To accept the principles which Martin Luther vindicates in The Bondage of the Will would certainly involve a mental and spiritual revolution for many Christians at the present time. It would involve a radically different approach to preaching and the practice of evangelism, and to most other departments of theology and pastoral work as well. God centered thinking is out of fashion to-day, and it recovery will involve something of a Copernican revolution in our outlook on many matters. But ought we to shrink from this? Do we not stand in urgent need of such teaching as Luther here gives us—teaching which humbles man, strengthens faith, and glorifies God—and is not the contemporary Church weak for the lack of it? The issue is clear. We are compelled to ask ourselves: If the Almighty God of the Bible is to be our God, if the New Testament gospel is to be our message, if Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day and for ever—is any other position than Luther’s possible? Are we not in all honesty bound to stand with him in ascribing all might, and majesty, and dominion, and power, and all the glory of our salvation to God alone? Surely no more important or far-reaching question confronts the Church to-day (Johnson and Packer’s introduction to Luther’s Bondage of the Will).
The change that is needed that would correspond to a real revival and a new Reformation is drastic. It is not about getting people to intellectually accept a creed. It has to do with a complete transformation in the way things are viewed and looked at. The change has to be from a man-centered way to a God-centered way of thinking. This can be very tricky as it is easy and very common for people to think highly of God but only because He is man-centered and has done a lot for man. However, that is still a man-centered way of thinking and it is an idolatrous way of thinking as well. If God is centered upon man rather than Himself, then He violates His own Greatest Commandment. For God to be holy He must love Himself with all of His heart, mind, soul, and strength. I John 5:2 teaches us that human beings cannot know that they love human beings unless they love God and keep His commandments. There is no true love for human beings that is not love for God first since all true love comes from God. So we can know that God must love Himself and be focused on Himself. He is God-centered and is the example of what it means to be God-centered. Human beings must learn to love God as a God-centered God or they will not love the true God at all. The triune God must be God-centered or there is no love in the universe.
The difference between loving a god that is man-centered and the God that is God-centered is the difference between heresy and truth. It is also the difference between a religion of self and a religion that is all of God. No one needs a new heart to love a god that loves him or her and does all for him or her. We do, however, need a new heart to love a God that is the source and origin of all true love and that love is for Himself as triune. This is the radically different approach that would change the way church is viewed, how theology is done, and how preaching and evangelism would be practiced. A God-centered God is not an option since He alone is the true God. The God-centered God is the only God and so He alone must be the content and love of sermons and evangelism. When we drop down to a man-centered god, even if we pay a lot of attention to that god and even if we have the same creeds that were written centuries ago, we are still dealing with a different god than the true God. This is perhaps the most fundamental difference in the modern day and the days of the Reformation. It is so fundamental that we can hold to the same creeds that came from the Reformation and the Puritan time period and still believe things that are totally different.
The God of Holy Scripture is the God that will not give His glory to another (Isa 42:8). The God of Holy Scripture is the God who does all for the sake of His own name (Isa 48:11). He shines forth His glory in Jesus Christ and in no other place. Human beings must be humbled and broken from themselves and their own self-centered lives in order to have Christ as their lives. Paul tells us that he was crucified with Christ and that he no longer lived but it was Christ in him (Gal 2:20). Who was it that went on those missionary trips and preached the glory of God in Christ as the Gospel? It was the life of Christ in Paul who did that. Paul labored hard, but it was the energy and power of God in Him that really did the work (Col 1:28-29). It is likely that many who are orthodox in their creeds and moral in their lives need to repent of their self-centered god and bow in brokenness before the true and living God-centered God. We cannot live holy lives while centered upon ourselves thinking that God is centered upon us, but instead we will only live truly holy lives when we are emptied of self and so we then partake of or share in His holiness (Heb 12:10). It is then that the God-centered God will be seen in His glory. He is not focused on humans to make us live better, but He brings us in to share in His divine nature for His own glory (II Peter 1:4).
God Loves... Himself 
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