Desiring God by John Piper (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 1.
Today Piper looks at what makes God happy, which is then our foundation for happiness too.
Firstly he teaches us that God is happy because he is sovereign - including sovereign over sin.
Secondly we see that God is happy because he glorifies himself through his Son and his work.
Piper closes the chapter with answers objections to God's self-glorification.
I found helpful Piper's answer to the charge that God sounds sinfully self-centered: 'The answer I propose is this: Because God is unique as an all-glorious, totally self-sufficient Being, he must be for himself if he is to be for us. The rules of humility that belong to a creature cannot apply in the same way to its Creator. If God should turn away from himself as the Source of infinite joy, he would cease to be God. He would deny the infinite worth of his own glory. He would imply that there is something more valuable outside himself. He would commit idolatry.'
We should not project our status as human beings onto God.
He must glorify himself because he is God. And we must glorify him because he is God.
Read Chapter 2.
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
3 comments:
I was expecting to be more convinced that "happy" is a title the scriptures ascribe to God in this chapter. I didn't think Piper did an amazing job of showing that God is happy.
He cites Psalm 115:3 to show God does whatever pleases him. But I would have liked more on the word "pleases". On a plain reading I would have thought the word was more a description of God's power and ability to do whatever he wants. Thus I thought it was a verse more about his sovereignty than his emotions/affections.
Piper goes on: "If none of his purposes can be frustrated, then he must be the happiest of all beings." But here he uses logic rather than the word itself to explain God's happiness.
I really want to like this book. I hope lots of my questions are answered by the end. I'm upset to begin by wanting more details from Piper. But that is where I found myself.
Josh, I must admit that I agree with you.
Before I made the blog post, I looked at the title of the chapter and then the content and did think there was a bit of discord there. Proving the sovereignty of God was definitely the main theme of the chapter.
I'm assuming Piper will prove God's happiness later in the book, now that he has built the foundation of God's sovereignty.
Yeah, I really hope so.
There were some good explanations of God's sovereignty though...
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