The Fight for Joy

The Westminster Catechism begins with the famous phrase, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” The men who constructed the Westminster Confession and the accompanying catechism were not merely beginning with an abstract theological ideal which would be followed by more applicable doctrinal statements. Their goal in placing this phrase first was to construct a radically God-centered worldview. We have a tendency to make life primarily about us, either directly or indirectly. Whether we say our purpose in life is to find our purpose, to do good things for others, to be a good man, or to find our own happiness, our natural tendency is to make life primarily about us. That’s called sin, and these theologians were not blind to the effects of sin. Despite whatever other ends or goals we may have in this life, the chief end is for the glory of God. Ultimately, everything goes back to Him.

It is not a stretch of logic to state that the creation was made for the purpose of the Creator. God created everything that exists to reflect His goodness, glory, and His perfections. That is what the Psalmist means when he states that the “heavens are telling the glory of God.” Behind the reality that we see lies a “real reality.” God created man to be “in His image” and “after His likeness.” Man was to fill the earth and subdue it, bringing glory to God through exercising dominion and rule over it. Everything in our lives is to be lived out as an act of worship to God, reflecting His goodness and order. All things are to be done to the glory of God. Paul says that “from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” Our main problem is sin. It changes the natural orientation of things and makes the creation a chief end in and of itself. We need a radical re-orientation in order to have any lasting purpose or any lasting significance. The paradox is that in order to have significance, we must realize that we have no intrinsic significance. We have all things as we find our identity in Christ.

The second half of the phrase, however, is primarily what concerns us here. Not only do we need to know that the glory is the chief end of all things, but that we are called to enjoy Him forever. John Piper has suggested a modification to the answer given in the catechism, making it read, “the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.” The two are not distinct and separated, but woven together in one chief purpose. Piper has summarized it in this way- “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” It is not enough that we simply know about God. All the truths about God that we can gather, even if we spend a lifetime carefully sifting through them and throwing out the false, do us no good if they are not treasured in our hearts. God did not create us so we could analyze and quantify Him and make neat, orderly charts describing His specific attributes. God Himself is a relational and communal being, and He created us to be in relationship with Him. We were made to know and experience God, and in Him find the ultimate and only lasting satisfaction for our hearts.

So having tried to lay this foundation, I want to ask the question, “What does this look like?” What does it look like everyday to glorify God and enjoy Him? And how is that look when I am in the midst of suffering or hardship? To answer this question, I would like to take a look at 2 Corinthians 4, which I believe gives us some answers about what it looks like to enjoy God and glorify Him in the midst of trials.

My answer to the question is that we enjoy and treasure Christ primarily through faith, or "the fight for joy is a fight for faith;" and I believe that is the answer that Paul gives us in 2 Corinthians 4. In this passage, Paul is giving his readers a foundation for the way that he conducts his ministry, refusing to practice cunning or tamper with God’s Word. He wants His ministry to be sincere and founded on open statement of the truth, not by gimmicks or manipulation or any fleshly methods. Then Paul begins an explanation of why he chooses to preach and teach in this way. Beginning in verse 3, he says:

“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Paul says that the reason people do not believe the Gospel is because they cannot see glory. The ministry of Satan is to blind people from seeing the “light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ.” In an earlier letter, Paul had told the Corinthians that the natural man cannot receive the truths of God because they are spiritual truths. In this passage, he portrays that as blindness. The glory of God is here. It is not hidden; rather it is all around us for us to see. All of creation is pointing to the majesty and splendor of the One who created. So the problem is not that there is no glory or that it cannot be seen. The problem is with us. The problem is not just that we sin, but that we are in fact sinners. We don’t just do bad things, but we have a heart that desires and delights to do bad things. We have no spiritual taste. We are dead in our sin.

So what is Paul’s resolution? If all of this is true, how are we possibly supposed to fulfill our purpose of glorifying God? If we have no delight or satisfaction in God naturally, how are we even supposed to come to Him? Paul gives the answer in the next verses:

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Paul’s answer? In contrast to the unbelief of those who cannot see God’s glory, God shines the overpowering light of His glory into our hearts to create faith. He gives spiritual light to our eyes, spiritual taste to our tongues, and true spiritual knowledge to our minds. It is not simply a knowledge that is dry and statistical. It is a relational and experiential knowledge. We see the glory of God in the Gospel with eyes of faith and treasure Him in our hearts. We are no longer blind and led astray by the passions and lust that ruled our hearts before, but we are captured by a greater good. We see God’s glory and are captivated by it.

So how does this all tie in? I think the answer is found a little later in the same chapter. After establishing the way in which we are brought to faith in Christ, by having our eyes opened to see God’s glory, Paul hits a more practical note. In verse 16 he states:

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Paul’s answer is not that we don’t experience hardships in our lives. Paul’s answer is that our hardships are “light” and “momentary.” It’s the same theme that he develops in Romans 8. We enjoy God and find our satisfaction in Him through faith. If we believe God’s promises, that He is working for us an eternal weight of glory, which Paul contrasts with a light momentary affliction, then we are enabled to stand strong and be satisfied with God regardless of our circumstances. It’s hard to simplify Paul’s logic in this passage simply because there is not much simplification that you can do. The key is to trust God and His promises and be satisfied in Him. There is really no way to measure the vast, cavernous difference between the transient and the eternal. In Romans 8, Paul states this same truth in slightly different words: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Paul grounds this statement in verse 28 in saying that God is working all things for good for His people. And that isn’t just all the neutral/good things that happen in our lives. It is our hardships as well. Hardships are among God’s gracious gift to His people, because they are working for us an “eternal weight of glory.”

God is constantly plotting for our good in all of the struggles and hardships in life. The fight that we have to be satisfied in God is a fight for faith. We need to rely fully on God’s grace and on His promises. As Christians, we have been chosen by God, not because of anything good or evil that we have done, but according to His good pleasure and for His glory. He opened our blinded eyes, showed us His glory, and brought us to faith. More than all that, as Paul says in Romans 8:32, He did not stop at the point of sacrificing His own Son. God has given us every reason to trust His promises and find our satisfaction in Him, regardless of our circumstances.