Is it right for God to pursue His own glory? We know it isn’t right for any of us to pursue our own glory, so is it ok for God? John Piper has worked throughout his long career of preaching and writing to explain why God must be for Himself in order to truly be for us.
I’ve shared this video before, but the first 3 minutes of it explain Piper’s message with resounding clarity. God’s pursuit of His own glory and our pursuit of our own happiness are not at odds but are fulfilled together as we pursue our happiness in God.
I will preach about this on Sunday, using this quote from a Piper sermon in 1980. (Read the full message here.)
“Because God is unique as the most glorious of all beings and totally self-sufficient, he must be for himself in order to be for us. If he were to abandon the goal of his own self-exaltation, we would be the losers. His aim to bring praise to himself and his aim to bring pleasure to his people are one aim and stand or fall together. I think we will see this if we ask the following question.
“In view of God’s infinitely admirable beauty, power, and wisdom, what would his love to a creature involve? Or to put it another way: What could God give us to enjoy that would show him most loving? There is only one possible answer, isn’t there? Himself! If God would give us the best, the most satisfying, that is, if he would love us perfectly, he must offer us no less than himself for our contemplation and fellowship.”
This is the center of life and ministry. It is all about Him and not about us. And yet it is about us and our happiness as we make our lives all about Him. This is what the Rejoice in the Lord sermon series was about in the fall.
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” John Piper.
Figure out what that means and you will be on your way to limitless joy and God will be increasingly glorified in you.