God Loves… Himself

Fundamentally people want to know what difference something makes. What difference does the self-existence and self-sufficiency of God make in everyday life? In one sense, it makes all the difference that there can be. We can know that every breath we take is a gift of God and it is not because of ourselves. We can know that every breath is a gift of His grace. I am to live by His strength and grace instead of self-effort. I am to try hard things and endure hard things because of His grace which strengthens and upholds me, not because of any other reason. I can know that no matter what God calls me to do there is an inexhaustible supply of grace. No matter what happens to me during a particular day, I can know that God has grace enough to uphold me in that situation. So man must take his eyes off of himself and rest in God who has all the reservoirs of strength and grace within Himself.

Fundamentally people want to know what difference something makes. What difference does the self-existence and self-sufficiency of God make in everyday life? In one sense, it makes all the difference that there can be. We can know that every breath we take is a gift of God and it is not because of ourselves. We can know that every breath is a gift of His grace. I am to live by His strength and grace instead of self-effort. I am to try hard things and endure hard things because of His grace which strengthens and upholds me, not because of any other reason. I can know that no matter what God calls me to do there is an inexhaustible supply of grace. No matter what happens to me during a particular day, I can know that God has grace enough to uphold me in that situation. So man must take his eyes off of himself and rest in God who has all the reservoirs of strength and grace within Himself.

I can know that God is not a God to be bought off by good behavior. He is not a God who can be manipulated in any way. All that He does comes from Himself. When God saves according to His grace and all for His pleasure and glory, He does not do this in order to create a people who will repay Him. Man was not created to do things for God, man was created for God to glorify Himself through. Man can never do one thing for God since all things come from God. What will man give to God? Will man love God as if love came from man? No, man can only love God with the love that God has in man. Will man give money to God as if God needs money? No, God gives all things so when man gives he is simply giving back to God what is His anyway.

Can man serve God? Jesus said that He “did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mat 20:28). Paul taught that it is impossible to serve God: “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:24-25). On the other hand, men are servants of God. What are we to make of this? We can know that we can do nothing for God that He needs. God has no need and all things come from Him, including the life, breath, and all things of all people. God does not need us and has no need of what we can do. However, God has created man to glorify Himself. Man glorifies God when God is living in the man and shining forth His glory in the world. So man does not do things for God, but serves God when God does things through man. A servant in the Christian sense is one who goes about His master’s work being strengthened by God and doing all in such a way that God is glorified in them (Mat 5:16). It is God glorifying Himself through man. This is being a servant.

So it can be seen that the self-existence and self-sufficiency of God have enormous ramifications in the Christian life. It makes a huge difference in how man is to approach a life that is lived to the glory of God. It seems that many think that because they do good things that they are living to the glory of God, but that is mistaken. The glory of God is actually internal within Himself and can only become external by His actions. It must be God who shines His glory or it will not really be seen. The actions of man do not glorify God unless it is God in the man moving the man’s affections and actions for Himself. Man is not sufficient to glorify God of himself, He must simply be an empty vessel that God exalts Himself through. That is one huge impact that the self-sufficiency of God has for man in his everyday life.

The person in whom God has placed His love (Rom 5:5) can know that he is loved of God despite his many failures and imperfections. Why is that? Surely God loves because He is love. God’s love does not come to man based on the worth of man, but because of the self-sufficiency and self-existence of God who is love itself. God’s love is moved by God and not by sinful man. The one who is loved of God is loved because God is love. How this should ease a person’s mind to rest in that love. This should motivate man to pursue the glory of God in himself and therefore through himself. It should also move man to see how he can love his enemy since the love in him is from God and is moved by God. Throughout each day the believer has resources of inexhaustible love since his resource of love is God’s love for Himself. Does this make a difference? It is a difference far beyond what the human mind can really comprehend. Man has the resources to love all day in all circumstances because it is the love of God in him. However, man only has that love to the degree that self has been denied and that man has been humbled. Man is only full of God to the degree that he is empty of self and pride. God will not allow man to use His glory for the honor of man. All that man does as his chief desire for his own honor is simply false spirituality.

This entry was posted on May 13, 2006 at 2:38 pm and is filed under Attributes of God. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.