All the Glory Belongs to God

Excerpt from Faith: The Root and Trait of All Spiritual Gifts by John Piper

[Romans 12]

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In verse 3 Paul says, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” So we asked, “Why, Paul, do you make the God-given measure of faith that each believer has the standard for his self-assessment?” We have given three answers to that question.

1. Because the unique nature of faith deflects glory from us and draws all attention to Christ. Faith is a looking away from ourselves to the infinite worth of Jesus and the treasure that satisfies our souls. So making faith the measure of ourselves means that my value as a person is my valuing of Christ—or at least my potential valuing of Christ.

2. Faith is the standard of our self-assessment because faith is a gift from God and, you can’t boast in a gift. So if my faith grows, and my usefulness increases, there can be no boasting. To God belongs all the glory.

3. Faith is the standard of our self-assessment because faith is measured out to believers in different proportions which leads us to a kind of interdependent unity in diversity that is more difficult and (therefore) more beautiful and more God-glorifying than if we all had the same degree of faith.

Now we come to the fourth and last answer to our question which builds a bridge into verses 4-6 and the comparison between the church and the human body.

4. I would put it like this: Paul makes faith the standard of our self-assessment because faith is the root of all spiritual gifts and the human trait of spiritual gifts that makes them spiritual gifts and not merely natural; and therefore faith makes all spiritual gifts, no matter how great or small, a tribute to God and not to ourselves.

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