One of my passions for our church is that we have a big view of God in a world where small views of God are abundant. A small view of God runs along these lines of thought:
- God exists ultimately for our sake
- God acts ultimately to serve us and our happiness
- It doesn’t matter so much what we believe about God, as long as we love and serve others
- God “works” for some people, but not for others
- God is polite and won’t intrude into our lives unless we ask him
- Our decisions and actions are the greatest force in the world, and God cannot or will not work beyond what we do
- God helps those who help themselves
- What we need from God is teaching to obey, an example to follow, power to live rightly, his blessing on us, but not something so radical as saving from our sin. And we certainly don’t need Jesus to die for us.
This is how many people view the God of the Bible, and I would say it is the default “setting” for how sinners view God. Part of the effect of our sin is to make ourselves great, and God small. Or, we could say, to put ourselves in the position of God. Sometimes we rebel against God by ignoring him. But other times we rebel against God by remaking him as small, insignificant, and in service to us. We still speak of God, but the god we speak of differs in fundamental ways from the God of the Bible.
One of the greatest antidotes to “small-god thinking” is to consider God’s commitment to his own glory. This is to see that God fervently seeks to display the greatness and beauty and loveliness of all his perfections—his love, mercy, power, wisdom, sovereignty, righteousness, justice–and also seeks after our love, trust, worship and delight in and towards him and his perfections.
And perhaps the greatest work on this topic is Jonathan Edwards The End for Which God Created the World. Edwards makes the case that God ultimately created the world for his own glory. The work has two parts, the first which uses reason and logic to support this conclusion, and the second which uses Scripture to support the conclusion. There is also a section that considers objections to this conclusion: Does this make God selfish? Is such a God worthy of love and worship?
Jonathan Edwards is perhaps the brightest mind America has ever produced, and as such, his writing can be a bit dense. Many people today encounter him through pastor and author John Piper, and I would highly recommend Piper’s God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards. The first half of this work is Piper giving an introduction to Jonathan Edwards, explaining Edwards’ influence on his own life, and introducing Edwards The End for Which God Created the World. The second half is the full text of The End for Which God Created the World, with some very helpful headings and notes.
Here are a few quotes from Edwards’ work to encourage you in pursuing a big view of God. I advise reading these slowly and more than once.
“The emanation (shining forth) of God’s glory is in itself worthy and excellent, and so God delights in it; and this delight is implied in his love to his own fullness, because that is the fountain, the sum and comprehension of every thing that is excellent.” (178)
“Thus it appears reasonable to suppose that it was God’s last end that there might be a glorious and abundant emanation of his infinite fullness of good…; and that the disposition to communicate himself, or diffuse his own fullness, was what moved him to create the world.” (151, in God’s Passion for His Glory)
“Surely, it is no argument of (deficiency) in God that he is inclined to communicate of his infinite fullness. It is no argument of the emptiness or deficiency of a fountain that it is inclined to overflow.” (165)
“When God is so often spoken of as the last as well as the first, the end as well as the beginning, it is implied that as he is the first…cause and fountain from whence all thins originate; so, he is the last, final cause for which they are made…. Romans 11:36: ‘For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.’ Colossians 1:16: ‘For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him.’ Hebrews 2:10: ‘For it became him, by whom are all things, and for whom are all things.’”
“For 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; which is the name by which the ultimate end of God’s works is most commonly called in Scripture; and seems most aptly to signify the thing.” (242)
“In the creature’s knowing, esteeming, loving, rejoicing in, and praising God, the glory of God is both exhibited and acknowledged; his fullness is received and returned.” (247)
And yet to anticipate one objection, Edwards argues compellingly that God’s pursuit of his glory and his love for humanity are not at odds; and God’s love for humanity is real and meaningful and wonderful! I’ll leave you with one more quote:
“Thus it is easy to conceive how God should seek the good of the creature, consisting in the creature’s knowledge and holiness, and even his happiness, from a supreme regard to himself; as his happiness arises from that which is an image and participation of God’s own beauty; and consists in the creature’s exercising a supreme regard to God, and (satisfaction) in him…” (248-249)