Presentation on God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment

Sunday night, November 7, 2010, I had the privilege of presenting the argument of my book, God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology, at Bethel Church in Houston, Texas.

Bethel Church has kindly made the audio from the presentation available. On this page you can check out the “prezi” that I made to accompany my remarks. If you haven’t checked out this prezi software, it’s a nice alternative to powerpoint.

This talk is summarizing my conclusions. Obviously I wasn’t able to develop all the biblical evidence for these conclusions. The book moves inductively through the whole Bible book by book to show how this theme naturally rises up from what the texts say. The book is mainly dealing with the Bible, so I think that even if you disagree with the thesis you might still appreciate the attempt to do whole Bible interpretation that pays close attention to the parts.

A note on buying the book (which, ahem, I’d love for you to do if you haven’t yet!): If you buy from Crossway or Westminster Bookstore it ships immediately, but for some reason Amazon has had a bit of a delay. I see that Crossway has a nifty link to a Google Preview:

Audio of the summary lecture, with Q&A.

Presentation accompanying the lecture.

Here’s a rough outline of the presentation I did at Bethel Church (basically the text from the prezi in outline form):

God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology

Overview of Seven Reasons to Conclude that God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment is the Center of Biblical Theology

1.     God’s Revelation of His Glory to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7

2.     God’s Goal in Redemptive History: To Cover the Dry Lands with His Glory as the Waters Cover the Sea

3.     God’s Pattern of Saving through Judgment in the Bible’s Big Story

4.     God’s Pattern of Saving through Judgment in Each Major Redemptive Event in the Bible

5.     God’s Way of Saving Sinners

6.     God’s Ground of Ethical Appeal

7.     God’s Praise from the Redeemed

Brief exposition of these seven reasons to conclude that God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment is the Center of Biblical Theology:

1. God’s Revelation of His Glory to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7

In Exodus 34:6­–7 Yahweh proclaims his own Name, showing Moses his glory, causing his goodness to pass before him, forgiving sin but not clearing the guilty, revealing his justice to highlight his mercy.

2. God’s Goal in Redemptive History: To Cover the Dry Lands with His Glory as the Waters Cover the Sea

Numbers 14:21, “all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD”

Isaiah 6:3, “the whole earth is full of his glory”

Habakkuk 2:14, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea”

Psalm 72:19, “may the whole earth be filled with his glory”

Romans 11:36, “to him be glory forever”

3. God’s Pattern of Saving through Judgment in the Bible’s Big Story

creation – sin – exile – restoration

4. God’s Pattern of Saving through Judgment in Each Major Redemptive Event in the Bible

The Fall

The Flood

The Exile

The Death and Resurrection of Jesus

The Return of Christ

5. God’s Way of Saving Sinners

revelation of holiness – conviction of sin – mercy in Christ – God exalting trust

6. God’s Ground of Ethical Appeal

the fear of the LORD’s Judgment – curbs behavior – keeping God’s people – on the God-honoring path of life

7. God’s Praise from the Redeemed

God’s people praise his justice

God’s people celebrate his mercy

Salvation belongs to the LORD

We’ll praise him forever.