Doing It For God's Glory

"Do everything for God's glory," "Do everything for God." These are all things we hear, maybe on a daily basis. Are they biblical (and therefore true)? Yes. But what does it really mean? What does it mean that we were created for God's glory? These are questions that I have been probed to investigate and work on. Do I have the answer yet? No. But I do have a few initial thoughts that may differ from what we normally hear. 


First of all, I had to deal with the sense that these truths made it seem as if God was selfish. Well, God's not! God is holy and perfect. NOTHING we can do can bring God more glory. Nothing us imperfect, sinful, righteousness-as-of-filthy-rags humans can do can make God more holy, glorious, and perfect. You can not do enough for God!!!! I'm sorry if that has been your life goal, to do enough for God, but you cannot! What Jesus did for YOU is what makes you righteous in God's eyes. Jesus is our advocate, and He intercedes for us before God. You cannot do enough for God; you deserve hell and nothing less and it is what God did for you that makes what you deserve the opposite of what you receive. 


And that leads to the second thing. We cannot lose track of what God wants to do for us. To be a Christian simply for the things God can give you is wrong, but we cannot lose track of God's awesome love for us that wants the best life possible for us. God WANTS to bless you and lavish His love on you. Please don't lose track of that and become a Christian self-deniest that shuns away all blessing because "you live for God." 

"If we were not allowed to speak of what we value and celebrate what we love and praise what we admire, our joy would not be full. Therefore, if God is truly for us, if he would give us the best and make our joy full, he must make it his aim to win our praise for himself. Not because he needs to shore up some weakness in himself or compensate for some deficiency, but because he loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can only be found in knowing and praising him, the most beautiful of all beings.

God is the one Being in all the universe for whom seeking his own praise is the ultimately loving act. For him self-exaltation is the highest virtue. When he does all things "for the praise of his glory" as Ephesians 1 says, he preserves for us and offers to us the only thing in all the world which can satisfy our longings. God is for us, and therefore has been, is now, and always will be, for himself." 

By the way, I didn't say or think of that . . . John Piper did in a sermon in August 1980. That'll mean something to some of you.