Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 27:2 (Summer 2023)
Article: A Vision Of God, A Vision Of Seminary
Author: D. Blair Smith

A Vision Of God, A Vision Of Seminary1

D. Blair Smith

D. Blair Smith is the Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina. He earned his ThM in Theology from Harvard Divinity School and PhD in Historical Theology (Patristics) at Durham University in England under Professor Lewis Ayres, one of the world’s leading patristic scholars. During a portion of his doctoral studies, he served as a Research Visitor at The University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. Dr. Smith is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and served for more than seven years as the Pastor of Adult Education at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland. He also served as a part-time associate Pastor at Michiana Covenant Presbyterian Church near South Bend, Indiana, preaching throughout the Great Lakes Presbytery of the PCA and ministering to graduate students at Notre Dame. Blair is married to his wife, Lisa, and they have five children.

Introduction

Glorify By Enjoying Or Enjoy By Glorifying?

“To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” So answers the Westminster Shorter Catechism to the question of “What is the chief end of Man?” In his popular work, Desiring God, John Piper has brought the juxtaposition of “glorifying” and “enjoying” into widespread consideration in the evangelical world. Piper contends that we glorify God by enjoying him, a key formula to his idea of Christian hedonism. Elsewhere he says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”2 And hence, we glorify God by enjoying him.

Certainly the enjoyment of God is as essential as writers of the Shorter Catechism present it to be. I believe far too many theologians overlook the enjoyment of God, or at least under-appreciate it.3 However, Piper’s is not the

SBJT 27:2 (Summer 2023) 15

only way of understanding the relation between glorifying God and enjoying Him. If we go back to the 18th century, to the classic commentary on the Catechism by James Fisher, we find a proper order and balance in understanding the Catechism’s opening question. Fisher concludes—through 49 questions and answers expositing just the first question of the Catechism(!)—that we enjoy God by glorifying him. Listen to the careful order and distinction of his 44th question on Question 1 of the Catechism:

Q. 44. Why is the glorifying God made the leading part of man’s chief end, and set before the enjoyment of him?

A. Because, as God’s design in glorify...