Today, like most of you, I will take a seat in the auditorium of a church where Scripture will be taught. The faithful, weekly, proclamation of the Word will inevitably increase the congregation’s understanding of the person and character of God, the purpose and plan for His people, and ultimately, provide new passion for the truth and depth of the Gospel.
In his book, God is the Gospel, John Piper writes,
“The ultimate good of the gospel is seeing and savoring the beauty and value of God. God’s wrath and our sin obstruct that vision and that pleasure. You can’t see and savor God as supremely satisfying while you are full of rebellion against Him and He is full of wrath against you. The removal of this wrath and this rebellion is what the gospel is for. The ultimate aim of the gospel is the display of God’s glory and the removal of every obstacle to our seeing it and savoring it as our highest treasure. “Behold Your God!” is the most gracious command and the best gift of the gospel. If we do not see Him and savor Him as our greatest fortune, we have not obeyed or believed the gospel.”
Certainly, the Gospel in regards to our salvation brings our previously bound and dead mind to a new understanding of the Lordship of Christ, however, the full understanding of the Gospel and all its facets will continue to sanctify our minds and hearts, bringing our knowledge and motivations into stronger harmony with our Creator. On a foundational level, growth in Scriptural knowledge will lead to greater understanding of our inherent weakness and furthermore, a greater understanding of God’s inherent superiority in all points.
“On a foundational level, growth in Scriptural knowledge will lead to greater understanding of our inherent weakness and furthermore, a greater understanding of God’s inherent superiority in all points.”
Calvin points to the importance of the Gospel for the weak man, stating,
“Seeing such an example and such a picture of man’s great weakness and fickleness, Paul states that the truth of the gospel must supersede anything that we may devise … he is showing us that we ought to know the substance of the doctrine which is brought to us in the name of God, so that our faith can be fully grounded upon it. Then we will not be tossed about with every wind, nor will we wander about aimlessly, changing our opinions a hundred times a day; we will persist in this doctrine until the end. This, in brief, is what we must remember.”
The pursuit of understanding the God in all His majesty is no small task.
Paul, in his writings to the church of Ephesus, prays for the power from the Holy Spirit to strengthen them to better understand the “breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:18-19)
Understanding the love of Christ is our ultimate goal, yet it is not an earthly attainable one. Our “sanctification process” is merely our quest in that direction. It is a powerful truth to realize that no matter how much knowledge of the Gospel we accumulate, we still have an eternity of study to go.
I believe our recognition of this immense and humanly impossible mission is, in itself, glorifying to God.
“It is a powerful truth to realize that no matter how much knowledge of the Gospel we accumulate, we still have an eternity of study to go.”
God is not impressed when we, through human systems and invention define what we personally believe God to be, setting aside the mysteries and declarations laid out in Scripture by Him. I strongly believe God is glorified in our hearts and magnified in this world when we realize the vast intellectual chasm between ourselves and God – not as a license to quit seeking, but rather a reason to seek all the more. The riches of God and His Gospel are inexhaustible, and our pursuit of understanding is eternal.
For this reason, we glorify God in our intellectual weakness and hope for the day when we, in new bodies, will truly see our King.
Engaging Culture 