by John Piper
If the pursuit of God’s glory is not ordered above the pursuit of man’s good in the affections of the heart and the priorities of the church, man will not be well served, and God will not be duly honored. I am not pleading for a diminishing of missions but for a magnifying of God. When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God’s true worth, the light of missions will shine to the darkest peoples on earth. And I long for that day to come!
Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak. Churches that are not centered on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to “declare his glory among the nations” (Ps. 96:3). Even outsiders feel the disparity between the boldness of our claim upon the nations and the blandness of our engagement with God.
Albert Einstein’s Indictment
For example, Charles Misner, a scientific specialist in general relativity theory, expressed Albert Einstein’s skepticism over the church with words that should waken us to the shallowness of our experience with God in worship:
The design of the universe . . . is very magnificent and shouldn’t be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion, although he strikes me as a basically very religious man. He must have looked at what the preachers said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had ever imagined, and they were just not talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt that religions he’d run across did not have proper respect . . . for the author of the universe.2
The charge of blasphemy is loaded. The point is to pack a wallop behind the charge that in our worship services God simply doesn’t come through for who he is. He is unwittingly belittled. For those who are stunned by the indescribable magnitude of what God has made, not to mention the infinite greatness of the One who made it, the steady diet on Sunday morning of practical how-to’s and psychological soothing and relational therapy and tactical planning seem dramatically out of touch with Reality—the God of overwhelming greatness.
It is possible to be distracted from God in trying to serve God. Martha-like, we neglect the one thing needful and soon begin to present God as busy and fretful as we are. A. W. Tozer warned us about this:
We commonly represent God as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world. . . . Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God.3
Scientists know that light travels at the speed of 5.87 trillion miles a year. They also know that the galaxy of which our solar system is a part is about 100,000 light-years in diameter—about 587,000 trillion miles. It is one of about a million such galaxies in the optical range of our most powerful telescopes. It has been estimated that in our galaxy there are more than 200 billion stars. The sun is one of them, a modest star burning at about 6,000 degrees centigrade on the surface and traveling in an orbit at 135 miles per second, which means it will take about 250 million years to complete a revolution around the galaxy.
Scientists know these things and are awed by them. And they say, “If there is a personal God, as the Christians say, who spoke this universe into being, then there is a certain respect and reverence and wonder and dread that would have to come through when we talk about him and when we worship him.”
We who believe the Bible know this even better than the scientists because we have heard something even more amazing:
“To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these [stars]? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.”
Isaiah 40:25–26
Every one of the billions of stars in the universe is there by God’s specific appointment. He knows their number. And most astonishing of all, he knows them by name. They do his bidding as his personal agents. When we feel the weight of this grandeur in the heavens, we have only touched the hem of his garment. “Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him!” (Job 26:14). That is why we cry, “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!” (Ps. 57:5). God is the absolute reality that everyone in the universe must come to terms with. Everything depends utterly on his will. All other realities compare to him like a raindrop compares to the ocean or like an anthill compares to Mount Everest. To ignore him or belittle him is unintelligible and suicidal folly. How shall one ever be the emissary of this great God who has not trembled before him with joyful wonder?
The Second Greatest Activity in the World
The most crucial issue in missions is the centrality of God in the life of the church. How can people who are not stunned by the greatness of God be sent with the ringing message, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods” (Ps. 96:4)? Missions is not first and ultimate; God is. And these are not just words. This truth is the lifeblood of missionary inspiration and endurance. William Carey, the father of modern missions, who set sail for India from England in 1793, expressed the connection:
When I left England, my hope of India’s conversion was very strong; but amongst so many obstacles, it would die, unless upheld by God. Well, I have God, and His Word is true. Though the superstitions of the heathen were a thousand times stronger than they are, and the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse; though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on the sure Word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial. God’s cause will triumph.4
Carey and thousands like him have been moved and carried by the vision of a great and triumphant God. That vision must come first. Savoring it in worship precedes spreading it in missions. All of history is moving toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and his Son among all the peoples of the earth. Missions is not that goal. It is the means. And for that reason it is the second greatest human activity in the world.
God’s Passion for God Is the Foundation for Ours
One of the things God uses to make this truth take hold of a person and a church is the stunning realization that it is also true for God himself. Missions is not God’s ultimate goal, worship is. And when this sinks into a person’s heart everything changes. The world is often turned on its head, and everything looks different—including the missionary enterprise.
The ultimate foundation for our passion to see God glorified is his own passion to be glorified. God is central and supreme in his own affections. There are no rivals for the supremacy of God’s glory in his own heart. God is not an idolater. He does not disobey the first and great commandment. With all his heart and soul and strength and mind he delights in the glory of his manifold perfections.5 The most passionate heart for God in all the universe is God’s heart.
This truth, more than any other I know, seals the conviction that worship is the fuel and goal of missions. The deepest reason why our passion for God should fuel missions is that God’s passion for God fuels missions. Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of God’s delight in being God. And the deepest reason why worship is the goal in missions is that worship is God’s goal. We are confirmed in this goal by the biblical record of God’s relentless pursuit of praise among the nations. “Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!” (Ps. 117:1). If it is God’s goal, it must be our goal.
The Chief End of God Is to Glorify God and Enjoy Himself Forever
All my years of preaching and teaching on the supremacy of God in the heart of God have proved that this truth hits most people like a truck laden with unknown fruit. If they survive the impact, they discover that this is the most luscious fruit on the planet. I have unpacked this truth with lengthy arguments in other places.6 So here I will give just a brief overview of the biblical basis. What I am claiming is that the answer to the first questi
on of the Westminster Catechism is the same when asked concerning God as it is when asked concerning man. Question: “What is the chief end of man?” Answer: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Question: “What is the chief end of God?” Answer: “The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself forever.”
Another way to say it is simply that God is righteous. The opposite of righteousness is to value and enjoy what is not truly valuable or rewarding. This is why people are called unrighteous in Romans 1:18. They suppress the truth of God’s value and exchange God for created things. So they belittle God and discredit his worth. Righteousness is the opposite. It means recognizing true value for what it is and esteeming it and enjoying it in proportion to its true worth. The unrighteous in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 perish because they refuse to love the truth. The righteous, then, are those who welcome a love for the truth. Righteousness is recognizing and welcoming and loving and upholding what is truly valuable.
God is righteous. This means that he recognizes, welcomes, loves, and upholds with infinite jealousy and energy what is infinitely valuable, namely, the worth of God. God’s righteous passion and delight is to display and uphold his infinitely valuable glory. This is not a vague theological conjecture. It flows inevitably from dozens of biblical texts that show God in the relentless pursuit of praise and honor from creation to consummation.
Probably no text in the Bible reveals the passion of God for his own glory more clearly and bluntly than Isaiah 48:9–11, where God says:
For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.
I have found that for many people these words come like six hammer blows to a man-centered way of looking at the world:
For my name’s sake!
For the sake of my praise!
For my own sake!
For my own sake!
How should my name be profaned!
My glory I will not give to another!
What this text hammers home to us is the centrality of God in his own affections. The most passionate heart for the glorification of God is God’s heart. God’s ultimate goal is to uphold and display the glory of his name.
Biblical Texts to Show God’s Zeal for His Own Glory
God chose his people for his glory:
He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.
Ephesians 1:4–6 NASB; cf. vv. 12, 14
God created us for his glory:
Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.
Isaiah 43:6–7
God called Israel for his glory:
You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
Isaiah 49:3
I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory.
Jeremiah 13:11
God rescued Israel from Egypt for his glory:
Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works . . . but rebelled by the Sea, at the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power.
Psalm 106:7–8
God raised Pharaoh up to show his power and glorify his name:
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Romans 9:17
God defeated Pharaoh at the Red Sea to show his glory:
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the L ord . . . . And the Egyptians shall know that I am the L ord , when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.
Exodus 14:4, 18; cf. v. 17
God spared Israel in the wilderness for the glory of his name:
I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.
Ezekiel 20:14
God gave Israel victory in Canaan for the glory of his name:
Who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods?
2 Samuel 7:23
God did not cast away his people for the glory of his name:
Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord. . . . For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake.
1 Samuel 12:20, 22
God saved Jerusalem from attack for the glory of his name:
For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.
2 Kings 19:34; cf. 20:6
God restored Israel from exile for the glory of his name:
Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name . . . And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name. . . . And the nations will know that I am the Lord.
Ezekiel 36:22–23; cf. v. 32
The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.
John 7:18
Jesus told us to do good works so that God gets glory:
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:16; cf. 1 Peter 2:12
Jesus warned that not seeking God’s glory makes faith impossible:
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
John 5:44
Jesus said that he answers prayer that God would be glorified:
Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
John 14:13
Jesus sought the glory of his Father in all he did:
Jesus endured his final hours of suffering for God’s glory:
“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
John 12:27–28
Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.
John 17:1; cf. 13:31–32
God gave his Son to vindicate the glory of his righteousness:
God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood . . . to show God’s righteousness. . . . It was to show his righteousness at the present time.
Romans 3:25–26
God forgives our sins for his own sake:
I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
Isaiah 43:25
For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.
Psalm 25:11
Jesus receives us into his fellowship for the glory of God:
Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
Romans 15:7
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Son of God:
He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
John
16:14
God instructs us to do everything for his glory:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31; cf. 6:20
God tells us to serve in a way that will glorify him:
Whoever serves, [let him do it] as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:11
Jesus will fill us with fruits of righteousness for God’s glory:
It is my prayer that . . . [you be] filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:9, 11
All are under judgment for dishonoring God’s glory:
They became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images.
Romans 1:22–23
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
Herod is struck dead because he did not give glory to God:
Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory.
Acts 12:23
Jesus is coming again for the glory of God:
They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed.
2 Thessalonians 1:9–10
Jesus’ ultimate aim for us is that we see and enjoy his glory:
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 because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
John 17:24
Even in wrath God’s aim is to make known the wealth of his glory:
Desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, [God] has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.
