An Infinite Fountain of Good
Growth takes effort.
One of the greatest gifts that my seminary education and training gave to me was the discovery that understanding doesn’t just happen. I think that for most people that just may be the default — we’re sitting in church on a Sunday morning listening to a sermon, or we’re listening to a podcast online, or we’re reading a book or an article, and our presupposition is that it be immediately understandable. And if it’s not, it must be the fault of the preacher, the show host, or the author.
But that’s simply not the case.
Most of us actually know this. Some things take far more effort to understand than others. We’ve got to apply a little elbow grease, think more deeply, ponder, meditate, and work it out. And then the “aha” moment may come.
Or it may be that we need to talk with someone else about it. Get a little help. Because so often — far more than maybe we’d like to admit — understanding, learning, and growing is a product of community.
I was reminded of this recently while doing a little bit of reading of systematic theology the other morning. The author quoted from Jonathan Edwards’ treatise, “The End for Which God Created the World.” When he did, I was immediately transported back to seminary when this was assigned to us by John Piper (it’s included in his book, God’s Passion for His Glory).
I can remember when I first started reading Edwards, thinking, “What in the world is he saying!?” I’d have to read paragraphs, and sentences, over and over again. I’d lose his argument from one page to the next. I had to look up words he was using in a dictionary, as well as online because what they meant in his time was not what they mean in ours. I thought I might never understand, which was pretty stressful, because I had to give a presentation on this treatise to our cohort, including John Piper!
But you know what happened? Over time? And through discussions and conversations with my (far smarter than me) classmates?
I grew.
Just like slowly adding more weight to a weighlifting routine will increase your strength and muscle mass, adding more difficult works to your reading routine will increase your understanding and brain mass. It’s a beautiful thing, growth like this.
So just what was I reading the other morning?
The entry was about God’s work in creation, and God’s glory bound up in that which he brought forth from nothing, and why his glory is praiseworthy. And it was when the author began elaborating on that connection between God’s glory, and his creative efforts, that Edwards came to his mind (and transported me down memory lane). Here’s what the author said:
To use the language of Jonathan Edwards's famous treatise, divine glory is "the end for which God created the world." We must never suppose that God created the cosmos out of lack— because he wanted a relationship, or he wanted someone to love. God did not create the world because he was thirsty. Rather, God created the world because it is the nature of a fountain to overflow. Creation is the superabundance of divine goodness, beauty, mercy, love, wisdom, power, sovereignty, self-sufficiency, self-existence, justice, holiness, faithfulness, and freedom.
And then, he moved to quoting from Edwards’ treatise more directly, noting how he puts the matter so wonderfully, and — note this — exhorting us to “slow down and read him carefully.” Here’s Edwards:
As there is an infinite fullness of all possible good in God — a fullness of every perfection, of all excellency and beauty, and of infinite happiness — and as this fullness is capable of communication, or emanation ad extra, so it seems a thing amiable and valuable in itself that this infinite fountain of good should send forth abundant streams. ... Thus it appears reasonable to suppose that it was God's last end that there might be a glorious and abundant emanation of his infinite fulness of good ad extra; and that the disposition to communicate himself, or diffuse his own fulness, was what moved him to create the world.
Those two paragraphs are worth pondering further.
They are worthy someone taking out a notebook, scribbling responses, making new discoveries about who GOD is and what he has done and why he has done it and what it means for us. So that we grow, in understanding of our great GOD, and in our capacity for joy that would follow.
I’ve got work to do….
