 Why did God create the world?
Why would a unipersonal god create a world of worshippers? So he could get worship; so he could get servants; so he could get adoration. But a tripersonal God does not need that. The tripersonal God already had it (See John 17). So why would a tripersonal God who already has infinite happiness, infinite joy, infinite love; why would a tripersonal God who already has this infinite personal communication of joy and love; why would he create a world? It’s obviously not to get that mutual communication of love and joy; but to share it. He didn’t create a world to get happy. He was already infinitely happy. He didn’t create a world to get love, he was already infinitely filled with love. He created the world to share it. If this is true, and I believe it is, then this says something remarkable about why you exist and how you can be happy. Your absolute, highest purpose and meaning and the only way you’ll ever be happy is if you are glorifying God above all other things. Now let me be blunt. Living by the motto, “If you don’t make much of me, you are not loving me” is the reason you’re unhappy. Your paradigm for life is off the mark. Your absolute, highest purpose and meaning and the only way you’ll ever be happy is if you are glorifying God above all other things. George Marsden wrote a biography of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was a minister in the 18th century who wrote a book called The End for Which God Created the World (or the purpose for which God created the world). Edwards believed the Bible taught what we just said. Marsden, in his biography, tries to summarize this thesis of Jonathan Edwards. “It is consistent with the nature of God, who is essentially loving, to create a world of beings and communicate that love and delight he had in himself to them. Perfect goodness, beauty, and love radiate from God and draw his creatures to ever increasingly share in God’s joy and delight. How? We do so as we come to rejoice in divine glory as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit already do. We do so as we come not to seek glory for ourselves, but as we give glory to God as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit already are. This process of growth in happiness will go on forever eternally increasing unimaginably" (George Marsden). Did you hear what he said? If we want to share in God’s joy and delight, we need to do as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit already rejoice in divine glory. They already live not for his own glory, but for the glory of the others. Therefore, you will be happy only if you’re doing the same thing. You’re created to do exactly as they do. And to have the happiness they have. And the only way that will happen is if God is the very center of your life. The only way it will happen is if you give God glory. Your absolute, highest purpose and meaning and the only way you’ll ever be happy is if you are glorifying God above all other things. What does that mean? Let’s get practical. Let me try to explain how giving glory to God, living for the glory of God, is the pathway to happiness. For example, if you have recently felt like a failure or you’ve lost face and it’s eating you up inside. Or if you’ve been criticized really strongly and it’s just eating you up - do you know why? Because you’re giving more “weight”; you’re giving more “glory” and “weight” to what people think about you. Maybe you believe God loves you in some way, but what you’re really glorifying, what you’re really ascribing ultimate value to, what you’re really worshiping is what people think of you. If you’re more upset about gaining five pounds than you are about having a sinful habit in your life, then you are ascribing more glory to how you look, to your own beauty than to what God thinks. When God’s approval, when God’s will, when God’s service, when his glory is preeminent in your life, then and only then will you be happy. The only reason we ever are eaten up inside by anything is when we are giving more “weight” or “glory” to someone or something other than God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are infinitely happy because they glorify each other and don’t seek glory for themselves. As long as you’re trying to get your own glory through success or looks or approval or status, you will never be happy. Why? Because you were made to give ultimate weight and glory and worship to the tripersonal God. Your absolute, highest purpose and meaning and the only way you’ll ever be happy is if you are glorifying God above all other things. I’ll conclude with this. We all have been greatly influenced by Enlightenment thought which, among other things, said you should seek your own happiness and God’s great aim is to promote your own well-being. We’re taught to think, “If you don’t make much of me, you are not loving me.” We’re blasted with this idea in our culture today. “The way you love me is by making much of me.” We’re told here, that is an utter and complete lie. The more you live by the motto: “The way you love me is by making much of me,” the more selfish you get, the less like God you become, the more like Satan you become, and the closer to hell you get. The happiness that resides within the tripersonal God shows us the self was meant to be abdicated. The happiness within the tripersonal God shows us the route to happiness is by giving ultimate value, ultimate weight, ultimate glory to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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