The first question in all the great confessions of faith is, "What is the chief end of man?"
And the answer is, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever." But we will
glorify and enjoy God only in proportion as we know Him. The knowledge of God is essential for
salvation, and it is more essential for the true believer than the knowledge of anything else. Our
Lord prayed for His disciples in John 17:3 -- "And this is life eternal, that they might know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." He was praying for their
salvation. And Paul, as a justified sinner, summed up the great goal of his life in Philippians 3:10
-- "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death."
We have seen in our study of God's attributes how that God's glory is the revelation and
honor of His character attributes. We have seen how the highest and greatest manifestation of
God's glory is in the Person and accomplished work of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). Sinners can
only see and experience the glory of God savingly as they see Him honored as the God who
justifies the ungodly based on the righteousness of Christ. It is in redemption through Christ
that we see how every attribute of God's character is honored and magnified as He is both
a just God and a Savior. From this blessed knowledge, the accumulation of more and more
knowledge of God ought to be the highest occupation of man forever and ever. There is that
knowledge of God which is initial saving knowledge, and then there is more knowledge of God
that enables a believer to serve, obey, commune with, pray, and worship God better. All this
knowledge revealed by God is given that men would glorify God. With this in mind, let's
conclude our study of God's attributes by stating what every sinner's response should be to that
glory revealed.
I. FAITH AND REPENTANCE --
We have seen in this study of God's attributes how all the attributes of God are revealed
first as encouragements for lost sinners to flee to Christ for salvation and plead His blood and
righteousness as the only ground of salvation. The first right response to a view of God's
attributes, then, is faith in Christ and repentance from dead works and idolatry (Acts 17:30-31).
Every view of God's holiness, justice, wrath, and hatred of sin, is given to encourage sinners to
seek God's love, mercy, and grace, as it is revealed in God's faithfulness to save sinners conditioned on Christ. God reveals His holiness to expose our sinfulness and the impossibility of
salvation based on our best deeds and efforts. He reveals His goodness and mercy in His
conditioning all of our salvation on Christ and sending Christ into the world to meet those
conditions by fulfilling all righteousness for us. God promises to save all who come to Him
pleading the righteousness of Christ freely imputed and received by faith. He commands us to
repent of ever thinking that anything else could recommend us to Him.
It is impossible for a person to respond in saving faith and true repentance while believing
in a universal atonement and a salvation conditioned on a sinner's faith, repentance, and/or
perseverance. In response to a saving view of God's character, saving faith sees and believes that
Christ met all the conditions and that His righteousness alone demands the salvation and final
glory of every sinner for whom He lived and died. In response to a saving view of God's
character, true repentance is a change of mind concerning the ground of salvation. It admits that
everything before faith was dead works and fruit unto death. True repentance is an ashamedness
over thinking that our faith or our best efforts could recommend us unto God in light of the merits
of Christ and what it took for Him to insure our salvation by His own blood and righteousness.
II. WORSHIP GOD IN TRUTH AND IN SPIRIT --
By nature we have no fear of God, no reverence or respect for the honor of His redemptive character. But when we savingly see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the first
evidence that we fear Him aright is faith and repentance. But it does not stop there. Faith and
repentance lead to worship. Worship means that we recognize, attribute, and honor all the
perfections of God's character revealed in our salvation based on the righteousness of Christ
(Phil. 3:3). Until we do, we do not recognize the perfections of God's nature. As long as sinners
think that salvation is conditioned on themselves, as long as they try to be accepted before God
based on anything else, they do not recognize the perfections of His holiness, righteousness, or
justice, nor of His mercy, grace, and love. Therefore, as long as sinners are ignorant of the only
ground of salvation, they worship an idol! The more dogmatic we are concerning our salvation
based on the right ground, the imputed righteousness of Christ, the more we are enabled to
worship God aright (Rom. 4:3,20). As the Apostle John wrote --
To worship God in spirit and in truth means to worship Him as He reveals Himself in His
sovereign, gracious character. It means to worship Him sincerely, from the heart, not in outward
forms and ceremonies, not in visible manifestations and aids, but in the truth that reveals who He
is and how He saves sinners through Jesus Christ our Lord. In true spiritual worship, redeemed
sinners acknowledge God's attributes as they see these attributes working together in their whole
salvation based on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
III. OBEDIENCE FROM THE PROPER MOTIVE --
Self-righteous religionists always raise the following objections against free grace: "If our
striving to avoid sin and to keep God's law does not recommend us to God, and if no amount of
sin can condemn us or bring us back under God's wrath, then, (1) You do away with the law of
God; (2) You relieve men of all responsibility to obey God's commands and avoid sin; and (3)
You remove all restraints to promote obedience. There is no motivation to avoid sin and obey
God's commands. This doctrine will lead to open sin and rebellion." These objections are always
raised by self-righteous religionists in opposition to salvation conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ
alone.
None of these objections are true because God's attributes of mercy and grace along with
their exercise in salvation by Christ is perfectly consistent with His holy law and justice, and they
are the only right ways to motivate God's people in obedience and good works.
Christ honored and established God's law by His perfect satisfaction to all its demands.
Justifying faith establishes God's law in our hearts when we receive HIS righteousness by faith and
confess that we have no confidence in the flesh; i.e., in our obedience to establish the law. God's
law is not established by anything the Holy Spirit enables us to do in the way of obedience to the
law.
The law was given that we sinners might measure ourselves by the strict standard of God's
law and be slain from having any hope of salvation based on anything other than the imputed
righteousness of Christ. The first purpose of God's law towards sinners is to shut our mouths and
declare us guilty before God (Rom. 3:19). The purpose of the law is to show us our need of a
righteousness we cannot produce.
Self-righteous religionists see true grace as doing away with man's responsibility. But
what is it we are responsible to do? We are responsible to believe God's promise of salvation
conditioned totally upon Christ, to repent from dead works and former idolatry, and to bring forth
fruit unto God, which is the obedience of a justified sinner based on the absolute certainty of
salvation conditioned on Christ alone! We are responsible to come to God exalting His Son,
Christ Jesus, pleading the merits of His blood and His imputed righteousness as the only ground
of salvation and expect no blessing from God based on anything else. We are responsible to
rejoice in Christ.
Self-righteous religionists see this as removing all the restraints which would motivate
sinners to obey God's commands and avoid sin. They say we do not promote "holiness," "holy
living," nor "practical godliness." But the fact of the matter is this: All the restraints which
motivate men and women by nature to obedience MUST BE REMOVED. Everything that
natural man uses to promote obedience and abstinence is legal and mercenary, fear of punishment
based on personal sin and promise of rewards based on personal obedience. This is totally
opposed to the glory of God revealed in the salvation of sinners conditioned on Christ alone.
All the motivations of God's grace show us our responsibility to obey God and seek to do
good works as we are motivated by the absolute certainty of salvation and final glory based on the
imputed righteousness of Christ (Rom. 6:12-13; 12:1-2). This establishes the right response of
obedience from children of God to a loving, merciful, and gracious Father. This is the right
motive, the only acceptable motive for any and all obedience.
Obedience from the right motive is pleasing to God, not because of merit in the obedience,
but because it is performed by a justified sinner, and it gives God the glory due unto His name.
God is displeased with disobedience because it fails to give Him the glory due to His name. This
involves the use of all means that God has given us and in seeking to be conformed to the image
of Christ in our conduct and lives. It is a travesty, a mockery of God's glory, for a believer to be
careless in worship, obedience, love, good works, and in the use of all the means of grace,
because all these give God the glory due unto His name.
The main issue in all these areas concerning how we give glory to God is the fact that we believe God's promise of salvation conditioned on Christ alone, and we expect God to fulfill all His promises in Christ. We are to do all we can do in love to God and our neighbor, seeking the salvation of the lost and the edification of the brethren, all motivated by grace. This must begin with believing God's Gospel and repenting from dead works and former idolatry. Until then, we cannot even begin to glorify God. Until then we worship and serve an idol, and all our efforts are fruit unto death. It is a marvelous thing to know that we do not have to stay in such shape. God commands lost sinners to believe and repent. Sinners ought to make it their main goal to seek the God of all redemption who justifies the ungodly through Jesus Christ.
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