the awe-inspiring
and
worship-provoking
grandeur
of the divine
character
Pink's Quotes:
"God is solitary in His excellency", quoting Exodus 15:11, "glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?".
"During eternity past, God was alone: self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied; in need of nothing."
How dare I think that I can "give" him anything of worth. He needs nothing. It is amazing that I would even interest him, yet he created me because of the good pleasure of his will.
"He changes not, therefore His essential glory can be neither augmented nor diminished."
Although the chief end of man is to glorify him and enjoy him forever, my good actions, my worship, my adoration cannot add to his glory and my bad actions, my selfishness, my blasphemies cannot detract from his glory. The glory that I give to him is only what is due, what is right, what is reasonable because of who he is, was, and always will be.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Job 35:6:
“for though by these (our sins) the name of God is profaned and blasphemed, and he is dishonoured and despised, and his manifestative glory is eclipsed, or he has not the honour given him that is due unto him; yet his essential glory is untarnished, unsullied, and unhurt, no more than the sun by an eclipse; he is the same without any variableness or shadow of turning, as well as is over all blessed for ever."
Pink's Quotes:
"He was in no need of that external glory of His grace which arises from His redeemed, for He is glorious enough in Himself without that."
Romans 11:34-35
"The force of this is, it is impossible to bring the Almighty under obligations to the creature; God gains nothing from us."
"Nay, we go further; our Lord Jesus Christ added nothing to God in His essential being and glory, either by what He did or suffered. True, blessedly and gloriously true, He manifested the glory of God to us, but He added nought to God."
Can this be true? Absolutely, God was the same before Christ came to earth, while he was on earth, and when he returned to reign in heaven. Although we are able to see more of God's glory through him because God brought himself down to our level in Christ, God's essential glory did not increase through this sacrifice. His glory was expressed in a way we could understand.
Pink's Quotes:
"t is perfectly true that God is both honored and dishonored by men; not in His essential being, but in His official character. It is equally true that God has been "glorified" by creation, by providence, and by redemption. This we do not and dare not dispute for a moment. But all of this has to do with His manifest glory and the recognition of it by us. Yet had God so pleased He might have continued alone for all eternity, without making known His glory unto creatures. Whether He should do so or not was determined solely by His own will. He was perfectly blessed in Himself before the first creature was called into being. And what are all the creatures of His hands unto Him even now? Let Scripture again make answer:"
"Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance--behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?" (Isa 40:15-18).
"He is solitary in His majesty, unique in His excellency, peerless in His perfections. He sustains all, but is Himself independent of all. He gives to all, but is enriched by none."
God is not known by man's understanding. He is revealed to man through, by, and for God's purposes. We are dead in this sense -- our spiritual relationship with God was severed. It was his good pleasure to sacrifice his son, showing forth is justice, mercy, and grace, to redeem us. This was his plan before time began. (Of course, that can be mindboggling to think about.)
Job 26:14 (English Standard Version)
Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,
and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?"
I love this verse! See The Jensen Project "How Small a Whisper" post.
For a little more study on this subject see The Nature and Attributes of God and Pink's book online.
