God’s Glory Through Zelenskyy
By Christopher Hendrix
“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: This was their finest hour.” Birthed out of World War 2 at the fall of France, Winston Churchill coined one of his most famous lines that rang throughout history as he prepared Great Britain for the fight of a lifetime. Certain leaders during certain periods of the world shine through the pages of history, and a person could very well live a lifetime and not see such a leader. I would argue that right now, we are seeing such a leader through the life of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian President. His response to President Joe Biden on securing his escape, “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” will go down as the summation quote of his leadership during this fight. In fact, historians, such as Andrew Roberts, have already compared him to Winston Churchill. However, let me be clear, I would not vote for Zelenskyy, nor do I support his worldview. He has openly advocated for legalized prostitution, legalized cannabis, gambling, and free abortion without limits. 1 I believe it is highly inconsistent to want to protect your people from an invader, yet advocate for killing the most vulnerable in your population. Yet, what we are witnessing through his leadership is a picture of God’s common grace in society.
This common grace comes amidst a mass failure of leadership in the West. No one person or party is to blame. The encroaching and exploitation of egotistical faux-emperors have enflamed the populations. The past 5 years have highlighted these failures through ideologies and practices that counter biblical teaching. Generally, and sadly, the responses have also been opposite of sound doctrine and truth. Calls to throw off authority, to deconstruct and rebuild, and to demolish our system of governments are not biblical calls, but whispers of the evil one that evolve into shouts of the flesh. So, when we witness a form of leadership that Zelenskyy portrays, then our souls stir, we are enflamed with passion, and we rejoice. We recognize the good in this, but do we understand why this common grace has been given by God?
God has given this ultimately for His own glory. I know what you’re thinking…Chris…you sound like a broken record…is that all they taught you to say in Seminary? Well, my answer is yes, because that is all that matters. Your balking isn’t against the what of the answer, which specifically is the glory of God, but more so in the how. How does God receive glory through this show of leadership? Well, I’m glad you asked.
Let’s walk through some foundational understandings to get to the answer. First, we have to start with the most basic understanding, that all of Creation is about God’s glory. He is self-exalting. Passages like Isaiah 48:9-11 describe this truth. God is into God. His ultimate aim is to bring Himself the maximum amount of glory, because He deserves every bit of it.
Second, we have to understand our natural response to this. Perhaps in the deep recesses of your mind, you thought when reading Isaiah 48 that God sounds selfish and egotistical. Maybe you even resisted and were repulsed by this most basic understanding. That’s because Romans 8:7-8 describes that we are prone to rejecting the things of God. Even more, the mind of the flesh is bent towards hating God! This is the natural, fleshly, old nature response to God being about Himself. Furthermore, this natural response is fueled when we see horrible examples of authority in this world. We see people seeking glory for themselves in ways that trample and abuse others. We see insecure, selfish, and evil leaders pursuing glory, and we think that this is what seeking glory is about. We have allowed the world to define self-glorifying. We have allowed culture to paint the picture of self-exaltation, and we’ve hung it up on the walls of our mind to constantly be reminded of it. Our natural response, coupled with our lack of understanding, have pushed us towards not understanding how God ought to receive the glory He not only deserves, but will receive no matter what. We repel against this thought when left to ourselves and apart from the Spirit.
Finally, we must understand the totality of the character of God. John Piper says it well, “But what if God continual acting for his own glory proved to be less like an insecure, self-enhancing, needy bully and more like the star professional basketball player who drives his Porsche into the neighborhood because he genuinely loves inner-city kids and wants to give them the unimaginable pleasure of playing with their hero?”2 We discover through Scripture that God invites us to enjoy and delight in His glory! He allows us to participate and share in His great glory to receive the greatest pleasure imaginable. This is what we see in Romans 8:28-30. In that wonderful, beautiful, and magnificent passage of our salvation, our ultimate good is God’s glory! We are glorified because of God’s glory to Himself! God, in demonstrating His differing attributes, though not in contradiction with one another, embraces us and brings us into His sphere of basking and sitting in His glory.
So, how does God receive glory through the leadership of Zelenskyy? The world, especially Christians, see the attributes of God through the common grace He has given to the President of Ukraine in this certain point of history. We marvel at how a man can act selflessly and humbly, when our own leaders act in a narcissistic and arrogant way. We rejoice at how the highest leader of Ukraine can stand up courageously and bravely, while others we have witnessed have acted cowardly and weakly. These virtues point our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the highest authority in heaven and on Earth. The great and high King is perfectly selfless, humble, courageous, brave, caring, loving, merciful, graceful, and beautiful. He is not fickle or weak, but firm and strong. We are reminded that one day, all will appear before His throne, and His Words will not fail from now and until then, and long after as well. To Him be the glory through Zelenskyy.
1 https://www.rbc.ua/rus/news/vladimir-zelenskiy-nam-vygodno-raspustit-1555546435.html
2 Piper, John. Providence, Crossway (Wheaton; 2020), 41-42.