Today’s title isn’t really the main point of what I would like to convey, but unfortunately I believe it is the biggest barrier to a question I would like to answer, “What is the chief end of man?”. Why did God create us, and what is it that we are supposed to do?
The Westminster Catechism gives this answer:
Question 1: What is the chief and highest end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.
Now the answer given by the Westminster catechism is a good answer and true, however in modern American culture, we need to expound on that answer. It’s not because of a deficiency in the answer given, but more because we cannot take for granted, something that the writers of the catechism could. We cannot assume that the readers understand that God is more valuable than they are. In a culture that promotes the idea of self as ultimate, where the end goal of man is to be made much of by others, and God is used as a means to that end, we need to give the answer some legs.
Here is a question to start us off. If a man goes out and works all his life, for the purpose of having others think highly of him, would that be sinful? Yes, of course, we would say that man is extremely prideful, and he is an idolater of self before God. Now if God works all things together that others would know Him as He is, and think highly of him, would that be sinful? No, God’s commandment in Exodus 20:3 is “You shall have no other gods before me.” For God to exalt Himself is not sinful because He is God, it is the most loving thing He can do.
Let me say it another way. If a man has a son, and the son’s greatest joy would be spending a day with his father, but the father instead gives the boy a toy and sends him on his way, would that be loving? If a father sees his son ill, and instead of giving him medical care, gives him a toy and sends him on his way, would that be loving? No, clearly not. Now if God is a loving Father, and sees that our greatest good is to know Him and delight in Him, and doesn’t seek to exalt Himself, He is not loving. He would be depriving us of our greatest good.
So then, God’s purpose in creation, is to make Himself known and exalt Himself above all things, and we have been invited in to that purpose, to enjoy God forever. We were created, to have and spread a passion for the glory of God, and to enjoy Him forever. It seems redundant (hopefully) to say this after explaining everything else, but to do this, we must first acknowledge that God is infinitely more valuable than any piece of His creation, including ourselves. If you put the value of 6 Billion people on one side of the scale, and God’s worth on the other, the scale on God’s side is heavier. It’s going down in a hurry… fast enough to launch all of those 6 Billion self-exalting, self-seeking persons into space. You can’t compare the worth of God to all of creation, let alone an individual, and this is good news. In heaven, none of us will be looking around for a mirror to see how great we look, we will be captivated by the unending, infinite glory of God.
Now I don’t want these to be my words, I want you to see this in God’s word. Look at these scriptures, and ask yourself if God’s purpose is for His glory, and to be enjoyed forever. Bolded sections are by me for emphasis.
Before creation – we’ll start in Ephesians 1:3-6 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved”
Isaiah 43:6 – “bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
Romans 9:17 – “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Isaiah 48:9-11 – “For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”
Luke 2:12-14 (of Jesus) – “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest,”
Romans 3:23-26 – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
What is sin? We were created in the image of God to treasure and reflect His glory. We sin when we do not do this, and everyone of us has fallen short. God put forth His Son, because He loves us – yes, but first because of His namesake. His glory needed to be seen as just. His glory is never secondary in His mind, and I thank God that it is so.
I could go on forever with scripture, but my encouragement is to read through the Word yourself and see if you are convinced of these things as I am.
Now I don’t want to have people think that there is no way in which God makes much of us as individuals, He does. I just want us to get the order right, and make our mission during our short short time during our lifetimes the same as God’s. God delights in us, as redeemed creations, and is glorifying us already through the process of sanctification, and will fully glorify us when we see Him as He is. But we are not ultimate, God is. God’s delight in making much of us, stems and terminates in His glory being made known to us, and our enjoying Him.
Look at your life? Do you exist to make much of God, or are you asking God to make much of you? Realize that God would not be loving you if he gave you a mud pie, when there is a feast available. My encouragement is to seek God, to ask Him to stir in your heart a passion for His glory, and to spread that to others. There is no more loving thing you can do for someone.
Grace and Peace,
Adam
Following the Way 