I love it when various interests of mine converge in one place, and that’s the case with Romans 2:6-16. This passage brings together some of the themes I’ve emphasized in my teaching and writing on masculinity; of course, it’s also a key text in various so-called Federal Vision discussions, especially verses 6-7 and 13. When Paul says those who seek glory, honor, and immortality will be given eternal life, is he speaking hypothetically of those who seek to fulfill a covenant of works but obviously cannot? Or is that an actual description of what the faithful Christian life looks like? When he says the “doers of the law will be justified” is that hypothetical – if we could keep the covenant of works or keep the law perfectly, we could be justified by doing, but obviously that is not possible now? Or is it an actual description of what will happen to Christians at the final judgment, when our works are presented to the Lord and we hear the verdict, “Well done, good and faithful servant”?
I believe when Paul talks about God “rendering to each one, according to his works,” he’s not speaking hypothetically. I have developed the exegesis elsewhere (in essay form multiple times and sermon form multiple times with notes and further explanation), so I will not repeat that here. It should be obvious Paul is speaking of a real judgment to come at the last day. Likewise, when he talks about the “doers of the law” being justified in the eschatological judgment, it’s not hypothetical. He’s not talking about a covenant of works, or some kind of Pelagian system set up just to teach us we are sinners who cannot earn salvation. Rather, he’s talking about Christians, who conform imperfectly-but-truly to the law of God in their way of life. Christians do not fulfill the law perfectly, of course, but we do fulfill it to such a degree that we prove that we have been united to Christ by faith alone (cf. Romans 8:1-4). We are doers of the law, and we will be justified accordingly at the last day.
I especially love that line where Paul says God will give eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality. For Paul, this seeking is a matter of “patience” (a rough synonym for faith exercised over time in Paul’s writings, as we wait for God to keep his promises) and “well-doing” (a term for fulfilling the law in its new covenant form, which the Spirit empowers us to keep). But what does it mean to seek after glory, honor, and immortality? Some think it is a covenant of works, or even a pagan view, which Paul only mentions to refute. On the contrary, I think this is Paul’s way of summarizing what the Christian life is all about. As it turns out, it’s also a pretty good summary of what masculinity is all about. Let’s unpack it.
Unpacking Masculinity in Paul
If you were to talk to a church member and he was to tell you that he is seeking glory, honor, and immortality, you might think he’s left the reservation. You might wonder how a Christian could seek after glory and honor — isn’t that selfish? Isn’t that too works-oriented? Isn’t that arrogant? You might tell him immortality is a gift you receive, not something you seek after. But this misses Paul’s point. In reality, seeking after glory, honor, and immortality is exactly the shape of the Christian life. It’s what a saved life looks like, it’s what a life following Christ looks like, it’s what life in the Spirit looks like. Seeking after glory, honor, and immortality is not sin, it’s the essence of the life of faith and the way to eternal life.
What is sin? In the next chapter, Paul says sin is falling short of the glory of God. Sin is missing the target. The target is glory. That means hitting the target is glorious. Or, to put it another way, obedience is glorious. Righteousness is glorious. Those who live righteous lives will be covered in glory; those who want to be righteous will seek after glory because you cannot seek righteousness without also seeking glory. But, someone might ask, aren’t we supposed to seek after God’s glory, not our own? I would respond: Why pit our glory against God’s glory? When David defeated Goliath, God got the glory. But that glory was also lavished on David. David sought God’s glory on the battlefield and, in doing so, sought after his own glory as well.
Seeking Glory
There is no reason to think of God’s glory as a zero-sum game, as if God getting glory means his people cannot get glory, or vice versa. There is certainly a glory unique to God that cannot be shared with any creature. But there is also a kind of glory that God is happy to share with his people. Indeed, one aspect of God’s glory is surrounding himself with a glorious people. God does not want us weak and glory-less. It is God’s glory to make his people strong and to glorify them. The end goal of our salvation is our glorification.
But isn’t seeking glory, honor, and immortality wrong? No. Self-interest is not wrong in itself. Ambition is not wrong in itself. In fact, to fulfill the mission God has given us, we must be ambitious. There is a kind of selfish ambition, to be sure, but there’s also a holy ambition. If we pit our honor and glory against God’s, then obviously, that’s a real problem. It is a form of idolatry. But if we seek glory so that God will be glorified – well, I’d say that’s exactly what Paul has in mind in Romans 2. This is a glory that is sought by patience and doing good, and results in eternal life.
I said at the beginning this is also about masculinity. Where does that piece come into the discussion? So many of our contemporary presentations of the Christian life are intrinsically wimpish and effeminate. They present the Christian life as weak, powerless, and gloryless. They call us away from all forms of ambition and honor. They celebrate being a loser. They champion brokenness. This is not the religion of the Bible — and it should not surprise us if men are turned away from this particular version of so-called piety.
Whereas Scripture calls on men, in particular, to be ambitious and oriented towards dominion, our modern, much more pietistic view of the Christian life makes people, including men, passive. The mission of the Christian life becomes self-denial and nothing else – self-denial as an end in itself, rather than for the sake of some greater glory than the glory we could have by not denying ourselves. Here’s the reality: Men were made for glory. Man is the glory of God (1 Cor. 11). A man who is most fully his masculine self is truly glorious and glory-seeking. He seeks God’s honor and glory in and through seeking his own honor and glory. He will settle for nothing less.
Following Christ means pursuing glory, honor and immortality in him. But Christ went to the cross. How does seeking glory, honor, and immortality fit with the cross-bearing theme of discipleship? We certainly have to crucify the self in order to fulfill our mission, but, again, the mission does not consist merely of crucifying the self. Crucifying the self is a means towards the glorious goal of fulfilling the mission. As Christians, we seek after rewarda. If you really want glory, if you really want joy, if you really want honor, then you’ll pursue these things in Christ. The problem is NOT that we want too much glory or too much joy for ourselves. The problem is that we settle for a lesser glory and a lesser joy when a greater joy and a greater glory are offered to us – a glory and joy that come from living lives of patient, obedient faith.
Of course, this glory, honor and immortality Paul has in view are eschatological. But Scripture makes it clear that it is possible for us to taste these things in this life to some degree. Think of the vision of the kingdom given to us by the Hebrew prophets, with each man sitting under his own fig tree (Micah 4:4). It’s a picture of shalom, prosperity, of enjoyment. It’s a picture of earthly and historical glory. That passage was important to several of the American founders, who used the “Hebrew dream” as the basis for developing what became known as the “American dream.” There is nothing at all wrong with desiring to live a life of peace and prosperity, as the fruit of obedience. Of course, we must always be ready to suffer, which is also for our good and glorious in its own way. But it is possible to enjoy God’s gifts to his glory. Again, glory is not a zero sum game, as if enjoying a sumptuous feast or a boat ride on the lake at sunset somehow means you cannot be enjoying God simultaneously. We enjoy God in and through his gifts; we glorify God by thanking him and enjoying the gifts he bestows on us. When I enjoy marital sex or a sunset on my back deck or holding my grandchild high in the air, I am not robbing glory from God; I am enjoying the gifts God has bestowed on me. I am enjoying the glory God has bestowed on me, which in turn brings him glory.
A more robustly masculine (and biblical) Christian faith will not view Romans 2:6-7, 13 as hypothetical but will face squarely the red pill reality that we are going to be judged according to our works and those who want eternal life will have to seek after it by pursuing glory and honor in Christ. A masculine Christian man will not shrink back from the burden of performance laid upon us.b In the strength of the Spirit, we can obey. We can do great and glorious things for God – many of which will also redound to our own glory and the glory of our families.
We will be oriented to further the dominion mandate – for what could be more glorious or honorable than for a man to subdue and rule over the piece of the creation God has entrusted to him? We will not bury our talents but seek the glory of multiplied talents so that God – the original investment banker – can be given a solid return on the capital entrusted to us–and that return glorifies God). We will not be content to rule over one city – we will want to prove ourselves faithful stewards and governors so that our Great King might entrust the glory of ten cities to us. Christians, especially Christian men, should never shy away from the responsibilities and duties that come with privilege, power, and wealth. We can live faithfully with or without these gifts, but we are eager and ready for our master to put them in our hands so we can use them in righteous ways that do good to all who are connected to us. We want to use these gifts to further his kingdom, fill the world with goodness, truth, and beauty, and continue fulfilling the creation mandate.
Faulty Preaching on Masculinity
So much of our evangelical preaching is aimed at making us nothing more than passive receptors. Anything else is considered legalistic. It is true that the principal act of faith is resting in and receiving Jesus for salvation. But the same faith that receives Jesus is also active in obeying Jesus. So much evangelical preaching focuses on constantly acknowledging our brokenness. This approach makes it possible to forget that our brokenness can be and is being healed by the gospel. So much preaching today stresses the power of sin in an unbiblical and debilitating way. It is true that non-Christians are totally depraved, but Christians are not. We have the Spirit and we have new life. We really can obey. We can change. We can grow in righteousness. We present our good but imperfect Spirit-wrought works to the Father through the mediation of Christ, who makes them acceptable.
But, again, we have a lot of current preaching that denies these truths, at least at one level. So much preaching uses any given imperative of Scripture to do nothing more than tell us that we cannot do it, but thankfully, Jesus did it for us. We hear a lot about Jesus’ active obedience but very little about how Christians can and must live actively obedient lives. It is as if Jesus’ active obedience means we can be forever passive. This is simply wrong. It is an antinomian twisting of Scripture. The point of Scripture’s imperatives (including those implied in Romans 2:7) is not to say, “Hey, don’t worry about doing this. Don’t bother even trying. Jesus did it for you.” No! The point of the imperatives is to paint a glorious target for us to aim at with the whole of our lives. If we miss the target, we call that sin. But if we hit the target, even imperfectly, we call it glorious. Preachers who constantly tell Christian people, “You can never do anything right,” are actually doing the devil’s work.
A huge component of the Federal Vision discussion was to recover the place of application in preaching and the necessary role of good works in salvation. It’s true we are sinful and broken and always will be in this life. But it is also true God heals, empowers, and transforms. The reality is that you cannot help other people unless you have the strength and resources to do so, which means you have to build up strength and resources that can overflow into the lives of others. This is what we are called to. It is not supposed to be easy — but it is glorious!
The Telos of Masculinity
Thus, seeking glory, honor, and immortality for oneself in Christ is exactly what the Christian life is about. I would say it’s exactly what masculinity should be about as well. Seeking glory, honor, and immortality seems very much like a warrior’s code — the aim of men who will give their all for a cause, who are willing to spill every last drop of their blood if that’s what it takes to fulfill the mission. It sounds like what Paul calls us to is nothing less than a form of Christian heroism – a heroism forged by patience and well-doing. We should seek to live lives worthy of our ancestors in the faith and lives worthy of celebration by our descendants. We should live the kinds of lives that get celebrated in stories and songs. We should seek to live in such a way that we can take our place amongst the worthies in Hebrews 11.
Thus: We need churches that will preach sermons that will activate men and their masculinity, rather than make them passive, effeminate lumps. We need sermons that will tell men to be a David –- to seek glory, honor and immortality, to behead giants, to slay dragons, to conquer kingdoms, to explore new vistas, to plant the flag of Christ’s kingdom in new places, to make our lives count for something bigger than ourselves — because by so doing, we build the kingdom of God and find eternal life. The glory we seek is the glory of righteousness — a life well-ordered and well-lived, framed by God’s Word. The honor we seek is the honor that comes from living a life of bullet-proof integrity and courageous faithfulness. The immortality we seek is life in union with the risen Christ in his new creation for all eternity.
Lutherans might say this is a theology of glory and we are supposed to live by a theology of the cross. But this dichotomy is a flaw in Lutheran theology. We must not pit the cross against glory, just as we must not pit the cross against resurrection. A one-sided emphasis on the weakness of the cross, at the expense of the glory of the resurrection, distorts the Christian life. The cross is not a paradigm for the Christian life apart from the resurrection. The cross and resurrection together form the paradigm of the Christian life. When we sacrifice – when we take up our crosses and deny ourselves – we do so for a more ultimate glory. We do not glory in being weak. We glory in the strength God gives us, despite our weaknesses. Seeking honor, glory, and immortality requires sacrifice, but those sacrifices really lead an ever greater glory.
Lutheran-adjacent Reformed folks might say that the Christian life is supposed to be downwardly mobile (e.g., this was an emphasis of Tim Keller). There is certainly truth in that, as we see in Philippians 2. But note this: The only way you can be downwardly mobile is if you are first upwardly mobile. You cannot give away what you do not have. The more a man enlarges his own estate, his own influence, his own domain, the more he can help others. Besides: Jesus was not only downwardly mobile; as Philippians 2 also reminds us, he was upwardly mobile as well. He moved from the sacrifice of the cross to being exalted and given a name above every name. For Christ, the theology of cross is inseparable from the theology of glory — so it should also be for us.
The Pursuit of Glory
We see a similar version of this mistake made by evangelicals who have basically adopted an Anabaptist outlook that claims Christians should never seek power, political or otherwise, since power is corrupting. In this view, political power can never be used for good ends. Christians have never exercised political power righteously or wisely so it’s best not even to try. Further, they would say it is always selfish to advocate for the best interests of one’s group, whether it be one’s culture or one’s country. Since Christians (especially white Christians) are the bad guys in history, we are better off with a pluralistic society in which Christians are always ruled by non-Christians. The church is at her best when she is a beleaguered, persecuted minority. That’s how some evangelicals talk – the church gets all the blame for the flaws of Western civilization and none of the credit for the glories it produced. It would be wrong to aim at building a Christian civilization since that requires power, money, and influence. But this is a terrible way to think. It’s immature and irresponsible. It’s gnostic and effeminate. God’s people should be first in line, ready to take on the burdens and responsibilities of exercising political power (or any other kind of power, for that matter) since we want to use that power for God’s glory and our neighbor’s good. We need to understand that power can be used for good or evil; therefore, we should want the righteous to gain power so it can be used for good. Christians who wisely and righteously seek after power for themselves are not being idolaters; they are being faithful. They are fulfilling the creation mandate and the kingdom mandate.
Examples of this kind of thing could be multiplied. Advocating for your own people group (e.g., limiting immigration into your nation so you can preserve a coherent culture) is not racist; it is wise and proper since God has established the borders of various people (cf. Acts 17) and we want to honor our fathers who built our nation. Seeking to build a business that will exert dominion and make hefty profits need not be greedy; it can be a way of furthering godly dominion on the earth and serving one’s neighbors. Seeking to provide the best home and education for your children is not necessarily selfish; it can be a way of seeking to build up a covenant household, pass along generational wealth to your loved ones, and extend God’s kingdom and godly influence into the future.
Think of Christian men in the past who sailed across dangerous seas to reach new lands, who conquered and subdued cannibalistic peoples, who ended wicked caste systems in places they colonized, who built cathedrals that took several centuries, who invented modern science and developed glorious technologies to make life easier and better, who fought wars to cast off tyrants, who took the gospel to the darkest and most dangerous places on earth, who explored the heights and depths of God’s creation, who stood firm in the faith while being thrown to wild beasts or tied to the stake, and so on. We have a heritage of great men of God who have made the world a better place precisely because they were fearless in seeking after glory, honor, and immortality.
Let us imitate and extend their legacy in wise and fruitful ways. We have to get past the idea that Christians are at their best when they are weak and culturally worthless. Christians should not be allergic to success. We have to stop celebrating brokenness. We should not demonize power and influence and strength while reveling in weakness and impotence. We are the people of glory and honor. Let’s live like it. Let’s seek God’s glory in our glory and let’s seek our own honor in God’s honor.
Two of the most frequent commands in the Bible are “do not fear” and some variation of “be strong” (or “be strong and courageous”). God wants to surround himself with courageous and strong and glorious people. Let us seek glory, honor, and immortality in the One who possesses them in infinite measure, the Lord Jesus Christ.
- this is one thing that John Piper, for all his problems, actually got right (back)
- Christian women will seek these things too, but they will do so in distinctively feminine ways since the woman is the glory of the man. My focus here is on men and masculinity. (back)
