2026 Reading Plan Reflections - Day 138
Whose Glory?
John 7:1–31
“Jesus responded, 'My teaching isn’t mine but comes from the one who sent me. Whoever wants to do God’s will can tell whether my teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own. Those who speak on their own seek glory for themselves. Those who seek the glory of him who sent me are people of truth; there’s no falsehood in them. Didn’t Moses give you the Law? Yet none of you keep the Law. Why do you want to kill me?'” John 7:16-19 CEB
The transition from Chapter 6 to Chapter 7 serves as a turning point. The tension surrounding Jesus is no longer simmering quietly beneath the surface. It is boiling over. People are debating Him openly now: Is He good? Is He deceiving people? Is He from God? Or is He dangerous?
And underneath all of it sits one central question: Whose glory is Jesus seeking?
That question exposes the deeper divide running through this chapter. Jesus is not building a platform, protecting His reputation, or gathering influence for Himself. In fact, nearly everything He does seems to make His life harder, not easier.
If self-promotion were the goal, the cross would make no sense. Instead, Jesus keeps speaking about the Father’s will, the Father’s timing, the Father’s glory. N. T. Wright uses the image of Jesus as a sailor waiting for the right tide. Jesus knows His “time” has not fully arrived yet. There is a plan unfolding beneath the surface — one shaped not ultimately by the Festival of Booths, but by Passover. Not by political triumph, but by sacrificial love.
That is why the crowds struggle so much to understand Him. They want a Messiah who fits their categories. Someone who confirms their assumptions about God, law, power, and religion. But Jesus keeps disrupting those assumptions at every turn.
Maybe the clearest statement in the whole passage is this: “If anyone wants to do God’s will, they will know whether my teaching comes from God…” That’s challenging because Jesus suggests the issue is not merely intellectual. It is spiritual posture.
Some people cannot recognize truth because they have already decided what kind of God they are willing to accept. That still happens. We often approach Jesus with preconceived ideas about who God should be, what faith should look like, what counts as holiness, or how grace should operate. And when Jesus disrupts those assumptions, we resist Him instead of allowing Him to reshape us.
John keeps insisting that we must learn who God is by looking at Jesus — not the other way around. That’s a deeply important correction.
Religious people can become very skilled at defending systems while missing the heart of God entirely. Jesus exposes this repeatedly in the debates surrounding Sabbath law. The religious leaders are so focused on rule enforcement that they cannot recognize restoration standing right in front of them.
Jesus asks a devastating question beneath it all: What was the Law actually for? Was it meant to burden people? Or to help human beings become what God created them to be?
Healing a broken man, restoring dignity, bringing hope to the hopeless — how could that possibly stand against the purposes of God?
And yet legalism always has a way of prioritizing systems over people. That challenge still confronts the church today. It is possible to defend doctrine while neglecting compassion. To protect institutions while ignoring suffering. To preserve appearances while missing the presence of God.
Jesus consistently refuses that kind of religion. Which brings us back again to glory. Whose glory are we seeking?
Jesus points toward the Father. The church is called to point toward Christ. And when the church truly lives with sacrificial love, humility, holiness, and grace, it becomes evident that its goal is not self-preservation or self-promotion, but bearing witness to the Kingdom of God.
Holiness is not merely rule-keeping. It is love rightly ordered toward God and neighbor. Grace is not permission to ignore truth, nor is truth permission to ignore mercy. The life of holiness always looks like Jesus — self-giving, truthful, compassionate, obedient, and anchored in the glory of the Father rather than the praise of people.
Today John leaves us with this uncomfortable but necessary question: Are we actually willing for Jesus to challenge the version of God we’ve constructed for ourselves?
Following Jesus often means allowing Him to dismantle categories we once trusted so that we can finally encounter the living God more clearly.
And underneath all of it sits one central question: Whose glory is Jesus seeking?
That question exposes the deeper divide running through this chapter. Jesus is not building a platform, protecting His reputation, or gathering influence for Himself. In fact, nearly everything He does seems to make His life harder, not easier.
If self-promotion were the goal, the cross would make no sense. Instead, Jesus keeps speaking about the Father’s will, the Father’s timing, the Father’s glory. N. T. Wright uses the image of Jesus as a sailor waiting for the right tide. Jesus knows His “time” has not fully arrived yet. There is a plan unfolding beneath the surface — one shaped not ultimately by the Festival of Booths, but by Passover. Not by political triumph, but by sacrificial love.
That is why the crowds struggle so much to understand Him. They want a Messiah who fits their categories. Someone who confirms their assumptions about God, law, power, and religion. But Jesus keeps disrupting those assumptions at every turn.
Maybe the clearest statement in the whole passage is this: “If anyone wants to do God’s will, they will know whether my teaching comes from God…” That’s challenging because Jesus suggests the issue is not merely intellectual. It is spiritual posture.
Some people cannot recognize truth because they have already decided what kind of God they are willing to accept. That still happens. We often approach Jesus with preconceived ideas about who God should be, what faith should look like, what counts as holiness, or how grace should operate. And when Jesus disrupts those assumptions, we resist Him instead of allowing Him to reshape us.
John keeps insisting that we must learn who God is by looking at Jesus — not the other way around. That’s a deeply important correction.
Religious people can become very skilled at defending systems while missing the heart of God entirely. Jesus exposes this repeatedly in the debates surrounding Sabbath law. The religious leaders are so focused on rule enforcement that they cannot recognize restoration standing right in front of them.
Jesus asks a devastating question beneath it all: What was the Law actually for? Was it meant to burden people? Or to help human beings become what God created them to be?
Healing a broken man, restoring dignity, bringing hope to the hopeless — how could that possibly stand against the purposes of God?
And yet legalism always has a way of prioritizing systems over people. That challenge still confronts the church today. It is possible to defend doctrine while neglecting compassion. To protect institutions while ignoring suffering. To preserve appearances while missing the presence of God.
Jesus consistently refuses that kind of religion. Which brings us back again to glory. Whose glory are we seeking?
Jesus points toward the Father. The church is called to point toward Christ. And when the church truly lives with sacrificial love, humility, holiness, and grace, it becomes evident that its goal is not self-preservation or self-promotion, but bearing witness to the Kingdom of God.
Holiness is not merely rule-keeping. It is love rightly ordered toward God and neighbor. Grace is not permission to ignore truth, nor is truth permission to ignore mercy. The life of holiness always looks like Jesus — self-giving, truthful, compassionate, obedient, and anchored in the glory of the Father rather than the praise of people.
Today John leaves us with this uncomfortable but necessary question: Are we actually willing for Jesus to challenge the version of God we’ve constructed for ourselves?
Following Jesus often means allowing Him to dismantle categories we once trusted so that we can finally encounter the living God more clearly.
Faith In Action
Spend time honestly reflecting on these questions:
Ask God to reveal any areas where pride, fear, or religious habit may be preventing deeper obedience and compassion.
- Where have I shaped God according to my own preferences or assumptions?
- Am I more concerned with protecting systems, appearances, or comfort than participating in God’s restoring work?
- Whose glory am I ultimately seeking — God’s or my own?
Ask God to reveal any areas where pride, fear, or religious habit may be preventing deeper obedience and compassion.
Lord Jesus, thank You for refusing to remain small enough to fit neatly inside our assumptions. Thank You for revealing the true heart of the Father through Your life, teaching, compassion, and sacrifice.
Forgive us for the ways we sometimes protect systems more than people, appearances more than truth, and our own glory more than Yours. Teach us to desire Your will above our preferences. Give us humility to let our understanding of God be reshaped by Your life rather than by cultural expectations, fear, or pride.
Help Your church reflect Your sacrificial love and restoring grace. Keep us from becoming people who defend religion while resisting the work of new creation unfolding in front of us. And wherever we have grown rigid, defensive, self-promoting, or spiritually blind, awaken us again to the beauty of Your Kingdom.
May our lives seek not our own glory, but Yours alone. Amen.
Forgive us for the ways we sometimes protect systems more than people, appearances more than truth, and our own glory more than Yours. Teach us to desire Your will above our preferences. Give us humility to let our understanding of God be reshaped by Your life rather than by cultural expectations, fear, or pride.
Help Your church reflect Your sacrificial love and restoring grace. Keep us from becoming people who defend religion while resisting the work of new creation unfolding in front of us. And wherever we have grown rigid, defensive, self-promoting, or spiritually blind, awaken us again to the beauty of Your Kingdom.
May our lives seek not our own glory, but Yours alone. Amen.
Posted in Bible Reading Plan 2026
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