John Piper
Piper presents a vision of Christianity that he has termed Christian Hedonism. Through his best-selling book Desiring God and the work of Desiring God Ministries, he is fulfilling his mission "to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples."
"God’s overwhelming passion is to exalt the value of his glory. To that end he seeks to display it, to oppose those who belittle it, and to vindicate it from all contempt. It is clearly the uppermost reality in his affections…"
"God would be unrighteous (just as we would) if he valued anything more than what is supremely valuable. If he did not take infinite delight in the worth of his own glory he would be unrighteous. For it is right to take delight in a person in proportion to the excellence of that person’s glory." (DG P.32)
"[God’s] happiness is the delight he has in himself. Before creation he rejoiced in the image of his glory in the person of his Son. Then the joy of God "went public" in the works of creation and redemption. These works delight the heart of God because they reflect his glory. He does everything he does to preserve and display that glory, for in that his soul rejoices." (DG P.38)
"God’s pleasure is first and foremost a pleasure in his Son." (PoG P.24)
"It is impossible to overstate the greatness of the fatherly affection God has for his one and only Son…
"If there ever was a passion of love in the heart of God it is a passion for his Son." (PoG Ps.30-31)
"Since the Son is the image of God and the radiance of God and the form of God, equal with God, and indeed is God, therefore God’s delight in the Son is delight in himself. The original, the primal, the deepest, the foundational joy of God is the joy he has in his own perfections as he sees them reflected in the glory of his Son." (PoG P.38)
R. C. Sproul
R. C Sproul is one of the most gifted and inspiring preachers around at the present time. He does a great job of presenting God in all his glory (for instance, check out his book The Holiness of God,) and has shown many believers a deeper vision of God.
"The only reason God has saved me is for the sake of Jesus Christ. The ultimate reason for predestination is the honour and glory of Jesus. Jesus is the reason for the Universe. The goal of creation is that Christ might have the preeminence.""God the Father gives his people as a love-gift to his Son. Jesus says "All that the Father has given me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. (Jn. 6:37) Christ was aware that certain people were given to him by the Father. And that's where our election is based, in the love of the Father for the Son." (Romans P.152-3)
Daniel Fuller
Daniel Fuller is the son of Charles Fuller, founder of Fuller Seminary.
Fuller is the man that John Piper describes as his most influential "living" teacher (with Edward’s being his most influential "dead" teacher). His book The Unity of the Bible was originally a college syllabus for a course he taught at Fuller seminary and in 1992 he published it in Book form. The Unity of the Bible shows how God’s purpose in all that he does (as is revealed from Genesis to Revelation) is to uphold the glory of his name.
"[God] is himself the source and cause of the wisdom that is displayed in his character and conduct. And since he represents perfect wisdom, he would be sinful indeed if he did not delight in [Jesus], formed by his perfect wisdom, with the full energy of his omnipotence. So whereas for human beings self-worship is the worst sin, for God it is the epitome of his righteousness." (UB P.120)
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
One of the most famous Preachers of the Twentieth Century, Lloyd-Jones has influenced the British Church in an almost unmeasurable manner. Like Spurgeon, he did not dwell for too long upon the subject of the Father’s affection for His son, but when he did, his words were rich with depth and meaning.
"God the Father created the whole Universe for his Son and gave it to him as a gift. . . Everything is made with that intent, that it may minister to his glory. It is in order that the Son might be manifested in his glory that God made the Universe." (Love so amazing P.256)
Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon - the man many people call the "Prince of Preachers" - was something of a closet Christian Hedonist. Like Lloyd-Jones after him, when he did mention the topic he did so with passion and enthusiasm. Yet even tough he appeared to place great emphasis upon the subject at some times, it was something that he - unfortunately - rarely touched upon.
"If joy were more common among God’s people, God would be more glorified among men. The happiness of the subject is the honour of the Sovereign." (Preaching upon Psalm 25:5)
Jonathan Edwards
The great Jonathan Edwards perhaps deserves the accolade - GrandFather of Christian Hedonism - more than any other. His two essays, A dissertation concerning God’s end in Creating the World and An unpublished essay on the Trinity are possibly the most comprehensive words ever written about the nature of God.
Edwards was a pastor in Northampton from 1729-1750 and Stockbridge, New England from 1751-1758. He was the main leader in the controversial revival termed The Great Awakening and he spent much of his time defending that particular move of God.
The following quotes reveal something of the heart of Edwards and the depth of his theological understanding :
"The end of creation is that the creation might glorify [God]. Now what is glorifying God, but a rejoicing at that glory he has displayed?" (Miscellany 3)
"The happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing in God, by which also God is magnified and exalted." (The End)
"In some sense, the most benevolent, generous person in the world seeks his own happiness in doing good to others, because he places his happiness in their good." (The End)
"Because [God] infinitely values his own glory, consisting in the knowledge of himself, love to himself... and joy in himself; he therefore valued the image, communication or participation of these, in the creature. And it is because he values himself, that he delights in the knowledge, and love, and joy of the creature; as being himself the object of this knowledge, love and [delight]." (The End)
"That a man should love his own happiness, is as necessary to his nature as the faculty of the will is and it is impossible that such a love should be destroyed in any other way than by destroying his being. The saints love their own happiness. Yea, those that are in perfect happiness, the saints and angels in heaven, love their own happiness; otherwise that happiness which God hath given them would be no happiness to them." (Charity and its Fruits)
"The Godhead being thus begotten by God's loving an idea of Himself and shewing forth in a distinct subsistence or person in that idea, there proceeds a most pure act, and an infinitely holy and sacred energy arises between the Father and Son in mutually loving and delighting in each other, for their love and joy is mutual.. This is the eternal and most perfect and essential act of the Divine nature, wherein the Godhead acts to an infinite degree and in the most perfect manner possible. The deity becomes all act, the Divine essence itself flows out and is as it were breathed forth in love and joy. So that the Godhead therein stands forth in yet another manner of subsistence, and there proceeds the third person in the Trinity." (Trinity P.2)
John Calvin
Few people could claim to match Calvin in terms of sheer impact upon Christian Theology. The 16th Century French Reformer and Theologian is rightly remembered for his tireless work of preaching and writing and proclaiming far and wide the great truths of the Reformation.
Though it might be argued that Calvinism owes as much to those who followed Calvin as to the man himself, there can be little doubt its the central theme - that God alone deserves the glory for our salvation - comes straight from Calvin.
"God has ordained all things to our profit and salvation, and in order to contemplate his power and grace in ourselves and in the benefits he has conferred upon us, thereby to incite us to trust in him, to call upon him, to praise and love him." (Institutes 1, 14, 22)
"Although indeed God could well do without all his creatures, nevertheless it is arguing foolishly to deduce from this that he had no regard to his own glory in creating man... Although God lacks nothing, still the principal aim he had in creating [humanity] was that his name might be glorified in them... And were this not so, what would become of so many evidences of Scripture which tells us that the sovereign aim of our salvation is the glory of God?" (On Predestination, p. 8, 293)
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God's greatest passion for the glory of His name has been the foundational theme of Reformed theology since Calvin. It may not always receive the same press that it once did, but it is hardly an innovation!