The reality is all of us have broken the rule of honor. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God, without exception, and only one man has truly kept the rule of honor, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks for joining us for a special Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind, featuring a conversation I had with Pastor Grant Castleberry at last month's Ligonier National Conference on his new book, The Honor of God. Today you'll hear what the honor of God is, the rule of honor, and how we're called to bring honor and glory to God's name. One teacher, after reading this book, noted that Pastor Castleberry's book helps to reorient our living and thinking around the biblical axis of honor and shame. If you'd like to own your own copy of The Honor of God, you can request this hardcover book when you give a donation of any amount today only at renewingyourmind.org. I began this conversation with Pastor Castleberry, joined by an audience of conference attendees, by asking him his motivation in writing this book and what he means when he speaks of the honor of God. Well, Nathan, first, thank you for having me. It's truly an honor to be here, no pun intended.
I'm just thrilled to do this work with Ligonier and just humbled to be able to come alongside and partner with this ministry. But this theme of the honor of God was something that just gripped me from an early age. Several factors in my life. One, when I was a boy, my father was killed in a plane crash. And so the Lord used that providential event just in momentous ways in my life because I was struck by the gravity of eternity. And the Lord used that avenue for my mom to present the gospel to me, to explain to me heaven, hell, these eternal realities. And so I was really, as a child, just gripped by this existential reality of God that there is an eternity, that there is a hell, there is a heaven. And if I trusted Christ as my savior, that I would spend eternity with God in heaven and see my father once again. So those realities were heavy in my life.
And that's really what the word honor means, is heaviness, the heaviness of God. And so God used that to really, I think, begin drawing me to himself and ultimately lead me to Christ through that event. And then when I was a little boy, my mom rented a film called Chariots of Fire.
And just a marvelous film. I was always interested in athletics. And in the movie, it's about two runners, Eric Little and Harold Abrahams. And Little is motivated by something completely different than the other runners.
He's motivated by his desire to honor God based on a true story. And in the 1924 Olympic Games, that qualifying heat for the race he run, the 100 meter dash, was on a Sunday. And he told the British Olympic Committee that he would not run.
And that was just unheard of, unfathomable. And they switched him to the 400 meter dash. And so right before the 400 meter dash, in the movie, it's an American runner who gives him a note. In real life, it was a trainer. But on that note, it was 1 Samuel 2.30, he who honors me, I will honor. And then Little went on to run that 400 meter dash, win Olympic gold, and set a new world record.
I think it was like 48 seconds. Just absolutely incredible. And so that picture of the reality of God being transcendent over everything else, over the pressure of the Olympic Committee and over the pressure of fans to run, that reality of God and that desire to honor him that I saw in Little, after all of those events with my dad, that gripped me. And I said, wow, there is something to this. There is a God worth honoring. There is a God worth living for. And then, of course, just beginning to see this theme unfold in scripture everywhere.
Once you see it, you can't unsee it, just like so many other things that we begin studying. But I begin to see that theme of honor and shame everywhere, that God should be honored, Romans 11.36, for from him and through him and to him are all things to him. Be the glory forever. And then, of course, the ministry of R.C.
Sproul was just massive for me. And when I was in the Marine Corps, I would drive around in my truck listening to the holiness of God and asking this question, if God is holy and he is, and he is transcendent over all things and he is, then how does that impact me and how I live my life? And of course, the answer is you honor God. You mentioned the Marine Corps and we're thankful for your service. But how was your time in the Marine Corps? How did it shape your understanding of honor or did it? Well, it did, because I talk about this in the book that the core values of the Marine Corps, one of them is honor, honor, courage, commitment. And we understand courage. We understand commitment, but honor.
Do we really understand that now? What I found is that a lot of Marines in this day and age don't even have a concept for honor. It was something that was prevalent 200 years ago because people valued their honor, that they were esteemed as weighty, that they were respected in society. That was the most important thing for a person was the honor of their name, their reputation. And to be shamed would just be the end of their existence.
So you think of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, the fact that Hamilton had slighted Burr and Aaron Burr challenged us into a duel to vindicate his own honor. That concept to us is we don't even have the categories for that. And that's because we're so far removed from an honor-shamed culture. So I would try and explain that to Marines and eventually they would get it. But yeah, that's a big part of I think the Marine Corps is that the Marine Corps has a prestigious legacy of men and women who have laid down their lives in defense of the country. And there's a sense where we need to respect that and how we carry ourselves as Marines gives credence to that.
So, yeah. What do you mean when you speak of the rule of honor? Well, I take that verse, 1 Samuel 2.30, the one that was quoted a little. And the context of that is that Eli's sons have dishonored God by taking the choice meats from the tabernacle and have committed fornication literally at the front of the tabernacle. And God sends a prophet.
He's unnamed. He's simply called the man of God. And he comes to Eli and he says, Thus says the Lord, those who honor me, I will honor. Those who dishonor me will be lightly esteemed. You have dishonored me and therefore your priesthood will be removed. And so that rule, that rule of honor, you honor the Lord for those for whom the Lord is heavy and weighty. God says, I will honor you. But if you shame the Lord, then God will dishonor you.
And that's linked to the Imago Dei. We are meant to image and represent God's rule on this earth. That's why God created us. And so it's logical if you think about it, if you turn your back on your creator, Romans 1, and fail to give the honor that is due to him, then you're cutting the tether off from the mothership on your spacewalk. You're free floating out into the netherworld and God gives you over to shame and dishonor. And the reality is, Nathan, all of us have broken the rule of honor.
All of us have fallen short of the glory of God without exception. And only one man has truly kept the rule of honor. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And John 8, the Pharisees accused Jesus of blaspheming God.
And it's really an amazing statement. Jesus says, I do not have a demon, but I honor the Father. And there's a real sense where he's the only person who can say that without exception, in every instance, he honored God. You know, we talk about the imputation of Christ's righteousness, which is just massively important, the doctrine of justification by faith.
That is the main way we are to understand the gospel. But one of the benefits of justification by faith and the imputation of Christ's righteousness is that we also receive the honor that Christ deserves because of his perfect work. So Peter says, this is 1 Peter 2.7, for those who believe, you have the honor. It's an amazing statement. For those who believe, the honor of Christ is given to us.
So yeah, it's a rule written into the fabric of the universe. And on the last day, all those who trust in Christ will be honored with his honor, his righteous roads. We often speak about the crucified Christ, but one expression you use in the book is the shamed Christ.
What did you mean by that? Well, it gets back to this rule of honor that we deserve reproach and shame from God for our sin. Now we're guilty, so we deserve punishment, but we also deserve shame. And what you see, I think, in Passion Week and in the work of Christ is God not only pouring out the penalty that we deserve on the Son, but also the grossest expression of shame and reproach. It's just unbelievable the way that our Lord was shamed. You think even just being punched before the Sanhedrin and the way that the charges were flipped when they brought him before Pilate and how Pilate had him scourged. And then just as a military man, really a gruesome picture is the mock parade that Pilate has the centurions and the cohort do.
Essentially, a military parade is when you have a dignitary come, they stand on the grandstand, and the whole battalion or regiment will walk by and salute the dignitary. Pilate does it, though, where they put the crown of thorns on his head, and the soldiers mock by, and they mock him, and they punch him, and they spin on him. So it was an inverse of honor. It was the shaming of Christ. And of course, even crucifixion was such a—Paul talks about how the Greeks couldn't fathom that the Lord would be crucified because it was such a shameful death of crucifixion, falling to the Greeks. But it's in that shame, of course, that Christ procures our righteous standing before God in the honor by which we're saved. In the book, you bring up the accusation that some make that if we had to elevate the honor of God, the holiness of God, the weightiness, the otherness of God, that to do that would somehow push down the love of God. But you make the point that actually the opposite is true. That's right.
I think R.C. Sproul was right dead on when he emphasized that the main attribute of God is his holiness, because it is his holiness, and holiness can mean pure, but in terms of the Lord, it also means separate, distinct, that God is distinct from all of his creation. And as a distinct being, a transcendent being, a holy being, that makes all of his other attributes God-like.
It makes all of his other attributes perfect. And so you and I have love. We can display mercy, we can display goodness and all sorts of things, but what makes God's love truly wonderful is that it's his love. It's a holy love. And if you don't have that, then you really don't have the love of God.
You don't have the mercy of God. So keeping holiness as the most important attribute, and that's biblical. I mean, that's Isaiah's vision, the superlative holy, holy, holy, which then, by the way, is repeated in Revelation. The angels are still saying, holy, holy, holy.
God is called the Holy One of Israel. So that sense of God's holiness is what makes his love so wonderful. You make the point that in evangelism, especially missionary work in cultures that would be considered an honor and shame culture, that although it's fine to speak of honor and shame, we shouldn't end there as we run the risk of truncating the gospel.
Could you expand on that? What I meant by that is in Eastern cultures, they're primarily honor shame cultures, different from ours. And a lot of missionaries, I think, are only using the language of honor and shame rather than also the language of guilt and righteousness. My point was that the Bible primarily uses the language of guilt.
You read Romans, the primary problem with man is that we've broken God's law and therefore we are guilty. Now, shame is the result of our guilt. Shame is Romans 1.
God gives you up to your impure desires, those shameful desires. It's downstream from guilt. So if you just emphasize shame, it's connected to that fact of law-breaking and guilt. And so that was my point is that as missionaries, just because you're an honor shame culture doesn't mean that you just talk about honor and shame. You've got to talk about the law and guilt and then Christ's keeping of the law and righteousness. And then righteousness leads to honor.
Guilt leads to shame. In our Christian life, we're called to honor God, especially in front of a watching world. But how can we honor God in corporate worship? Well, I think that point for me was one of the impetuses behind writing this book is because I think so much of evangelical worship treats God very flippantly and very lightly. I remember reading John Piper's The Supremacy of God in Preaching and he made a comment.
He said, it sounds like some preachers aren't talking about the same God. I think about Hebrews 12-28. A writer of Hebrews says, let us offer acceptable worship to God with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. And that's in the New Testament. And I think consuming fire is a reference to Sinai and God. It doesn't mean smoke machines. It doesn't mean smoke machines.
My goodness, no. And you know, the writer of Hebrews also says, this is Hebrews chapter five, that the Lord offered up to God prayers and supplications. And he was heard because of his reverence. The Lord, Jesus Christ, revered God, honored him. And so there's a sense where when we come to worship, you are meant to feel the gravity of who God is. You are meant to be struck by the holiness of his presence. And of course, it shouldn't be contrived other than simply focusing on worshipping in spirit and truth and opening up the word of God. That happens when the word of God is read and preached in a way that is true to the scriptures. God will be honored.
People will encounter him and sense his weightiness. I think one time of Sinclair Ferguson telling the story about the first time he remembered Martyn Lloyd-Jones coming to Scotland. And he wasn't able to go the first night and he talked to a schoolmate who had gone. He said, what was it like listening to Lloyd-Jones last night?
And she said it felt like the building was about to fall down. He was like, oh, I want to be there tomorrow night to experience that presence of God. That presence of God, that weightiness of God, I think is what is missing in evangelical worship.
I put a chapter in there about just a simple way to navigate back towards that. In missions, the Apostle Paul was obviously motivated by a heart for the lost. But you point out that that wasn't his ultimate motivation. As we seek to fulfill the Great Commission, what should be our ultimate motivation? Again, this gets back to the God-centeredness of God. That God desires his name to be honored because he is worthy of his name being honored. You think about Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well. Jesus makes a really striking statement if you're paying attention. He says, the hour is coming and is now here where the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
Okay, let's get that. And then he says, because the Father is seeking such worshipers to worship him. The Father is seeking such worshipers to worship him. The Greek word is zeteo.
It means to go after, to pursue. And that thought, if you think about it, the end game of worship, the gospel going forth, people believing in the name of the Son, Jesus says, ends with the Father seeking worshipers. That it's not just, oh, I'm saved.
It's now my life. Romans 12, 1 and 2 is a living sacrifice to him. Now I am giving all of me to worship the Father. That is the end game of all of evangelism, is the worshiping and the honoring of God. That person who is a lost pagan, who has dishonored God their entire life, will now become a true worshiper of God and give him the honor that is due to his name. And by the way, when you do that, you find that your life truly has meaning.
You truly have purpose because now you're living your life the way that God intended for you to live. You conclude the book practically looking at how we can honor God in the Christian life. And as you just mentioned, you referenced Romans 12, 1 and 2.
So it stopped me as I was going through the material because obviously that's where we get the name of this program. Can you just share with us in closing, though, some practical ways that as a Christian we can honor God in our life? Well, this is replete all over the New Testament.
It's just everywhere. And I think one practical way to begin is with the fifth commandment, honoring your parents. I mean, that's very simple, but God gave us our parents to teach us how to honor him. I think that's the connection between the first four commandments and the final six commandments, is the parents teach children how to honor God and how to honor their fellow man. And so we are to honor our parents. Ephesians 6, 1, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. This is the first commandment with the promise that you may live long in the land. Not every parent is easy to honor.
Some parents have been abusive and those things. I get that. Just like we're called to honor governing authorities. That's Romans 13.
That's in 1 Peter. We're called to honor governing authorities. Not every governing authority is easy to honor, but God is the one who puts every leader into place. And there's a sense where we're to give honor to them. We're called to hold the marriage bed in honor.
It's truly everywhere. But I think if I were to say to someone beginning this journey of wanting to honor the Lord, I would say one, join a Bible-believing church and begin attending. Make worshipping with the saints a priority every Lord's Day. Begin studying Scripture. Read your Bible every day because that's where you're going to encounter God's character.
You're going to feel His weightiness and that's going to make a massive difference in your life. And then lock arms with other believers that have that same passion for His honor because they're going to rub off on you and they're going to impact through their fellowship how you live your life. Well, Pastor Castleberry, I'm so grateful for this book. As I was reading it, I kept thinking back to this quote from R.C.
Sproul. Dr. Sproul said, The kingdom of God will never be manifested on this planet until or unless the name of God is honored among us. So thank you for your ministry and for your labors that went into this book, The Honor of God. Thank you. Thank you, Nathan. That was Pastor Grant Castleberry, who serves as the senior pastor of Capital Community Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is the author of the new book, The Honor of God. This is the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham. This book, The Honor of God, caused me to pause and reflect many times on the honor, holiness and majesty of God and to consider more deeply the concept of honor and shame. So I do encourage you to request a copy of this new book.
And I hope today's conversation with Pastor Castleberry gave you a taste of what you'll find in these pages. Request your copy when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800 435 4343. Your generosity helps spread God-honoring truth to the nations every single day. But show your support today as this offer ends at midnight tonight. You can find a link to donate in the podcast show notes or when you visit renewingyourmind.org. And if you live outside of the US or Canada, you can still get access to this brand new resource when you donate at renewingyourmind.org slash global and request the ebook edition of The Honor of God. Thank you for your support as Renewing Your Mind and the global outreach of Ligonier Ministries would not be possible without it. When tribulation comes your way, where do you place your hope? What is the anchor for your soul? We'll be in Romans chapter 5 when you join us Monday here on Renewing Your Mind. .
