Infinite wisdom must, in creating, propose to itself the most comprehensive and the most valuable of ends,—the end most worthy of God, and the end most fruitful in good. Only in the light of the end proposed can we properly judge of God’s work, or of God’s character as revealed therein.
It would seem that Scripture should give us an answer to the question: Why did God create? The great Architect can best tell his own design. Ambrose: “To whom shall I give greater credit concerning God than to God himself?” George A. Gordon, New Epoch for Faith, 15—“God is necessarily a being of ends. Teleology is the warp and woof of humanity; it must be in the warp and woof of Deity. Evolutionary science has but strengthened this view. Natural science is but a mean disguise for ignorance if it does not imply cosmical purpose. The movement of life from lower to higher is a movement upon ends. Will is the last account of the universe, and will is the faculty for ends. The moment one concludes that God is, it appears certain that he is a being of ends. The universe is alive with desire and movement. Fundamentally it is throughout an expression of will. And it follows, that the ultimate end of God in human history must be worthy of himself.”
In determining this end, we turn first to:
This may be summed up in four statements. God finds his end (_a_) in himself; (_b_) in his own will and pleasure; (_c_) in his own glory; (_d_) in the making known of his power, his wisdom, his holy name. All these statements may be combined in the following, namely, that God’s supreme end in creation is nothing outside of himself, but is his own glory—in the revelation, in and through creatures, of the infinite perfection of his own being.
(_a_) _Rom. 11:36_—“_unto him are all things_”; _Col. 1:16_—“_all things have been created ... unto him_” (Christ); compare _Is. 48:11_—“_for mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it ... and my glory will I not give to another_”; and _1 Cor. 15:28_—“_subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all._” _Proverbs 16:4_—not “The Lord hath made all things for himself” (A. V.) but “_Jehovah hath made everything for its own end_” (Rev. Vers.).
(_b_) _Eph. 1:5, 6, 9_—“_having foreordained us ... according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace ... mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him_”; _Rev. 4:11_—“_thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they were, and were created._”