God is no idolater; he will have no other gods before him. And one of the most bracing and clarifying and (counterintuitively) steadying things we can do is to rehearse what God himself has told us in Scripture about why he does everything that he does. He is the most God-centered person in the universe, and when we come to see this as good news — that our eternal joy rests on the unshakable foundation of his own God-centeredness — it can make us the most fearless, and happy, people on the planet.

Most Christians are not surprised to hear that God commands us to do all to his glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). What is unnerving to many, however, is to discover that God does everything he does to his own glory. For some of us, we may be happy to live for God’s glory, provided that God reciprocates. We will center our lives on him, provided he centers his life on us.

But God is no idolater; he will have no other gods before him. And one of the most bracing and clarifying and (counterintuitively) steadying things we can do is to rehearse what God himself has told us in Scripture about why he does everything that he does. He is the most God-centered person in the universe, and when we come to see this as good news — that our eternal joy rests on the unshakable foundation of his own God-centeredness — it can make us the most fearless, and happy, people on the planet.

Walk with me from eternity past to eternity future, and let your spiritual lungs fill with the unnerving, and then stabilizing, God-centeredness of God.

Before the Beginning

[God] predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:5–6)

Why did God, from before the foundation of the world, choose a people to be holy and predestine those people to be adopted into his family? So that the glory of his grace might be praised. In fact, two more times in Ephesians 1:3–14, Paul accents that all of God’s saving acts are designed to call forth praise for his glory (“to the praise of his glory” Ephesians 1:12, 14).

The heavens declare the glory of God. (Psalm 19:1)

Why did God make the heavens in the way he did, with a sun that blazes triumphantly across the sky and with billions of stars to bedeck the night? In order to declare his glory. And the heavens are not unique. All of creation declares the glory of God. God designed everything in creation to reveal what he is like. His invisible attributes — his power, his eternity, his beauty, and his character — are made visible in the things that he has made (Romans 1:20). And this includes human beings, whom he created after his likeness so that we might image him in the world in a special and unique way (Genesis 1:26–28).

Through the History of His People

You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. (Isaiah 49:3)

Why did God choose Israel to be his treasured possession among all peoples? So that he might be glorified in them. He caused them to cling to him so that they might be for him “a people, a name, a praise, and a glory” (Jeremiah 13:11).

For this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. (Exodus 9:16)

Why did God raise up Pharaoh to oppress his people and oppose his purposes? So that he might get glory over Pharaoh by demonstrating his power through signs and wonders and plagues, so that his name would be proclaimed in all the earth. God’s judgment and righteous wrath for human sin displays his glory.

Our fathers, when they were in Egypt,
did not consider your wondrous works;
they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,
but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
that he might make known his mighty power. (Psalm 106:7–8)

But wrath is not his only response to sin. When Israel sinned at the Red Sea, why did God not punish them as they deserved? Why did he show them mercy? For his name’s sake. His name is proclaimed and his power made known not only through the destruction of Pharaoh but also in the deliverance of his wayward people. And this is a pattern throughout Israel’s history.

When the people rebel against God in the days of Samuel, why does he not abandon them and leave them to themselves?

For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. (1 Samuel 12:22)

When they rebel again in the days of Isaiah, why does he not cut them off completely?

For my name’s sake I defer my anger;
for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
that I may not cut you off.
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for how should my name be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another. (Isaiah 48:9–11)

God is emphatic. Six different times he insists that his merciful refusal to forsake his people and cut them off is for the sake of his name and his praise and his glory. Even after he sends his people into exile in Babylon, he promises to bring them back to the land. Why?

Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. (Ezekiel 36:22–23)

In fact, over sixty times in the book of Ezekiel, God says that he does all that he does in order that Israel and the nations and everyone “will know that I am the Lord.”

In the Person and Work of His Son

And it’s not just the Old Testament. Why did God send Christ to earth as a Jew?

Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. (Romans 15:8–9)

God will display his truthfulness and faithfulness to his promises, and he will magnify his mercy among the Gentiles as the one in whom they hope.

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