Why did God create human beings? Many people know, at least in a general way, that all human beings were created for the glory of God. However, that is a general answer and without making sure the content of that statement is correct it can be a meaningless answer. Perhaps a different question may get to the issue in a different way. Why did God make the human mind? He made it so that human beings could think upon Him, treasure Him, and delight their souls with thoughts of Him. He made the human mind that it could think about God, but also think about Him through the medium of the things He has created. He has created the human mind that it may think His thoughts after Him. He created the human mind that He may share with human beings the thoughts He has of the Son and the thoughts the Son as of the Father.
Why did God give human beings affections? He gave them affections that they may have feelings of delight in their meditations of Him and His glory. He gave them affections that they could have (so to speak) a taste of Him and His glory. He gave them affections that they may have His joy in them and that they may in some way share in His delight in Himself. He gave them affections that they may share in the joy in Him that He works in them by His Spirit. In other words, God created the human affections for His glory and as a way to manifest His glory. The delight of the human soul in God can only come from God and as such is the delight of God in Himself and His glory being manifested.
Why did God give each human being a will? As part of His image human beings are able to choose what they think highly of and what they delight in. He gave them a will so that they would not be robots or mere animals. He gave them a will so that they could choose Him rather than sin. He gave them a will so that they could be like Him in choosing Himself and His glory above all things at all times.
Human beings are most like God when they love God with all (or at least some) of their hearts, minds, souls, and strength. The more a person loves God with all of his or her being the more that person is like God. In this way human beings manifest the glory of God. It is in when human beings are focused on God with all of their being (each part and yet the whole) that they can know something of what God is like because God is manifesting Himself to them and through them. It is only when people are holy that they can see something of God. This is true in at least two ways. One, God only reveals Himself to those who are pursuing holiness as that is the only way to pursue God. Two, when people are holy and seeking God that is actually God manifesting Himself through them. In this they behold Him and His glory.
Jesus said that when one believer does something for another believer they are actually doing it to Him. In another sense, and a very real sense, when one believer does something for another believer, it is Christ working through one believer to love Christ. In this the glory of God is displayed and manifested through His people and even their very simple acts of love. True love has no source and origin but from God, which is why a person has to born of God and know God in order to love (I John 4:7-8). This also explains why Jesus said that “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
It is such a way of glory in how God manifests Himself through His redeemed people that one would think that a church would be a place where God would be sought. Indeed people are looking for God in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways. People think that the institutional church is where God is, but in fact God is where those who are truly born of God are. The Lord Jesus Christ was the very tabernacle of the glory of God while He walked on this planet, but now the Church is the tabernacle of the glory of God because Christ dwells on the throne of the hearts of His people. Where the true people of God are, there God is. The true Church, which is the body of Christ, is where Christ is. The true believer, who has been born from above and indwelt by the Spirit of the living God, that is where Christ is. How glorious God is that He works through weak, helpless, and even sinful creatures. God and His glory is on display for those who have eyes to see, though it is usually with the weak and those with great trials. Truly His ways are not our ways.
God Loves... Himself 
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