Reflections on and Admirations of God 15

God all-sufficient must needs be His own happiness; He has His being from Himself, and His happiness is no other than His being radiant with all excellencies, and by intellectual and amatorious reflexions, turning back into the fruition of itself. His understanding has prospect enough in His own infinite perfections; His will has rest enough in His own infinite goodness; He needed not the pleasure of a world, who has an eternal Son in His bosom to joy in; nor the breath of angels or men who has an eternal Spirit of His own; He is the Great All, comprising all within Himself; nay, unless He were so, He could not be God. Had He let out no beams of His glory, or made no intelligent creatures to gather up and return them back to Himself, His happiness would have suffered no eclipse or diminution at all, His power would have been the same, if it had folded up all the possible worlds within its own arms, and poured forth never an one into being to be a monument of itself. Edward Polhill

The understanding and view of the beauty and glory of God manifested by this statement (above) is simply breathtaking. The one and true God is absolutely and utterly self-sufficient and all-sufficient. He needs nothing and no particular person and not even all together. He has His being from Himself and is perfect in all things and in all ways and no one can add anything to Him. He reigns supreme in, though, and above the world and all creation.

This infinitely glorious God exists in tri-unity (Trinity) and as such exists in perfect love within Himself and has perfect and infinite happiness within Himself and His own perfections. His happiness, as noted by Polhill, is simply the radiance (shining forth) of His excellencies. As He shines forth in His excellencies, He has “amatorious reflexions.” The word “amatorious” is derived from amatory, which has the idea of relating to or being expressive of love, but particularly if sexual love. The word “amatory” can be described as have a relation to a stirring of sexual desire. What this points to, then, is not the idea of sexual relations within the spiritual nature of God, but it points to the nature of the love within the Trinity. God the Father shines forth out of Himself and that shining forth is the Son Himself (Hebrews 1:3). But the Son also loves the Father and so we have this strong and expressive love between the Father and the Son. This is a demonstration of at least one aspect of why God is said to be love.

This idea of God having perfect love and joy in Himself shows that “He needed not the pleasure of a world, who has an eternal Son in His bosom to joy in.” The Father existed from eternity and will exist for all eternity future with the eternal Son in His bosom and they have lived in this perfect amatorious love. In this love there is the shining forth of the perfections and infinite excellencies of God and in that shining forth, dwelling in, and admiration of the perfect and infinite joy and pleasure of God did not need an addition, but even more it could not have an addition to it. What could a created world add to a God that had infinite joy and pleasure in Himself? What could a created world do to fulfill a so-called need in the One who had and has and will never have a need? What can a small speck of dust one a planet that is itself a planet in the universe that is called man add to such a perfect and infinite Being?

What can a human being who has ever breath given to him or her do for a God that exists of Himself and holds the very being and every breath of every being in His hands to be given or not given as He pleases? However easy it may be for a human to fall on his or her face in utter fear of such a great God, this great God from a grace that is motivated by Himself and not the sins of men has decided to manifest His glory to these humans and to bring human beings (some) to rejoice and delight in Him and His glory. This God who had and has and never will have a need has created the world and all things in it because it pleased Him to do so and because it is an expression of the love God has within Himself and for Himself. This great and glorious God created all things because the Father loved the Son and the Son loved the Father and they lived in this great and infinite love and in some way this love created all things to display this glory to themselves.

We should just stand back or fall on our faces in admiration of a God such as this. Yet despite all the glory that shines forth in this created world, the cross of Jesus Christ is the roadmap of His glory and is the place where the greatness and glory of God is manifested the most. This great and eternal God has in some indescribable way has manifested His love for His own glory and perfections at the cross and it is there that poor and helpless sinners may behold God and His glory by grace and grace alone.

Leave a comment