Pursuing God's Glory

I've been reading a book by John Piper called, Desiring God. I read it in seminary, but struggled to understand the content and its implications for my life. What he was saying seemed foreign and scandalous. The basic premise of the book is that "the purpose of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever." But wait, isn't my purpose to serve Him, and worship Him, and sacrifice for Him? I'll buy into the fact that my purpose is to glorify God. That fits what I've been taught, but to glorify Him BY enjoying Him? Is that even allowed? Is that what the scriptures have been trying to teach me all along? Doesn't that sound a little self-serving? Haven't I been taught against pursuing happiness for myself over loving others? Isn't that selfish? Aren't I supposed to "deny myself"? Attempting to glorify God the most by pursuing enjoyment seems selfish... and yet, enjoying Him does sound pretty good. This is not about pursuing happiness in anything apart from God... This is finding my enjoyment in Him as a characteristic of my life. Pursuing greater happiness in anything else would be idolatry, wouldn't it?

And so I'm convinced. But what does this look like? First, I must be honest about the beliefs I bring to the table about the purpose of God, Jesus, and the Gospel.

Regarding the Purpose of God
What I've heard for most of my life is that God's purpose is to be the creator and ruler of the world, to initiate salvation with the people He created, to be the Supreme Being that gets all of our worship, the one who makes the rules and establishes the nations, the Judge of all people, or the King of Heaven. Yes, the Old and New Testaments establish these things as characteristics of God, but Piper argues that this is not God's ultimate purpose. In keeping with Piper's earlier statement about the purpose of man, he argues that "the chief end of God is to glorify GOD and enjoy HIMSELF forever."

Well now we've taken it too far. What kind of God is more concerned with His own self and His own glory than his people? or His creation? or whatever selfless thing a God is supposed to care about? And here we've struck at the heart of the issue... My beliefs about God's purpose cause me to reduce Him in my mind to less than He truly is. My God is not human. He does not answer to the same standards that I am required to answer to because of the fact that I come from a place of being flawed and my God comes from a place of perfection... And even if that is not enough to sway us from believing that God is not selfish for making His first priority His own glory, let us define the word "selfish."

Selfish: devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one's own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others. 2. characterized by or manifesting concern or care only for oneself: selfish motives.

We may be saying to ourselves, "Well, doesn't that seem to be defining what God is doing?" The answer would be "yes" if He was doing it "regardless of others." However, Piper goes on to write that it is true that love does not "seek its own" (1 Corinithians 13:5), but he gives a caveat... "Except in the joy of others" (47).

He writes:
"How can God be loving and yet utterly devoted to "seeking His own" glory and praise and joy? How can God be for us if He is so utterly for Himself? The answer I [Piper] propose is this: Because God is unique as an all-glorious, totally-sufficient Being, He must be for Himself if He is going to be for us. The rules of humility that belong to a creature cannot apply in the same way to its Creator. If God should turn away from Himself as the Source of infinite joy, He would cease to be God. He would deny the infinite worth of His own glory. He would imply that there is something more valuable outside Himself. He would commit idolatry" (47). And so we cannot deny it-- God is able to still be the loving, caring, all-powerful God that we have known and loved all along, and yet, is able to "enjoy His own glory" above all things" because His glory is our ultimate gain. When He is in it for His own glory, we reap the benefits. And when we are in pursuit of His glory, we are fulfilling our ultimate purpose as well.

So What is the Purpose of Jesus?
I find that I have stumbled upon another misconception. As another Easter comes and goes and the story of Jesus' death and resurrection is re-told, I worry that it has lost some of its luster. For a girl who doesn't even like to watch a movie twice or re-read a book no matter how good it is, hearing the same story (no matter how beautiful and incredible it is) is a struggle for me. John read a statistic the other day that said 70% of all Americans believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. That may be, but I am skeptical (as we all are of random statistics). If 70% of America's population believed in the resurrection, America would look radically different. But, if I'm really honest, if I wasn't busy undervaluing the story of the resurrection, I'd look radically different too.

And so I ask myself, "What is the purpose of Jesus? Or the cross? Or the resurrection?" The lines I hear around Easter time or any other religious holiday include: "He died on the cross to save me from my sins"; "He lived to be a perfect example of what it means to be a Christian;" and any number of other distracting, semi-correct answers. But what I continue to hear come out of my mouth are things pertaining to me. "Jesus loves me." "Jesus died for me and my sin." etc. etc. I would never deny these things, but I am coming to realize that these things may be a distraction to discovering the true purpose of Christ. And what is His true purpose? Well I don't know. Clearly! ... But Piper gives some Scriptures that rejuvenates my passion for the story of the cross.

Consider Colossians 1:15: "He is the image of the invisible God." Oh, you mean that God whose main purpose is to glorify Himself and enjoy Himself forever? Why, yes. That is the very one. So possibly Jesus, as the image of God, is namely concerned with the glory of God.
And Hebrews 1:3: "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature."

But what about my ideas that Jesus came to earth to save me? To forgive my sins? To take my punishment upon Himself? Jesus may very well answer this question in John 17:24:
"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me."

And here we've stumbled upon the purpose of the Gospel.

What is the Purpose of the Gospel?
I consult another Piper book this time, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. Yes, Father, that is my heart. Let me See and Savor you. Piper writes this:
"The Christian Gospel is 'the gospel of the glory of Christ' because its final aim is that we would see and savor and show the glory of Christ." Christ is the manifestation of God's glory as indicated by John 1:14: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory [...]"
"Therefore, in the Gospel, we see and savor the 'glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). And this kind of 'seeing' is the healing of our disordered lives" (17).

And so we have it. The Gospel is really the fact that God sent Christ to earth to show His glory and as people are drawn to His glory, lives are being changed. At the end of the day, HE is at the center of it all and we are simply invited to come along... And this is the great mystery. God's joy in His own glory caused Him to extend it to His creation so that His glory would be ever more enjoyed and in doing so, we find our ultimate satisfaction. Suddenly, the Gospel is not centered around me at all, and this is a great freedom. My selfishness and emphasis on myself was sucking my spiritual life dry. I was desperate for this message. I need to know that God is so much grander than me and my situation. How exciting to be part of the grander plan... I have been chosen to join Him because of His irrestistable grace.

2 Corinthians 3:18 states it beautifully: "We all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another."

And so we arrive back at the start. The chief end of man is not to focus on how good or bad he is, what God wants from him, or any other distracting agenda. God's glory is my chiefest desire and my most fulfilling end. My purpose is to "glorify God by enjoying Him forever." Father, forgive me where I've failed in this.

What is the Purpose of Heaven?
I am left with one last question for the evening, and that is, "What is the purpose of heaven?" If the emphasis has moved to God's glory and this is everyone's chief end (including God's), then heaven is not what I have been thinking it is. But what about the crown? the mansion? the lack of pain? the reunion with loved ones? Periferal, at best. But this is no let-down. My bubble is not burst, because of Hebrews 11:6. "So the faith that pleases God is the assurance that when we turn to Him, we will find the all-satifying Treasure. We will find our heart's delight." And what greater delight could we possibly have than being in the fullness of the glory of God? My "treasure" or "future hope" or "reward" cannot be crowns or being reunited with my family, or some mansion He has prepared for me-- I could accrue all of these things on earth and still be miserable. No, God's presence and glory must be my Treasure. He must be the reason that I am hungering for heaven.