Psalm 58
The aim and end of all things is
doxological. Everything fulfills it's purpose in bringing glory to God and God
will not be robbed. He will be glorified. Justice brings God glory. If the aim
and end was primarily soteriological, God would seem to have failed when the
wicked reject Him and His glory would be diminished. But God is more interested
in His glory than we are so that even the wicked, who have no interest in
Jesus, will bring glory to God giving occasion for His perfect justice to be
displayed.
YES!!! I think you'd really like The Explicit Gospel - it talks a lot about this. I think this is why I cringed during that Michael Yousef sermon where he kept saying over and over that the Bible is primarily a salvation manual. That is a secondary function, for sure. But salvation is only available to us BECAUSE of God's goodness and glory. Salvation is not the point, it is a necessary secondary outcome of the fact that our God is salvific in character. I think it's a great observation that if salvation were the be-all, end-all of the Bible, God would seem to be failing when some people aren't saved. But he is glorified in all his ways - including his justice and judgement against unrepentant wickedness.
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