God's Passion for His Glory

After a couple months of reading, I finally finished God's Passion for His Glory by John Piper this weekend. Piper writes the first part of the book, which is actually an introduction and commentary to Jonathan Edward's The End for Which God Created the World. Both authors convincingly argue God considers His glory as the chief end of creation and God's high regard for Himself coincides with His high regard for mankind.

I would sum up the book's thesis with this quote from John Piper, "The chief of God is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." This statement is very similar to the Westminister Shorter Catechism except Piper replaces 'man' with 'God'. So when Piper originally made this statement during a speech at his alma mater, the audience thought he misquoted the catechism. But after making the statement, Piper clarified he intentionally replaced 'man' with 'God' to emphasize the passion and love God has for Himself. Though this idea might seem new and appear controversial, Scripture supports it. For instance, in Ephesians 1, Paul uses the phrase "unto the praise of the glory of His grace" three times in verses 6, 12, and 14 in describing why God gives Christians spiritual blessings. From this passage, it is evident God bestows blessings as a means to achieve the end of displaying His glory.

I plan on writing more about this subject in my upcoming posts because it's really revolutionized my view of God.

In Him,

Mark