4/22/2010

Some Reflections after reading portions of Desiring God by John Piper


Yesterday I briefly touched on God's sovereignty and the chief end of God. We have noticed that Piper's theme so far is that all things (including God Himself) result in glorifying God. There are many rabbit trails that are fun to discuss in a basic theology course and on a blog site such as this one. So the good, the bad, and the controversial – all are things I plan on discussing here on this blog. So if you are looking to actually understand the book Desiring God and read what Piper thinks I would recommend the book, but understand that this blog is a mix of Piper's ideas along with other theological ideas and not just Piper's ideas. Today I want bring some of yesterday's rabbit trails back around and introduce another topic. Yesterday we asked why the chief end of God makes logical sense. And we looked at God's sovereignty for the answer. Ps. 33:10-11 (NASB) tells us "The LORD nullifies the counsel of the nations;
He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation." Ps 115:3 "our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases." We see here that God has the ultimate plans and His plans stand forever. His plans are absolute while man's plan gets frustrated. God is the end all and has the right to do whatever He pleases. There is none higher than Him. None of His purposes can be frustrated. Here is the new introduction: If none of his plans can be frustrated than He must be the happiest of all beings. And because He is the happiest being, He is the source of strength for the Christian who is living to glorify Him. Now comes the proposed rebuttals and arguments, which will be left for further discussion in the next few blogs,"If God is so happy, why does He need to be glorified?""How could God be so happy if sin is such a large part of the human lifestyle?""If God is seeking His own glory does that not go against the Christian teaching?" These and many more questions will be looked at soon. For today we have plenty to contemplate.