By David Feddes
A number of scientists are eagerly
looking for a big toe. This toe is the ultimate goal of their research
and deep thinking. Why do they want a toe so badly? Well, the big toe
they want isn't the kind we have on our feet. They want a really big
T.O.E., a Theory of Everything. They want a theory which does more than
explain various patterns of biology, chemistry, and physics. They want
an overarching Theory of Everything which explains the origin of the
universe, the power that keeps it going, and the point of it all.
So far they have no such theory. Science
has found some patterns and equations for how certain things work, but
it has no explanation for where these patterns come from or why anything
exists in the first place. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking asks,
"What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe
for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a
mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a
universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the
bother of existing?”
Hawking longs for "a complete theory...
of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to
that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason--for then we
would know the mind of God." Hawking is right to want to know why we and
the universe exist, and he's right to suggest that it is somehow
connected with the mind of God. But he's wrong if he expects to find the
answer in a triumph of human reason without divine revelation. The way
to know God's mind is not through coming up with our own theories and
then claiming to know God's mind, but rather through listening to what
God himself has said.
Has God ever stated his reason for
creating the universe and for doing things the way he does? Has he
identified any one thing as the reason for everything else? Indeed he
has. In the Bible God says that the reason for everything is God's own
glory. What is the reason for skies and stars? Psalm 19:1 says, "The
heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalm 19:1). What is the reason for
thunder and rain, donkeys and storks, grass and trees, bread and wine,
rivers and mountains, lions and humans? Psalm 104 describes all these
things and then says, "May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the
Lord rejoice in his works" (104:31). What is the reason God overpowered
Pharaoh and rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt? God said, "I
will gain glory for myself" (Exodus 14:4). On everything God does is
stamped this motto: "For my own sake, for my own sake I do this... I
will not yield my glory to another" (Isaiah 48:11). At Jesus' birth the
angels chanted, "Glory to God in the highest" (Luke 2:14). When Jesus
did his first miracle, says the Bible, "He thus revealed his glory"
(John 1:11). Shortly before Jesus death and resurrection, he said, "Now
is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him" (John 13:32).
God speaks of his children as those "whom I created for my glory"
(Isaiah 43:7). He commands his people, "Whatever you do, do it all for
the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). God says that in the new
creation, "The Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be
your glory" (Isaiah 60:19).
It doesn't take a genius to notice a
pattern here. In one thing after another, God says that the reason for
it is his glory. Indeed, God’s glory is the reason for everything.
Is God Self-Centered?
But isn't there a problem here? If God
bases everything on his own glory, if he says, "For my own sake I do
this... I will not yield my glory to another," doesn't God sound like a
self-centered showoff? Yes, as a matter of fact, God is a self-centered
showoff—and it’s a good thing, too! God is absolutely self-centered—and
he's perfectly right to be that way. God loves to show off—and it's a
good thing he does.
Let me explain. When God centers on
himself and values himself above all else, he is simply giving things
their proper value. If you have a pet in your home, you may like it and
treasure it a great deal, but don’t you consider yourself more valuable
than your pet? If you had to say who belongs at the center of your home,
would it be you or your pet? Okay, okay, some pets are so demanding and
some pet lovers are so fanatical that almost everything revolves around
the pets. But let’s face it, any home where the pet and not the person
was central would be mixed up. Now, if it's not wrong for you to think
you’re worth more than a pet, it is surely not wrong for God to think
he's worth more than any of us. It's just reality.
The fact that one thing is worth less
than another doesn't mean it's worthless; it just means that things of
greater worth should be valued more. The Lord values each sparrow, but
he says that one human is worth more than many sparrows (Matthew 10:31).
God also says that he himself is worth infinitely more than all humans
combined (Isaiah 40:22).
It's wrong for any of us to be
self-centered for the simple reason that we're not the center of the
universe. But God is the center, and so it's perfectly right for him to
be self-centered. It's wrong for us humans to think we're God, but it's
not wrong for God to think he's God. That's who he is! God is right to
be self-centered because he is the only self worth centering on.
And that brings us to another reason
it's good for God to be self-centered: the effect on others. When we're
self-centered and make our own desires the reason for everything we do,
we damage other people. But when God is self-centered and pursues his
desires, he desires others to center on his glory and relish his
knowledge, his holiness, his love, his happiness. The self-centeredness
of God is good for others, because he is the fountain of everyone else's
good.
You and I can be truly and permanently
happy only when God is central in our thoughts and supreme in our
affections. In making his own glory central, God is doing what's best
for us. When we center on God, we can have the same delight in him that
he has in himself. God is most glorified in us when we are most
satisfied in him, and we are most satisfied in him when he is most
glorified in us. It's an unchangeable fact that when God delights in the
delight his people have in him, he is delighting in himself, for he
created them with that capacity for delight and he himself is the object
of their delight. It's not God's fault that he's the only infinitely
glorious being that exists and the only all-satisfying fountain of
happiness for others. He is who he is, and he's not going to resign or
change.
Still another reason it's right for God
to be self-centered is the fact that God is a Holy Trinity of three
divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, joined in perfect love and
united as one being. When God makes God's own glory the reason for
everything, it's not just as a single, solitary individual looking out
for himself but as a union of three supremely perfect Persons mutually
loving and enjoying and celebrating one another. The Son glorifies the
Father, the Father glorifies the Son, and the Spirit glorifies both and
is glorified in both. If any Person in the Holy Trinity did not prize
God's glory above all things, it would be a failure to value and love
the supreme perfection of the other Persons in this perfect union. The
Father and the Son could never betray each other in that way, nor could
the Spirit.
In short, God the Holy Trinity is right
to be self-centered because God is the center, because God is the
fountain of good for everything else, and because the Persons of the
Trinity are faithful to one another in a bond of mutual love and
happiness in one another which cannot be betrayed or broken.
A Delightful Showoff
It's right that God is self-centered,
and it's good that God loves to show off. God loves to show forth his
glory, not because he's vain, but because he considers it a splendid
thing for other beings to enjoy him as he enjoys himself. Unlike sinful
humans, God is light, and God is love. When God "shows off," he displays
his light and love for others to enjoy and adore. The most loving thing
God can do for anyone is to make himself their object of adoration,
worship, and delight. God loves to be known and admired and enjoyed, not
because he needs our worship in order to be happy but because we need
to worship him in order to be happy.
Nothing God does—and certainly nothing
we do—can increase or decrease the glory and happiness that God has in
himself. "God is infinitely, eternally, unchangeably, and independently
glorious and happy" (Jonathan Edwards).
Why did God create the world? Not out of
a shortage of glory or happiness but out of a surplus. God wasn't
lonely before he had people to relate to, and he wasn't bored before he
had a world to deal with. How could Father, Son, and Spirit be lonely in
the perfect love and understanding of the Trinity? How could boundless
beauty, genius, and enjoyment ever be boring? Each Person in the Trinity
is more loving and fascinating than all creation combined. Anything in
creation that's loving or interesting is just a droplet from the God the
Fountain, a ray from God the Sun. God created the world not because he
was overcome with drudgery but because he overflowed with delight.
When God makes his glory the reason for
everything, he's not trying to increase the glory that he has in himself
or add to his worth. Rather, he is showing and sharing with others the
glory he already has and magnifying his worth in their eyes. In a sense
the Trinity is like an enormously rich, loving, perfectly happy family
in which the fellowship is so fascinating and fun, and the wealth so
boundless, that the members want others in the home to share that
happiness.
Some things, it seems, God created
simply for himself to enjoy, regardless of whether anyone else ever
enjoys them. He has galaxies and quasars that even our best telescopes
can't detect. He has splendid flowers flourishing in mountain meadows
that no human sees. He has exotic ocean creatures darting in depths that
no human will ever observe. He has birds twittering sweet songs out of
range of any human ear. He has billions of fingerprints and trillions of
snowflakes, all different, and he enjoys each unique pattern, though
few of those patterns are seen or studied by human eyes. He has rubies
and emeralds buried in places where no one but he will ever see them.
God takes delight in all his works, including many that aren't perceived
by humans.
God delights in many things apart from
us, but he had a special delight in mind when he made humanity. He
created us not only that he might enjoy us the way he enjoys the stars
and flowers, fish and animals, rocks and trees which display his glory
unconsciously, but that he might enjoy the worship of thinking, feeling
creatures who consciously recognize, enjoy, and adore the glory,
goodness, love, and happiness of the Trinity. That's why people are the
crown of his creation.
That's also why, with the fall of
humanity into sin, the Lord has taken astonishing measures to save many.
It wasn't because any of us were worth so much in and of ourselves that
Jesus died for sinners, but because God would be glorified in saving
people from utter nothingness and in having a society of eternal beings
to forever enjoy and exalt the glory of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The emptier we are without him, and the more delighted we are with him,
the more God is glorified as the almighty, all-sufficient,
all-satisfying Lord.
God Speaking to God
God's glory is his greatest passion.
That's clear when we open the Bible and hear God speaking to us, and
it's even clearer when we hear God speaking to God! In John 17 we
overhear God the Son, Jesus Christ, speaking to God the Father, shortly
before the Son’s death and resurrection that will bring eternal life to
those God has chosen. Jesus says,
"Father, the time has come. Glorify your
son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over
all people that he might give eternal life to those you have given him.
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by
completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in
your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began...
All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me
through them...
I am coming to you now, but I say these
things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full
measure of my joy within them...
I have given them the glory that you
gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me... I
have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in
order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may
be in them."
When we overhear Jesus speaking to his
Father, it's clear that God's passion for his glory is the reason not
only for creation but also for salvation. Jesus went to the cross so
that he and his Father might glorify one another. This glory would come
by canceling the sins of his chosen ones through his death and giving
them eternal life through his resurrection.
And what is eternal life? Knowing God in
Jesus Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart. The
Spirit, says Jesus, "will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine
and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine"
(John 16:14-15). Jesus leaves no doubt that his purpose is to give his
people the full measure of his own divine joy, to share with them the
very glory the Father has given him, and to insure that God's love will
be in them and that Christ himself will be in them, as the Holy Spirit
satisfies their deepest thirst, the thirst for eternal life.
Come and Drink
Now that we've heard these towering
truths from God's Word, let's hear them in another form—from a
children's book, The Silver Chair, one of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of
Narnia. A girl named Jill was getting very thirsty when she came upon a
stream.
But although the sight of the water made
her feel ten times thirstier than before, she didn't rush forward and
drink. She stood as still as if she had been turned into stone, with her
mouth wide open. And she had a very good reason; just on this side of
the stream lay the lion...
She couldn't have moved if she had
tried, and she couldn't take her eyes off it. How long this lasted, she
couldn't be sure; it seemed like hours. And the thirst became so bad
that she almost felt she would not mind being eaten by the lion if only
she could be sure of getting a mouthful of water first.
"If you're thirsty, you may drink."
For a second she stared here and there,
wondering who had spoken. Then the voice said again, "If you are
thirsty, come and drink." ...it was the lion speaking... the voice was
not like a man's. It was deeper, wilder, and stronger; a sort of heavy,
golden voice. It did not make her any less frightened than she had been
before, but it made her frightened in rather a different way.
"Are you not thirsty?" said the Lion.
"I'm dying of thirst," said Jill.
"Then drink," said the Lion.
"May I--could I--would you mind going away while I do?" said Jill.
The Lion answered this only by a look
and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she
realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move
aside for her convenience.
The delicious rippling of the stream was driving her near frantic.
"Will you promise not to—do anything to me, if I do come?" said Jill.
"I make no promise," said the Lion.
Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.
"Do you eat girls?" she said.
"I have swallowed up girls and boys,
women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It
didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as
if it were angry. It just said it.
"I daren't come and drink," said Jill.
"Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion.
"Oh dear!" said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then."
"There is no other stream," said the Lion.
It never occurred to Jill to disbelieve
the Lion—no one who had seen his stern face could do that—and her mind
suddenly made itself up. It was the worst thing she had ever had to do,
but she went forward to the stream, knelt down, and began scooping up
water in her hand. It was the coldest, most refreshing water she had
ever tasted. You didn't need to drink much of it, for it quenched your
thirst at once.
When C.S. Lewis wrote that, he wasn’t
just telling a fun story for kids. He was giving an allegory, a deeper
lesson in story form. In the Bible, Jesus is called the Lion of the
tribe of Judah, and the Holy Spirit is described as living water. There
is no water of life except God’s Spirit, and there is no way to drink of
the Spirit outside the presence of Christ the Lion.
Are you like Jill? Is your soul thirsty?
Don't think you can satisfy your soul at some other stream than the
living water of God's Holy Spirit. "There is no other stream.” And if
you wish to drink of that stream, you can't avoid Jesus the Lion. You
can't ask him to move for your convenience so you can quench your thirst
without having him around. It's easier to move a mountain than to move
the divine weight of glory that is the center of gravity for the whole
universe. You can't try to bargain with Jesus on your own terms. You
must simply throw yourself on his mercy, to do with you as he pleases.
Whatever your misgivings, Jesus still
invites you. Jesus says in Scripture, "If anyone is thirsty, let him
come to me and drink" (John 7:37). "Whoever wishes, let him take the
free gift of the water of life" (Revelation 22:17). So drink in God's
goodness by faith. Your inner thirst will be quenched, and God will be
glorified in you as you are satisfied in him.
This is what the Bible calls "the good
news of the glory of the happy God" (1 Timothy 1:11, literal
translation), and it is the greatest news imaginable. God's aim in
dealing with his people in Christ is not only to solve some problems for
us but to show forth the riches of his glory. God starts this already
now; he will do it more fully when we enter heaven; and he will keep
increasing the flow for all eternity.
No moment will ever arrive when God
says, "That's enough. These people have had enough gladness to know my
full glory. I've glorified myself enough. Time to quit." No, God's
infinite passion for his glory means that no outpouring, no matter how
great, will ever be enough. He will keep lavishing on us more and more
of his wisdom, holiness, goodness, and love, without limit. Our gladness
in his glory, and his glory in our gladness, will forever keep growing
and overflowing. In that flood of glory, we will know firsthand the
reason for everything.
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