrival, you couldn’t even remember the drive? How did you get there? Did you run a red light? Were you paying attention to how fast you were going? The route itself has become so familiar that it is almost second nature – but not necessarily in a good way.

The same thing can happen to us as believers when we fall into “religious routine.” We’re familiar with getting from point A to point B, and we begin to prefer the rote religious path, forgetting where we started and growing numb to life with Christ.

We may have begun with good intentions – genuinely seeking to glorify God – but gradually felt ourselves straying from true partnership with Christ, and instead relying on our own instincts and abilities; forgetting that, without Jesus, we have nothing of substance to offer. Even the culmination of our best efforts will fall embarrassingly short of God’s glory every single time. No legacy will survive that which is built apart from the active hand of God.

The Failure of our Efforts

Without Christ, our efforts in the body are as a corpse – lifeless, hollow, like dust passing before the throne of God. In the eyes of the world, we may appear to be working for the purposes of God when, in reality, we are often more like the builders in Psalm 127:1, laboring in vain apart from Him.

Many of us have come to a place where proximity to the Christian lifestyle seems sufficient. But proximity was never the goal – it was and always will be intimacy with Jesus. When our efforts are rooted in that intimacy, our affections are stirred to magnify the Lord, and people are able to see Him as He is.

In John 15:5, Jesus assures us that apart from Him, we can do nothing. He is the source of life, and we are to abide in Him. In Him alone we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). He is the Bread of Life (John 6:35), fulfilling the insatiable hunger within us with the purest of nourishment. In Christ, the thirst of our souls is satisfied without price (John 4:14).

When we depend daily on the Lord, we develop an urgency to pray as Christ taught us in Matthew 6:9-13, which is mirrored in our singing:

His will be done, His kingdom come, on earth as is above

Who is Himself our daily bread, praise Him the Lord of love

The Success of Our Savior

As we confront the failure of our efforts, we must also come face-to-face with the only means to success: Christ Himself. It is here that we adopt a posture of humble worship that transcends human striving and, instead, looks to His finished work on Calvary.

When it comes to salvation, we are all too familiar with the fact that no amount of labor, no matter how sincere, could ever muster up the capacity to save us. When we humble ourselves beneath the reality of our helpless estate, we exalt the certainty of the finished work of Christ.  Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, put it this way: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor 1:31).

Unlike ours, Christ’s efforts to accomplish salvation were not void or vain; His striving defeated death! His glorious resurrection, rule, and reign are all marks of the surpassing glory He is due. The Gospel is the culmination of the successful work of the Trinity to bring glory to the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit.

So we join with Paul, saying,

"Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." – Galatians 6:14

Jesus’ reign was established in the past through His death and resurrection, continues in the present by the Spirit at work in us, and will culminate in His final victory when He returns to establish a new heaven and new earth. It is Christ’s rule and reign that we will sing of into eternity. For the Lamb who was slain will make all things new! Our God will live with us as our steadfast light forever!

So let our efforts be rooted deeply in that hope; let our work be an outpouring of the love that has been lavished on us in Jesus. As we walk in humble recognition of our lowliness, may “All glory be to Christ” be the refrain of our hearts.

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” – Romans 11:35

All glory be to Christ, who will forever succeed when our efforts fail.