But what exactly makes God good? Is God good because He has blessed me with a wonderful, submissive, and Godly wife? Is God good because He has given me a loving and supportive family? Is God good because He has allowed me to acquire a new home, nice vehicles, and clothes for my back? Is He good because I am not in poverty, nor wondering where my next meal will come from? Is He good because my wife and I both have jobs and are financially secure? Is God good because we are all alive and well? What if none of these circumstances were the case – does God then cease to be good? More importantly, if my measure of whether or not God is good is based off of what He has blessed me with, does that make God good or does that make His stuff good? And if this is the case, then where do my affections really lie? Please do not misunderstand me – I am not saying that any of those blessings are intrinsically bad in and of themselves, but rather I am posing the question: “Do I love and desire the Creator or do I love and desire creation?”
Not long ago I heard a sermon by Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor/Teaching Pastor for The Village Church. As the basis for his sermon, he used the text from Romans 1:18-32 (i.e. God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness). The text basically explains how God’s eternal power and divine nature is plain to all men via the creation, however, man in his unrighteousness and foolishness has suppressed this truth and exchanged the glory of God for creation itself. In doing so, man has failed to value God above all else and thus, is guilty of idolatry. Therefore, God in His passive wrath has given these men over to a debased mind in which they are consumed with various manners of sin. Pastor Chandler went on to explain that what happens here is that rather than our affections for the creation rolling up and ultimately manifesting themselves in the praise and worship of God, they instead terminate on themselves and we glorify the created things rather than God Himself. In doing so, we have taken what God has created and ordained ultimately to exemplify His glory and His magnificence and instead perverted it so that we worship what He created instead of the Creator. Then, in our blind and foolish hearts, we continue to seek more and more of what was ultimately meant to glorify God and try to use it to satisfy our hearts and souls – a futile and hopeless endeavor.
To be honest, this was pretty difficult for me to swallow because I knew I was guilty of this very thing. I hadn’t done it as much with the materialistic things as I had with my wife, my family, and the things that made me feel secure. The truth was that my affections for my wife, my family, my friends, and even my livelihood were greater than my affections for God. I didn’t understand it because I felt joy and comfort in those things and I assumed that my delight in them was somehow transferred into delight in God. My confusion got worse before it got better.
I recently began reading a book by John Piper entitled Desiring God. In this book Pastor Piper states “…God is uppermost in His own affections.” His basis for this statement is biblical in the fact that, ultimately, God does everything to glorify and delight in Himself – this is the essence of His sovereignty. From creation, to the fall, to redemption in Jesus Christ and ultimately reaching resolution in the restoration – it is all for His glory. This was even more difficult for me to swallow because in my sinful nature I believed I was uppermost in God’s affections. Isn’t that why God would bless me with all these things…because I am what is most important to Him? Is my happiness not consistently at the very forefront of His mind? As Pastor Piper revealed the next magnificent truth, I realized what I had been missing. All along I had placed such value in the things God had blessed me with because they brought me joy and happiness. I was so confused by not being the center of God’s affections because I thought His whole plan revolved around me being secure and content. All this time, I’d been consumed with my own pleasure and I thought God was too. But here is the kicker – it is not wrong for me to seek out pleasure, however, in seeking out pleasure in the creation I am destined to fail. Then I read the words which have begun to completely transform the way I view God: “God’s quest to be glorified and our quest to be satisfied reach their goal in this one experience: our delight in God, which overflows into praise.”
God is at the center of His own affections because He seeks to glorify Himself in His magnificence, His power, His sovereignty, His love, and ultimately the praises of His people. Therefore, in being uppermost in His own affections, He has given us the perfect thing to seek pleasure in…Himself. Our attempts to find contentment in the creation are futile because the creation was always meant to glorify God – the one true source of joy, pleasure, and peace. I’m still reading through the book and frankly, my attempt to explain this was subpar at best. However, I would encourage you to read through the passage in Romans, honestly evaluate where your affections lie, and pick up a copy of Desiring God – it’s worth the read.
