To be human is to love glory. The human soul, Christian or atheist, thrives on recognition and praise. For many, it’s what gets us up in the morning and keeps us up at night. It solicits our affections, drives our decisions, and carves our paths in life. In short, we are hungry. We have an appetite for glory, and we want the desire satisfied. But we don’t have to live long to figure out that the recognition and praise of man is cheap. Not because it’s necessarily disingenuous, but because it never satisfies. We gladly receive any honor that comes our way, but it’s not long before the stomach of glory growls for adulation once again.
Many Christians are intensely aware of this desire. We feel it frequently and fully. We understand it as sinful, and we desire freedom from its bondage. We want to slay pride and walk in humility. But what if we learned this desire for glory is actually good? What if we learned that by the nature of the creation itself, we were designed for praise? And what if we discovered that our soul’s pursuit of glory isn’t just permissible, but necessary?
In his brief book, Glory Hunger: God, the Gospel, and Our Quest for Something More, J. R. Vassar’s central point is simple yet profound: all humans are created for glory, and our desire for it is bound up with our original design. Vassar isn’t talking about the kind of glory we respond to when we see greatness, but the kind we all want to possess for ourselves. Although our glory hunger “has made us slaves to the applause of people,” he observes, “God has built us for glory and intends to satiate our hunger for it” (16).
Ruin and Restoration
Vassar, lead pastor of Church at the Cross in Grapevine, Texas, begins in the Garden of Eden to show that human beings, created in God’s image, are the pinnacle of his creation. “God bestowed glory upon Adam and Eve,” he notes. “In spite of all the beauty and wonder put on display in the heavens, God’s attention is riveted on the man and his wife. He set honor upon them, giving them an intimate place of prominence and purpose and voicing his affirmation over their lives” (20). When Adam and Eve heard God pronounce his “very good” verdict over their existence, this was like an “incomparable compliment” (20):
What an amazing declaration. The yes of God, saying, “I approve you! I delight in you! I am thrilled by you! I’m so glad that you are here and that you are mine!” What a verdict. . . . This is the remarkable state we were created to live in—the glorious God crowning us with praise and approval as his image bearers. (20)
Vassar then explains how all of this went bad when the sound of God’s ringing approval became muffled by the serpent’s deceitful whisper. Eve believed the lie she could be like God and receive a higher glory than the one already given her. And once the serpent’s half-truth was embraced, Adam and Eve’s attempt to “secure glory independent of God left them in a foreign state of guilt. The ones who held their heads high, crowned with the ‘very good’ of God, now hung their heads in shame” (22).
Glory Hunger: God, the Gospel, and Our Quest for Something More
J. R. Vassar
Glory Hunger: God, the Gospel, and Our Quest for Something More
J. R. Vassar
Since that fateful day we’ve all been on a quest to satiate our once-satisfied hunger for praise and approval. Despite our sin, however, the desire itself is still good. It reflects “the legitimate glory hunger we all possess—to be restored to a glorious image and crowned with honor by God.” The problem is that we are constantly seeking God’s “very good” verdict from the wrong source—a finite, broken, and sinful world made up of finite, broken, and sinful people.
Vassar’s remedy for this longing is found in the pages of Scripture. God, being rich in mercy, sought out starving men that he might satisfy their glory hunger by placing them in Christ. From Matthew 3:17 Vassar shows that when placed in Christ, man’s glory is restored. The Father looks on each of those he loves and makes his final and everlasting declaration: “With you I am well pleased.”
In the remainder of his book Vassar works out this main thesis in practical ways. He speaks to the vanity of our culture in chapter four and then redirects our gaze to the magnificence of God in chapter five. He also summons us to stop competing with God for glory by recognizing the futility of such a pursuit. Instead, he argues, Christians would do well to learn the art of embracing obscurity. In the final chapters Vassar warns against chasing immediate and temporary glory. Rather, as a future-oriented people, we must look to the day when God bestows ultimate glory on those with whom he’s “well pleased.”
Exhausted and Hungry
I originally assumed this was going to be another book on pride. While I’m hard-pressed to think believers have victory over that sin in the bag, we probably have enough books on the topic to last a lifetime. But Vassar’s thesis here is insightful and refreshing. He captures a theologically grounded way for viewing ourselves and the glory hunger all too familiar in our hearts. It’s freeing to acknowledge that our desire for praise and glory is a good thing. And when placed against the biblical grid, we discover a way for this legitimate longing to be redeemed.
In a day when many believers drink from the fount of a celebrity culture and rock star mentality, Glory Hunger directs us to God’s Word and calls us to look to the day when his promise of glory will be fulfilled. In the meantime, we fight this battle by resting in Jesus and remembering we have all the approval we need in him. For those exhausted by the pursuit of human praise, or those left feeling dirty and hungry when they find it, this book is for you.