There are a few sentences that have made their way into the common language of English-speaking Christians and which they can recite with ease. Some are familiar with the statement often assigned to Jim Eliot, but which seems to have originated with a similar statement by Matthew Henry, that ‘he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose’. Of course, Matthew may have heard it first from one of his parishioners. More are familiar with the opening question and answer of the Shorter Catechism: ‘What is the chief end of man?’ ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever.’
The famous Scottish author Thomas Carlyle, who was brought up in a Presbyterian church in Dumfries-shire, said towards the end of his illustrious life: ‘The older I grow, and I am now on the brink of eternity, the more comes back to me the first sentence of the Catechism which I learned as a child, and the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes.’ That would be a helpful attitude for us to have, should we live to an old age, or have already reached it.
Carlyle described life in his parents’ home: ‘Mother and Father were assiduous, abstemious, frugal without stinginess. They shall not want their reward. Both still knew what they were doing in this world, and why they were here: “Man’s chief end,” my Father could have answered from the depths of his soul, “is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” By this light he walked, choosing his path, fitting prudence to principle with wonderful skill and manliness – through “the ruins of a falling Era,” not once missing his footing.’
The compilers of the Catechism did not wish it to be only the attitude of old people. In addition, they wanted it to be the outlook of young people, those described as of weaker abilities. The contents of the catechism were what young and old in a church ought to know about God.
How can we describe the answer given to the question? It does not specify anything particular about the Christian faith, apart from saying that dedication and enjoyment are possible and desirable. It is not a summary of a Christian doctrine. Nor is it a kind of mission statement that we should adopt without making investigations. For example, who is the God it refers to and why and how should we glorify him and enjoy him forever? We can regard the statement as an invitation to discover the best way to think and live, explained in the rest of the catechism.
The idea of glorifying a person means to live in a manner that brings acclaim to him. When British holidaymakers misbehave in a foreign location, they bring dishonour on themselves and on their country. In a higher sense, when we misbehave (commit sin), we don’t only reveal that we are sinners; we also show what we think about our Creator God. Admiration for him will cause us to be concerned for his reputation. Sin is a refusal to recognise that our most important responsibility is to bring honour to God. The way to glorify God is to have a sense of his greatness on our hearts as well as a determination to always acknowledge his authority.
Thomas Watson, a Puritan author, pointed out that glorifying God consists in four things: appreciation, adoration, affection, and subjection. On appreciation, he said that ‘to glorify God is to have God-admiring thoughts’. In other words, we must use our minds and think about God often. As far as adoration is concerned, Watson pointed out that we must worship the Lord in ways that please him, in ways that acknowledge who he is as the great God, whether in public or in private. Affection is a love that is ‘exuberant, not a few drops, but a stream.’ It is ‘intense and ardent. True saints are seraphim, burning in holy love for God.’ Subjection involves entire devotion to God: ‘our head studies for him, our tongue pleads for him, and our hands relieve his members.’
The catechism’s first answer is a way of highlighting the bigness of God. After all, he will be glorified and enjoyed for eternity. That can be said of no-one or of nothing else. Here we have simultaneously a superlative goal and a satisfying experience that is endless.
One response to this answer is to ask the question, ‘Did anyone on earth ever live up to this description of life?’ We know the answer. The only one who did so was Jesus, and it is good for us to meditate on him and admire how he glorified God and enjoyed him.
We also know that, because Jesus did so uniquely when he was on earth, countless billions of people will, in the new heavens and earth, glorify God and enjoy him forever. When he was here, he lived and died as the representative of his people, with his perfect life now reckoned to them as righteousness, and his death as the atonement for their sins when he suffered the penalty that divine justice required.
