Kingdom Harbor

I am unpacking some thoughts on both the validity of the man-centered vs. God-centered debate and offering some healthy push back on the fuzzy, over-extension of this line of reasoning.  I see a distortion of both the character of God and what it means for human beings to glorify God.  Michael Spencer began his post on this topic with a wise disclaimer I would like to echo: These posts are, without a doubt, an experiment in exploration and articulation. Many won’t care for where it goes but we must wrestle with these questions in a honest and gracious way.

Is God man-centered or God-centered?

One significant conviction of John Piper and his followers is that God himself is the model of perfect, God-centered affections. As Piper puts it:

God is central and supreme in His own affections. There are no rivals for the supremacy of God’s glory in His own heart. God is not an idolater. He does not disobey the first and great commandment. With all His heart and soul and strength and mind He delights in the glory of His manifold perfections. The most passionate heart for God in all the universe is God’s heart.”

This bold claim has not gone uncontested.  Is God really God-centered?  Is this necessarily an either-or question?  Many would argue that what makes God so Holy and perfect — so unlike human beings — is precisely that he is the only being in the universe who is not subject to self-centeredness.  He is the only One completely free from any hint of self-absorption. The God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ demonstrated that God’s true nature is completely other-oriented, capable of unlimited self-giving love toward others.  God’s very nature is agape love and therefore God cannot help but be an ever flowing spring of self-sacrificial, other-oriented love.  While finite human beings seek and even need to be loved in return for their love extended, God stands perfectly self-sufficient in the inter-trinitarian community of love so that He is absolutely free from any “need” for others to return His love.

How about the gospel we preach? I often hear people inquiring about the legitimacy of a particular pastor or church by asking, ‘Do they preach a man-centered gospel?” or “Is that a God-centered or man-centered church?”  The question “Is the gospel man-centered or God-centered?” needs a lot of clarification and definition. Those who argue passionately for a God-centered gospel usually are primarily concerned that God is given the glory and credit for the human rescue operation the New Testament calls the gospel.  Moreover, they would also emphasize that the central result of salvation would be that the redeemed person now has God as their supreme treasure at the center of their affections to use Piper’s language.  I agree with all of this.

BUT…

I still believe the gospel, which is the good news regarding God’s rescue plan to redeem God’s wayward image-bearers and bring them back into relationship with Himself, is thoroughly man-centered as well.  How can it NOT be?  The gospel is all about the rescue of man — yes, for the glory of God, but still with human beings as the target of this saving grace.  The gospel is the good news that God so loved the world, i.e., God’s heart was so intently focused upon the well-being of his beloved creatures, that he came for their rescue.

To illustrate, if a father watches his infant daughter fall into the swimming pool and then comes to her rescue, would the news headline the following day be wrestling with the question of whether this rescue story is either “child-centered” or “Father-centered”?  It’s a silly question. The good news headline would center around both the child as the object of rescue and the Father as the hero who gets the glory. Both share center stage in this rescue story though playing very different roles. The forced either-or language just confuses the situation.  I’m equally confused when people use this language in regards to the gospel or theology.

Is it not reasonable to conclude from Scripture and the revelation of God’s character in the person of Jesus Christ that God is incredibly man-centered in his affections to a degree that puts all human love and affection, so marred by selfishness and pride, to shame and leads one to fall to their knees in the worship and magnification of such a Holy, other-focused Loving God?  I agree with Piper that “God is not an idolater”, yet I don’t believe its because he keeps the first and greatest commandment as Piper insists.  I believe there is a confusion of categories here on Piper’s part, and the Creator is simply not subject to the first commandment to love Himself. Why?  Human beings must love God above all (and avoid idolatry) because they are finite and incapable of loving from within themselves.  God is infinite and self-sufficient in his own being, and therefore does not need to find life in a greater source outside himself — thus, God could never be an idolator in the sense that humans can.  That option just doesn’t exist for the one, true God.

But I’ve gone far enough here to show that there is reason to think that the “man-centered” vs. “God-centered” logic is misguided and the discussion is in need of more nuance.  More to come.