# Heidelberg Q83 question on Ursinus' commentary



## raydixon9 (Sep 13, 2013)

While defending the necessity of church discipline in his commentary on Q83, Ursinus states the following:

3. The power of the keys is necessary on account of the glory of God. For reproach is cast upon the name and cause of God, if all, including blasphemers and such as are notoriously wicked, are regarded as the children of God without any distinction, so as to confound the kingdom of God with that of Satan.

Here

Are we the keepers of God's glory? Surely, not. I certainly say we should defend God's holy name, but He is holy and glorious despite anything we do. Why then this phrase? What am I missing? To me it is an indictment on the church if we let blasphemers abound in the church not a hit on the glory of God. Am I just overanalyzing this?


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## py3ak (Sep 13, 2013)

God is glorious in himself; obviously we don't and can't have any impact on that. But glory also refers to renown. We ought to recognize God's glory. But the reality is that while the failures of the church don't render anyone excusable for not seeing God's glory, yet it often happens that our behavior obscures God's glory, not objectively, but in the estimation of sinful men. See, for instance, Romans 2:24.


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## KMK (Sep 14, 2013)

From Fisher's catechism:



> Q. 7. How manifold is the glory of God?
> 
> A. Twofold; his essential and his declarative glory.
> 
> ...



So there are two parts to the glory of God: His essential glory and His declarative glory.

There are two parts to the declarative glory of God: passive and active.

Ursinus is only referring to the way God is glorified (or not) in the active declaration of His glory.


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