Jonathan Edwards, Resolution 1:
“Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory and to my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how ever so many and how ever so great.”
The first thing to notice is that this first resolution was written when Jonathan Edwards was a young man. The second thing to notice is the link that he sees between the glory of God and of his own good, profit, and pleasure. It is this thought that I will try to think about today. Can it really be true that what we do that is most to the glory of God is also the best for our own good, profit, and pleasure? This seems like nonsense to the world, and perhaps even to many Christian ministers. Why is that?
On the one hand man is a very selfish creature and wants to use God for his own goals and pleasures. So we see many religious people praying for wealth and many other things. We see so-called preachers preaching about how God returns blessings of riches and wealth to those who give money. On the other hand, we see many who practice forms of rigorous self-denial in efforts to gain the blessings of God or even heaven. Both of those positions would seem to be at odds with what Jonathan Edwards is really saying. If we follow the historical line of thought that he followed, we can see that the glory of God is seen to be what is best for human beings as well. But can this really be true?
Let us take the case of the type of self-denial in Luke 14 where we see that in order to follow Christ a person must deny self and take up his cross in order to follow Christ. Then we are told that the person must hate his life. How can something like that be considered a person’s greatest benefit, profit, and pleasure? We see another passage in Revelation 12:11 where it is said of the martyrs that “they did not love their life even when faced with death.” In other words, they gave up their lives cheerfully and joyfully much like their Master the Lord Jesus Christ who for the joy set before Him endured the cross (Heb 12:2). To say this yet another way, they loved Christ and His glory so much that it was no sacrifice to lay down their lives for their true and greatest love and pleasure.
A person will give up all secondary things for the sake of something far more important and better. In the case of the martyrs and of all that are called to practice self-denial, the greatest and best is the glory of Jesus Christ. There is nothing greater than the glory of God in the face of Christ. There is nothing that should even hold a candle to the glory of God in the minds and hearts of His people. But we must be very careful as we read what Edwards is saying. We must not reverse his order and think that what we think is good and pleasurable for us is necessarily what gives God glory. No, no, and a thousand times no. Rather than that, it is that which gives God glory is that which is best for our good, profit, and pleasure. We must never get that order mixed up or turned around.
Mankind has been created for the purpose of living and loving God and His glory. While most men are earth worms in the sense that they live their lives and give all their being in order to obtain worldly things, which is not what they were created for. Man must realize that God has no greater blessing to give man than Himself. It is simply impossible for God to bless man by giving man things without giving Himself. This should shatter the way that men think of things in modern America when it is thought that God gives money and toys to those that He loves. As Edwards said in one of his sermons, God gives those He hates plenty of wealth and earthly things. We must always strive to keep our minds focused on what is really best for other people and for the whole universe and that is the glory of God. Not only did God create me for His glory, He created all other humans and all other things for His glory as well. Not only should man realize that living for the glory of God is what is best and even most pleasurable for himself, he must see that this is also what is best for every living human being in the world. That is what they were created for. If we do not live for the glory of God, we are living very narrow and extremely selfish lives. To live for the glory of God is the best for all and for the entire universe, but to live for self is to focus on self rather than what is best for all others. The shame of it is that living for self is the worst thing for self too. When God’s glory is not lived for, the whole universe suffers. Loving the glory of God is that important.
God Loves... Himself 
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