As we have been making an effort to think of God as centered upon God, I would like to ask a provocative question. Can we understand any attribute of God apart from understanding how this displays God’s love for God? Can we understand the character of God apart from understanding His love for Himself as displayed in Christ? We say of the secular scientist that s/he has no way of understanding the real nature of anything apart from God. We quote Proverbs 1:7 with enthusiasm to the secularists: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” Then we go on our own self-centered ways in theology and morality. But again, can we understand any attribute of God (and therefore God Himself) apart from understanding how this displays God’s love for God?
The glory of God is a word that refers to the whole character of God as summed up. The glory of God refers to the expression of the attributes of God and to God as beautiful and lovely. The beauty of God refers to the symmetry with and within Himself and even His inward delight when the loveliness of His glory is seen. As noted several posts previously, Jonathan Edwards wrote that “His infinite beauty is his infinite mutual love of himself.” Man sees something beautiful and desirable in God in terms of what man sees as good for self. But God sees Himself as beautiful in relation to Himself and this is seen in terms of His glory shining forth in perfect beauty from within the Trinity. Now if an attribute of God is only beautiful to God as it flows within the Trinity, then for us to understand an attribute of God as truly beautiful we must understood it as it flows within the Trinity. If we want to see the true beauty of God in the fullness of its glory, we must see it as it shines in the Trinity which is how God sees it.
The joy of God is His happiness or affection of love (pleasure) that flows toward the object of true love. God’s joy has to have a perfect object and so all of His joy must be in Himself as triune because there is no other perfect object. This is seen when He speaks from heaven and says “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased” (Mat 17:5). God has perfect pleasure and delight in His own true beauty and glory which is God manifested in the Son. When God does all for His own pleasure and glory He does all He does through the Son and to see Himself displayed in the Son. God’s pleasure is the manifestation of His glory and can only be in Himself. Psalm 115:3 says that “our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” Sovereignty is really God doing all that pleases Him, and no human being can stand in His way of obtaining His own pleasure. For God to do all that pleases Him also tells us that Christ who is the shining forth of His glory is the object of all that He does.
God’s glory is seen as His perfections shine forth in that beauty which He has joy and pleasure in (Christ). God created all things to manifest His beauty (love for Himself) and His love for Himself as triune. All that He does is a shining forth of His glory (Christ), which is doing all for His own glory and pleasure. God is pleased to see Himself manifested in the world through Christ. The unregenerate look like the devil and their best works the looks like the devil because the source is not God. For Him to be pleased He must see Christ in us, which is God looking upon us and seeing Himself (His pleasure). When it is Christ and the Spirit in us and what we do flows from grace, then what we do is a manifestation of the glory of God and He is pleased to see Himself. We must learn to live by grace and be a manifestation of His glory and in that be pleased and find joy in Him which is His joy in Himself.
The beauty of God is His love for Himself within the Trinity. It is only when we see God’s love for Himself as triune that we see perfect love in glory & beauty. We can only see the beauty of the cross when we see it as the love God has for Himself and His own glory. If we think that the glory of the cross is what He did for me, we have missed it and will never see its true beauty. We will have looked upon the cross as if it was all about me rather than a manifestation of God Himself as triune. When we do anything (religious or not) for our own honor (glory) and/or in our own strength or to please ourselves, we seek our own pleasure, beauty, and glory rather than His. That is wickedness in the form of idolatry. Even if our joy and pleasure has Him as its object, He is not glorified apart from His own glory being manifested through us and only then is it His pleasure to see Himself in us. To have joy in God as beautiful because of what I think He does for me is nothing short of idolatry. We must have joy in God in the same way that He has joy in Himself and that is to see His glory manifested in Christ and to share in His joy and pleasure in Himself. In other words, it is only when we understand and have joy in the character and glory of God as displayed within Himself as triune that we can really understand His glory and have true worship. Only then is our worship sharing in the joy and pleasure He has in Himself. In Edwardsean language, only then is our joy and pleasure in God really His joy and pleasure in Himself shared with us and in reality an instance of His own.
God Loves... Himself 
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