"Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever."

"Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."
—Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 1.

Joy is at the heart of glorifying God. This is man's chief end: to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. This is what the Congregational Christian preacher Jonathan Edwards taught his people.

The Puritan divine Jonathan Edwards, reminds us:

Because [God] infinitely values his own glory, consisting in the knowledge of himself, love to himself... joy in himself; he therefore valued the image, communication or participation of these, in the creature. And it is because he values himself, that he delights in the knowledge, and love, and joy of the creature; as being himself the object of this knowledge, love and complacence... [Thus] God’s respect to the creature’s good, and his respect to himself, is not a divided respect; but both are united in one, as the happiness of the creature aimed at, is happiness in union with himself.
—Edwards, Jonathan, “Essay on the Trinity,” in Treatise on Grace and Other Posthumously Published Writings, ed. Paul Helm (Cambridge, England: James Clarke and Co., 1971.) p. 118.

Least we forget the promises of God, those of faith should take comfort in the reality that God glorifies himself in our happiness in union with him. We've conquered death and the sting of sin through Christ Jesus. God delights in the joy of His flock! He is the good shepherd!




As John Piper writes,

[F]or God to be the holy and righteous God that he is, he must delight infinitely in what is infinitely delightful. He must enjoy with unbounded joy what is most boundlessly enjoyable; he must take infinite pleasure in what is infinitely pleasant; he must love with infinite intensity what is infinitely lovely; he must be infinitely satisfied with what is infinitely satisfying.
—Piper, John. A God-Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004.) pp. 74-75.

God loves His flock! He delights in our eternal joy. "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep" (John 10:11). And this life is preparation for the greater joy to come in the Heavenlies for all eternity. To know God intimately is to savor in the joy of our salvation. "But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation" (Psalm 13:5). Jonathan Edwards knew and preached the beauties of heaven, and of the sweetness of Christ. Edwards unashamedly proclaimed the duty of man to delight in God, and savor the joy of his salvation through Christ. Here is the way Jonathan Edwards expressed in a sermon to his congregation in 1731:

The redeemed have all their objective good in God. God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwelling place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honor and glory. They have none in heaven but God; he is the great good which the redeemed are received to at death, and which they are to rise to at the end of the world. The Lord God, he is the light of the heavenly Jerusalem; and is the ‘river of the water of life’ that runs, and the tree of life that grows, ‘in the midst of the paradise of God’. The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another: but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in anything else whatsoever, that will yield then delight and happiness, will be what will be seen of God in them.
—Edwards, Jonathan. The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.) pp. 74-75.

For the redeemed of God, to enjoy God and truly fathom God in all-satisfying experience of His profound glory, he is reconciled to God in eternity, and his joy in God can only reach fruition in eternity. Yet it is never complete, because it ever increases with intimacy and intensity forever and ever. That's the love of God. That's the joy of God!

Consider Edwards' words:

I suppose it will not be denied by any, that God, in glorifying the saints in heaven with eternal felicity, aims to satisfy his infinite grace or benevolence, by the bestowment of a good [which is] infinitely valuable, because eternal: and yet there never will come the moment, when it can be said, that now this infinitely valuable good has been actually bestowed.
—Edwards, Jonathan. "The End for Which God Created the World," God's Passion for His Glory. (Wheaton: Crossway, 1998.) p. 288.

Therefore, our eternal joy in Christ will be, in the words of Edwards,

...rising higher and higher through that infinite duration, and... not with constantly diminishing (but perhaps an increasing) [velocity]... [to an] infinite height; though there never will be any particular time when it can be said already to have come to such a height.
—Edwards, Jonathan. "The End for Which God Created the World," God's Passion for His Glory. (Wheaton: Crossway, 1998.) p. 279.

So, let us of faith, delight in and savor the joy of our salvation! The wonders and joys of Heavenlies are unimaginable to us sojourners and pilgrims. "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13). Our consolation in Christ, is that God will finish the good work He has started in us, as we continue to, "[Look] unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).

As the Apostle Paul declares, "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known" (1 Corinthians 13:12). And oh how I long to more fully know God. And how How much joy can one fathom in eternity? It's inconceivable to my finite human mind! And yet God in His wondrous majesty will make manifest His power and the riches of His glory in all eternity to His flock!

“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).

And oh how thankful we of faith should be for His abundant grace, love, and mercy! Let us be thankful that there is just and holy God who showers us with joy for all eternity.

Fellow believers, let us remember our flesh nature is in enmity against God. It is the new man that savors and delights in the joy of our salvation! Lay hold of the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, fight the good fight of faith, and savor the joy of your salvation. The Apostle Paul reminds us, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).

Related Reading:
A God-Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards by John Piper.
JonathanEdwards.com
The Works of Jonathan Edwards