God is God-centered

I can die a happy woman… I have heard John Piper speak in person… and on the topic John Piper knows best: God’s glory.

This afternoon’s talk was the first of two (yes, two!!) talks that Piper agreed to give at the New Attitude 2007 conference this year.  Both his talks will deal with the subject of discerning what pleases God.  This particular talk dealt with what pleases God, namely himself.

Piper opened this talk with 7 questions (5 of which he answered for us):
1. Who is the most God-centered person in the universe?
    Answer: God
2. Who is uppermost in God’s affections?
    Answer: God
3. Is God an idolater?
    Answer: No
4. What is God’s chief jealousy?
    Answer: to be known, loved, trusted, worshiped, etc. above all else
5. What is the chief end of God?
    Answer: To glorify himself and enjoy himself forever.
6. Do you feel most loved because God makes much of you or because God frees you to make much of him?
7. Are you God-centered because God is supremely valuable to you or because you believe you are supremely valuable to him?

As Christians, according to Piper, we agree that we should love God above all else, that we should glorify God in everything, that Christ is supreme over everything, and that we should have no other gods before God.  What Piper wants us to realize is that God loves God above all else, that God glorifies God in everything, that God sees Christ as supreme over everything, and that God has no other gods before himself.  These concepts make Christians squirm.

Piper took us through the story of redemption and pointed out a few of the many (many, many, many) verses in Scripture that talk about God’s glory being His ultimate purpose for everything He does.  We were predestined in order to glorify God (Ephesians 1:5-6); we were created to glorify God (Isaiah 43:6-7; Colossians 1:16- “for him” means ‘for the display of his glory’); God showed his mercy through the incarnation of Christ in order to glorify himself (Romans 15:8-9); the intention of the cross was to vindicate God’s glory which we, as sinners, had trampled (Romans 3:23-26); the purpose of our sanctification is God’s glory (Philippians 1:9-11; 1 Peter 4:11); Jesus is coming back ultimately to be glorified and magnified (2 Thessalonians 1:9-10).  CONCLUSION: God is totally devoted to glorifying God in everything He does.

So why do we squirm at this concept?  Because it doesn’t seem loving.  Piper totally disarmed that argument by presenting us with a new (and correct) definition of love.  Most of us define love as “being made much of”, but that’s not really how it works in the Bible.  Instead, Piper defines love (based on Biblical truth) as the “laboring, planning, and suffering to enthrall the beloved with that which will totally and eternally satisfy their soul”.  God is the only thing that can totally and eternally satisfy my soul; if he doesn’t make much of himself, if he doesn’t glorify himself, then he prevents me from being enthralled with him, and that means he doesn’t love me.  The most loving thing God can do for me is to do whatever he has to do make himself my joy and satisfaction.

My prayer is that I will love others by glorifying God in a way that helps them to be enthralled with that which will totally and eternally satisfy their souls.

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Please check out the New Attitude website.  In the next few weeks, they will be posting the audio of the talks from this conference, and you’ll be able to download them for free!  I know my ramblings will not do justice to what God has spoken through these amazing men, so I highly recommend you listen to these talks yourselves in order to fully grasp what God has to say.]