For His Glory

Why did God_____ (you fill in the blank)?  This is a question typically asked by both those of us trying to understand God’s actions in the Bible that we find disturbing or perplexing, such as why He commanded King Saul to wipe out all the tribe of the Amalekites including infants and children (1 Samuel 15:3), or in present events in the news or in our own lives, such as why He allows a worldwide pandemic that results in so much misery and death.

The why here speaks to His purpose or motivation not only for His actions in history, but also for the giving of both His commandments and promises. And the answer given to us throughout the Bible is that God does everything for His own glory (Romans 11:36), that the infinite perfections of His eternal being may be seen and known, proclaimed and displayed, esteemed, enjoyed and rejoiced in by all of  His creation (Isaiah 6:1-3) (Philippians 4:4-9).

Jonathan Edwards, who wrote much on the glory of God (Concerning the End for Which God Created the World), stated, “It appears that all that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God’s works is included in that one phrase, ‘the glory of God.”

In many passages, particularly in the Old Testament, God proclaims that what He has done or is doing is for His name’s sake or for the sake of His name, as His name represents all that He is in the infinite perfections of His being – His glory.   John Piper, a student of Edward’s works, writes that “God’s ultimate goal is to uphold and display the glory of His name.” (Isaiah 48:9-11).

The term glory is a term rarely used or understood in our modern society. Its dictionary definition is that of effulgence (brightness or outshining of an object such as a star); the weightiness or value of an object, event or person; the measure of someone or something’s greatness, magnificence, beauty and splendor – of that which makes them or it worthy of the highest esteem and praise, renown and honor, desire and worship.

Thus, when we come to greatly admire, esteem, even love the beauty, the excellence, the magnificence of a person, object or experience, it is their or its glory that produces those affections.

God intended that His glory be revealed in all of His creation;  in nature (Psalm 19:1-6), in His mighty angels (Psalm 103:20), and in His creation of mankind (Isaiah 43:7).

Through the writings of Piper and Edwards, in addition to the Bible, it becomes clear that God values above all else, finds His greatest joy, His greatest pleasure, His greatest satisfaction in His own Glory. There is none happier, none more joyful, none more satisfied and fulfilled than God is in God (Jeremiah 9:24), who exists within an eternal love relationship of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  Thus God, in the overflow of that love, creates beings in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:27) “crowned with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:4-5); to share in that relationship, not as divine equals but as beloved children,  displaying and enjoying in and through our minds and bodies, the beauty, splendor, and excellence of God’s being as well as the moral and relational perfections of His righteous nature and character.

God would thus glorify Himself in the eternal, joy, pleasure and satisfaction that men and women would experience in Him and in one another.

We are told also, in Genesis 1:28-31, that Adam, representing mankind, was given  dominion – full rule and authority over all  the natural wonders God had created for our enjoyment including the majestic mountains, pristine rivers, colorful forests and gardens filled with unique forms of animal and plant life, vast oceans teaming with innumerable forms of sea life, starlit skies proclaiming the vastness of the universe, skies filled throughout the day with light from the closest star and colorful birds of all sorts.  All of this was, in the beginning, proclaimed by God to be good; fully capable of providing for the ever-increasing joy and pleasure and delight of man in the glory of God’s good creation.

Tragically, all that God created for His glory, both man and nature, has been marred and corrupted, distorted and perverted by man’s sin and God’s curse/judgement on that sin (Genesis 3:17-19).  However, God planned from the foundation of the world to glorify Himself in the redemption – the restoration of the glory of His creation through the person and work of God the Son, Jesus Christ – the King of Glory (Psalm 24:7-10).

We are in the season when we celebrate the glory of Jesus’s coming to this sin cursed world for that purpose, and thus I will focus on this glory in upcoming posts.

Grace and Peace ×