God’s Exaltation, Our Exhilaration
In order to know why we exist in the world and to discover what will satisfy us most deeply, we need to experience the heart-altering, soul-shattering truth that will stamp authentic happiness on our souls forever. We must come to grips through the revelation of the Spirit that not us, but God is supreme or uppermost in the heart of God. The exhibition of God’s glory and infinite worth of God’s beauty is what fulfills our pleasure. In other words, God treasures Himself most supremely, and God Himself is the highest summit for humans in the quest for satisfaction. God is radically God-centered, and the blazing core of our affection should be wrapped up in the triune Godhead. Ultimately, God is the chief [end] of every longing heart, and the superior end for His affections.
When we ponder the essence of God being God, we can’t escape the reality that in Christ, He is the “[fullness] of joy,” and at His right hand are “pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). In Christ, there is an infinite durability of supreme pleasure. God’s self-glorification as the pinnacle of our satisfaction is rooted in the blazing center of God’s supreme regard for His own divine excellence. At the foundational level of our happiness, the exaltation of God’s glory in the everlasting treasuring of God’s delight in Himself, is the chief end of our fulfillment. In other words, our treasuring of God is deeply rooted in God treasuring Himself. Ultimately, God is not a means to some other end in our lives, He Himself is the end. And before we can see God as the ultimate end or the central delight of existence, we must see that God is radically preeminent in His own affections.
God didn’t send His Son into the world as a means of gaining something “better” or more valuable. Neither did He send Him in search of something He loves more than His Son. This would be utterly blasphemous and speak falsely of an insufficiency in the Trinity. To save ourselves from falsely worshiping humans, we must see that God’s Son is the superior delight in His own affections. Before the foundations of the world or before there was anyone else to love, His Son was the blazing center of His everlasting happiness. Therefore, He sent His Son into the world to publicly display the highest treasure in His heart, and in doing so, He demonstrates the greatest act of love: exalting the infinite treasure that our souls were created for. That’s the essence of God’s love toward us. In the design of creation, God Himself must be made central for our highest enjoyment, simply because God alone is the supreme being of eternal fulfillment. The foundation of our happiness in the glory of God is the delight He takes in His own glory. Therefore, God is supremely happy. God’s happiness in Himself is the foundation of our happiness in God.
It’s utterly crucial to be won over by the truth that God alone “[satisfies] the longing soul, and [fills] the hungry soul with goodness (Psalm 107:9).” But in order to experience the satisfaction or fulfillment of eternal pleasures, we must realize that God is central and completely satisfied in His own affections, and He exalts Himself—not us, but Himself—as the stunning gratification of reverential significance. In the Himalayas of God’s infinite worth, He magnifies or exhibits His intrinsic beauty for the highest happiness of the redeemed saints. The glorification of divine perfection will be our ultimate love song. We see this in, 2 Thessalonians 1:10, where Jesus is “[glorified] in His saints and to be [admired] among all those who believe” at His return. We exalt God when we marvel at who He is. We will “extol with tongue” (Psalm 66:17) and rejoice with praise in the coming King, who will have the “name which is above every name (Philippians 2:9),” including ours. In our present age, and in the culmination of history, our satisfaction and ultimate longing won’t be found in the finite flesh of fallen creatures, but the “fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13) will be the eternal stream that satisfies the longing saints! Humans will be entirely entranced in the eternal worth of God’s unilateral enthronement. God’s passion for the upholding of His glory will stun the masses, and our ultimate cry of God’s perfection will reverberate globally. Every ear will hear the worship of God’s beauty; every knee will bow–whether willingly or not, at the splendor of God’s holiness.
John Piper relates this idea that “in order to experience God as our deepest treasure, we have to see that [God treasures Himself more than anything], and in order to love God most deeply, we have to see that God loves God more than anything (paraphrase).” To intensify our longings for the pleasures of God’s God-centeredness, our soul centralizes their hearts entirely in Him alone—not us, but God—as the dominant force of divine supremacy. God is radically God-centric, and He designed creation to find ultimate satisfaction and delight in the centrality of Himself. We see in Habakkuk 2:14, “for the [earth] will be filled with [the knowledge of the glory of the Lord] as the waters cover the sea.” In John 17:26, the intercession of Jesus is directed towards His Father, and declares with blazing passion, let “[the love with which You loved Me] be in them, and I in them.” In other words, Jesus is declaring the highest goal in the heart of God—I want everyone to experience the intensity of love that You have for Me! We will only understand God’s love for us by coming to grips that God is fiercely in love with Jesus, and He loves us most deeply by simply exalting or showcasing the intensity of love that He has for Himself and His Son. We don’t feel the most loved, by God making much of us or by making ourselves central for the Godhead, but God exploding zealously upon the human heart the greatest satisfaction of love in existence. God’s aim in the happiness of creation is by catching them up into something greater than themselves, and opening their eyes to the extraordinary devotion of eternal pleasures: namely, the infinite delight worshiped within the fellowship of the Trinity.
The glorification of God and the unmatched adoration that He has in Himself is the epicenter of our supreme joy. God delights in the Person of Love Himself. And Jesus interceding to His father in John 17:24, He prays over all believers, “I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may [behold My glory],” is the greatest aim of love towards us. In the intercession of Jesus before the Father, beholding His glory is offering, extending, and inviting us into what will satisfy us most deeply: namely, Himself. Therefore, it is the most loving thing God could possibly do: to exalt His everlasting glory for the deepest exhilaration of my happiness. In Christ praying for us to behold His glory, is Him asking the Father, fill them and reveal to them what will satisfy them the most profoundly.
In the pleasures of God’s sovereign will, He didn’t create man to make ourselves central for Himself, but to make Himself central for the enjoyment of man. That’s the greatest act of love. The exaltation of God doesn’t make Himself an egotistical maniac on behalf of creation, but displays Himself as the most loving being in the universe, because the “emanation [or the outflow] of His glory…implies the happiness of His creatures (Jonathan Edwards).” In other words, God by exalting or magnifying His glory is [seeking] out our happiness. He is loving us when He exalts His glory. In the communications of God towards humans, the public display of His glory makes evident our highest treasure, namely: Himself. God’s outer demonstration of glory is our inward longing for satisfaction. But on the opposite spectrum, God keeping Himself away from us would be the most unloving act He could possibly perform. Therefore, God displaying Himself is simply the greatest demonstration of love, for in the communications of God, He’s giving us what will satisfy and enthrall us forever. John Piper states, “love labors and suffers to enthrall us with what is [infinitely and eternally satisfying], namely God. That’s what love does.” Therefore, in order for God to love us most deeply, He must exalt Himself—not us, but Himself—for in Christ, eternal satisfaction and infinite joy is found.
As we will see, the deep-seated nature of love displayed in the cross is found in 1 Peter 3:18, which says, “Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might [bring us to God].” The ultimate expression of God’s love displayed in the cross of Christ, was that He sent His Son to suffer by abolishing all obstacles that stood in our way to everlasting enjoyment. God died to bring us to pleasures forevermore. That’s why God didn’t die to make myself central, but He died to make the pleasures of God become the blazing center in my everlasting happiness. That’s why the self-exaltation of God is the highest, deepest, and purest avenue of quintessential love. In God’s design, it’s important to realize that God didn’t create us out of need or through an insufficiency that wasn’t met in the Trinity, but He created us to exalt what He was perpetually burning for: His Son, whom He infinitely loves. Therefore, the same love that has been exploding in the Trinity before the foundations of the earth, God is inviting all to behold the grandeur of unbreaking adoration in the Godhead (see Matthew 17:5; John 17:26). Ultimately, love is an invitation into what will satisfy and enthrall us forever—not us, but God.
Blaise Pascal once stated that “the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable Object, that is to say, only by God Himself.” In Isaiah 43:7, we see that we were “created” for the glory of God. We can’t fill the “infinite abyss” with finite objects. There is an infinite abyss that stands openly unsatisfied in the endless chasm of our souls that will never be met through humanistic effectuation. There is an internal driving force inside all of us, and we are undeniably blazing with passion to be happy and searching for what will satisfy us most deeply. But time and time again, through the tormenting guilt of an unsatisfied conscience, we’re endlessly searching and constantly returning back to our vomit. Through the constant attempts at obtaining happiness in this lifetime, we know all too well that our search isn’t over yet, and we’re simply fed up with constantly seeking out answers, but never achieving the pursuit of lasting happiness and contentment. Our earthly search for happiness ends in absolute vanity, even ending our attempts with thoughts of quixotic uncertainty. Our search for significance might seem realistic in the beginning, but through the turbulence of constant anguish, our brave attempts for joy release their rage into doubtful territories, whether we want to admit it or not.
We wake up each morning unsatisfied, and yesterday’s attempt of fulfillment didn’t carry through on its promises. We seek out self-admiration or self-satisfaction as the highest aim of our achievement, only to be let down by the emptiness of ourselves, and others. The black abyss that we constantly try to fill with materialistic objects, and thinking that it’s going to make me happy this time, only leads to deeper depression, a shattered self-esteem, and even suicide for others. We will bravely attempt great things for the sake of happiness, only to realize that in the end, we’re desperately aching for something more sustaining. We question if we will ever find “it,” and after attempting multiple avenues in our pursuit of enduring joy, we ask ourselves, will we ever obtain happiness on earth? That’s the question of the century, and the answer is a breathtaking yes, but the object of our pursuit and where we find happiness is profoundly paramount.
Therefore, self-exaltation or humanistic achievement is not the answer to self-love, self-fulfillment, or human-based happiness. We weren’t wired or designed to be the answer to our own destiny, happiness, or satisfaction. We live in a supremely man-centric age, and while we tend to think that external forces will be the answer to our deepest needs, we only end up destroying ourselves by looking within for happiness. I strongly believe that self-help or self-fulfillment is the leading cause of self-depression. Self-exaltation is the purest form of self-hatred; self-obsession or self-reflection is self-destruction. That’s why many of us feel cracked to our core, because we pursue happiness in vain by giving ourselves to idols of emptiness—people or objects that weren’t created to satisfy. We weren’t meant to find satisfaction in ourselves, or to find solutions through self-help methods. God created the world for humans to find the answer in Himself. Psalm 36:8—9 says, “they are [abundantly satisfied] with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. For [with You is the fountain of life]; in Your light we see light.” In Psalm 16:11, God makes known “[the path of life].” In Matthew 5:6, only those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness shall [be satisfied].” Happiness and satisfaction is found only in God, and when we try to drink deeply from the pleasures of this world, we will only experience continual emptiness, until we come to see that God Himself abundantly satisfies the thirsty soul.
C.S. Lewis says, “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” The foundation of our happiness is the “glorious gospel of the blessed [or happy] God (1 Tim. 1:11).” The good news of the happy God. We can have a fighting chance to be happy in this lifetime, because the Father is the happiest being in the universe, and the foundation of God’s happiness is the intensity of eternal love that He’s had for His Son “before the foundation of the world (see John 17:24).” His happiness is the erupting flame of love for His Son, and the deepest aim of His love towards humans is by offering us what will satisfy us most: the exaltation of the love He has for His own glory, and my highest happiness in the satisfaction of that glory. God’s exaltation, our exhilaration. God’s glory, our joy. And other people were never designed to fulfill the deep longings for significance. That’s why Paul in Philippians 3:8—10 said that he, “counted everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.” In the third chapter of Philippians, Paul knew that everything he was searching for was found in the intrinsic beauty of God’s infinite excellence, and he counted everything else as rubbish [or garbage], in order that he may “gain Christ (3:8).” In order to create the solution for what will satisfy us most highly, God must exalt Himself as the deepest pleasure of our souls. God is the only being in the universe in whose self-exaltation is the highest aim of love. God loves us most deeply by revealing what will satisfy and enthrall us most. Ultimately, the exaltation of God’s glory is the highest exhilaration of human happiness.
And when it comes to resolving the problem of happiness, we can’t copy God in His self-exaltation. If we exalted ourselves, we would be most unloving, and even deriving ourselves from what will truly satisfy us. But God in exalting God, the aim of His self-glorification is for the everlasting joy of our soul. If God Himself is the highest treasure and the deepest pleasure in the universe, then God exalting Himself is seeking out or making known what will satisfy us most. The glorification of God’s God-centeredness is the vertex of everything we’re searching for. Every ache of brokenness, every encounter of loss, and every feeling of unbearable pain is met by God’s infinite sustainability. God, in demanding us to worship Him, He is offering us what will satisfy and enthrall us forever, and that is the highest aim of love in God’s demand to be worshiped and praised: glorifying Himself for the happiness of His creatures.
In conclusion, ask yourself this question: why do people visit the Grand Canyon or why have people for centuries given themselves to the studies of the universe? Because gazing at the magnitude of the Grand Canyon or standing in awe at the boundless heights of the universe, produces a reverential exhilaration in the human soul. There’s something glorious, exhilarating, and assuring found in looking outside of ourselves. That invigoration of the soul undoubtedly declares the satisfaction that we were not made to be the focal point of our existence. Maybe the universe, the oceans, the mountains, and the endless expansions are but streams that lead us into the grandeur of God’s self-exaltation. We are wired for something deeper, and more significant than ourselves. God’s exaltation, our exhilaration.