It’s about God, not me.

“And now the Lord says – He who formed me in the womb to be His servant to bring Jacob back to Him and gather Israel to Himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength – He says: ‘It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
Isaiah 49:5-6

To me, it is obvious that the “servant” spoken of here is the Messiah God appointed to save those of Israel He has kept, namely Jesus Christ. What is interesting to read is that to Jesus, it’d be too little to bring home His people only so God extended Jesus’ salvation to the ends of the earth. In the past few years I’ve been reading a few books written by John Piper, the best way to describe Piper’s thought about God and why He granted us salvation is best summed up in this phrase he wrote: “He (God) is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”. The reason why I am thinking about Piper’s words is because this passage of Scriptures reminds me of these words.

In this passage of Isaiah, we read that God extended salvation to all nations on earth because “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant (Jesus) to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring those of Israel I have kept.” Providing salvation to His people Israel only seemed to be of little value… or of little glory (I’m not using the right words), God had in mind a greater work for His Servant, He would offer salvation to all people on earth. In God’s eyes, this was of a higher value, a greater glory to Him.

God could have saved His people only, but He provided salvation to all men for different reasons but here in Isaiah, we read that God’s reason for granting us, Gentiles His free salvation in Jesus Christ is to bring glory to Himself. The purpose of God in the salvation of men is to get glory for Himself. I’m not saying that God is desperately seeking ways to receive glory from men. He is already more glorious that we can bear to know. What I am saying is that, just as God created men for His glory, He saved men for His glory as well.

I know that there are many different reasons why God chose to give His Son Jesus as only Savior of all men. We can think about His love for us (John 3:16), His grace (Eph. 2:5, 8), His desire to make sinners right with Him (I Tim 1:15; 2:4), His mercy (Titus 3:4) and many other reasons. But if I focus on these reasons alone, it could make me feel like God is all about me and He saved me for my sake. I can totally believe that I don’t deserve anything from God and without Jesus I’m lost, but think that all God did was for my sake. I think I must keep in mind that God extended His hand to all men to receive free salvation in Jesus for His own sake, for His own glory.

It’s not about me, it’s about God.

I don’t want anybody to feel like God is using us and is actually very cold towards us. That goes against Scripture. God deeply cares for us and He knows that outside Him, beauty and love are only reflections of true beauty and true love that are found in Him, He is beauty perfect and love Himself. And He gives us the best we can get: Himself. He doesn’t leave us with only an image of what is good, He calls us to experience true love, true beauty, true goodness, that’s found in Himself, not in anything the world offers or any other created things. They are only reflections. By delighting ourselves in God, we make Him look great to the eyes of men and angels and Satan. That brings Him great glory and that’s why He saved us. So we would love Him and glorify Him.