Repeating the Gospel

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“The church, when it’s not seduced by consumerist spirituality, is in the business of cultivating ordinary Christians, people who are united to Christ by faith and are in it for the long haul, like people in a good marriage. It transforms people, nor by giving them life-changing experiences but by repetition, continually telling the story of Christ so that people may hear and take hold of him by faith. For we do not just receive Christ by faith once at the beginning of our Christian lives and then go on to do the real work of transformation through our good works. We keep needing Christ the way hungry people need bread, and we keep receiving him whenever we hear the gospel preached and believe it. So what transforms us over the long haul is not one or two great life-changing sermons (although these can be helpful from time to time) but the repeated teaching and preaching of Christ, Sunday after Sunday, so that we never cease receiving him into our hearts.”

Phillip Cary – Good News for Anxious Christians, (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2010), p.133

Seeing Some of the Unreached Peoples of the World

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(HT: Justin Taylor)

Why We Must Be Unapologetically Theological

 

Kevin DeYoung writes:

If I’m not mistaken, our church has a reputation for being quite theological.  I know this is why many people have come to our church.  And I imagine it’s why some people have left, or never checked us out in the first place.  But no church should apologize for talking about and loving theology.  Now–and this is an important caveat–if we are arrogant with our theology, or if our doctrinal passion is just about intellectual gamesmanship, or we are all out of proportioned in our affections for less important doctrines, then may the Lord rebuke us. We should not be surprised theology gets a bad name in such circumstances.

But when it comes to thinking on, rejoicing in, and building a church upon sound biblical truth, we should all long for a richly theological church.

I could cite many reasons for preaching theologically and many reasons for wanting to pastor a congregation that loves theology. Let me mention six:

1. God has revealed himself to us in his word and given us his Spirit that we might understand the truth.  Obviously, you don’t need to master every theme in Scripture in order to be a Christian.  God is gracious to save lots of us with lots of gaps in our understanding.  But if we have a Bible, not to mention an embarrassment of riches when it comes to resources in English, why wouldn’t we want to understand as much of God’s self-revelation as possible?  Theology is getting more of God. Don’t you want your church to know God better?

2. The New Testament places a high value on discerning truth from error.  There is a deposit of truth that must be guarded.  False teaching must be placed out of bounds.  Good teaching must be promoted and defended.  This is not the concern of some soulless Ph.D. candidate wasting away in front of microfiche. This is the passion of the Apostles and the Lord Jesus himself who commended the church at Ephesus for being intolerant of false teachers and hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans.

3. The ethical commands of the New Testament are predicated on theological propositions.  So many of Paul’s letters have a twofold structure.  The beginning chapters lay out doctrine and the latter chapters exhort us to obedience.  Doctrine and life are always connected in the Bible.  It’s in view of God’s mercies, in view of all the massive theological realities of Romans 1-11, that we are called to lay down our lives as living sacrifices in Romans 12. Know doctrine, know life. No doctrine, no life.

4. Theological categories enable us to more fully and more deeply rejoice in God’s glory.  Simple truths are wonderful.  It is good for us to sing simple songs like “God is good. All the time!”  If you sing that in sincere faith, the Lord is very pleased.  But he is also pleased when we can sing and pray about how exactly he has been good to us in the plan of salvation and in the scope of salvation history. He is pleased when we can glory in the completed work of Christ, and rest in his all-encompassing providence, and marvel at his infinity and aseity, when we can delight in his holiness and mediate on his three-ness and one-ness and stand in awe at his omniscience and omnipotence.  These theological categories are not meant to give us bigger heads, but bigger hearts that worship deeper and higher because of what we’ve seen in God.

5. Theology helps us more fully and more deeply rejoice in the blessings that are ours in Christ.  Again, it is a sweet thing to know that Jesus saves you from your sins.  There’s no better news than that in the whole world.  But how much fuller and deeper will your delight be when you understand that salvation means election to the praise of God’s grace, expiation to cover your sins, propitiation to turn away divine wrath, redemption to purchase you for God, justification before the judgment seat of God, adoption into God’s family, on-going sanctification by the Spirit, and promised glorification at the end of the age? If God has given us so many varied and multi-layered blessings in Christ, wouldn’t it help you and honor him to understand what they are?

6. Even (or is it especially?) non-Christians need good theology. They may not thrill to hear a dry lecture on the ordo salutis. But who wants dry lectures on anything? If you can talk winsomely, passionately, and simply about the blessings of effectual calling, regeneration, and adoption, and how all these blessings are found in Christ, and how the Christian life is nothing more or less than being who we are in Christ, and how this means God really does want us to be true to ourselves, but ourselves as we were born again not as we were born in sin–if you give non-Christians all of this, and give it to them plainly, you’ll be giving them a whole lot of theology. And, if the Spirit of God is at work, they just might come back looking for more.

There is no reason for any church to be anything other than robustly theological. Churches will still come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. But “atheological,” or worse yet “anti-theological,” should not be one of them.

5 Leadership Signs Your Movement is Dying

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For ‘movement’ read ‘church.’  This is insightful stuff from Jared Wilson:

One or two of these in isolated instances are likely handle-able. A pattern of any one or any combination of these signs in a pastor or the leadership culture of a church likely indicate a stalled or dying movement.

1. Insulation from criticism and/or interpretation of any criticism as attacks or insubordination.

Of course there is such a thing as malicious attacks, divisiveness, and nitpicking busybodies. But too many leaders treat all criticism as on par with those sins in an attempt to deflect or retaliate against any challenge to their sense of authority or rightness. In some cases it gets really bad when affected leaders treat any question, no matter how innocently or sincerely asked, as an affront to their authority, or when leaders cultivate a system that prevents questions, criticisms, challenges even reaching their eyes or ears. The minute leaders start insulating themselves from valid criticism is the minute they begin exalting themselves. And exaltation of anyone but Christ is death. Self-reflection, accountability, and openness to sharpening/correction are musts for healthy biblical leadership.

2. Paranoia about who is and who isn’t in line.

If a leader is constantly worried about who’s on their side and who’s not, who’s saying or thinking what about them behind their back, who can be trusted and who can’t, who are allies and who are obstacles, etc. etc., he is entering a world of insecurity that is hostile to the confidence of Christ’s righteousness. And really, most times a leader frets about who may not be unquestionably submitting to his leadership it is a sign he’s already lost credibility and trust. (Very closely related to this red flag is the tendency some pastors have to think of their people largely as statistics, consumers, assets, or liabilities, rather than as, you know, people.)

3. Need to micromanage or hold others back from leadership opportunities or other responsibilities.

Was it Luther who said, “All of us are ministers; some of us just happen to be clergy”? I don’t know, but I like it. Good leaders don’t just hand off responsibility but authority. A leader who micromanages trusts only in himself. Therefore, a leader who won’t trust other gifted and authorized leaders doesn’t trust God. And leaders who don’t trust God cannot lead life-giving movements.

Pastor, you can’t and shouldn’t do it all yourself. It’s not healthy for you and it’s not good leadership of your church to attempt shepherding it as a one-man show. Nobody wins in that situation, no matter the glory it may earn you and the comfort it may afford others. That’s all temporary, and therefore so will be your movement.

4. Impulse to horde credit and shift blame.

Leaders who claim all the credit and clout for successes and deny any responsibility for failures aren’t leaders but self-righteous glory-hogs. Self-righteous glory-hogs will eventually find themselves denying responsibility for the failure of the movement they spent a lot of time taking the credit for. Healthy leaders on mission understand that double honor comes with double responsibility.

5. Progression has become reaction.

Ever heard pro-Calvinism preaching that sounded more like anti-Arminianism? Or vice versa? Good leaders know that emphasizing what they’re for more than what they’re against is vital for fostering forward momentum. It’s okay to criticize or debate in appropriate measures, but so many pastors and leaders make the common mistake, fed by their emotions and the easy provocation of soapboxing, to rail and rant. Such stirring can draw a crowd and stir that crowd’s emotions, which can create a false impression of a coalescing movement. But a collection of naysayers and bitter critics can’t sustain movement over time. The content of our message can absolutely include what the message is not but if the shape of our message is what it is not (or what we hate or who we’re against, etc.) we triumphantly and enthusiastically shoot ourselves in the foot over and over again. It will be a frustrating — and ultimately failing — endeavor of Sisyphean proportions attempting to sustain a movement if it is known more for its denials than its affirmations.

Cultivation of a thankful heart leaves little room for sin

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John Piper explains how gratitude crowds out nastiness and the smallness of your heart:

Gratitude is such a great and wonderful thing in Scripture that I feel constrained to end this chapter with a tribute. There are ways that gratitude helps bring about obedience to Christ. One way is that the spirit of gratitude is simply incompatible with some sinful attitudes. I think this is why Paul wrote, “There must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks” (Ephesians 5:4). Gratitude is a humble, happy response to the good will of someone who has done or tried to do you a favor. This humility and happiness cannot coexist in the heart with coarse, ugly, mean attitudes. Therefore the cultivation of a thankful heart leaves little room for such sins. (Future Grace, 48)

(HT: Kevin DeYoung)

The conditions for our righteousness

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This is the scandal of justification: How can God declare us righteous if we are not inherently righteous? Isn’t this a legal fiction? Doesn’t it make God a liar? But that’s like thinking that God cannot say, ‘Let there be light’ unless there is already a sun to give it. God himself creates the conditions necessary for the existence of his work. When he says, ‘Let there be light!’ the sun exists. When he says, ‘Let this ungodly person be righteous,’ ‘this barren woman be pregnant,’ ‘this faithless person embrace my Word,’ it is so.

When we really understand justification, we really understand how God works with us in every aspect of our lives before him. Christ lived the purpose-driven life so that we would inherit his righteousness through faith and be promise-driven people in a purpose-driven world. He did gain the everlasting inheritance by obedience to everything God commanded, driven by the purpose of fulfilling the law for us, in perfect love of God and neighbor, and he bore its judgments against us. His resurrection guarantees that the law of sin and death does not have the last word over us. He fulfilled the original purpose and commission for human existence, glorifying and enjoying his Father to the fullest. And he did this as our covenantal head, our representative, not simply as a moral example. Just as we were ‘in Adam’ at the fall, we were legally included ‘in Christ’ as he fulfilled all righteousness, bore our sins, and rose from the dead in victory.

— Michael Horton The Gospel-Driven Life (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Books, 2009), 141-142

(HT: Of First Importance)

Paul’s Missionary Strategies and Methods

 

Justin Taylor posts:

Some summaries and conclusions from Eckhard Schanbel’s Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies and Methods (IVP, 2008):

What is “mission”?

Schnabel defines “mission” or “missions” as “the activity of a community of faith” that

• distinguishes itself from its environment in terms of both religious belief (theology) and social behavior (ethics),
• is convinced of the truth claims of its faith; and
• actively works to win other people to the content of faith and the way of life of whose truth and necessity the members of that community are convinced. (p. 22)

Movement and Intentionality

Schnabel sees movement and intentionality as two core components of mission.

• “Jesus asserts [in Luke 4:18-19] that he has been sent by the Lord God to the Jewish people (movement) in order to bring good news (intention).”
• “Paul describes his own mission in terms of movement (sent to the Gentiles) and in terms of intentionality (to proclaim Jesus Christ) [cf. Gal. 1:1, 15-15].” (pp. 25, 26-27, my emphasis)

What did apostolic missionaries do? (pp. 28-29)

1. “Missionaries communicate the news of Jesus the Messiah and Savior to people who have not heard or accepted this news. . . .”
2. “Missionaries communicate a new way of life that replaces, at least partially, the social norms and the behavioral patterns of the society in which they new believers have been converted. . . .”
3. “Missionaries integrate the new believers into a new community. The new converts become disciples. . . .”

Missionaries:

• establish contact with non-Christians,
• proclaim the news of Jesus the Messiah and Savior (proclamation, preaching, teaching, instruction),
• lead people to faith in Jesus Christ (conversion, baptism), and
• integrate new believers into the local community of the followers of Jesus (Lord’s Supper, transformation of social and moral behavior, charity).

Paul’s missionary goals (pp. 34-37)

1. “Paul knew himself to be called to preach the message of Jesus Christ.” [Rom. 1:1; 1 Cor. 2:2]
2. “Paul knew himself particularly called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to Gentiles, that is, to polytheists who worshiped other gods.” [Rom. 1:14; 1 Cor. 1:23;Rom. 1:16]
3. “Paul’s goal was to reach as many people as possible.” [Rom. 1:14; 15:19, 23-24]
4. “Paul seeks to lead individual people to believe in the one true God and in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, Savior and Lord.” [1 Thess. 1:9-10; 1 Cor. 1:18-2:5]
5. “Paul established new churches, communities of followers of Jesus Christ—both Jews and Gentiles, men and women, free and salves—and teaches the new believers the Word of God, the teachings of Jesus, the significance of the gospel for everyday living.” [Col. 1:25-29]

Paul’s missionary methods (pp. 34-37)

1. “The oral proclamation of the gospel was a fundamental element of the missionary work of the early church.”
2. “Geographical movement from city to city, from region to region, and from province to province was a principal element of missionary work in the first century.”
3. “Since the goal of missionary work is to reach as many people as possible with the gospel, Paul went to any locale in which people would be willing to listen to the message of Jesus Christ.”
4. “Since Paul wanted to reach all people in a given location, matters of ethnic identity, class, culture, or gender did not control his missionary focus.”
5. “As people in antiquity were accustomed to encountering and listening to traveling orators, the expectations and the procedures that are triggered in such encounters had to be considered.”

What do you need to make your marriage work?

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Writes pastor and author Timothy Keller in his new (and very good!) book The Meaning of Marriage (Dutton, 2011), pages 47–49:

So, what do you need to make marriage work?

You need to know the secret, the gospel, and how it gives you both the power and pattern for your marriage. On the one hand, the experience of marriage will unveil the beauty and depths of the gospel to you. It will drive you further into reliance on it. On the other hand, a greater understanding of the gospel will help you experience deeper and deeper union with each other as the years go on.

There, then, is the message of this book — that through marriage the mystery of the gospel is unveiled. Marriage is a major vehicle for the gospel’s remaking of your heart from the inside out and your life from the ground up.

The reason that marriage is so painful and yet wonderful is because it is a reflection of the gospel, which is painful and wonderful at once. The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. This is the only kind of relationship that will really transform us.

Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it. God’s saving love in Christ, however, is marked by both radical truthfulness about who we are and yet also radical, unconditional commitment to us. The merciful commitment strengthens us to see the truth about ourselves and repent. The conviction and repentance moves us to cling to and rest in God’s mercy and grace.

The hard times of marriage drive us to experience more of this transforming love of God. But a good marriage will also be a place where we experience more of this kind of transforming love at a human level. The gospel can fill our hearts with God’s love so that you can handle it when your spouse fails to love you as he or she should. That frees us to see our spouse’s sins and flaws to the bottom — and speak of them — and yet still love and accept our spouse fully. And when, by the power of the gospel, our spouse experiences that same kind of truthful yet committed love, it enables our spouses to show us that same kind of transforming love when the time comes for it.

This is the great secret! Through the gospel, we get both the power and the pattern for the journey of marriage.

(HT: Tony Reinke)

The Second Coming and the End of All Things

 

I agree with James Grant‘s concerns about holding to a premillennial eschatology regarding Christ’s return. “One reason,” he writes, “was that I thought the premillennial position diminished the significance of the Second Coming.”

Sam Storms captures this sentiment in a precise way over at his Enjoying God Ministries Blog. He explains:

One of the primary reasons I am not a Premillennialist (neither Historic nor Dispensational) is because of what I read in the NT concerning the Second Coming of Christ.

To be a Premillennialist of any sort, you must believe that physical death and the curse on the natural creation will continue to exist beyond the time of Christ’s return. You must believe that the New Heavens and New Earth will not be introduced until 1,000 years subsequent to the return of Christ. You must believe that unbelieving men and women will still have the opportunity to come to saving faith in Christ for at least 1,000 years subsequent to his return. To be a Premillennialist, you must believe that unbelievers will not be finally resurrected until at least 1,000 years subsequent to Christ’s return and that unbelievers will not be finally judged and cast into eternal punishment until at least 1,000 years subsequent to Christ’s return.

But my reading of what happens at the Second Coming of Christ indicates that then, and not 1,000 years later, physical death is swallowed up in the victory of Christ, never again to exert its power; the natural creation is delivered fully and finally from its bondage to sin; the New Heavens and New Earth are inaugurated; all opportunity for salvation of the lost comes to an end; and both the final resurrection and final judgment of all mankind occur.

You must belong to the local church

 

An excerpt from Joe Thorn’s book Note To Self:

To be a disciple of Jesus you must belong to and work with, for, and through the local church. You need the strengthening, encouragement, and reproof that only the church can give, and you need the church to be faithful to the command of Jesus. God calls his followers to live in community together, loving, serving, sharing, and discipling one another. The church, for all its faults, is essentially connected to God’s mission and our spiritual life. You simply cannot survive spiritually on a weekly worship service, podcasts, and books. You need the community more than you probably realize. You can’t make it alone; nor can anyone else.

(HT: Jude St.John)

The Essence of Reformed Theology

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(HT: Reformation Theology)

From triumphant indicatives to moral imperatives

 

“Our whole life as Christians is a process of sailing confidently into the open seas, dying down in exhaustion, and having our sails filled again with God’s precious promises. We are never at any moment simply under full sail or dead in the water, but move back and forth throughout the Christian life. This is the movement that we find in Romans 6-8, from the triumphant indicative (Rom. 6:1-11), to the moral imperatives (Rom. 6:12-14), back to the indicatives (6:15-7:6), to the exhausting struggle with sin (7:7-24), back again to the triumphant indicative, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25) and the future hope awaiting us for which even now we have the Spirit as a down payment (8:1-39).”

Michael Horton, God of Promise, p. 194

(HT: John Fonville)

How the Gospel Answers the Law

 

Joe Thorn:

The law of God has one ministry, and the gospel has another. They do different things, and though both are important only one offers hope, freedom, cleansing, righteousness, and security. The gospel perfectly answers the law on our behalf.

The law says, “Thou art a sinner, and therefore thou shalt be damned;” Rom. vii. 2.; 2 Tess. ii. 12.

But the gospel says, No; “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;” and therefore “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” 1 Tim. i. 15t Acts xvi. 31.

Again the law says, “Knowest thou not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God; be not deceived,” 1 Cor. vi. 9. And therefore thou being a sinner, and not righteous, shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the gospel says, “God has made Christ to be sin for thee, who knew no sin; that thou mightest be made the righteousness of God in him, who is the Lord thy righteousness,” Jer. xxiii. 6.

Again the law says, “Pay me that thou owest me, or else I will cast thee into prison,” Matt. xviii. 28. 30.

But the gospel says, “Christ gave himself a ransom for thee,” 1 Tim.ii. 6.; “and so is made redemption unto thee,” 1 Cor. i. 30.

Again the law says, “Thou hast not continued in all that I require of thee, and therefore thou art accursed,” Deut. xxvii. 6.

But the gospel says, “Christ hath redeemed thee from the curse of the law, being made a curse for thee,” Gal. iii. 13.

- taken from The Marrow of Modern Divinity

“Spiritual,” because…

The latest issue of The Gospel Coalition’s online theological journal, Themelios is out now. From Don Carson’s editorial on Spiritual Disciplines:

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“People think of themselves as “spiritual” because they have certain aesthetic sensibilities, or because they feel some kind of mystical connection with nature, or because they espouse some highly privatized version of one of any number of religions (but “religion” tends to be a word with negative connotations while “spirituality” has positive overtones). Under the terms of the new covenant, however, the only “spiritual” person is the person who has the Holy Spirit, poured out on individuals in regeneration.”

(HT: Guy Davies)

Digging deep into the gospel

 

“Our great need is to be led further in to what we already have. The gospel is so deep that it not only meets our deepest needs but comes from God’s deepest self. The salvation proclaimed in the gospel is not some mechanical operation that God took on as a side project. It is a ‘mystery that was kept secret for long ages’ (Rom. 16:25), a mystery of salvation that goes back into the heart of God, decreed ‘before the foundation of the world’ (Eph. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:20). When God undertook salvation, he did it in a way that put divine resources into play, resources which involved him personally in the task. The more we explore and understand the depth of God’s commitment to salvation, the more we have to come to grips with the triunity of the one God. The deeper we dig into the gospel, the deeper we go into the mystery of the Trinity.”

— Fred Sanders
The Deep Things of God: How The Trinity Changes Everything
(Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2010), 13

(HT: Of First Importance)

Who Was Fanny Crosby?

(HT: Justn Taylor)

The Spirit Before and After Pentecost

Jared Wilson:

Did the Spirit not prowl the earth, seeking whom he may save before his coming at Pentecost? Is God’s Spirit not omnipresent? How did people love and obey God before Pentecost if we believe, as Jesus said, he would be sent after the Lord’s ascension?

John Piper explains with a neat illustration:

Now let me suggest an analogy to illustrate the experience of the Spirit before and after Pentecost. Picture a huge dam for hydroelectric power under construction, like the Aswan High Dam on the Nile, 375 feet high and 11,000 feet across. Egypt’s President Nasser announced the plan for construction in 1953. The dam was completed in 1970 and in 1971 there was a grand dedication ceremony and the 12 turbines with their ten billion kilowatt-hour capacity were unleashed with enough power to light every city in Egypt. During the long period of construction the Nile River wasn’t completely stopped. Even as the reservoir was filling, part of the river was allowed to flow past. The country folk downstream depended on it. They drank it, they washed in it, it watered their crops and turned their mill-wheels. They sailed on it in the moonlight and wrote songs about it. It was their life. But on the day when the reservoir poured through the turbines a power was unleashed that spread far beyond the few folk down river and brought possibilities they had only dreamed of.

Well, Pentecost is like the dedicatory opening of the Aswan High Dam. Before Pentecost the river of God’s Spirit blessed the people of Israel and was their very life. But after Pentecost the power of the Spirit spread out to light the whole world. None of the benefits enjoyed in the pre-Pentecostal days were taken away. But ten billion kilowatts were added to enable the church to take the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ to every tongue and tribe and nation.

Does God Send Trouble?

B.B. Warfield:

It is because we cannot be robbed of God’s providence that we know, amid whatever encircling gloom, that all things shall work together for good to those that love him. It is because we cannot be robbed of God’s providence that we know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ–not tribulation, nor anguish, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword. . . . Were not God’s providence over all, could trouble come without his sending, were Christians the possible prey of this or the other fiendish enemy, when perchance God was musing, or gone aside, or on a journey, or sleeping, what certainty of hope could be ours?

‘Does God send trouble?’ Surely, surely. He and he only. To the sinner in punishment, to his children in chastisement. To suggest that it does not always come from his hands is to take away all our comfort.

–B. B. Warfield, ‘God’s Providence Over All,’ in Selected Shorter Writings of B. B. Warfield (2 vols; ed. J. E. Meeter; P&R, 2001), 1:110; quoted in Paul Helseth, ’Right Reason’ and the Princeton Mind: An Unorthodox Proposal (P&R, 2010), v

(HT: Dane Ortlund)

JI Packer – God’s Promises: The Foundation of Our Faith

“Faith in the Bible is not, as existentialists make out, a leap in the dark, but rather a step in the light, whereby (to extend the metaphor) one puts one’s whole weight on the firm ground of God’s unshakeable promises . . . The truth is that all faith, at every stage in our Christian pilgrimage, is essentially a resting upon God’s promise. It has the nature of assurance, because it relies on God’s assurances . . .

The heart of the life of faith is in fact the recognition that all the promises which God is recorded as having made to His people in the past are still in principle (not always, of course, in detail, because of differing circumstances) extended to each individual Christian in the present . . .

[T]he promises of God are the ground of faith; for where professed Christians are not living in the joy of the knowledge that all of God’s promises are theirs, the truth is that God’s Word is not being heard.”

J.I. Packer - God Has Spoken

(HT: BibleMesh blog)

The Glory of God as the Goal of History

John Piper:

The supreme goal of God in history from beginning to end is the manifestation of his great glory. Accordingly our duty is to bring our thoughts, affections, and actions into line with this goal. It should become our own goal. To join God in this goal is called glorifying God. The way we glorify God is first to delight in his glory more than in anything else and be grateful for it. Then as a natural result of this joy in God we experience freedom from selfishness and are moved to seek the good of others. Thus love becomes the chief means by which we join God in the open display of his glory, and accomplish his goal in history.

Read the entire article here.