God's glory is revealed through a life transformed by grace. Social structures which value a person based on economic class or race create in us certain patterns which take God's glory away from us. Our service to others in humility should not be confined to our own race but be for the whole humanity. God wished to be glorified in Israel and so gave them a difficult mission. This mission, to bring the light of faith to all nations, is the content of the call in Isaiah's second song about God's suffering servant.

Jesus' success did come not by political or military action, but by his becoming a light to the Gentiles. Ultimately his victory was in God's hands. Jesus' mission proceeded through friendship, not through domination. His friendship with John and Peter benefitted his mission. But that with Judas (Jn 13:21) appeared detrimental. God can even transform failure into success and make the cross, the symbol of death, into a symbol of life. Hence God's mission is not constrained within our human limitedness (Is 49:6).