Like Fine Gold, Transcendently Pure

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. (Psalm 63:1-4 ESV)

My Brothers and Sisters, let us remember that our God is not just any god, but absolutely sovereign, transcendently pure, self-existing, self-sustaining, incomparably beautiful, all-knowing, all wise, all governing, all upholding, all defining, infinitely valuable, and all satisfying. Thank you, John Piper, for reminding us of these unique attributes of our God.

This is our God and much, much more. I don't just know about God; I see and savor God because of who He is. If I do not see God this way, I cannot be in love with him. I would be placing my passion elsewhere. It is only because of the sacrifice of his Son that I can come to know God, and to come to know God is the only way I can come to love God. It is how I can see and savor God. This is the all-encompassing love of the gospel of Jesus, a love that is not just a feeling but a deep, personal, and transformative relationship with our Creator.

Our relationship with God is not stagnant but an ever-expanding circle. Imagine a rubber cord with a weight on one end. As you spin it in a circle, the flexibility of the rubber combined with the weight causes the length of the cord to expand. Similarly, when we seek and savor God, when we desire him above all things, our love for God causes the glory of God to be expanded. The more we are satisfied and fulfilled in God, the more God is glorified, raised up by our love and desire for Him and for His love for us, which causes us to love and be satisfied in Him even more, which again increases His glory. It's a never-ending circle that grows exponentially with each revolution of the exchange of love and glorification.

Ultimately, our love is not derived from God making much of us but from His enabling us, at the cost of the life of His Son, to be satisfied and make much of Him. So, if you express your love for God by doing good works in His name, you must also expand the knowledge and love of God in those receiving the works. In doing so the depth of your love for God will continue to expand as well. If you do not make this a part of your works, you are denying the lost the opportunity for God to reveal the gospel to them. Our works are God-centered this is something that is often overlooked. Works become man-centered, and the gospel is lost by the wayside.

In 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 Paul writes, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The gospel of Christ's glory is found in God's image. The light of the world is Jesus, and if we love God, we are, out of love, expanding this light in others. If we are helping others just to be good, we miss the point. The love for God is not a man-centered love but a God-centered love. People might have a problem with this saying God is vain or a megalomaniac, but God is undeniably the center of everything.

God is the center of everything and is to be loved and savored because His love designed everything, and everything belongs to him. He is exocentrically “like gold.” Eternally existent, there is nothing more valuable or desirable than God. God is priceless, and our relationship with God is a treasure only made available through His love and our faith.

Is God your treasure? Are you intrinsically satisfied with God? If so, you glorify God as He deserves to be worshiped. Are you part of and contributing to a never-ending growth of love and glorification? If not, are you really loving God, or just the attention He can get you? Which is it?

Grace and Peace!