The God Focused Life

In some final preparations for Sunday's Sermon I just read this statement by Mark Dever, "Biblical spirituality is never centered on people and the help that God can give us to achieve our ends. Rather, biblical spirituality is always focused on God." For some people, this may come as a shock, but the Bible does not exist to provide a roadmap to success and Christianity is not a guarantee to have your best life now. Instead, Bible-inspired Christian spirituality is focused on God and giving him glory.

In a world packed full of health and wealth preaching, escape from hell evangelists, and self-help sermons, voices of theoloically sound prophets of God seem to stand out as odd and out-dated. However, the Bible shows us over and over again that God's primary goal in all the world is bringing glory to himself, and his grace extended to us through his word and ultimately salvation is one more means by which he adds fame to his great name. Christianity is a call to die. Biblical spirituality is unashamedly God-centered; it has God as its starting point and its ultimate goal.

Dever continues, the government of the United States may legitimately be of the people, "by the people, for the people", to use Abraham Lincoln's eloquent formulation. But biblical religion is not fundamentally of the people; its origin is of God. It is not fundamentally by the people; it works by God's grace. And it is not fundamentally for the people; it is for the glory of God.

The time is ripe for men of God to stand up and declare the truths of God. I praise God for men like Mark Dever who stand firm on the truths of Scripture and pray that God will raise up many more to bring glory to his great name.