Edwards on the God Centeredness of God 6

THE END FOR WHICH GOD CREATED THE WORLD

Now, if the creature receives ALL from God, entirely and perfectly, how is it possible that it should have any thing to add to God to make him in any respect more than he was before, and so the Creator become dependent on the creature? (Jonathan Edwards, The End for Which God Created the World)

This powerful point by Edwards deserves much mediation of human souls as they should reflect on this as to how the glory of God shines in it and also how this should humble souls into great depths. Each creature receives all from God and that makes it impossible for the creature to add anything to God and to do anything for God. Whatever it is that the creature is to do in terms of service for God the creature must receive from God in the first place. Whenever the creature tries to serve God in its own strength, it is not serving God at all but is instead serving self out of pride. But even then, if we think deeply on the matter, the creature cannot lift an arm or take a breath apart from the sovereign God granting and giving it.

Acts 17:22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ 29 “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.

The passage in Acts 17 starts with Paul telling the religious people of Athens that they worshipped in ignorance. Their ignorance of the true God, as Paul goes on to state, is that they thought God could be served by human hands and they treated Him as if He needed things. Instead of that, however, Paul declares that the true God “Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.” This should shatter any thought that human beings can add anything to God or do anything for God. The sovereign God who is eternal, all-powerful, and completely self-sufficient has no need at all for anyone to fill. He has created all things with nothing other than Himself and He is the one who upholds all things with nothing other than Himself. How can it be, then, that anyone can think that God needs a frail human being to do something for Him? How can it be a rational thought that a frail human being with breath in his nostrils can do the smallest thing for God?

Paul goes on to say that “in Him we live and move and exist.” He then goes on to say that we should not think that “the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.” The God that people were ignorant of in the days of Paul is also the God that people are ignorant of in the modern day. A person that thinks that s/he can do anything for God is a person that is ignorant of the true God. There is no need to tone things down or be politically correct on this matter; a person that thinks that God can be served is a person that is ignorant of the true God. The true God had a purpose in creating the world and it was not to create in order to have people do things for Him that He could not do for Himself. Instead of that, God created human beings in order to manifest Himself as all-sufficient. It is nothing but ignorance and pride that leads people to think that they can serve God and do things for God. The true God sits supreme in the heavens with no need of anything or anyone at all. He must have created all things for His own glory and His own good pleasure.

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