Still in "The Pleasures of God" by Piper. Thus far besides the introduction dealing with the aforementioned Scougal quote, he has dedicated a chapter each to how God takes pleasure in his Son, all he does, his creation, his fame, election, bruising the Son and the chapter I'm currently in, doing good to all who hope in him. The first couple chapters, while very enlightening, only showed me the majesty of God but gave me nothing to partake in. I can do nothing to increase God's pleasure in his Son, all he does or his creation. The fourth chapter, the pleasure of God in his fame, however has become my motivation for prayer and missions and the purpose for my life. Here is something that is big enough to devote my life to and not in the end say, "I've wasted it." Here is something that is worth any sacrifice I could make. Here is something I can righteously obsess over and not commit idolatry. Piper gives so many references pertaining to God doing something for his name's sake. For any who want to be overwhelmed by how abundant this is in the Bible, look at 1 Samuel 12:22, Jeremiah 13:11, Exodus 9:16, Isaiah 63:12-14,Pslam 106:7-8, Joshua 7:8-9, Ezekial 36:20-23, Ezekial 39:25, Isaiah 48:9-11, Daniel 9:19, Psalm 25:11, Psalm 79:9, Jeremiah 14:7,9 just in the OT. Israel's whole story of being God's people was for his name's sake, not their worth. The reason God spared them so many times was again not because of their worth, but because his name was connnected to them. In the NT, Jesus makes it clear that he came for his father's name's sake, not our worth. John 5:43, 10:25, 17:6,26, 12:27-28. 1 John 2:12 makes it even clearer that we are forgiven "for the sake of his name." Not only is our salvation due to God's pleasure in his fame, but our sanctification as well. Psalm 23:3, Revelation 2:3, 1 Timothy 6:1. Colossians 3:17 makes it all encompassing by saying "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus." Everything we as Christians do should in some way be for the propagation and/or honoring of Jesus' name. Paul seems to be particularly concerned for this. One of his great goals was "to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named." Romans 15:20 Even his apostleship was "for the sake of his name." Romans 1:5. When Jesus first calls Paul, he tells Ananias he will show him "how much he [Paul] must suffer for the sake of my name." Acts 9:16 Paul makes it clear who and what he was willing to die for in Acts 21:13 "I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." I can think of no greater honor than to be presented with the choice of dishonoring the name of Christ and life or refusing to denouce the name of Christ and death. What truer test is there of our dedication when something as simply as "I denounce Jesus as Lord." can be said to save one's life. And what greater testament to the world is there of the supreme worth of Christ when we joyfully choose suffering or even death over dishonoring his name. And to have the grace and love of Stephen to say as they slay you, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."
All of this has led me to form my life motto. The first and original is simply, "By the grace of God, I will make known the grace of God." While technically correct, I think it leaves the all important motivation for such action up in the air. Particularly for someone such as myself who is most often motivated by self-glorification, I modified it to "By the grace of God and for the glory of God, I will make known the grace and glory of God." I do not know if God will grant me to be a foreign missionary. I don't know if I will get to demonstrate my love for him by laying down my life. But regardless, wherever I'm at and in whatever vocation God calls me, my aim is by the grace of God and for the glory of God, to make known the grace and glory of God. Be it affluent guests at the Four Seasons, my Turkish bussers, an African tribe or Muslims in the 10/40 window, I will sacrifice anything for the sake of his name. So help me God.
3 comments:
I cannot help but think that because God loves me and sent His son for me, that that does make a HUGE difference in my worth- for my worth is not found in what I do or how I look, but because God loves me and that is indeed worthy enough. While God will accomplish all He intends whether or not I am involved (saying yes, I am not of worth), I think it is a beautiful picture of His love for me that He would choose to involve me in His purposes. I think it is also made clear in the NT that Christ came because of God's love for us- John 3:16 so states, For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Also see John 13:1. Deuteronomy 23:5 provides an OT reference to God's love for His people whereby he chooses to bless them. I think God intimately, from the beginning, chose to involve us in His plans to bring glory upon himself through creation and through the cross.
In my post I never said we have no worth. What I said was that the things God has done for us are not because of our worth. I agree, we do have worth because God does love us and created us in his image (thus even non-christians have worth). The point (and the abundant references I provided prove) is why God loves us and is merciful to us. In your post you make no mention of God's motivation for loving us. If you are trying to say it's because of our worth, then you have totally destroyed grace. If we are worthy of something then it's not grace but payment. Again, I'm not saying God doesn't love us. He does, but it's not because of our worth. Rather our worth primarily flows from that, not vice-versa. A crucial point that most people cannot accept (or have never pondered) is that God loves himself and his name more than you and I. In fact he has to. It would be idolatry for him to love anything else above himself. Getting back to the Scougal quote, if it's true that "The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love.", then God's worth would be very low if he loved us supremely. Even John 3:16 supports my view. All it says is that God so loved the world that he sent his son. I have never denied this and in fact only from a reformed view can this even really be appreciated (from a reformed view Christ coming secured our salvation while from an Armenian view it only made it possible. From a reformed perspective this truly is an act of love). John 3:16 gives no reason for why God loves us. This however can be found in several of the verses I mention. He loves us because he loves himself and wants a people who are called by his name. Why he wants that (since there is no insufficiency or inadequacy in himself and he is in need of nothing) is beyond me and one of the supreme mysteries of the universe. Think about it. Why would a God who exists in some sort of state of perfect perpetual love, joy and satisfaction with himself ever do anything. And these are not human forms of love, joy and satisfaction, which are never totally satisfying, but these actually are completely perfectly satisfying. And yet God chose to create us. That is beyond my comprehension. When delving into the mystery of God's will, we can only go so far as the Bible allows us.
I did not mean to suggest that God's motivation for loving us is because of our worth. I indeed meant the opposite- or the vice-versa as you so aptly stated whereby our worth flows from His love. Which is why we truly cannot understand our worth until we come to know and accept His love, which is wholly and truly undeserved and not at all anything we can earn, which again reinforces why it provides us with the only true worth we can and will ever know. I am glad to see you say something is beyond your comprehension, not because it is you not understanding anything, but because I truly believe as humans, as creations of God, somethings about Him are indeed mysterious and not to be fully understood. Pastor Rob stated that in his sermon today and talked about how that is in reality something that defines who God is. Wow, we serve a God who is supreme and we don't fully understand Him- His ways, thoughts, motivations even His love but it does not deduce who He is, in fact, it likely causes some order to the universe. May seem illogical to some, atheists for example, but totally logical when you really think about it. Love you bro and so proud of you!
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