THE END FOR WHICH GOD CREATED THE WORLD
That if God himself be, in any respect, properly capable of being his own end in the creation of the world, then it is reasonable to suppose that he had respect to himself, as his last and highest end, in this work; because he is worthy in himself to be so, being infinitely the greatest and best of beings. All things else, with regard to worthiness, importance, and excellence, are perfectly as nothing in comparison of him. And therefore, if God has respect to things according to their nature and proportions, he must necessarily have the greatest respect to himself. It would be against the perfection of his nature, his wisdom, holiness, and perfect rectitude, whereby he is disposed to do everything that is fit to be done, to suppose otherwise. (Jonathan Edwards, The End for Which God Created the World)
If God does has respect to things according to their nature and proportions, then certainly He would of absolute necessity have the greatest respect to Himself since His nature is perfect in all ways and He is infinitely perfect in all ways. If God has respect to things according to a standard of holiness, then He must have respect to Himself who alone is perfectly and infinitely holy in Himself and in all He does. If God has respect to things in accordance with their inherent glory, then He must have respect to Himself since He is infinite in glory. If God has respect to what is perfect in justice, then He must have respect to Himself because He alone is perfect in justice. In other words, God can have no other standard and no higher goal than Himself and His own glory.
Edwards says that it would be against the perfection of the nature of God to suppose that God would be disposed to be done for any other reason than Himself and His own glory. This is very, very important if this is so. It changes the whole of theology, the goals of church, and of life as a whole. If it is against the perfection of the nature of God to do anything unless it would be for Himself and His own glory, then it changes ethics and our concepts of holiness as well. This thought shows us what it means for God to be God but also what it means for man to be made in the image of God with the command to be holy as He is holy. This is, to be very clear, the very center and core of all of theology and life.
We must be confronted with this truth of who God is in order to know the truth about God. A God that is in heaven (so to speak) and is in the service of man and longs for man but cannot do anything about this is not the God of the Bible and is not the infinitely glorious God who does all for Himself and His own glory. The true God is not a God who has man as His goal to help and that He must love man because He is God, because God must love God to be God and God can only do anything to help man in reality if it is for His own glory. This is just one of the reasons that the so-called Gospel that is proclaimed today is not the Gospel of Scripture. The Gospel of Scripture is the Gospel of God, the Gospel of the glory of Christ, and the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ. The true Gospel is not just of how God was nice to man and so keeps man from going to hell if man will just help himself a little, but the Gospel is all about the glory of God. When we put man as the focus and goal of God in the Gospel, we have a truncated gospel and a false gospel. God saves sinners out of love for Himself and His own glory or the Gospel is not of grace alone. God must have a motive to save sinners and if His motive is not Himself then His motive in saving sinners is for another reason and as such it is not out of love for His own glory which means that salvation is not of grace alone.
While this issue (God as God-centered) does not seem to demand much attention or does not seem to be thought of as that important, it is really and truly vital to understand the true nature of God and of the Gospel. If the Gospel is indeed to be of grace alone then it, then all the motivations of it must be within God alone. If the Gospel is indeed to be of Christ alone, then it must also be primarily for the sake of His name alone. A gospel that focuses on man rather than God is absurd and is one of works. But what is a gospel that has God focusing on man rather than Himself? It is an idolatrous gospel and one that cannot consistently be one of grace alone.
This great and grand issue of God doing all out of love for Himself and His own glory is absolutely necessary to all of Reformed theology. All theology, regardless of the title on it, is nothing more than emptiness and without a real heart if it does not have a God-centered God as the very center of it. Without this basic teaching, we end up with some form of humanism and we end up with no real Gospel at all. It is that vital to all that really matters.
God Loves... Himself 
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