Seeing & Savoring Jesus Christ – Chapter 1
January 2, 2012Reflections on the First Chapter Entitled…
“Seeing and Savoring the Glory of God – The Ultimate Aim of Jesus”
by Pastor Kenny Burchard email me here
Was Jesus really (really?) thinking about “ME” … Above All… ?
Have you heard the popular worship song by Michael W. Smith entitled “Above All”? Here are the lyrics to the chorus…
Crucified - Laid behind a stone
You lived to die - Rejected and alone
Like a rose - Trampled on the ground
You took the fall - And thought of me - Above all
Okay, if you’ve known me a while, you’re going to know that I would LOVE that song until the last three words of the chorus. Is it really true (and therefore, should we sing) that ABOVE ALL Jesus was thinking about ME? Seriously! Is it possible that Jesus actually had another thing driving him to the cross that was an even greater motivation than his love for the human race? To ask it another way, is there anything, say, in the 10 commandments, that is the precursor to love for people, and actually necessary in order to love people they way God loves them?
Chapter one, I think, answers this question powerfully. Jesus was motivated by love, but that love was motivated, shaped, and empowered by something even greater… LOVE FOR GOD – and the primary desire to glorify God!
Chapter Review
The first chapter begins with an assumption about the mindset and motivations of Jesus. I think it’s the right assumption, by the way. Piper believes (and I think he’s right) that Jesus was primarily motivated by a desire to glorify God. This accounts for what Piper observes in the life of Jesus – and ultimately, in the death of Jesus. Piper is suggesting that ABOVE ALL – Jesus wanted to bring glory to God.
Piper builds toward this conclusion by beginning with creation itself. I like this quote, where Piper is discussing the appropriate response to doing something as simple as looking through a telescope and the vast beauty and immensity of the universe…
“The physical eye is meant to say to the spiritual eye, “Not this, but the Maker of this, is the Desire of your soul” (p. 14)
In other words, when we look at what God has made, God’s intention is that we would ultimately look to him. That’s why the scriptures tell us that the heavens “declare the glory of God.” In that sense, Piper’s belief (and mine) is that God’s primary motivation in creating everything – including the human race, was to demonstrate His own glory! SO – for a person to live in the world and not primarily desire to glorify God would be to violate his/her own purpose for existing in the first place.
Some Applications & Insights
When we violate the purpose for which something was created, we destroy that thing. When humans violate their own purpose for existing, they destroy their identity. They ruin themselves. Jesus, then, will come to fulfill the purpose of God for the entire human race, which is to glorify God. It will be his only and highest aim. In doing this, he will redeem (restore, put back into place, make right, set straight) the purpose for the existence of the entire human race in himself.
For us, the pursuit and the goal is to be “More Like Jesus.” This speaks to our motives! Why do I live? What is my purpose for doing this or that? Why am I making these choices, or following these paths? Is it for the glory of God above all? If not, it is possible that I will actually cause my own ruin, and do something that leads to my own self-destruction.
With this in mind, I suggest the following lyrical change (not that it will happen) to Mr. Smith’s chorus…
Crucified - Laid behind a stone
You lived to die - Rejected and alone
Like a rose - Trampled on the ground
You took the fall - For you loved God - Above all
Interaction & Dialogue
Okay – let’s interact… (use the comment post section below to interact with me, and with each other. I also suggest checking the response boxes so that you will be alerted when there are new comments).
1. What are your primary insights from your reading of this chapter?
2. If you were trying to explain what it meant to “Live for the glory of God” how would you describe it?
3. What do you see in Jesus that is either new, or a reminder of something that you have always known and loved about Him?
Follow Jesus,
Pastor Kenny
It was very interesting to me that as I read the Intro and chapter 1 earlier this evening, the sunset here at the coast was absolutely phenomenal. Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God.” It was a very real picture right in front of my eyes of the heavens declaring the glory of God. How does He do that? His perfect timing.
Also while reading, I was remembering the Shorter Catechism (Westminster) that the kids and I memorized while homeschooling.Question 1: “What is the chief end of man?” To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
I believe I haven’t even scratched the surface of what this means, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and this comes thru a relationship with Jesus. I want to learn to recognize when and where I allow the disorder to come into my day(s). To recognize, readily when I am trading the treasure of knowing God’s glory for self, images, material things, etc. To quickly know when “me” has become WAY to important.
I quote a part of the prayer at the end of chap 1, “Wean us from our obsession with trivial things. Open the eyes of our hearts to see each day what the created universe is telling about your glory. Enlighten our minds to see the glory of your Son in the gospel.”`
I want to See and Savor Jesus the way God intended for me.
Darlene – I have always like the Shorter Westminster Catechism definition for the “Chief end of man.” I think it is right on. Whenever we want to know God’s will for something, we must go back to the FIRST place that he spoke about it. Insofar as it concerns humanity, God said… “Let us make man in our image and after our likeness.” God’s will is for the human race to bear his image and be in relationship to God. In this, Jesus becomes the human ideal. he IS the image of the invisible God, and he never violated relationship with God. He glorified God – and is/will enjoy God forever – as will all those who come to God in him.
Responses:
Insights from chapter 1: His original design remains unchanged. We are (I am) created to be in relationship with our Creator. God is delighted when we seek Him and His will, and is glorified as we respond to Him in obedience coupled with praise and worship. Piper said, “We were made to know and treasure the glory of God above all things; and when we trade that treasure for images, everything is disordered.” In AW Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God” appears, “In the deep heart of the man was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come…Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and “things” were allowed to enter…Men have…no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer”. I must right (reorder) my life by embracing God’s intent and desire to be the center and focal point of all that I do. Any thing and all things which have usurped the throne of God must be displaced, in the Name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
To “Live for the glory of God” is to follow the example of Jesus:
•to seek the will of the Father in prayer, and to submit my will to His.
•to love God and to love others.
• to share the gospel of God’s love and His grace in healing
One thing I know and love about Jesus is that He is the way to restore our relationship with God. Piper says, “The healing of the soul begins by restoring the glory of God to its flaming, all-attracting place at the center.”
Cary –
Powerful stuff, bro!!
Your insights remind me of two “synonyms” for Creation & Fall…
“ORDER” and
“DISORDER”.
In God’s original “order” – creation (especially the HUMAN part) is in right-relationship with him, deferring to him, submitting to him, and reflecting his image. Disorder (fall) happens when this alignment is shifted, and man puts his own will, ideas, thoughts, and pursuits above God’s original order.
Any time I choose my own will over God’s, I am perpetuating the fall, and increasing its impact on the world – rather than reversing it (as Jesus does).
Jesus “re-orders” the human race by being the man who returns to the original created intent for all humans. He re-aligns himself with God’s purposes – even to the point that the disordered creation collides with him – and kills him. BUT – God vindicates the Son of God by raising him from the dead, and establishes a NEW ORDER – a redeemed humanity. Jesus, FIRST-BORN! One way that I express what it means to come to Jesus is to align myself with Jesus, and to dis-avow my allegiance to “The man from the dust.” Jesus is the NEW HUMANITY. He puts things back where they belong in relation to God. Man is back where he was supposed to be… He is (1) At God’s side, and (2) Exalted by God, and (3) Submitted to God’s will alone. I love your tie-in to Tozer. I think your quote works perfectly with what Piper is saying.
Good stuff, my friend! ~ Kenny
I am so glad that you recommended this book! And I how Piper, and you in your reflections, are able to communicate some really deep truths in such a straight-forward way. There is a lot to think about in chapter 1 alone.
I really appreciated the emphasis of chapter 1 – the glory of God. It really put everything into perspective. If this was emphasized more in our churches and in our homes, what a difference there would be! Piper pointed out that everything – including us – is not meant to be about anything other than God and that when we make it about anything (or anyone else) then there is disorder. That disorder comes from exchanging God’s glory for LESSER things. When we think about that, it seems so completely foolish; yet, how often I do NOT think about it and do it anyway. Aaaaggghhhh! Piper says that exchange (which leads to our misery) is the ultimate sellout. “We are all starved for the glory of God, not self…there is greater healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is in beholding self.”
I’m not sure that I could adequately explain what it means to live for the glory of God, let alone come close to understanding His glory. But I do know that it requires being intentional – not just reacting, not just responding, not just coping, not just existing. It requires a focus on God first and foremost which comes out of love, gratitude, and also a (correct and healthy) fear of Him. From that focus should come obedience to Him and loving others (ALL others). I want to live this way, and I want to always desire to live that way. Like Piper prayed, “Help [my] unbelief. Forgive the wanderings of [my] affections and the undue attention [I] give to lesser things.”
There are so many things I love about Jesus, but I think the things I am most in love with regard to this chapter would be that He is the way that we can have a relationship with God the Father because of His sacrifice and that He didn’t live life about Himself. He lived for the Father and for His glory. Oh to be more like Jesus!
Amen! He alone is worthy. Jesus, we fix our eyes on you with the single desire of being “conformed into your image.”
Yes, Sharon, I was struck by that too. It’s not an “exchange” in the sense that I think of “exchange” where you sort of ‘trade’ one thing of a certain value for a different thing OF THE SAME VALUE. It is more like what I would describe as a “sell out” or being “taken.” Guess that’s why we call it deception. A trap.
I’m really liking the weaving of different scriptures around a single thread of the Truth and mystery of God and who He is. It makes me feel like I am coming to a better understanding of a sense of Yaweh–not that I have the understanding fully. But as if the puzzle is being fitted together so as to start to reveal the whole image. In this book, Piper seems to effortlessly articulate the truths of Scripture which seem dichotomous, “In one sense, Christ laid the glory of God aside when he came”…”but in another sense, Christ manifested the glory of God in his coming.”
Liking it.
LOL! Kenny, I just read your response to Ch. 1 and I think you should send that suggestion along with your post from Piper’s book to MWS!
What you said, “Piper is suggesting that ABOVE ALL Jesus wanted to bring glory to God”, made me think of our family devotion on Sunday morning at home. We were reading in chapter nine and I was struck by the word “resolutely” (NIV–don’t be a hater) in v. 51. “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”
I like your lyrical suggestion, because a love for humanity could never compel or cause one to be resolved to endure such a thing as the weight of the sin of the world. His love, His thought, His motive could ONLY have been the glory of God. I’m quite certain I have misinterpreted Heb. 12:2 to understand that the “joy set before Him” was due either to saving ME (:-) all about me again, right?) or to sitting down at the right hand of the Father.
Piper’s assumption, which you point out, is that the “joy set before Him”–the reason He “resolutely set out for Jerusalem” was due to glorifying His Father–and rightly/righteously/resolutely/purposefully so. I see this to be true in my life also as I reflect on moments (most of which only God is aware because any glorification of Him came in my MOTIVE [which only He can know] and not as a result of a deed that I performed) when I know I felt God smiling at/upon me. That is what I would describe as pure ‘joy.’ It’s the addiction that compelled me to go to the mission field and share the good news, it’s the reason I fall apart OFTEN when I worship, it’s the “fix” or touch of His presence that I must have each day. I cannot be without Him and do ANY good. A day, a moment without Jesus is a day or moment without good or joy.
Additionally, there is an end to any and all love for humans/humanity–at some point–it is not sustainable because…well…we suck. There is always a point at which we realize that OUR LOVE of another on this earth AND even THEIR LOVE for us will not be reciprocated, received or even understood. Conversely, love for the Father always goes on because He is perfect and endLESS and always brings us back around to Himself with understanding, reception and reciprocity that causes us to cast our ‘would be’ crowns before Him in worship–which results in… joy…to the glory of God.
Oh Lord, who is man that you are mindful of him? Since we were created to bear your glorious image, please search our hearts and minds and souls and spirits and remove all that does not reflect You. “He must become greater and I must become less.” Jn. 3:30