God Loves… Himself

Acts 4:27 “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.

The passage just above is truly a remarkable passage of Holy Writ that teaches us that Herod, Pontius Pilate, and then both the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel simply did God’s purpose. In other words, the criminal acts of all the people there God had purposed and predestined to happen. The crucifixion of Jesus has been called the greatest criminal act in history and certainly it was a horrible crime, but this event was according to the purpose of God. As Job 42:2 says, “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.” As Job endured much suffering that he knew was by the hand of God and not by accident, so we can know that things did not spiral out of control with God watching helplessly as Christ was crucified. Instead of that, this was His plan and His purpose which He brought to pass by His own hand.

Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;

Isaiah teaches a great truth that the purpose of God is connected with His good pleasure. What God in reality purposes that will be accomplished because it is the pleasure of God to do so. Well, it could be and is argued, how could God have any pleasure in the sufferings and death of His Son? Whether we understand it or not, we must bow to the Word of God when this is declared. Read the words of Isaiah 53:10 carefully and see if your heart rises in rebellion at this: “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” The LORD was pleased to crush the Messiah. He was pleased to put Him to sufferings and grief. But how are we to understand this?

We can only understand this if we look to the character of God as triune and with His pleasure being focused in manifesting His own glory out of love for Himself. Ephesians 1:11, in the context of the eternal plan of salvation and of the grace in obtaining this, says that “we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.” It cannot be denied that Scripture teaches that God works all things in accordance with the counsel of His will and according to His good pleasure. Notice how the context of Ephesians 1:11 sets out the character of God.

5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will [lit., good pleasure of His will] 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation– having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

What this passage demands is a God that is absolutely sovereign who works all things in accordance with His pleasure and has pleasure in all He does. When Scripture tells us that God predestines and does so according to His good pleasure, we can ask the simple question of what does God have pleasure in. Does God have pleasure in the sinner and so save the sinner or is God’s pleasure in Himself as triune and that is the reason that He saves sinners? Does God behold His Son with pleasure or does He behold His enemies with pleasure? Scripture is quite clear and testifies that God beholds His Son with pleasure. God has pleasure in sinners by manifesting His glory in and through His Son by them.

God’s love for God is seen by the Father’s eternal plan of purposing to save sinners by His Son as well as by the cross of Jesus Christ where His wrath was satisfied on His Son. We can see that God’s love for Himself as triune and the manifesting of His own glory is so great that He was pleased in His own glory even as the Son of God in human flesh was on the cross suffering divine wrath. This love has an infinite source and an infinite object because it is God’s love for God. Human beings must understand that they can only share in this love by grace alone as that alone is fitting for a God who loves Himself and His glory. The only true love in the universe has as its origin and source the triune God, and so for a human being to truly love that human being must be loved of God. The only way to be truly loved of God is to be in Christ and so share in the love of God for God. If we reflect on this but a moment, we can see the order of the Greatest Commandment and the Second Greatest Commandment reflected in this as well as the connection between the two. The triune God must be truly loved for the true origin and source of love to be present in the heart of the one loving. There is no love for other humans apart from a true love of God because God must be the source and origin of all true love, but He must also be the object of all true love as He can only truly love Himself as the true object of His own love.

In a very real sense the motive for all created things was and is the love of God for God. There is no need that God can possibly have and there can be no greater motive than His own glory for anything to exist. While men speak of the covenants that God has made with men, and rightly so, the real covenant or agreement was made within the Trinity from all eternity. Apart from the eternal covenant within the Trinity, there could be no other covenant. This shows the utter dependence that all things and all human beings have on God each moment. This also shows the very nature of sin in that man wants to be dependent on no one but self and trust in self.

1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

Acts 17:24 “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.’

In the passage above (I Corinthians 8:6) it shows the teaching of Paul concerning the utter dependence of believers on God and the reason for their existence. All things are from the Father and all things for Him, yet all things are by Christ and all exist through Him. In a sense this is a commentary on Romans 11:36 and shows that it reaches deeper than we might think: “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.” All comes from the Father through the Son and then back to Him. Believers are from the Father through the Son and the glory is to Him. That is the purpose of God in all that He has created. All things were created in order to manifest His glory and yet He desired to manifest His glory out of love for Himself as triune.

In the Acts 17 passage we see the utter dependence of all human beings on God, whether they recognize this or not. God made the world and all things in it. As we think through this, we can see that this great God is not served by human hands for several reasons. One, He has no need and so cannot be served. Two, He is the One that gives all who have life and breath their life and breath and all things. Three, He has sovereignly determined the times they would live and where they would live. Four, it is in Him that human beings live and move and exist. This is utter dependence on display for those who have eyes to see. There is nothing more helpless than a dead person, yet God alone is the One who keeps people from being dead. It is God alone who gives people their life and breath and all things, so clearly He is not dependent on them for one thing. When it is taken into consideration that all these people that He gives life and breath and all things are sinners against Him and worthy many times over of His wrath, it is clear that He must have a higher reason for keeping them alive and giving them good things. The highest reason is that He does this out of love for Himself as triune.

Human beings are taught by thr world  to love themselves and depend on themselves, but the Bible teaches us that God loves Himself and depends on Himself. There can only be one ultimate love in the universe, so it is either right for human beings to love God with all of their being or to love themselves with all of their being. A person can only depend and trust in one in the ultimate sense and so each person must either trust in God completely or in self. It is the height of arrogance and pride for a human being to trust in self when it is God who gives each human being life and breath and all things. It is the height of pride for a human being to love self over all when in fact that is to make self a God and try to make all others serve him or her and to make self a rule for self and others as well. It is out of love for Himself that God provides what He provides for people and it is a horrible sin when people take what He has given out of love for Himself and try to use it to love themselves with.

The battle over who will be Lord over each person is a battle that cannot be escaped. The lie of the devil that Eve believed was that she would be like God, knowing good and evil. That same lie has spread to all humanity and has blinded man to the great love God has for God and the Great Commandment that men are to love God with all of their beings as well. God’s love for God is the basis for all things and it must be what men depend on or they depend on self. Depending on self is to be like the devil.

Acts 4:27 “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.

In this prayer to the Father, we know that Peter and John were present along with others. It is most likely that this prayer was from either Peter or John or both. However, when we look at this text the driving question has to do with why God’s hand (His doing) and His purpose (intent and motive) predestined (decreed) this to occur. We are told that Jesus was the Beloved Son before the cross and the resurrection in whom the Father was well pleased (Mat 3:17; 17:5;) as well as the Beloved Son after the resurrection and ascension (Col 1:13). Since the triune God is immutable and is the same yesterday, today, and forever, it is quite safe to assert that the Father has always loved the Son and the Son has always loved the Father and so it was out of the love of the triune God that the trial and crucifixion of Jesus happened.

John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

John 14:31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.

In His prayer to the Father just before He went to the cross, Jesus said that the Father loved Him. Before Jesus headed off to the cross He said that He was going there so that the world may know that He loved the Father. In other words, Scripture speaks of the Father’s love for the Son and the Son’s love for the Father in direct connection to the cross. To put it plainly, the cross of Jesus Christ was decreed from all eternity for the pleasure of God and to demonstrate the love of God for Himself. Indeed the salvation of sinners was planned and carried out in this as well, but sinners could not be saved by grace alone apart from the glorious fact and that God primarily did this out of love for Himself. If the primary love the Father had in sending the Christ to the cross was for sinners, then the Father would be guilty of idolatry. If the primary love the Christ had in going to the cross was for sinners, then He would have sinned in violating the Greatest Commandment and so could not have saved anyone. It was not His love for sinners that held Him to the cross, but instead it was love for the Father.

One might argue this, however: “For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). But that is not a denial of the love that the triune God has for Himself as His primary motive. It can be true that God loved the world, but it can also be true that He had a higher love and motive in loving the world. Had God planned to love the world (Jew and Gentile) before the foundations of the world? Did God plan to love Jew and Gentile before He created the world? Again, He created the world and decreed all things that were to happen out of love for Himself and His own glory. He did not create Jew and Gentile so He could have objects of His love, but because of His perfect object of love (the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father) within the Trinity God could create in order to display His love for Himself in many ways. The triune God must have a perfectly holy reason, purpose, intent, and motive in order to love. That can only be found within Himself.

Clearly all things regarding the cross were predestined before the world began. Human beings were created in order to grant or allow some to behold the glory of Christ which was given to Him by the Father. Why did this happen? Because the Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world (see John 17:24 above). It is that love which the Father loved the Son with that the Son prays would be in His people. What we have, then, is a glimpse into the love of the triune God which is the real motivation, intent and cause of all things that were created and then all that has ever happened or will ever happen. Not only did God have to decree and predestine something for it to happen, He did so for the best of purposes. It was out of love for Himself. Since there couldn’t be a greater love, there couldn’t be a greater motivation or purpose. If we love God, we wouldn’t want it to be different.

When the first verse of Genesis says that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” there was an eternity past that preceded those words and actions. Before the truth of Genesis 1:1 was spoken and acted, there was an eternal plan for what was to happen both in Genesis 1:1 and then for all of history and then eternity future. God did not create without a plan for all things and He did not create without any intent or motivations. God’s plan, intent, and motivations for creating anything and all things reveal what He desired to do and reveals a lot about Himself as well. That plan and His intent and motivations also reveal a lot about what He desires to do now which has a lot to do with the purpose and meaning of human life.

Revelation 4:11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will [pleasure, KJV] they existed, and were created.”

Psalm 135:6 Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.

Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; 11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.

The three passages above show with great clarity that what God does He has planned and what He does He is pleased to do. According to Revelation 4:11 God is worthy to receive glory, honor, and power for He created all things and it is because of His will and pleasure that they ever existed at all. Whatever the LORD is pleased to do He does regardless of what it is that He wishes to act. This shows that God is pleased in what He does and that He can do whatever it is He is pleased to do. In the context of Psalm 115:3 we can see that it is the very definition of God to do whatever He pleases. “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” The so-called gods of the heathens can do nothing, but real God can do and does what He pleases and what He pleases He can do.

The God of the Bible who is the creator and sustainer of all things is the God who has purposes and then carries them out. He is able to declare the end from the beginning because He has sovereignly ordained what is to be done and He has decreed what would be done. What God has decreed to be done will be done and in saying that He shows that His purpose will be accomplished and in that all His good pleasure will be accomplished. What God has planned, He will do it and no one can stop Him. But these statements do not in and of themselves get at the issue of why God does things. We can see that He has an eternal plan and that He carries out all His good pleasure, but that does not tell us what He has pleasure in or why He has planned what He has planned.

We can also know from the Scriptures above that God is a God of pleasure and is not the great Stoic in the sky and is not the god of Deism who has simply started things and then backed off without a lot of care over what is going on. Instead, this God who created had a purpose in what He did and He had pleasure in what He has done. Not only that, but He had an eternal plan to carry out and in the details of life His plans are being carried out. We must keep digging and not let the laziness of our minds try to stop our souls from beholding His glory at times like this.

Why did God create all things? We can know that it was His pleasure to do so. But what does God love the most and perhaps what is the singular focus of His love? God loves Himself as triune. All that He does is out of love for Himself. All things were created through Christ and for Christ: “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). Everything that happens is for the sake of Christ which tells us that the God of love (as triune) has in some way planned all things for the sake of Christ who carried out all things out of love for the Father. The universe declares the greatness and glory of a God who out of love for Himself as triune created all things and sovereignly planned and decreed all that would happen. In this way we can see the Father beholding His beloved Son in all that happens and the Son beholding His beloved Father in all that happens as the glory of the triune God shines forth in all that was created and all that is done. God does not just do something out of a bare will, but He does it out of love for Himself as triune. It is holy for Him to do so.

In searching out in admiration what it means for God to love God, we must be careful not to confuse fallen human love with what a perfectly holy love is. We must also not think of God’s love for God as being a fallen love for Himself but rather think of His love for Himself as a love within a triune being. This changes everything. So while it may have to wait to show those things, for the moment those things have to be assumed or we will arrive at some wrong conclusions and ideas. It is at just this point that so many go so far wrong. God does not save sinners because He is love and must love sinners, but instead He saves sinners because He loves Himself and therefore can save to the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph 1:5-6).

Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

As we try to go back for a moment into eternity past (conceptually), once again we can try to think of the same God that Moses came into the presence of in a bush that burned but was not consumed. This God told Moses to go and lead His people out of Egypt, which was the most powerful nation on earth and rather enjoyed the free labor that the Israelites were giving it. Moses was told to go tell the sons of Israel that “I AM has sent me to you.” This “I AM” was and is the God who existed in and of Himself and was and is totally self-sufficient. He needed no one and nothing, so He simply commands Moses to go and lead His people out. He, God, would take care of all else.

In an analogous sense we can imagine the triune God before there was anything but Himself. He existed in and of Himself in His perfect self-sufficiency. He had not need and lived in perfect companionship and love within His triune being. Why would a God like that create when He had no need at all? It would be impossible for Him to create something that would provide Him with something He did not have already or could do something for Him that He could not do. The only rational reason that we can come up with is that this God created all things simply for His own pleasure. What is it that God would have pleasure in? He could only have a true pleasure in Himself because He alone is perfectly holy and perfectly beautiful. But part of this true pleasure in Himself is His love for Himself. The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. The Father could have no higher love than for His Son and the Son for the Father. So when the Scripture speaks of the pleasure of God and the love of God, at the least they are connected at the highest level.

Revelation 4:11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will [pleasure, KJV] they existed, and were created.”

Romans 11:36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.

Psalm 115:3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

Psalm 135:6 Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.

Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;

The verses above declare to us that God does as He pleases. When God does something, He does so because it pleases Him to do so. God was pleased to create so He created. It was because of His pleasure that anything ever existed and it is because of His pleasure that anything exists now. But think of The Gospel of John and Colossians 1:16 when this is thought of.

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”
Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him.

In the previous two passages we see the great truths that nothing whatsoever came into being apart from Christ and whatever has come into being came into being through Him. Not only is it true that it was by Him that all things were created, but all things have been created through Him and for Him. The mountains were created because of the pleasure of the Father in and through the Son and vice versa. Human beings were created because of the pleasure of the Father in and through the Son and vice versa. All things exist to declare the glory of God which He has pleasure in and this is right and this is holy. Why did God create? He created because He loved Himself within the Trinity and because it pleased Him to manifest His glory to Himself in doing so. May all the earth bow before Him in utter reverence because all things exist at His mere pleasure and He is glorious in that.

Before there was anything but God, what was God like? What did God do? What did God like to do? Did God love before anything was created? If so, what did He love or to whom was His love directed? When God did create, why did He create anything at all and why did He create what He created? Why did He create the things He created the way that He did? These are questions that observation will drive us to and they are also questions that we would want to be answered if we really want to get to the root reasons and issues of all things. These are also questions that drive us to see something of who God really is and why there is meaning and what that meaning is for all of creation. In other words, we have to view the world as totally centered and focused on God Himself and all things coming from Him and for His purposes or we are lost adrift in a sea of meaninglessness.

Several years ago a philosopher (John Rawls) wrote a book on justice. He said that in order to find out what would be a just act one would have to basically go into a room and look at the issue in and of itself apart from all other interests. While that is at best questionable in terms of whether people can really do that or not, it does give us a window into something. Before God created the world and there was only God, what would move Him to create anything at all? If we take the Trinity as the basic doctrine of God, then we have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and absolutely nothing else. This helps us to understand what it means when Scripture uses the phrase “God is love.” If Jesus Christ in His divine nature has always been the same and will always be the same, then He was love before anything or anyone was created. God existed in perfect love before there was anything or anyone other than Himself (as triune).

Some deductions from the concept that God existed in perfect love from all eternity are rather enormous. From all eternity the immutable God has existed in perfect and infinite love within the Trinity. God the Father loved the Son with a perfect, infinite, and immutable love from all eternity. God the Son loved the Father with a perfect, infinite, and immutable love from all eternity as well. It could not be anything other than this. God the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of love, lived in a perfect communion of love with the Father and the Son. When the Father loved the Son He loved Him in and by the Spirit and when the Son loved the Father He loved Him in and by the Spirit. This would mean that it is impossible for God (as triune) to do anything that was not motivated by a perfect, infinite, and immutable love for Himself (as triune).

The ramifications from the previous paragraphs are simply beyond the ability of man to know fully, but we must press on to know Him as He was and is. The answer of why God created is rather obvious, but a few verses of Scripture will impress the absolute truth of this on minds and hearts.

Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

Isaiah 43:13 “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”

Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

Psalm 93:2 Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.

These passages of Scripture show with great plainness that God is from eternity and that He is the I AM of the universe apart from whom nothing could exist because nothing could have being apart from Him. Whatever God was like from eternity determines the reason and purpose for all things both now and for eternity future. While these things cannot be known to their depths by finite minds, they can be known as certain and they can be admired and seen with reverence and awe. For the moment we can see that God created all things with purpose and that He created all things for His own purposes. Human beings have to learn to look beyond themselves for the real purposes and goals of life. They must learn to see that the triune God who is perfect love is the one who assigns purpose and meaning and not human beings. God is God and we should bow hearts and minds before Him.