by John Piper
Romans 9:22–23
God’s plan is to fill the earth with the knowledge of his glory:
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the L ord as the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 2:14
Everything that happens will redound to God’s glory:
From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:36
In the New Jerusalem, the glory of God replaces the sun:
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
Revelation 21:23
God’s passion for God is unmistakable. God struck me with this most powerfully when I first read Jonathan Edwards’s book titled The Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World.7 There he piles reason upon reason and Scripture upon Scripture to show this truth:
The great end of God’s works, which is so variously expressed in Scripture, is indeed but ONE; and this one end is most properly and comprehensively called, THE GLORY OF GOD.8
In other words, the chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself forever.
The Belittling of God’s Glory and the Horrors of Hell
The condition of the human heart throws God’s God-centeredness into stark relief. Man by nature does not have a heart to glorify God. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). In our wickedness, we suppress the truth that God is our Sovereign and worthy of all our allegiance and affection. By nature we exchange the glory of the immortal God for dim images of it in creation (Rom. 1:18, 23). We forsake the fountain of living waters and hew out for ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jer. 2:13).
The nations “are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart” (Eph. 4:18). By nature we were all once dead in trespasses and sins, following the slave master Satan, and therefore children of wrath (Eph. 2:1–3). Our end was “eternal punishment” (Matt. 25:46), exclusion “from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thess. 1:9), and endless torments in “the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8; cf. 14:11; 20:10).9
The infinite horrors of hell are intended by God to be a vivid demonstration of the infinite value of the glory of God. The biblical assumption of the justice of hell is a clear testimony to the infiniteness of the sin of failing to glorify God. All of us have failed. All the nations have failed. Therefore, the weight of infinite guilt rests on every human head because of our failure to cherish the glory of God. The biblical vision of God, then, is that he is supremely committed, with infinite passion, to uphold and display the glory of his name. And the biblical vision of man without grace is that he suppresses this truth and by nature finds more joy in his own glory than he does in God’s. God exists to be worshiped, and man worships the work of his own hands. This twofold reality creates the critical need for missions. And the very God-centeredness of God, which creates the crisis, also creates the solution.
How Can Self-Exaltation Be Love?
For over thirty years I have tried to present to Christians in various places this central biblical truth of God’s passion for the glory of God. The major objection has been that it seems to make God unloving. The merciful, kind, loving heart of God seems to disappear in the passions of an overweening ego. Doesn’t the Bible say, “Love . . . does not seek its own” (1 Cor. 13:5 NASB)? How then can God be loving and seek his own glory? It’s a good question. And in answering it we will see how the supremacy of God in the heart of God is the spring of mercy and kindness and love—which means the spring of missions.
There are two ways to see harmony between God’s passion for his own glory and Paul’s statement “Love . . . does not seek its own.” One is to say that Paul doesn’t mean that every way of seeking your own is wrong. Some ways are, and some ways aren’t. The other is to say that God is unique and that Paul’s statement does not apply to him the way it does to us. I think both of these are true.
Love Seeks Its Own Joy in the Joy of Others
First, “Love . . . does not seek its own” was not meant by Paul to condemn every possible way of “seeking your own.” He did not mean that seeking your own happiness in loving others is loveless. We know this because in Acts 20:35 Paul told the elders of the church of Ephesus to “remember” the word of the Lord Jesus: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” If it were unloving to be motivated by the blessedness of loving, then Paul would not have told the elders to “remember” this word, that is, to keep it in their minds where it could function as a conscious motive. If seeking your own blessing in giving to others ruined the act, Paul would not have told us to keep this blessing in mind.
Those who have thought most deeply about motivation realize this and have interpreted Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:5 with great wisdom. For example, Jonathan Edwards pointed out that what Paul is opposing in the words “Love . . . does not seek its own” is not
the degree in which [a person] loves his own happiness, but in his placing his happiness where he ought not, and in limiting and confining his love. Some, although they love their own happiness, do not place that happiness in their own confined good, or in that good which is limited to themselves, but more in the common good—in that which is the good of others, or in the good to be enjoyed in and by others. . . . And when it is said that Charity seeketh not her own, we are to understand it of her own private good— good limited to herself.10
In other words, Paul did not mean to condemn every possible way of seeking your own. He had in mind the selfish attitude that finds its happiness not in helping others but in using others or ignoring others for personal gain. He did not have in mind the attitude that seeks its own joy precisely in doing good to others. In fact, he appeals to that motive two verses earlier when he says, “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Cor. 13:3). He is saying, “Surely you do not want to ‘gain nothing,’ do you? Well, then be sure that you love. Then you will gain much.” So he actually appeals to the very motive that some say he is denouncing. But he is not appealing to low, selfish, materialistic motives. He is calling for the radical transformation of heart that finds its joy in the act of love and all the goodness that comes from it.
So the way is opened perhaps for God to “seek his own” and still be loving. But I said there are two ways to see harmony between God’s passion for his own glory and Paul’s statement “Love seeks not its own.” We’ve seen one, namely, that Paul is not opposing “seeking one’s own” if “one’s own” is really the good of others.
The Sin of Imitating God
The other way to see this harmony is to say that God is unique and that Paul’s statement does not apply to him the way it does to us. This is true. Things are forbidden to us that are not forbidden to God precisely because we are not God and he is. The reason we are not to exalt our own glory but God’s is because he is God and we are not. For God to be faithful to this same principle means that he too would exalt not our glory but his. The unifying principle is not, Don’t exalt your own glory. The unifying principle is, Exalt the glory of what is infinitely glorious. For us that means exalt God. And for God that means exalt God. For us it means don’t seek your own glory. For God it means do seek your own glory.
This can be very slippery. Satan saw this and used it in the Garden of Eden. He came with the temptation to Adam and Eve: If you eat from the forbidden tree, “you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). Now, what Adam and Eve should have said was, “We are already like God. We have been created in his image” (Gen. 1:27). But instead of putting this truth against Satan’s temptation, they allowed the truth to make error look plausible: “If we are in the image of God, then it can’t be wrong to want to be like God. So the suggestion of the serpent that we will be like God can�
��t be bad.” So they ate.
But the problem is that it is not right for humans to try to be like God in every way. God’s God-ness makes some things right for him to do that are not right for us to do. In Adam and Eve’s case, it is God’s right to decide for them what is good and what is evil, what is helpful and what is harmful. They are finite and do not have the wisdom to know all the factors to take into account in living a happy life. Only God knows all that needs to be known. Therefore, humans have no right to be independent of God. Independent judgment about what is helpful and harmful is folly and rebellion. That was the temptation. And that was the essence of their disobedience.
The point is simply that even though we are created in the image of God, and even though in some ways we are to “be imitators of God” (Eph. 5:1), we are mistaken to think that God does not have some rights that we do not have. A father wants his child to imitate his manners and courtesies and integrity, but he does not want the child to imitate his authority, neither toward his parents nor toward his brothers and sisters.
Thus, it is right for God to do some things that we are forbidden to do. And one of those things is to exalt his own glory. He would be unrighteous if he did not do so, because he would not be prizing what is infinitely valuable. He would in fact be an idolater if he esteemed as his infinite treasure something less precious than his own glory.
God Is Most Glorified in Us When We Are Most Satisfied in Him
But is it loving for God to exalt his own glory? Yes, it is. And there are several ways to see this truth clearly. One is to ponder this sentence: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. This is perhaps the most important sentence in my theology.11 If it is true, then it becomes plain why God is loving when he seeks to exalt his glory in my life, for that would mean that he would seek to maximize my satisfaction in him, since he is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him. Therefore, God’s pursuit of his own glory is not at odds with my joy, and that means it is not unkind or unmerciful or unloving of him to seek his glory. In fact, it means that the more passionate God is for his own glory, the more passionate he is for my satisfaction in that glory. And therefore, God’s God-centeredness and God’s love soar together.
To illustrate the truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, consider what I might say on a pastoral visit when entering the hospital room of one of my people. They look up from their bed with a smile and say, “Oh, Pastor John, how good of you to come. What an encouragement.” And suppose I lift my hand, as it were to deflect the words, and say matter-of-factly, “Don’t mention it. It’s my duty as a pastor.” Now, what is wrong here? Why do we cringe at such a thoughtless pastoral statement? It is my duty. And duty is a good thing. So why does that statement do so much damage?
It damages because it does not honor the sick person. Why? Because delight confers more honor than duty does. Doing hospital visitation out of mere duty honors duty. Doing it out of delight honors the patients. And they feel that. The right pastoral response to the patient’s greeting would have been, “It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m glad I could come.” Do you see the paradox here? Those two sentences would show that I am “seeking my own.” “It’s my pleasure to be here. I’m glad I could come.” And yet the reason these statements are not selfish is that they confer honor on the patient, not on the pastor. When someone delights in you, you feel honored. When someone finds happiness in being around you, you feel treasured, appreciated, “glorified.” Visiting the sick because you are glad to be there is a loving thing to do.
This then is the answer to why God is not unloving to magnify his glory. God is glorified precisely when we are satisfied in him—when we delight in his presence, when we like to be around him, when we treasure his fellowship. This is an utterly life-changing discovery. It frees us to pursue our joy in God and God to pursue his glory in us because they are not two different pursuits. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
God’s Self-Exaltation: Signpost to Human Satisfaction
Therefore, when we read hundreds of texts in the Bible that show God passionately exalting his own glory, we no longer hear them as the passions of an overweening, uncaring ego. We hear them as the rightful exaltation of One who is infinitely exalted, and we hear them as God’s pursuit of our deepest satisfaction in him. God is utterly unique. He is the only being in the universe worthy of worship. Therefore, when he exalts himself he directs people to true and lasting joy. “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11). But when we exalt ourselves, we are distracting people from what will bring true and lasting joy. So for us to be loving we must exalt God, and for God to be loving he must exalt God. Love is helping people toward the greatest beauty, the highest value, the deepest satisfaction, the most lasting joy, the biggest reward, the most wonderful friendship, and the most overwhelming worship—love is helping people toward God. We do this by pointing to the greatness of God. And God does it by pointing to the greatness of God.
God Exalts Himself in Mercy
There is another way to see how God’s passion for his own glory is loving, and here the connection between the supremacy of God and the cause of missions becomes explicit. The connection between missions and the supremacy of God is found in this sentence: The glory God seeks to magnify is supremely the glory of his mercy. The key text is Romans 15:8–9:
I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised [Jewish people] to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.
Notice three interlocking truths in these great missionary verses.
1. Zeal for the glory of God motivates world missions. Paul gives three reasons why Christ humbled himself as a servant and came into the world on that first great missionary journey from heaven to earth. First, “Christ became a servant . . . to show God’s truthfulness.” Second, he came “in order to confirm [God’s] promises.” Third, he came “in order that the [nations] might glorify God for his mercy.”
In other words, Christ was on a mission to magnify God. He came to show that God is truthful. He came to show that God is a promise-keeper. And he came to show that God is glorious. Jesus came into the world for God’s sake—to certify God’s integrity, to vindicate God’s Word, to magnify God’s glory. Since God sent his Son to do all this, it is plain that the primary motive of the first great mission to unreached peoples—the mission of Jesus from heaven—was God’s zeal for the glory of God. That’s the first truth from Romans 15:8–9: Zeal for the glory of God motivates world missions.
2. A servant spirit and a heart of mercy motivate world missions. “Christ became a servant . . . in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” Christ became a servant . . . and Christ brought mercy. He was a servant not only in that he humbled himself to do what the Father wanted him to do at great cost to himself. He was also a servant in that he lived his life for the sake of extending mercy to the nations. During his lifetime, he showed the connection between compassion and missions. We see this, for example, in Matthew 9:36–38:
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Jesus’ compassion came to expression in the call to pray for more missionaries. From first to last, mercy was moving missions in the life of Jesus. And not only in his life but also in his death. “You were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9). Mercy was the very heart of Jesus’ mission. No one deserved his mission. It was all mercy and all servanthood. That’s the second truth from Romans 15:8–9: A servant spirit and a heart of mercy motivate world missions.
3. The third truth is that the first and second truths are one truth. Zeal for the glory of God and a servant heart of mercy for the nations are one. This is plain from the wording of verse 9: Christ came “in order that the Gentiles might glorify God.” Yes! That was the passion of Christ, and it should be our passion—that the nations might love the glory of God and praise the glory of God. But the verse goes on: Christ came “that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” The motive of mercy and the motive of God’s glory are not two different motives, because the glory we want to see exalted among the nations is supremely the glory of God’s mercy.
Mercy is the apex of God’s glory the way the overflow of a fountain is the apex of the fountain’s fullness. God is free to be merciful because he is full and utterly self-sufficient in himself. He has no deficiencies or needs or defects. He relies totally on himself for all that he is. He never had a beginning or underwent any process of improvement through some influence outside himself. The glory of his all-sufficiency overflows in the freedom of his mercy to the nations. Therefore, extending God’s mercy and exalting God’s glory are one.12
A heart for the glory of God and a heart of mercy for the nations make a Christlike missionary.13 These must be kept together. If we have no zeal for the glory of God, our mercy becomes superficial, man-centered human improvement with no eternal significance. And if our zeal for the glory of God is not a reveling in his mercy, then our so-called zeal, in spite of all its protests, is out of touch with God and hypocritical (cf. Matt. 9:13).
He Does Everything for the Praise of the Glory of His Grace
This wonderful agreement between God’s passion to be glorified and his passion to be gracious is also strikingly evident in the first chapter of Ephesians. Three times Paul says that God is doing all his saving work “to the praise of His glory” (NASB). And verse 6 makes clear that this glory is “the glory of His grace.” Election, predestination, adoption, redemption, sealing by the Spirit, working all things according to the counsel of his will—God does all this to elicit praise for the glory of his grace. Verses 5–6: “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ . . . to the praise of the glory of His grace.” Verses 11–12: “[God] works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.” Verse 14: “[The Holy Spirit] is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
