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)
Edwards notes that God “must necessarily have the greatest respect to himself.” Each fallen human thinks that it is okay if s/he has the greatest respect to self, but that is nothing more than the promise of the devil to be like God. The one and only true and living God of necessity because of His worthiness and excellency and of His being infinitely the greatest and best of beings should and ought to have Himself as His own greatest and highest end. But even more, it is not only that He should have that, but it is against the perfection of His own nature and character to make anyone else His highest and greatest end. This sets forth the great truth that has been missed so often in history that God alone is worthy of the love of God and to be the goal of God.
In the teaching of Jonathan Edwards we see a relentless pursuit to get to the bottom of a particular doctrine. In his pursuit to get to the bottom of why God created the world, he arrived at the point that God’s love for God and the love and pleasure of God in His own glory was why He created anything and all things that have being. While human beings want to think of themselves as the goal of God in all things, they are not. It may be the case that God created planet earth the way He did in order that it would sustain life, but His highest goal in it all was out of love for Himself as triune and His own glory.
Why does God forgive sinners? It is in order to shine forth the pleasure He has in seeing Himself displayed and manifesting the very glory of His grace. God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph 1:5-7) and He forgives sins for the sake of His own name (Psa 79:9). There can be no higher goal for God in doing this, but it is also the case that there can be no firmer ground that sinners have in seeking forgiveness. There can be no reason for forgiving sins other than God is worthy to forgive sins and that Christ Himself has died to make satisfaction for those sins. In forgiving sins the pleasure of God is in beholding Himself in His Son and in beholding His grace manifested in and by His Son.
It should be noted from the previous paragraph that God Himself is the center of the Gospel and not man. The only thing that man can bring to God in the Gospel is sin and that is what man needs to be saved from. To put it bluntly, there is no merit and no good in man or that man can work up to move God to save him. Man is completely and utterly at the mercy and grace of God to save as He pleases, which is not comfortable for self-centered man who wants to manipulate God in some way. We can also see how man must be thoroughly broken from his pride and self and humbled into the dust in order to see a glory in the Gospel of how God saves sinners as He pleases and to His own glory.
The modern professing “Church” in a large degree has simply lost the God-centeredness of God that is so necessary to the Gospel of grace alone. We think of God being moved by humanity both in terms of what man has become but also in what man can do. Large numbers of people in our country seem to think that if they will do something then God will respond by doing what they want. No longer do people seem to realize that they should pray for God’s will to be done, but they seem to think that they should pray for their own will to be done and in order to get God to do their own will they should do things in order to get Him to do their own will. What a monstrous thing those people have done in thinking that God is so like them that they can manipulate Him! No, God is a God who is only moved for the sake of His own name and it is utterly unworthy of Him and contrary to His nature to be moved to act for anything less than love for Himself and His own glory. The Church should be crying out to God to show forth His glory based on Himself, but instead She wants earthly things for Her purposes.
God Loves... Himself 
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