Recently a young woman that I have come to highly regard read a verse out of Ephesians 1. “[The Holy Spirit] is the payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.” [vs14 HCSB]
She spoke briefly about that phrase … “to the praise of His glory.” She spoke about how we are to live our lives … everything we do, even enduring difficulties and hardships “to the praise of His glory.”
I have thought about that phrase ever since that morning. I love what Matthew Henry wrote about it. “For this we were made, and for this we were redeemed; this is the great design of our Christianity, and of God in all that he has done for us: unto the praise of his glory, Eph. 1:14. He intends that his grace and power and other perfection should by this means become conspicuous and illustrious, and that the sons of men should magnify him.”
We are the living ‘praise’ of His glory. Our lives are to be conspicuous and illustrious as Matthew Henry says. They to be on display in this world as they reflect all God has done for us. That is why we were made. That is why we were redeemed. That is the great design of our Christianity.
Yes, God loves us abundantly. Yes, He wants to gather His children to Himself. But we are not to be selfish in our salvation. We have a purpose. That is to live lives that are “to the praise of His glory” so that others might also come to salvation.
