The Gospel and the Glory of God

A reader asks: "I have learned that God is glorious and perfect and so much so that even God must love and bring glory to himself as doing otherwise would be blasphemous...I learned that we are created, sin, then are saved to demonstrate God's glory and to glorify Him. And, finally, I've always been taught that God loves us, unconditionally in fact. But are we instruments for God to bring glory to himself? How does he love something that he creates and uses to ultimately love himself?"

Dear reader,

This is an enormous question, and the answer lies at the heart of the Gospel -- but, the Gospel thought through in a way that involves the whole Bible and a lifetime of thinking on it! I'm very encouraged that you are thinking in that way; the answer I give here, I hope, will point you in a direction you can continue to travel as you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The answer won't, however, erase all questions. (It may very well raise more!) I've not lived a lifetime yet, and am still seeking more and more of the answer to this question.

The first part of the answer may seem a bit odd, because it involves thinking through the entire Biblical witness into what we call the "mystery of the Trinity". These days, I find that many people have thought so little about the Trinity that they don't know how the Trinity is Biblical, or even what it means that God is triune. It would take us too far afield from your question to spend too much time showing the Trinity from the Bible, but I encourage you to really delve into this teaching, for in many respects it is God's triune nature that provides the answer to your question.

What is the Trinity? What does it mean that God is triune? The Trinity is three persons who have been loving each other forever. There never was a time when the Father was not delighting in His Son, and never a time when the Son was not looking up to and honoring His Father. The Father and the Son have always been loving each other by the power of the Holy Spirit, and it has been the sheer joy and delight of the Holy Spirit to do this. So deep is the joy and intimacy of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that you can say that they go from being "intimate" to being "in" each other -- actually one. What it's like to love that deeply -- and forever, as part of who you are and not as something that happened to you! -- is beyond my imagination. I can't even begin to comprehend love that deep.

Now, I bring this up because you raised the subject of God's loving and glorifying Himself. I wanted to point you deeper into God's love than perhaps you saw before. When God loves God, it isn't God sitting there thinking to Himself, "Wow! Ain't I SOMETHING. I am *so* awesome. I've gotta find someone to show off to. Hmmmn.....there isn't anybody. I know! I'll create someone!" That's not the sort of thing that's going on. The love of God is deeper then that. The love of God is God the Father thinking, "Wow! Just look at my strong, strapping Son. I am so proud of Him! How can secure His happiness? I know! I'll create a bride for him." The love of God is also God the Son saying, "My Father is so powerful -- greater than any other, greater than any king. I'm in awe of Him. He inspires me. What can I do to honor Him? To make Him proud? Imitate Him?" Of course, this is just a metaphor -- but metaphors are less real than the reality they point to, not more so. I use human examples to point to a love so deep, no mere human can even begin to fathom it.

Now, introduce another factor into the equation. Out of the depths of God's love for God, God created a world. But, that world went wrong -- horribly, horribly wrong. The rulers God appointed to steward that world rejected God's love and chose selfishness, unbelief, suspicion and ingratitude. Those rulers were us and those angels that fell -- the Devil and his hordes. Now, what does it mean for God to continue doing what God has always been doing with a fallen, broken creation now part of the equation? We hear the conversation take on surprising shades and new depths. The Father says something like, "My Son's beloved is in danger -- the One chosen to be His bride and Queen. I can't let that happen to them. I must secure their happiness!" The Son thinks something like, "My Father's glory is unseen because of this *%&@&D&*S usurper, Satan. I'll kill him!" Of course, I'm using a human story to point to a truth larger than any human story can ever exhaust or prove. God's anger is not like human anger. God's passion is not like human passion. Yet, you can use the lesser to point to the greater. That's what we're doing here.

Now, I think I'll stop here to let Pastor Mike reply according to the wisdom given him. I'll only give one small hint how the above translates into an answer to your final question: how does God's loving God and us being "used" to do that figure into God's loving us. I'm not sure, but I think there might be a better word than "use". The idea usually in the Bible is "koinonia" -- partnership, or participation. You can find it used in 2 Peter 1:4. God makes us participants in His love. God rescues not an inert creation, like some kind of toy, for His Son; He rescues a bride, Israel / the Church. God the Son doesn't honor His Father by "using" the fallen creation, but by rescuing a people from the clutches of the Enemy, sacrificing Himself to do so.

Pastor Mike?