"For God so loved God that he sent his son..."

Several years ago I was riding in the car with a friend when the Michael W. Smith song, "Above All," came on the radio.  Smitty sang with his typical rasp the well known lyrics, "Like a rose, trampled on the ground, You thought of me, Above All."

My friend let out an annoyed grunt prompting me to ask, "What's wrong?"

"That song is just so theologically inept," my John Piper loving friend exclaimed in disgust.

"How so?" I naively inquired.

"He thought of me, above all?  Really, Leighton? You think Jesus thought of us above all?  He thought of Himself!  He thought of HIS OWN GLORY," he passionately proclaimed like only a fellow preacher could.  "God does what he does for his own glory, not for us. It is all about Him and His glory. That song was probably written by Joel Osteen or something!"

"What do you really think about it," I quipped?  About that time we arrived at our destination (a very good mexican restaurant) and the topic quickly changed to chips and salsa...also created for God's glory, no doubt!

Since then I have thought about that conversation every time I hear those emotionally charged lyrics of the Smitster on KLTY.  And I get the point my friend was making.  I've read the book Desiring God by John Piper and I know the reasoning behind such comments, but do I agree?  Did God really think of Himself above all?  Was it really about God getting all the glory and man getting none of it?

Sometimes I wonder if in our desire to express a truth about God we tend toward overstating a point to the neglect of another valid point.  In other words, does this have to be an 'either/or' premise?  Could it be that God's glory is best made known through his sharing of glory with those He chose to create in His own image?  Is His Glory diminished in any way by giving us some of it?  After all, Jesus himself said, "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one." (John 17:22)

This appears to be a 'both/and' principle.  God is BOTH loving us above all AND being glorified above all.  In fact, one might say he humbled himself so as to be exalted.  We are being crowned with glory (Ps. 8:5), but we in turn lay our crowns at His feet.  There is not a contradiction here.  Not when we accept the upside down reality of God's Kingdom, where the last really are the first and those putting others above themselves are the ones ultimately exalted above the rest.

I get as disgusted with the doctrinal illiteracy of our modern society as the next self-righteous blogger, but we must be careful not the ride the pendulum to the other extreme by downplaying the biblical teachings of God's incarnational humility and genuine love lavished on the world.  Those expressions do not in any way diminish His glory, in fact they demonstrate it.  Moreover, these expressions of divine humility and love teach us the narrow path that leads to our own exaltation (1 Peter 5:6; James 4:10; Matt. 23:12).