Brothers, God Is Love!
By John Piper
Standard Article, March 1983
Last fall I spoke on leadership at a men's retreat. I defined spiritual
leadership as knowing where God wants people to be and taking the
initiative to get there by God's means in reliance on God's
power. I suggested that the way we find out where God wants people to be
is to ask where God Himself is going. The answer, I think, is that God
loves His glory (April 1982 STANDARD) and that He aims to magnify His
glory in all that He does.
So that goal of spiritual leadership is to muster people to live
for God's glory.
The objection arose that I make God out to be a self-centered
egomaniac who seems never to act out of love. But in fact I believe God
does act out of love. He is love. We need to see how God can be
for His own glory, and be for us too. We need to see that when God keeps
His first and great commandment He does not cease to keep the second
commandment. The best way I know to show this is to explain how God is
holy, God is righteous, and God is love, and how these interrelate.
God Is Holy
When we describe God as holy we mean that He is one of a kind. There is
none like Him. He is in a class by Himself.
Moses taught Israel to sing, "Who is like Thee, O Lord, among the
gods? Who is like Thee, majestic in holiness, terrible in glorious
deeds, doing wonders?" (Ex. 15:11). Centuries later Hannah, Samuel's
mother, taught Israel to sing, "There is none holy like the Lord, there
is none besides Thee: (1 Sam. 2:2). And Isaiah (40:25) quotes God: "To
whom then will you compare Me, that I should be like him? Says the Holy
One."
God is holy in His absolute uniqueness. Everything else belongs
to a class. We are human. Rover is a dog, the oak is a tree. Earth is
a planet, the Milky Way is one of a million galaxies, Gabriel is an
angel, Satan is a demon. But only God is God. And therefore He is holy,
utterly different, distinct, unique.
All else is creation. He alone creates. All else begins. He
alone always was. All else depends. He alone is self-sufficient.
And therefore the holiness of God is synonymous with His infinite
value. Diamonds are valuable because they are rare and hard to make.
God is infinitely valuable because He is the rarest of all beings and
cannot be made at all, nor was He ever made. If I were a collector of
rare treasures and could somehow have God, the Holy One, in my treasury,
I would be wealthier than all the collectors of all the rarest treasures
that have ever lived.
Revelation 4:8-11 recounts the songs that are being sung to God
in heaven. The first one says, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God
Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" The second says, "Worhty art
Thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power." These two
songs mean the same thing. God is holy means that He is worthy. His
holiness is His immeasurable worth and value. Nothing can be compared
with Him, for He made everything. Whatever glory makes a created thing
valuable is found a million fold in the Creator.
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full
of His glory," say the seraphim above His throne (Isa. 6:3). Habakkuk
cries, "God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Peran. His
glory covered the heavens and the whole earth was full of His praise"
(Hab. 3:3). And the Lord Himself says in Leviticus 10:3: "I will show
Myself holy among those who are near Me and before all the people I will
be glorified."
The holiness of God is the absolutely unique infinite value of
His majestic glory. To say that our God is holy means that He is
beautiful beyond degree in the magnificence of His glory and that His
value is infinitely greater than the sum of the value of all created
beings.
God Is Righteous
At the root, the righteousness of God means that He has a right
assessment of His own ultimate value. He has a just regard for His own
infinite worth, and He brings all His actions into conformity to this
right judgment of Himself.
God would be unrighteous and unreliable if He denied His ultimate
value, disregarded His infinite worth and acted as though the
preservation and display of His glory were worth anything less than His
wholehearted commitment. God acts in righteousness when He acts for His
own name's sake. For it would not be right for God to esteem anything
above the infinite glory of His own name.
Psalm 143:11 says, "For Thy name's sake, O Lord, preserve my
life! In Thy righteousness bring me out of trouble." Similarly, Psalm
31:1 says, "In Thy righteousness deliver me." And verse 3 adds, "For Thy
name's sake lead me and guide me." Similarly in Daniel 9:16-17 the
prophet prays: "According to all Thy righteous acts let Thy anger and
Thy wrath turn away from Thy city Jerusalem. . . . For Thy own sake, O
Lord, cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary, which is desolate." An
appeal to God's righteousness is at root an appeal to His unswerving
allegiance to the value of His own glorious name.
For God to be righteous He must devote Himself 100 percent, with
all His heart, soul and strength, to loving and honoring His own glory.
And that He does. The main point of Ephesians 1 is repeated
three times: God "desinted us in love to be His sons through Jesus
Christ according to His will, to the praise of His glorious grace" (vs.
5-6). "We who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to
live for the praise of His glory" (v. 12). "The promised Holy Spirit. .
. is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,
to the praise of His glory" (vs. 13-14). All of God's work in creation
and redemption is done in order to honor and display His own glory.
God is supremely and unimpeachably righteous because He never
shrinks back from a right assessment of His ultimate value, a just regard
for His infinite worth, or an unswerving commitment to honor and display
His glory in everything He does.
God Is Love
God's love in no way conflicts with His holiness and righteousness. On
the contrary, the very nature of God's holiness and righteousness demands
the He be a God of love. His holiness is the absolute uniqueness and
infinite value of His glory. His righteousness is His unswerving
commitment always to honor and display that glory. And His
all-sufficient glory is honored and displayed most by His working for us
rather than our working for Him. And this is love.
Love is at the very heart of God's being because God's free and
sovereign dispensing of mercy is more glorious than would be the demand
for humans to fill up some lack in Himself. It is more glorious to give
than to receive. Therefore, the righteousness of God demands that He be
a giver. Therefore, the Holy and Righteous One is Love.
Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God's love. And when He came
He said, "The Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to
give His life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).
The Son of Man has not come seeking employees. He has come to
employ Himself for our good. We dare not try to work for Him lest we rob
Him of His glory and impugn His righteousness. The apostle Paul says,
"Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his
due. And to one who does not work but trusts Him who justifies the
ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness" (Rom. 4:4-5). Even when
we work out our salvation in fear and trembling, the only reason we can
will to lift a finger is that God is the one "at work in you, both to
will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).
Though Paul worked harder than any of the other apostles, he
declares, "It was not I, but the grace of God which is with me" (! Cor.
15:10). Therefore, in Romans 15:18 he avows, "I will not venture to
speak of anything except what Christ has wrought through me." Paul is
utterly convinced that no blessing in life is finally owing to man's
willing or running, but to God, who has mercy (Rom. 9:16).
God aims to get all the glory in our redemption. Therefore He is
adamant that He will work for us and not we for Him. He is the workman;
we stand in need of His services. He is the doctor; we are the sick
patient. We are the weak; He is the strong. We have the broken-down
jalopy; He is the gifted mechanic. We must beware lest we try to serve
Him in a way that dishonors Him, for He aims to get the glory. As Peter
says (1 Peter 4:11), "Whoever renders service [let him render it] by the
strength which God supplies: in order that in everything God may be
glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever
and ever."
So God is love, not in spite of His passion to promote His glory,
but precisely because of it. What could be more loving than the
infinite, holy God stooping to work for us? Yet in working for us rather
than needing our work, He magnifies His own glorious self-sufficiency.
It is the stream that glorifies the fullness of the spring. And the
stream that flows from God is love. If He ceased to seek His own glory
He would be of no value to us. But, praise God, He is holy, He is
righteous, and therefore, He is love.
Go back to Contend for the Faith.
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