In the last BLOG I gave several verses from Scripture to show that God forgives and saves sinners because of Himself. His motives arise from Himself and not from an act of man’s will. There are many other verses like the ones listed and there are many others that make the point from a different angle. For example, what motivated God when He promised a Savior in Genesis 3:15? The original promise of a Savior was made to Satan and it was a promise that the coming Savior would crush his (Satan’s) head. What would have motivated God to have done that? Was it an act of the will of man?
We can also learn of the motives of God from how we are taught to pray and of the prayers of the godly in Scripture. Jesus taught us to pray first for God’s name to be hallowed (glorified, revered) – Matthew 6:9ff. Then we are to pray for God’s kingdom to come. Then we are to pray for God’s will to be done. If these things are to be the things we pray for, then surely we must see that the motives of God are not human-centered in what He does. He is not moved to answer prayer based on the free-will of human beings, but He is moved to answer prayer based on His own name. We are also taught that when we pray, we are to pray in the name of Jesus. If we are to pray and ask for things on the basis of our own will, then answers to prayer are based on our own name. But instead we are told to pray in the name of Christ which means we are to pray in accordance with who He is and His glory. Perhaps that is one reason why the professing Church is so weak in our day and that is because we pray according to our own selves rather than seeking the Lord for desires to pray for His glory in the name of Christ. God is motivated by His own name and not our acts of the will. It is only when our desires are conformed in truth to His desires that there is power in prayer.
Let us think through some of the verses from the previous BLOG.
Psalm 79:9 – Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake.
This is a psalm of Asaph. We see that this is a cry for the help of God. On what basis does he cry for help? His plea for help looks to the motivations of God as God rather than anything else. God, as perfectly holy, will only do and be motivated to do by what is best. Since God loves holiness and truth, He can only be motivated by what is truly holy and true. He can only love what is utterly holy and is worthy of His love. That means He can only be moved by His own name in prayer. When human beings bear His name, they can pray for themselves and that in truth be for His name. But of course that must be the true desire of the human’s heart and not just a use of the name of God as a magic potion of some sort.
It seems so strange to the modern mind to read or hear of a sinner crying out for forgiveness for the sake of God’s own name. Yet if we put audible words to the desires of our hearts, wouldn’t we be crying out for God to save us for sake of our own name and our own good no matter if God has to stop being God to do so or not? Look at how opposite that is of the Greatest Commandment, which is to love God with all of our being. Look at how contrary that is to the command of I Corinthians 10:31 to do all to the glory of His name. When we pray for forgiveness, the true desires of the heart are being shown. If we desire forgiveness more than the glory of God, then what does that say about the chief love of our hearts? If we desire to be forgiven more than we desire God to be glorified, what does that say about the desires of our hearts? While it is not wrong to desire forgiveness, our desire for forgiveness must be out of a love for His name or we desire forgiveness for the wrong reason.
The desires of our hearts for forgiveness must be looked at in terms of the God’s motives. What could possibly be the desire for God to save sinners who hate Him and do nothing but what is at enmity with Him? Psalm 106:8 sets this out for us: “Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name, that He might make His power known.” God saves sinners for the sake of His name which shows something of His glory. He saved the Israelites because they bore His name as His people and it demonstrated His power. Why does God save sinners by the blood of Christ? Is it because they have acted according to a free-will in their own name and power? No, and a zillion times no. The only motivation worthy of God is what Psalm 106:8 tells us. He saves for the sake of His name. He does not save according to anything a sinner can or may do. He saves according to His name alone which is grace alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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