The Present Truth, vol. 12
November 5, 1896
“Who Shall Be Glorified?” The Present Truth 12, 45, pp. 709, 710.
MAN was not made to glorify himself, but to glorify the Lord only. He was not made to make known himself, but to make known only the Lord. “I have created him for My glory.” When the man was made and put in the garden, God dwelt in him and walked in him; he was crowned with glory and honour from God, and God was glorified in him. God was manifest in him; in him the image of God was seen. He was made thus ever to reflect, to make known, the image and glory of God. The word of God was to be his life and his guide. By having the word of God to live in him, he was to continue to glorify God. God told him the way that he should walk and live, and also the way he should not take and die. PTUK November 5, 1896, page 709.1
So long as the man believed this word, so long as he walked in this way, he would glorify God, God would be made known through him, the image of God would be seen reflected in him. But if the man should not believe this word, and should take the other way, just then he would separate from God, and God could not be made known through him, the image of God could not then be reflected in him; and as certainly as the man should separate himself from God, though the Lord could not then be glorified, made manifest, reflected, in him, yet so certainly somebody would be manifested in him, somebody would be glorified there. PTUK November 5, 1896, page 709.2
Who would this “somebody” be? That would depend upon who was chiefly concerned in His separating from God. If the man himself, altogether of himself and in the invention of his own heart, should turn from the word of God and take the other way, then it would be only himself that would be exalted, only himself that would be manifested. But if some other one should show the way and give the word that would separate from God, and if the man were to accept this word and take this way, then it is perfectly plain that not the man himself but the one whose suggestion he accepted, whose word he believed; and whose way he followed, this is the one who would be exalted, this the one who would be manifested and reflected in the man. PTUK November 5, 1896, page 709.3
Now mankind is separated from God. That is a fact. But how was this separation accomplished? Was it altogether from man himself? Did he originate it?—No; everybody knows that this is not the way in which it was brought about. But Satan, “the serpent, said,” “Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” And this word was believed, this word was accepted, instead of the word of God; and this way was taken instead of the way of the Lord. Then as certainly as it was the word and the way of Satan that was accepted by man instead of the word and way of God, so certainly was Satan accepted and followed instead of God. Therefore it was not God that was manifested in man when he sinned, it was not man himself; but it was Satan instead of God and instead of man himself. PTUK November 5, 1896, page 709.4
Again: the man was to receive all his information from God. He was to believe the word of God and be guided by that, this way his mind would be formed from God, his thought would be the thought of God—in short, he would have the mind of God. But when he received and believed the word of Satan, his thought became the thought of Satan—in short, his mind became the mind of Satan. This is why it is that the carnal mind, the natural mind, “is enmity against God,” and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Notice, this mind is not said to be at enmity with trod; but it is enmity against God. If it were at enmity with God, it might be reconciled to God by the taking away of that which put it at enmity. Man is at enmity with God, and is reconciled to God by the taking away of that which has set him at enmity, and this is “the enmity.” Christ “abolished the enmity” that He might reconcile men unto God. But this is not so with the carnal mind, the natural mind, the minding of the flesh. It is enmity itself. It never can be reconciled to God; “for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” And the reason that it is enmity and cannot be subject to God, is precisely because it is the mind of Satan. PTUK November 5, 1896, page 709.5
These considerations show conclusively that the “somebody” who is exalted, manifested, reflected, in man separate fro God, is none other than Satan. So then when man was created, not to glorify himself but to glorify God, and then chose another way, still he does not glorify himself but glorifies Satan. So that in having his own way separate from God, no man from Adam until now has ever really had his own way; he has had Satan’s way, in fact; and, separate from God, it never can be otherwise. PTUK November 5, 1896, page 709.6
The only possible way in which any man can ever reach the point where he really can have his own way, is everlastingly to choose God’s way. Man was not created to have his own way separate from God. He was created to have his own way, with God. For man was created not only to glorify God, but also that he himself should be glorified. Man was created not only that God should be glorified in him, but also that he should be glorified in God. Not only is God to be made known in man, but man himself is to be made known in God. “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. And if God be glorified in Him [in the Son], God shall also glorify Him [the Son] in Himself [in God].” And this is why it is that though now we are the sons of God, “it doth not yet appear what we shall be.” PTUK November 5, 1896, page 709.7
And in this world it never will “appear what we shall be.” We are the sons of God; and in this it is with us as with the original sons of God. While we are in this world, we are to let it appear in us what God is. Then when this is finished, God, in the world to come and in eternity, will make it appear what we shall be. In this world we are to glorify God. In the world to come and through eternity God will glorify us. He asks us to retake Hire manifest in this world whore He is not known, and when that is past, He will make us manifest in all worlds where we are not known. “Then that honour Me I will honour.” PTUK November 5, 1896, page 709.8
Who, then, will not choose the Lord’s way? Who will choose his own way apart from God, the way in which he cannot have his own way even when he chooses it? Who will not choose the Lord’s way, the only way in which he can possibly have his own way? Who will try to be “himself” in the way in which he cannot possibly be himself. Who will not seek with all the heart to he himself in the only way in which it is possible to be himself that is, in God? Who will seek to exalt himself instead of God, when all that he can do by it is to exalt Satan instead of both himself and God? PTUK November 5, 1896, page 710.1
To all men let the question be asked for ever, Whom will you glorify?—God or Satan? “Choose ye this day,“—“To-day, while it is called to-day.” PTUK November 5, 1896, page 710.2
A. T. JONES.