“How Vast the Resources of His Power …” No. 2

GLORIFYING GOD AND ENJOYING HIM FOREVER

The Shorter Catechism, prepared by the assembly of divines at Westminster in 1648, begins with life’s momentous question, What is the chief end of man? The answer given is: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

The divines selected several passages of scripture to support their answer:

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31)

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Rom. 11:36)

“Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For lo, those who are far from thee shall perish; thou dost put an end to those who are false to thee. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all thy words.” (Psa. 73:25-28)

If ever those sobering words of Thomas Paine, “These are the times that try men’s souls,” spoken at a time when our nation was struggling to be born, might be repeated, it is now when both our nation and our world are struggling for survival. World leaders speak of our being on a collision course. Some dreadful catastrophe appears imminent. Fear, dread, anxiety are rampant. Feelings of insecurity beset all peoples. If ever man has needed to rediscover the spiritual resources of power, it is now. He has never needed his God more.

One historian has divided human history into three ages of anxiety. The ancient world suffered from anxiety over death, which the literature of that period indicates, some writers being so eager to deliver man from this fear that they created the concept of the annihilation of the soul. The medieval world suffered from anxiety over sin and guilt, which caused them to do everything from write confessions to establish monasteries. So desperate were they that they flagellated their bodies to atone for their transgressions.

The historian says the modern age is suffering from an anxiety that is unique in world history, one that defies solution and that threatens to bring man to disaster. It is the anxiety of meaninglessness. Man has learned to endure disease, poverty, ignorance, and even war; but there is one thing that makes life impossible, and that is boredom. When life no longer makes sense, it is no longer worth living. In our day it is not so much a problem of this war or that program having no clearly defined goals, but it is a problem of the meaning of life itself. For the first time in history thinkers of the world seriously ponder the question as to whether God is dead.

The Westminister divines began their catechism with the right question, and it is one that our generation must revive if our world is to be saved from its desperation. What is the meaning of life? Man’s search for meaning in pleasure, fame and fortune, and even in culture and its institutions, has proved futile. Surely he must turn to God if life is to make sense. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Enjoyment of God is a blessed experience that too few men know. It can be realized only by glorifying God. It is the resource of power that gives meaning to all of life’s responsibilities, and the only thing that will save us from anxiety and frustration.

What does it mean to glorify God? It means to conform to the likeness of God through a humble submission to His will. This is the function of religion, to bind man back to his Creator from the sinful state into which he has fallen. God revealed Himself to man so that man might be transformed into the image of God. The Father’s eternal purpose was to make us like Himself, His own sons. “He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” (Eph. 1:5-6) “We who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.” (Eph. 1:12)

The scriptures make it evident that God’s eternal purpose for man is that he be cultivated into God’s likeness, and this is the mission of the Christ. This is God’s glory. ‘Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” (Rom. 8:29) Paul explains to the Galatians that the purpose of his concern was “ ... until Christ be formed in you.” (Gal. 4:19) “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” (Gal. 5:1) “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” (l Cor. 15:49) “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom. 12:2)

God’s glory has been variously manifested in history, all the way from its appearance in the tabernacle in the wilderness to the time that it shone brightly in the presence of the shepherds at the birth of the Christ. Ezekiel even saw God’s glory move out of the temple eastward to the Mount of Olives, moving on perhaps to Babylon to be with God’s people in exile. (Ezek. 11:2 3) The glory of the lord appeared to Moses and Aaron, and the Israelites saw this glory, one time on a mount, another time in a cloud. But Isaiah says that the whole earth is full of His glory. It thus serves our purpose to think of the glory of God as the presence of God.

The highest expression of God’s presence is the Christ. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” (John 1:14) Paul, like every faithful Jew rooted in the religion of the Old Testament, thought of God as “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see.” (1 Tim. 6:16) Oh, how our carnal age needs this kind of reverence towards God! To Paul God is so exalted that He “dwells in unapproachable light,” and yet he speaks of “seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.” (2 Cor. 4:4) He even says that “He is the image of the invisible God,” and he adds “In him was all the fullness of God pleased to dwell.” (Col. 1:15, 19)

Since the fullness of God’s glory is revealed to us in the Christ, we may conclude that we glorify God by responding obediently to the Christ. The Christ Himself exemplifies this by glorifying the Father in His own obedience: “I have glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do; and now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made.” (John 17:4- 5) Paul applies this principle to all: “You will glorify God by your obedience in acknowledging the gospel of Christ.” (2 Cor. 9:13) He could also say: “So glorify God in your body.” (l Cor. 6:20) Paul could also speak of “the glory of the mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:2 7) When Jesus spoke to His Father of the apostles and said “I am glorified in them,” He must have had reference to God’s will being realized in their labors.

We therefore glorify God when we obey Him. We glorify Him by worshipping and praising Him. A life that is lived within the will of God is a life that glorifies God. A mother is glorifying God when she tends her children for His sake, a teacher when he reaches for God, a farmer when he produces food for those that God loves.

We glorify God most splendidly when we allow His love and mercy to flow through our lives into the lives of others. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 5:16) We glorify our Father in heaven by becoming like Him as faithful children. He is present in us. We are indeed “a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:22) “For me to live is Christ” Paul could say, and this is why his life was to the glory of God. It is not by our own strength or wisdom, but only by His presence in us, that God is glorified.

Of the Christ it is said: “He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature.” (Heb. 1:3) It is to the extent that this can be said of the Christian that he too glorifies God. When the aspostle urges us to “Be imitators of God as beloved children,” he did not mean, of course, that we can reflect God’s glory in the same way or to the same extent as the Christ. Yet he makes it clear that sonship implies likeness and that God’s presence in us has grave implications. We are God’s temple and God is glorified in His temple. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are.” (1 Cor. 3:16-17)

The glory of God that has been seen in clouds, winds, and mountains, as well as tabernacles and temples, is now manifest in the children of God. And so God is glorified in the machine shop if there is a machinist there in whom God dwells. God’s glory is reflected in the field, the office, and the home to the measure that His presence is there in the hearts of His children. “For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13)

What a dynamo of power this can be in our lives! If God is both for us and in us, what have we to fear? They that are with us are always greater than those that are with them if God be with us. Paul prays that the saints might have this resource: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.” (Eph. 1:17 -18)

Since the foundation of the earth, “when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy,” it has been God’s will that His creation rejoice in Him. (Job. 38:7) God intends that we be happy, and happiness comes by enjoying Him. That we might enjoy God forever comprises God’s plan for us both in this world and in all eternity. “Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence there is fulness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.” (Psa. 16:11)

One way to learn to rejoice in God is to communicate with those who do, and surely the psalmist is such a one. The psalms reflect the life of a man who is “girded with gladness,” and who “pants for God as a hart pants for the waterbrook.’ He urges us to “Look to God and be radiant,” and to “stand in awe of him.” He assures us that “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.” (Psa, 19:8)

In Gal. 5:22 joy is listed as fruit of the Spirit, so this is not some quality that we conjure up through some psychological magic. Reading books on “Ten Rules for Being Happy” or “Peace of Mind” may provide food for thought, but the joy of which we speak comes only as the harvest of the Holy Spirit, not through courses in personality improvement. “The kingdom of God does not mean food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 14:17) Being “aglow with the Spirit” and “rejoicing in your hope” are qualities that are virtually absent from our neurotic, frustrated age.

The best way to explain spiritual joy (as distinguished from the worldly concept of happiness) is that of deep satisfaction in living a life based on God. It is not simply pleasant sensation that comes and goes, rises and falls, according to life’s vicissitudes; nor does it imply a life without sorrow and tragedy. It is an inner harmony, a conviction that all is well, that God still rules, despite all the difficulties. Joy is the great satisfaction that comes in seeing the fulfillment of God’s Will, whether in life or in death, whether in prosperity or adversity. Thus Paul could rejoice when the gospel was proclaimed even with strife, for the gospel fulfilled God’s will in human hearts. (Phil. 1:18) In the same way he could rejoice in suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, thus accomplishing God’s will. Jesus speaks of Abraham rejoicing in that he could see the time of the coming Christ. (John 8:56) It was a deep satisfaction to the old patriarch that God’s plan for the Messiah was to be a reality.

The life that glorifies God and enjoys Him is a life filled with praise and thanksgiving. And what resources of power we have in all this! When John wrote from Patmos to the besieged and persecuted saints he drew upon such resources, wellsprings of strength that our world must find if it is to be saved from destruction.

“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying: Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come.” (Rev. 19:6-7)