continues to be full and rich - and by God's
gracious design - I am more than busy. This
week, I am preparing a series of radio messages
to be aired on Back to the Bible radio broadcast.
For those of you that are interested, I will be on -
for 1/2 hour every day for a week - monday
through friday the week of December 15 - airing
on KARI - AM550 radio - aired 3 times every day -
7:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Thanks for
praying for me. If you feel inclined, I invite you to
listen. I understand you can also receive a
podcast of it - but as most of you know, my
technological prowess is that of a 75 pound
weakling. Right! So don't ask.
I wanted to get back to the issue of the
sovereignty of God. Having establish from the
Bible that God's sovereignty is a meticulous
sovereignty - down to the details, and that God is
also sovereign over all the evil that happens, even
while he is not the author of evil, we still must
establish what kind of a sovereign he is. What is
the manner of his rule? And what motivates God
to rule in precisely the manner that he does?
From scripture, we can ascertain two reasons for
all of God's actions. I am referring to God's glory
and his love. So - to put the matter plainly, all
God's actions, indeed the way in which God rules
this world arises out of God's concern for his
glory and as an expression of his love. We will
take the two matters - one at a time. For this
blog, I will consider the matter of God's glory -
then in the next - the matter of his love for us.
So - regarding God's glory. God is motivated
primarily by his concern for his own glory. Let's
start with some observations. According to Isaiah
45:7, we (human beings) were created for God's
glory. According to Psalm 25:11; Psalm 79:9 and
1 John 2:12, God redeems and forgives man for
his own name's sake - another way of saying he
acts out of concern for his glory. According to
Psalm 23:3 and 31:3, God leads us in paths of
righteousness for his own name's sake. I Samuel
12:22 indicates that God will not forsake his
people for his own name's sake. In Isaiah 37:35,
we are told that God defends Jerusalem for his
name's sake - and in Isaiah 48:9,11, God holds
back his wrath for his own name's sake. This is
but a sampling of passages most of us are
familiar with, but when viewed in this manner, they
tell us why God does what he does.
Furthermore, in reading Ezekiel 39:25, Exodus
20:5 and Deuteronomy 6:14-15, we are introduced
to the character quality, in which God describes
himself as a jealous God, one who will not share
his glory - or the credit for his actions - with
anyone else. He breaks out in terrible wrath to
defend this glory which he defends above all other
things.
Consider the following quotes from various
theologians who contemplate the same verses
that are mentioned here. The middle ages
theologian Anselm of Canterbury wrote, "God
maintains nothing with more justice than the honor
of his dignity. Jonathan Edwards, wrote, "God
regards himself infinitely above his regard for all
other things." My own theology prof, when I was
studying in seminary, Daniel Fuller, said, "All God's
energy and the intensity of his feeling is fully
directed towards delighting in the worth of
himself."
For a moment, ask yourself why this desire to
glorify himself is such an important thing in God,
but such a loathsome thing when you find it in
someone else. Imagine a preacher who - when
asked - why he preached the gospel, responded, "I
am doing all of this for my own glory". Such a
thing would be egotistical in the extreme, and we
should reject such a person out of hand.
And yet, what is considered a failure in men is
considered a matter of great virtue in God. How
so? The answer must be that when God acts for
his glory, he is righteous, and when we do, we are
not. The truth of the matter is, that God is more
lovely, more beautiful, more virtuous, worthy of
adoration - his perfections are to be admired and
adored - he is more brilliant in radiance - than
anything else. This is an objective truth. When
God finds delight in himself - it is not vanity at all
- for God is delightful beyond compare. When we
find delight in ourselves - it is conceit and deceit,
for we are not delightful beyond compare.
The conclusion then must be, that when God acts,
by first considering the worth of himself, he acts
in righteousness.
Some of us find this disturbing, for we would
rather have God act first out of his concern for us,
and last out of his concern for himself, but
scripture flatly denies this - remember he redeems
us for his own name's sake. But someone might
ask, if this is what God does, then can he be
loving. The overwhelming answer is yes! I will
show why in my next blog. But for now, let us
say that you and I can only find our reason for
existence when we discover that the highest point
to which we can achieve is to find in God a
treasure chest of joy and delight that outstrips all
other things. Anything short of that, is an affront
to God's holiness, and invites his displeasure.
Posted 13th November 2014 by Pastor John
Neufeld
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