Our Lord's life is full of what it means to give glory to God. "The Son can do nothing of himself" (John 5:19). "I receive not honour from men" (verse 41). "Neither came I of myself" (chap. 8:42).

The quest for the glory of self in the long run will destroy us, as it did Lucifer's position in heaven. Christ lived wholly to the glory of His Father, never for the glory of Himself. The problem for Jesus exceeds our own. Jesus had every reason to exalt Himself. He was God. He was the only perfect man who ever lived on earth. How different with Lucifer: "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God" (Isa. 14:13). This was the sin on which Adam and Eve stumbled to the ruin of the race. "Ye shall be as gods," Satan told them. Ever since, man has centered life in himself. Man has assumed an impossible independence. Through the centuries man's pride has defied solution.

When we see the way Christ lived, we can see our predicament in self-seeking, self-glory, self-exaltation. The life and death of Christ is the most penetrating revelation to us and condemnation of the way of pride, the quest for self-glory. Those who seek to stand proudly before God in their own goodness, their own ability and self-esteem, have no way of finding that righteousness by faith that gives all the glory to God and lays the glory of man in the dust. God's last message, "Fear God and give glory to him," aims to expose the pride that divides families, workers, teachers, students, and professed Christians.

The love of learning, of scholarship, of position, of status, can indeed be full of pride and deeply selfish. True Christian education is based on a radically different foundation than a program of self-esteem, personal superiority, or a religion that tends, by adding virtue to virtue and knowledge to knowledge, to make us feel superior. Christian education is never a substitute for personal dependence on Jesus Christ. It is the dynamic condition for giving glory to God and not to ourselves.