Introduction

As the end of another year draws closer I think it is good that we reflect on the grand goal of history. Having a clear and valuable goal instills hope for the future and gives direction in the present.

This kind of reflection helps us get through difficulties. For example, at points of discouragement in redoing my roof I would think about the water that dripped through the ceiling in the back bathroom. You could see a bulge in the ceiling that ran from the mid-point toward the wall. About two inches from the wall and wall paper it stopped its lateral movement and started dripping where I could catch it in a dish. Reflection on that dripping and potential damage reminded me of my goal: the new roof is to protect every room in the house! That goal gave me hope in the difficulties even with my fear of heights; that goal gave me motivation and direction despite the weight of the lumber, the aggravation of slivers in both hands, and the throbbing pain that I experienced when I hit my thumb with a hammer. My, did that ever smart!

In the midst of our fleeting and fast-paced lives, it is good to stop and ask what am I doing? Why am I doing it? Where am I? Why am I where I am? Why do I exist?

To answer these questions we need to know the great end or goal of history. When that target is in clear focus, then we have a point of reference for everything else. Our theme for this morning therefore is God's chief end.

I will begin with a description of God's chief end (this is like laying a foundation for a building). Then I will mention some difficulties and give clarification (this is like putting reinforcing rods in the concrete foundation). Finally, I will make some application (this is like putting up a building that fits the foundation).

There are a number of key passages related to this topic and I will at least make reference to some of them. But a central passage has to be Romans 11:33-36 where Paul bursts into a doxology due to reflection on the purposes of God that are unfolding in the history of redemption in the marvelous shift from Israel to the nations.

1A. A description of God’s Chief End

In a word, this end is a comprehensive, glorious, and God-centered purpose. If you get lost in any details of my message today, get this point and you have the bottom line: God's chief end is a comprehensive, glorious, and God-centered purpose.

1C. First, working backwards, this end is a purpose.

It is a comprehensive God-centered purpose. Paul says, "from him and through him and to him are all things." Notice the key prepositions: from, through, and to (NIV, literally we have out of or out from, by means of or through, and unto or toward). It is from this last preposition (unto or toward) that the notion of an end is derived. Things are moving toward something. That to which they move is their end.

So the end (God's chief end) is not simply the final unit in a series like "The End" on the last page of a book. Instead, the end has the richer sense of purpose. There is something to be attained, an objective, or a goal. Life is not meaningless. History does not lack purpose. There is a goal. The end toward which things move is the goal set for them.

This first point is very simple and basic and stresses the fact that the end that we are talking about is not a final terminal point but a purpose (goal, objective). We are thinking about God's chief purpose.

2C. Second, it is a God-centered purpose. What is the goal, the objective, the purpose or end of all things? It may be obvious to you.

Before you fix on your answer, let me restate the question. Romans 11:36 can be divided into two parts, two sentences each with a period. Now looking at the first sentence, what is stated as the goal toward which all things move? The goal is God: "to Him" (the covenant keeping God, 11:27-35, His covenant with Israel spills over to all nations)." Perhaps this is so obvious that it goes without saying. But I am not sure that it is that obvious because we keep getting it wrong.

We are here for God. We exist for God. History rolls steadily forward for Him. "The Lord hath made all things for himself" (Prov. 16:4, KJV). He is Himself the great objective and goal of creation (Col. 1:16, "all things were created by him and for him"). There is a personal dimension to the ebb and flow of things. We are not part of a mass of brute forces, facts, and events. Rather, we are part of a mass of forces, facts, and events that serve a person, the Lord God. They serve Him. They are for Him. The point at which all things converge is the covenant keeping God.

3C. Third, it is a glorious God-centered purpose. From 11:36b we have another answer to the question, "what is the purpose of all things?" His glory is the purpose of all things. Paul ends the verse with the phrase "To him be the glory forever! Amen." We obviously have an exalting in the Lord. "Glory" here is not a reference to God’s glorious attributes directly. It does not say that in Him is the glory forever. What we have here is an ascription of glory to God. The goal ends with Him, it is for Him, it is for His glory. I love the way this is put in the children's catechism. "Who made you and all things? God made me and all things. Why did God make you and all things? For His own glory."

Thus He has made the display of His majesty, beauty, perfection, and excellence the grand purpose of history. The end is a glorious God-centered purpose.

4C. Forth, it is a comprehensive God-centered purpose. Comprehensiveness is suggested by the relationship that exists between God’s purpose and the series leading toward it (pointing, leading, moving to it). The purpose is related to the beginning, the middle, the ending of the series, and the series as a whole.

1) Let’s begin at the beginning. All things are from God (Rom. 11:36a). The end is the purpose that obtained from the very beginning (all that is for Him is from Him by creative power). The glorious God-centered purpose explains why there was a beginning in the first place. "All things" were brought into being for a purpose, for God’s purpose, for the purpose that centers on Him, for the grand display of His glory. We can reflect on Genesis 1-2 in this light and ask why did God create the world? Why did light come into being on the first day? Why did He create man on the sixth day? Why did God work in six days and rest on the seventh? Why did He create the heavens and the earth? Why did He create the sun, moon, stars, mountains, valleys, sheep, donkeys, cabbages and kings? We have an ultimate answer: it is for Him, it is for His glory. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the earth and its fullness are for Him.

2) What is in the middle? All things are through Him (Rom. 11:36a). They not only exist by God’s creative power but they move from the beginning to the end by His active agency. This is a condensed way of saying that God is the providential ruler of all that He created. He is the active agent that sustains the creation across time. He is the sovereign Lord of history "who works all things after the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11). It all moves steadily along toward its goal through Him (Rom. 8:28). The middle is the history of the creation.

But we must be more specific. The middle is the drama of redemptive history since the fall. Thinking of the biblical record, redemptive history spans the ages from Genesis 3 to the end of the book of Revelation. This verse (Rom. 11:36a) succinctly tells us that every stage of redemptive history; every part of redemptive history is due to His active agency and is directed to the God-centered purpose, which is His glory. In this connection consider the forceful fact that both God's judgment and His mercy serve this great end of His own glory. Paul says this in Romans 9:22-24 (in wrath He displays the majesty of His power and patience and this serves to accent the riches of His glory displayed in mercy).

We fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). But by the coming of Christ and the gift of righteousness that we have through His death and resurrection we have been made vessels of mercy in contrast to vessels of wrath. Our salvation is inseparably tied to His glory.

Accordingly, this God-centered end dominated the life of our Lord. For example, facing the cross by which He would redeem us, Jesus recoiled but exclaimed, "Father, your will be done, Father glorify your name" (Jn. 12:28; Mk. 14:36). At the middle of the middle in history and in the history of redemption is the life work of Christ. What sustained Him in the hours of suffering? What encouraged Him in the hour of His deepest humiliation? He had a purpose that was eminently expressed in prayer: "Father, glorify your name." Thus in the middle, history, the history of redemption, and the redemptive work of Christ are directed by God for Him, for His own glory.

3) Of course, the series has a final point of termination. It will come one day to the end. This God-centered purpose is related to the final destination point (to the ending). That point in time is ordained by God and will be reached by His providential governance. As He counted out the days of the ancient king Belshazzar (cf. the handwriting on the wall, Dan. 5:26) so He counts out the days of creation history. God has set the terminal point of history in accord with how it will serve His glory. The ending serves His end. The end of a book, how it closes, is also part of what a book is for.

4) This goal that God has is the objective that is realized by the whole series from beginning to end in each part and as a whole (all is for Him, the beginning, the process, the close; each part and all of it together). Every page of the book is directed to His chief end.

God’s end is His purpose that engulfs the whole series from beginning to end governing the middle and transcending both the beginning and the end. He existed before the beginning of history and He will exist beyond the end of history. All things that have been created by God and that are sustained by His providential governance have been created and are providentially sustained for Him. If you ask, "what is the whole series for?" then you begin to take in some of the magnitude of God’s purpose. It is all for Him, it is all for His glory. Nothing is left out of the picture. Nothing occurs unless it serves to magnify the glory of God.

This is a profoundly comprehensive purpose. It is huge, awesome, and magnificent. It takes in the whole earth, the galaxy in which the earth orbits, the galaxies, the universe, the heavens and the earth and their entire host.

5) But the end is found beyond the ending. The purpose of a book is much more than coming to the closing words, "The End." The end of a book is how it impacts you. God’s end or purpose abides into the unending ages of eternity (Rom. 11:36b, "into the ages"). It takes all things in on a historical plane from the beginning to the very end of the history of the creation and beyond that history into the unending ages to come. Heaven is properly defined by one word: glory. This impacts us for our salvation is taken up in that grand end: creation will be delivered up into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:21).

Summary

What I have said so far is that God’s end is a purpose, a design by a personal designer. His purpose is God-centered. It is for Him; it is for His glory. And it is a comprehensive purpose that sweeps across the history of the very universe in its breath and touches the history of you and me in the person of Christ our risen Savior and the Lord of glory.

He is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. All things past, present, and future serve the singular end of God’s glory. His glory must be His chief and ultimate end. It is His most valued and sought after goal. It is His ultimate purpose that does not serve as a means to some further end but it is that which is sought for its own sake and for God’s own delight. It is the final end where all subordinate ends finally come to rest.

2A. Clarification regarding God’s end

There are a number of difficulties that I will touch on briefly. God's own focus on Himself is not a matter of pride (undue esteem of oneself) because He is the best and greatest of beings and He has perfect self-knowledge. Neither is it a matter of humility because humility implies someone greater and there is no one greater. Humility only applies to Christ as God manifested in the flesh.

There is also a full bucket problem here. The "full bucket" problem begins with the premise that nothing can be added to a full bucket. Such is the case by definition. A full bucket is one to which not even a drop can be added. When told of this difficulty my sons always wanted to test the claim by filling a glass and letting the facet drip slowly. A drop would go in and nothing would spill out. So, they would say, "see, you can add to a full bucket." But I would reply, "keep letting the water drip into the glass. When it comes to the point where water spills out every time a drop goes in, then it is full. Then you have to admit that you cannot add even a single drop to a full bucket."

"To him be the glory forever! Amen" in Romans 11:36b does not speak of something added to God’s glorious attributes. As noted earlier, what we have here is an ascription of glory to God. This is the answer to the "full bucket" problem because nothing is being added to the glorious nature of God in all of His matchless perfection. Instead, glory is being ascribed to Him. His glory is being reflected in and through His creation. That is His will, design, and delight. Nothing is being added to His glorious nature. Rather, what He intends is the reflection of His glory through history in general and especially through redemptive history that centers on the risen Lord Jesus.

3A. Application

Now that we have characterized and clarified God’s chief end it is time to note that His great end must also be ours. This is both a logical and an ethical must. There are four lines of thought here by implication.

1) This is an ultimate ought.

Of all the things that we ought to do, this ultimate end is an ultimate ought. Because everything exists for God, for the ultimate end of manifesting His glory, then that must be what we exist for. Everything is from Him, through Him and for Him. Glorifying God must be what we exist (and live) for as well. Therefore, because glorification, praise, and honor will be given Him forever, then it is our obligation to glorify Him now. Because all things are for His glory then we ought to honor Him in all things.

2) It is an appropriate obligation

Because glory appropriately belongs to God, then we ought to acknowledge this fact by ascribing glory to His name and by honoring Him in all things.

Glory rightfully and appropriately belongs to God forever. He is perfect. He is the greatest and best of beings. He is all glorious, perfectly glorious such that no glory can be added to Him and none of His glory will ever fade. This is truth with an exclamation point. It is an enduring amen (Rom. 11:36b) because He is perfectly and abundantly glorious. Thus, it rightfully and appropriately belongs to God as something to be ascribed to Him by His creation, especially by man, the highpoint of His creation.

3) It is a fitting duty

Furthermore, we are designed to be His image bearers. This means that we were created in order to reflect the beauty of His holiness and truth in the world He has made for Himself. This is an ethical duty par excellence because it is a duty that arises from human nature by creation. Because we are His image bearers who are made for the express purpose of reflecting His glory, then it is a fitting duty that we now pursue all our days on this earth.

4) It is a filial duty, a duty of childship to God

Finally, this is a goal that God seeks more than any other goal and He seeks this goal as a final end in itself with nothing further beyond it for which it is a means. His glory is not a means to something else! It is also true that as His children, we ought to follow His example. He seeks this grand end as His chief end; therefore, we ought to seek it likewise as our chief end. It is His ultimate end so it should also be our ultimate end. For Him all other ends serve this end; likewise, all other ends that we pursue should serve this end of bringing honor and glory to His name.

This is of course confirmed all through Scripture. "Whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31).

It is God’s chief end and therefore it ought to be our chief end as well in submission to the risen Lord Jesus.

In a marvelous way this doctrine instills hope for the future and gives direction to the present as we face difficulty and discouragement along the way. It is a final reference point: to Him be the glory forever, amen.