Our Only Ambition

Consider God! “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.”[1] God created the heavens and earth and all that is in them out of nothing by the Word of His power. God’s eternal glory is declared by the rising of the sun He created, the ebb and flow of the oceans He controls, and by the grandeur of the highest mountains that speak of the majesty of his name. “Since the perfection of blessedness consists in the knowledge of God, he has been pleased, in order that none might be excluded from the means of obtaining felicity, not only to deposit in our minds that seed of religion of which we have already spoken, but so to manifest his perfections in the whole structure of the universe, and daily place himself in our view, that we cannot open our eyes without being compelled to behold him.”[2]

God needs nothing nor does He draw anything from that which He created. God is self-existent.[3] He is without beginning or end. “From everlasting to everlasting you are God.” God is necessary. “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” [4] And God is non-contingent. God is not limited in any way by man, the devil, or any other created thing. “For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’”[5] The God of Christian faith “is not an abstraction, but a Person – with a right arm and a voice.”[6] God the Father - He is there and He is not silent![7]

Consider God! In times past God spoke by prophets and phenomena; by miracle and manifestation. But in these last days God has spoken completely, comprehensively, and finally by His Son; who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. The Son of God speaks by his virgin birth, sinless life, vicarious death, bodily resurrection, glorious ascension, and everlasting mediation of the covenant of grace. He tells us that all which was lost in the 1st Adam is redeemed in the 2nd Adam. Through Him we learn of the utter sinfulness of our sin and the absolute sufficiency of our Savior. God the Son – He came down and His gospel saves!

Consider God! Proceeding from the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit who brings every decree of God to its appointed end. Most importantly, the Holy Spirit fully persuades and assures us of the infallible truth and divine authority of the Word of God. He convinces us of our sin and misery, enlightens our minds to the knowledge of Christ, and renews our wills enabling us to believe, trust, and embrace the gift of God as offered to us in the gospel.[8] God the Holy Spirit – He is here and He will not fail!

Consider God! “He is the source of all things in that they have proceeded from him; he is the Creator. He is the agent through whom all things subsist and are directed to their proper end. And he is the last end to whose glory all things redound.”[9]

“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.”

[1] Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q&A #4
[2] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols. (1845; reprint, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1964), 1:51.
[3] Psalm 90:2
[4] Revelation 4:11
[5] Daniel 4:34-35
[6] Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind, (Servant Publications, Ann Arbor, MI 1963) p. 111
[7] Francis Schaeffer
[8] Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q&A #30,31
[9] John Murray, quoted by John D. Hannah, How Do We Glorify God?, P&R Publishing (Phillipsburg, New Jersey 2000) p.42