Latest / Reformed Thinking / Why God’s Ultimate Goal Is His Own Glory | Jonathan Edwards

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Why God’s Ultimate Goal Is His Own Glory | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reform thinking. So I I want you to imagine a
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being who does absolutely everything for their own glory.
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Just picture an entity that demands the entire universe
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exist for the single unyielding purpose of praising them.
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Yeah, I mean, in human terms, if you met someone who operated
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like that, you would call them a monster.
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You really would? You would label them a
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narcissist of the highest order. Absolutely.
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But today we're doing a deep dive into an 18th century text
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that argues this specific trait. God, making himself his own
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highest goal, is the absolute center of reality.
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It is a massive claim. And more than that, the text
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claims this divine self regard is the only reason you're
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capable of feeling joy at all. Oh wow.
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We are opening up a massive paradigm shifting work by
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Jonathan Edwards. It is his dissertation
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concerning the end for which God created the world.
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Such a heavy piece of writing. It is, and our mission in this
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deep dive is to unpack the mechanics of that claim.
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We want to show you how the Creator's relentless pursuit of
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His own glory is well, it is the fountain of all human goodness.
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It really requires a massive shift in perspective to grasp
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what Edwards is doing here right as adherence to the Westminster
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Confession. We view all of existence,
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history, and creation through a specific lens, which is the
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absolute sovereignty of God. And this text gets to the core
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of that worldview by asking a teleological question.
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A teleological question, so dealing with ends or purposes.
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That is right. Edwards is not asking how God
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made the world or when he made it.
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He is asking about the final end.
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The eternal Why? Yes, the motive in the divine
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mind before a single star burned or a single atom moved.
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Which is mind bending to even try to think about.
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It is, and for anyone listening who feels, you know, intimidated
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by 18th century philosophical theology, we are going to
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translate the logic step by step.
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Yeah, do not worry. We are going to break it all
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down. Because the claims Edwards makes
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touch every aspect of how you view your daily life.
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They touch your reason for existing and your eternal
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future. OK, let's unpack this because we
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need to tackle the biggest intellectual hurdle right out of
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the gate. The narcissism objection.
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Yes, the narcissism objection. When modern people hear the
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phrase God does everything for his own glory, human
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sensibilities throw up immediate red flags.
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They do because we instinctively map our human experience onto
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God. Right.
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If I set myself up as the highest good in the universe and
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I demand that everyone around me acknowledge my greatness, I am
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delusional. You would be demanding something
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that does not belong to you. So when Edwards argues that it
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aligns with perfect reason for God to set himself highest in
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all his proceedings, how do we reconcile that with our
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definition of goodness? It is a fair question.
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How is it not just cosmic selfishness?
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Well, the human analogy fails entirely because it applies
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finite categories to an infinite reality.
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I think think about why it is wrong for a human being to be
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obsessed with their own glory. It is wrong because human beings
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are flawed, limited and dependent on things outside
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themselves. We are not the source of our own
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goodness. Precisely when a human claims
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supreme glory, they are living a lie.
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But God possesses, possesses an infinite fullness of good.
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He is the objective standard of beauty, justice, truth and
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perfection. So he is the standard.
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Right. Edwards points out that because
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God is infinitely good, his infinite love for himself is
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simply a love for the highest possible good that exists.
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It is an accurate assessment of reality then.
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That is the perfect way to put it.
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It is an accurate assessment. If God were to love something
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else more than He loves himself, He would be loving a lesser good
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over a greater good. The math changes completely when
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you deal with an infinite uncreated being.
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It really does. If God is the absolute highest
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good, then for him to value creation higher than himself
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would be an error in judgement. It would be a lie.
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Yeah, it would mean he was confused about the hierarchy of
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value in the universe. And God cannot be confused.
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Right. In theological terms, if God
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valued you or me more than he valued himself, God would be
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committing idolatry. Oh, that is a striking way to
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phrase it. He would be worshipping the
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creature rather than the creator.
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Yeah. So his self regard is not
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arrogance, it is pure unadulterated truth.
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What's fascinating here is how Edwards breaks down the logic
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regarding the exercise of God's attributes.
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The exercise of attributes break that down for us.
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So Edwards makes a massive distinction between possessing
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an attribute and exercising it. OK, God does not just love his
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attributes in some abstract theoretical vacuum.
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He does not just sit around thinking about how great he is.
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Right. He does not just sit in eternity
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loving the idea that he is wise or the idea that he is just.
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He loves the operation and the exercise of those attributes.
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Give me an example of that in human terms.
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Think about a friend of yours. If you highly esteem your
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friend's wisdom and their sense of justice, you do not just
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admire those traits as abstract concepts in their head.
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No, of course not. You naturally delight in seeing
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that friend act wisely. You delight in seeing them act
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justly in the real world. You want to see it in action.
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Right. The Excellency of those virtues
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consists in their relation to use and operation.
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That makes complete sense. If you love a musician's talent,
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you want them to pick up the instrument and play.
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Yes, you. You do not want them to sit
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silently in a room just possessing the talent.
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You want the talent actualized. You want the music to fill the
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room. Yeah, exactly.
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I mean, absolutely. Edwards applies that logic to
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the Creator. If God esteems and delights in
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his own perfections, he must value and delight in the
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expressions and genuine effects of them.
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Therefore, when God delights in the expression of His
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perfections, He is manifesting a delight in Himself.
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So creation is the music. Yes, creating the universe is
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God. Picking up the instrument and
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playing it is the active exercise of his infinite
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attributes. And in making these expressions
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of his own perfections his end, he makes himself his end.
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That brings us to the next massive concept in the text.
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If God naturally delights in the exercise of His own perfections,
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what is the logical next step for those perfections once they
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are exercised? You'd have to go.
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Somewhere, right. Once the music is being played,
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it must be heard. Yeah.
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Once the attributes are exercised, they must be seeing
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and acknowledged. That is the logical flow.
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Edwards writes that a being who highly prizes their own
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excellencies must be well pleased to have those
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excellencies known, acknowledged, esteemed and
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prized by others. Loving a thing naturally brings
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a desire for the approbation of that thing.
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But I have to push back here a little.
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Bit go for it. Or at least voice the skepticism
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that comes out for anyone hearing this for the first time.
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It is a natural. Reaction.
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If God desires his attributes to be seen and praised by
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creatures, does that mean God is needy?
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Right, the needy God objection. Yeah.
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Was he lonely before he created angels and humans?
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Did he lack an audience to validate his self worth?
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This is where the Reformed doctrine of God's complete
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self-sufficiency is vital to keep in view.
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God is entirely complete within the eternal fellowship of the
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Trinity. The Father, the Son and the Holy
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Spirit. Yes, they have existed in
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perfect, joyous, infinite communion forever.
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God lacks nothing. So no loneliness. 0 loneliness
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and he does not suffer from low self esteem requiring external
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validation. That is a relief.
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When Edwards says God is well pleased to have his excellencies
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known and prized, this desire is not born out of a deficit, it is
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born out of the objective fitness of the situation.
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The objective fitness of the situation.
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That word, fitness, feels like a piece of 18th century jargon.
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It does sound a bit archaic. Can you breakdown what Edwards
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means by the fitness of the situation?
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It means that it is objectively proper and right that ultimate
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beauty be seen and praised. Like it is just the way things
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should be. Right.
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It is the way reality ought to function.
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If a breathtaking masterpiece of art is painted, it is fitting
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that there are eyes to see it and minds to appreciate it.
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I see. This is not because the painting
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has an ego and needs compliments, but because the
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supreme beauty of the painting demands an appropriate response
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from conscience beings. Because to ignore it would be
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wrong. Absolutely.
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Edwards argues that if a being loves himself and highly prizes
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his own excellencies, it is objectively fit that he should
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take delight in his own excellencies being seen,
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acknowledged, esteemed, and delighted in.
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So God is just acting in accordance with what is most
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fitting, yes? And in making this
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acknowledgement his end, God is still making himself his end.
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Think about what happens in your own heart when you witness
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something genuinely great. Imagine standing at the edge of
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a massive mountain range for the first time.
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Or watching an athlete execute a physical feat that defies
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gravity. Right.
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The natural reflex of the human heart is to express awe.
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You gasp. You cheer.
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You turn to the person next to you and demand that they look at
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it too. Yes, you naturally want to
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praise the greatness you just witnessed.
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CS Lewis talked extensively about this concept.
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He really did. He argued that praise is not
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something God demands of us like a tyrant demanding taxes.
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Praise is inner health made audible.
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That is such a great quote. Inner health made audible.
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It is the natural culmination of joy.
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God created the world so that this natural, joyous reflex of
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praise would have an infinite worthy object.
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He did not create you because he needed a cheering section.
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No, He created you so that your capacity for joy would be filled
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to the brim by seeing and praising the most beautiful
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reality in existence. That framing captures the heart
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of Edwards's argument beautifully, thanks.
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And as we move further into the text, having established that
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God wants his glory seen, we run into what looks like a
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chronological paradox. A paradox?
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Yeah, and Edwards anticipates this objection.
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If God created beings specifically to see and praise
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His glory, how could God act out of love for those creatures
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before those creatures even existed?
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Well, that is a good point. You cannot direct affection
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toward an object that is not there.
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You cannot look at a void and feel love for something that has
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no reality. Here's where it gets really
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interesting, because Edwards makes a sharp distinction
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between two different ways of thinking about God's love.
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He does he. Distinguishes between God's
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benevolence in a larger sense and God's love in a strict
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sense. This is a crucial distinction
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I'm. Going to spend some time on this
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because understanding this distinction changes how you view
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God's initial motive for creation.
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So in the larger sense, benevolence signifies a general
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disposition in God's nature to communicate his own fullness.
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Just a general outgoing of his nature.
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Right. It is an internal disposition to
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cause an emanation of His glory. Edwards points out that this
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general disposition must be prior to the existence of any
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created being. It has to come first.
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Yes, it is the inciting cause of giving existence to other
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beings. On the other hand, love in a
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strict sense, what Edwards sometimes calls complaisance,
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presupposes the existence of the object beloved.
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At least in idea and expectation.
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Right. God did not look out into the
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empty void, see the human race, feel a sudden burst of affection
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or pity for us, and then decide to create the universe to help
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us out. Because that puts the creature
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on the driver's seat. It does, and that goes against
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everything we know about God's sovereignty.
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Right, you cannot pity a non existent thing.
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No you can not. Edwards uses some incredible
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natural analogies to illustrate this general disposition of
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benevolence. Talks about a tree.
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A great analogy. The nature in a tree by which it
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puts forth buds, shoots out branches, and brings forth
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leaves and fruit, is a disposition that terminates in
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its own complete self. The tree is just doing what a
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tree does by nature. Or think about the sun.
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The disposition in the sun to shine, to abundantly diffuse its
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fullness, its warmth and its brightness is simply a tendency
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to its own most glorious and complete state.
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It is not a reaction to the darkness.
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Right. The sun does not shine because
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it looks down and feels sorry for the dark planets orbiting
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it. The sun shines because the
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atomic reality of the sun is to be brilliantly, overwhelmingly
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radiant. Emitting light is its nature.
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I want to focus on a specific phrase Edwards uses here, the
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propensity to himself diffused. Propensity to himself diffused.
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That concept crushes any human centric view of the universe.
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It really does. For centuries, human beings have
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wanted to believe that we are the absolute center of the
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story. It is our default setting, you
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know. We want to believe that God's
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primary motivation was a reaction for our intrinsic
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value, but Edwards shows that God's general disposition to
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communicate his goodness was the fountain from which the creation
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of angels and humans flowed. Creating beings was simply the
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mechanism for His glory to emanate.
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Precisely. He had a propensity to see his
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own glory diffused outward. Man is not the center of the
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universe. The emanation of God's glory is
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the center of the universe. That is a massive theological
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shift for a lot of people. It is a heavy thing to process.
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But it brings up a thought that feels almost terrifying.
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What is that? If the universe is entirely
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about God's glory emanating outward, if it is all about Him
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making himself his own end, where does that leave the
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creature? Where does that leave you and
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me? Are we just tools?
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Are we just inanimate mirrors set up in an empty room so God
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can look at his own reflection? That does sound cold and
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mechanical. It sounds a little bleak, but
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Edwards answers this by showing how God's goals and our highest
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good are not in conflict at all. In fact, they are the exact same
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thing. If we connect this to the bigger
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picture, specifically within Westminster theology, we see
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this harmony clearly. Yes, let's bring in the
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Westminster Catechism. Look at the very first question
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of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
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It asks what is the chief end of man?
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And the answer is man's chief end is to glorify God and to
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enjoy him forever. Notice the phrasing there.
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It does not say. The chief end is to glorify God
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as a burdensome duty, and then as a separate reward, find a way
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to enjoy Him. They are put together.
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The glorifying and the enjoying are inextricably linked.
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Edwards writes that God acting for himself or making himself
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his last end, and his acting for the creature's sake are not to
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be set in opposition. They coincide.
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Yes, they are implied in one another.
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God's general inclination to defuse himself becomes
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actualized in his specific benevolence toward his elect
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creatures. Edwards uses this stunning
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analogy for the book of Genesis, looking at Adam and Eve I love.
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This part of the text. He notes that the church is
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called the fullness of Christ. He says God looks on the
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communication of Himself to belong to the fullness and
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completeness of Himself, as though he were not in his most
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glorious state without it. Just like Adam was not in his
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complete state without Eve. Yes.
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It is striking that God considers the communication of
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Himself to the Church as belonging to His own
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completeness in the same way a husband views his bride.
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It changes the whole tone of the discussion.
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The creature is not an afterthought or a cold tool.
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The creature is comprehended in God.
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That phrase, comprehended in God, carries immense weight.
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Unpack that a bit. It means the creature's true
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well-being is swallowed up in God's pursuit of his own glory.
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Consider the mechanics of this. What is God actually doing when
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he pursues His glory? He is diffusing infinite
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goodness outward. He is radiating perfect truth,
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perfect beauty, and perfect joy. If you are the recipient of that
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infinite goodness, your joy and God's glory are perfectly
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synchronized. God's pursuit of His own maximum
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glory requires Him to give you maximum joy.
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Let's move from the abstract idea of diffusion to the
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practical reality of what is being diffused into the
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creature. Getting down to brass tacks.
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Yeah, when Edwards talks about the emanation of divine
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fullness, what does that look like in your daily life?
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How do you experience it sitting in traffic or talking with your
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family? Good question.
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Edwards breaks down this divine fullness into 3 distinct
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categories that are communicated to the creature knowledge,
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holiness, and happiness. Knowledge, holiness and
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happiness. But these are not just a random
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list of traits. They flow into each other.
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They operate as a chain reaction in the human soul.
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The first link in that chain reaction is knowledge.
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OK, starting with the mind. Edward states that the
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communicated knowledge which pertains to God's last end is
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the creature's knowledge of God himself.
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He argues that even the faculty of understanding would be vain
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without the specific object. A mind exists to know truth, and
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God is the ultimate truth. He uses that beautiful sunbeam
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analogy again. He's a perfect illustration.
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He says our knowledge of God is just a participation in God's
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own infinite knowledge of himself.
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Obviously it is immensely lessen degree.
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Right, like a single beam of light compared to the roaring
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furnace of the sun itself. But it is the same kind of
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light, yes. Think about the mechanics of
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that. When you grasp a true concept
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about who God is, when you read a passage of scripture and a
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light bulb goes off in your head about His justice or His mercy,
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your mind is actually participating in the knowledge
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that God has of His own nature. And that grasp of truth
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inevitably forces a reaction. Which brings us to the second
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category, Holiness. So knowledge leads to holiness.
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Yes, Edwards defines creaturely holiness.
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According to the text, it consists primarily in love to
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God. Not just following rules.
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Right. It is exercised in a high esteem
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of God and admiration of His perfections, complacency in
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them, and praise of them. Though it is an affection.
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When your mind apprehends the absolute beauty of God through
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knowledge, your will and your affections must respond.
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All of these responses are nothing else but the heart
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exalting, magnifying, or glorifying God.
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I love the jewel analogy he uses for this concept of holiness.
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It paints such a clear picture. Edwards says a jewel held in the
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sun's beings derives and participates in the sun's
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brightness, right. Think about the physics of a
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diamond. A diamond sitting in a pitch
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black room has no visible beauty.
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It generates 0 light on its own. It is just a hard piece of
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carbon. But when you place it in the
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direct sunlight, the angles and the cuts of the stone catch the
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beams, and it blazes with light it.
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Refracts the Sun's glory. It participates in the sun's
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brightness. When your heart loves God, when
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it is acting in true virtue and holiness, you are the jewel
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catching the sunlight. You are reflecting the moral
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Excellency of the divine nature. You are not generating your own
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independent good goodness, you are refracting his.
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This refraction of light leads directly to the third category,
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happiness. Knowledge, holiness, and now
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happiness. Edwards writes that another part
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of God's fullness which he communicates is his happiness.
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This happiness consists in enjoying and rejoicing in
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himself, and so does the creatures happiness.
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Joy is not a secular emotion that we occasionally
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spiritualize on Sundays. According to this text, joy, or
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the exulting of the heart in God's glory is one thing that
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intrinsically belongs to praise. Joy is praise.
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Yes, the happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing
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in God, by which also God is magnified and exalted.
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The joy is the praise. So think about this when you
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were going through your week. Makes it so practical.
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When you experience genuine joy in God, when you are singing a
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hymn and your heart suddenly swells with affection, or when
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your mind grasps a complex theological truth and you you
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feel a genuine spark of all, you are quite literally partaking in
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the physical emanation of God's own internal happiness.
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You are feeling a derived beam of the joy that the Father, Son,
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and Holy Spirit have shared for all eternity.
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It makes the spiritual life intensely tangible.
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Every moment of true understanding, true virtue, and
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true joy is a direct participation in the Divine
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fullness. It is all connected.
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God is All in all with respect to each part of that
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communication. What is communicated is divine
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or something of God, and each communication unites the
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creature to him. So the knowledge, the holiness,
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and the happiness are all threads of the same divine beam
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of light hitting the human soul. Which brings us to the climax of
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this entire deep dive. The eternal view.
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If this communication of fullness, this chain reaction of
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knowledge, holiness and happiness is the goal of
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creation, what happens when it stretches out across eternity?
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Right, because we are not talking about a temporary
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arrangement. No, we are talking about the
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permanent, unending state of the universe.
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Edwards addresses this with breathtaking vision.
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He argues that God's aim is an increasing communication of
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himself through all eternity. Increasing not static.
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Right. There are many reasons to think
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that what God has in view is an increasing knowledge of God,
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love to Him, and joy in Him. The more those divine
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communications increase in the creature, the more the creature
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becomes one with God, the heart is drawn nearer and nearer, the
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union becomes more firm and close, and the creature becomes
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more conformed to God. The good that is in the creature
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comes forever nearer and nearer to an identity with that which
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is in God. So what does this all mean for
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eternity? I think about the math of
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Infinity. It is staggering to consider.
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Because God is infinite, His depths can never be fully
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plumbed. He is an endless ocean of
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beauty, truth, and, well, everything.
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Right, there is no bottom to that ocean.
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That means a finite creature can spend forever, literally
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millions upon billions of years, growing in knowledge, growing in
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love, and growing in joy. You will be getting nearer and
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nearer to the source. Experiencing higher and higher
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heights of happiness. But you will never exhaust the
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source. It is an eternal ascent.
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It is like an asymptote in calculus.
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Yes, the line gets closer and closer to the axis for Infinity,
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but never touches it. It never gets boring, it never
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peaks. It is an infinitely rising curve
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of joy. This raises an important
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question about how God views this entire process from His
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vantage point outside of time. Because God sees the end from
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the beginning. Right, because God has a
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comprehensive prospect of eternity.
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He sees the whole picture at once.
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He perfectly sees the whole of it in its infinite progress and
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increase. He sees the whole timeline.
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Therefore, in the eyes of God, this increasing union must come
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to an eminent fulfillment of Christ's request in John 17,
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where Jesus prays that they all may be one, as Thou, Father art
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in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.
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That is the High priestly prayer from the Gospel of John.
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It is. It is the most intimate glinks
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we ever get into the into Trinitarian dialogue, the Son
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speaking to the Father and the stated goal for the Church is
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Union. Edwards leans heavily on that
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concept of union. He says that in this view, those
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elect creatures must be viewed as being, as it were, one with
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God. They are respected as brought
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home to Him, united with him centering most perfectly, and
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swallowed up in him so that his respect to them finally
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coincides and becomes one in the same with respect to himself.
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He uses the analogy of a man's family, right?
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He does. The interest of a man's family
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is looked upon as the same with his own interests because of
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their strict union with him. If you heard a man's children,
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you heard the man. Exact well, absolutely.
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Their well-being is His well-being.
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But God's elect creatures, with respect to their eternal
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duration, are infinitely dearer to God than a nerd's family is
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to Him. The interest of the creature
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becomes God's own interest. Let me concisely recap the mass
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of ground we have covered today. We have covered a lot.
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We started by asking a teleological question about why
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the universe exists. We saw that God's highest regard
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for himself is the very engine of creation.
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By desiring to diffuse His own infinite knowledge, His own
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holiness, and His own joy outward, He created you to be
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the receiver and the reflector of that exact glory.
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He is the Son and you are the jewel catching the light, yes.
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We discovered that the goals of God's self exaltation and the
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creature's highest possible joy are not at odds.
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They perfectly coincide because all things are from God as their
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first 'cause they all tend back to Him as their lost end.
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As we conclude, I want to leave you with a final thought to Mull
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over, building on the mechanics Edwards has laid out.
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If it is true that every moment of true understanding, every act
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of real love, and every flash of pure joy you experience is
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actually a derived beam from God's own internal fullness, how
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does that alter the way you look at a perfectly ordinary Quiet
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Tuesday? Well.
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That is good. Think about what it means that
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your mind and your heart are the very canvas on which God is
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painting His eternal glory. Even in your most mundane tasks,
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your capacity to know, to love, and to rejoice is tied directly
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to the infinite heartbeat of the Creator.
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You are participating in the life of God every time you
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experience true joy. It is a staggering reality to
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carry with you into your week. Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive into the source material on Reformed thinking.
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We will catch you next time.