Isaiah 48: 9 “For the sake of My name I delay My wrath, And for My praise I restrain it for you, In order not to cut you off. 10 “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.11 “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.
This text shows us the motive and the central desire and love of God. When God acts to either judge or forgive, what is His motive in doing so? It is for the sake of His own name. This seems so bizarre to many people because they think that God should help people for the sake of the people, but a few moments of reflection should help for that view to dissipate. If God helps people for the sake of the people in and of themselves rather than for the sake of His own name, then that means that God is less holy than what He commands of others. Human beings are commanded to love God with all of their being and to do all for His glory even in the mundane things like eating and drinking. It is only because human beings think of all things in relation to themselves (from their fallen nature which thinks it can be like God) that they think it odd that God would do all things out of love for Himself and His glory in accordance with the Greatest Commandment He gives to human beings.
Human beings may say words of praise to God when He does not punish them for their sins, but they think of that in relation to how nice He is being toward them. What they fail to see (most of the time) is that God restrains wrath for the sake of His own name. God restrains wrath for the sake of His praise. This points us to the primary meaning of what it really means to pray in the name of Christ. To really pray in the name of Christ is not to simply give a list so things that we want and then invoke the name of Christ after we finish asking for the things we want, but it is asking for things that will exalt God and having a heart that truly desires God to be exalted in what we ask for.
When the text sets out God proclaiming how can His name be profaned we see why God does all things for His own name’s sake. When Israel did not keep covenant with God, He was obligated to act for the sake of His own name. He was not obligated to them in and of themselves, but instead because He had made a covenant with them and so His name was at stake. To quote Thomas Manton, “God only is independent and self sufficient of himself and from himself; but self-seeking is monstrous and unnatural in the creature!” The Israelites sought themselves in what they did and sought God (in a manner of speaking) for the sake of themselves, but God judged them and blessed them for His own sake. So fallen man, though blind to the reality of it, seems himself primarily and seeks God for the sake of self. But God, on the other hand, seeks all things for the sake of His own name.
Once again, then, the distorted concept of the modern portrayal of God is set forth quite clearly. Man thinks of God as being centered upon himself and his perceived needs, but in reality God is centered upon Himself and His own glory. Man longs for and desires nothing but what will give him comfort and pleasure, but God does nothing which is not for His own glory. While fallen man seeks himself as his own god, the religious person seeks a god of his own imagination to do things for self that he cannot do. But both are demonstrative evidence that in the fall of human beings into sin the fall was from being centered upon God to being centered upon self. What a great delusion it is when man is very religious and yet all of his religion is truly fixated upon and for the sake of self.
A God that that truly does all for His own glory and pleasure is a God that will view the open sinner and the very religious sinner as both being opposed to Him and His glory. The open sinner seeks self and is quite unashamed to do so. The open sinner seeks pleasure for self and all that he does is for self as opposed to doing all for the glory of God. But the religious sinner does the same thing in that he does all for self, though indeed he may utter words that deny that. The religious sinner does all for the sake of self just like the open sinner, but the religious sinner may be worse in that he uses religion and the name of God in order to obtain honor and glory for self. But God, who as a holy God must always do all for the sake of His own name, will punish the open sinner and the religious sinner for the sake of His own name. It is the just and holy thing to do.
God Loves... Himself 
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