Does Everything That Happens Glorify God As Much As Possible?

From Gospel Translations

The following is an edited transcript of the audio.

I know God does everything for his glory, but does everything that happens glorify God as much as possible?

That's a very good question. And the answer is Yes and No. Or better, No and Yes. So let me give you both No and Yes.

No, sin does not glorify God as much as possible in the narrow-lens focus of life. God looks at it, condemns it, is displeased by it, and is grieved by it.

So right there in that narrow lens, that negative sinful event that happened, or that tragic calamity that happened, in and of itself, right now with these immediate effects around it, is not producing maximum glorification of God.

Otherwise, I don't think Paul would've said, "Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God," if there is no other way to do it. That is, there's a way to fail at it, right?

So no, not every event that happens brings God as much glory as it could. There is a way to drink to the glory of God and a way to drink to your own glory. And he doesn't get the glory he should there in that narrow-lens perspective.

But you've got to stop at this moment, then, and step back and say, "What about taking redemptive history as a whole? What about the whole canvas, from eternity to eternity, as God has ordained it?"

And I think, as the lens is opened all the way, when all is said and done and you look at everything that has ever happened, then even those things that did not glorify God here and now in this narrow-lens perspective will work out in the big picture so that the big panorama will display the glory of God better than any other world could have.

Now I don't know if you can make that distinction with me. But I think it's important that we say, "Since God loves his glory infinitely, and since God governs the world right down to the roll of the dice (according to Proverbs 16), therefore he is working in a way that, short-term, he is being dishonored in many ways; but in the big picture even the dishonoring is going to work for his total glory."