During the first twenty years of my ministry with university students, I noticed something: whenever we offered an elective on “Discovering the Will of God” at a discipleship conference, we had to book the largest room. It was always the most popular.
Students wanted God’s input on their biggest decisions — a mate, a career, where to live. This is what theologians call God’s specific will. Scripture doesn’t hand us direct answers to those questions, but it does give us guidelines for discerning them wisely — and those guidelines only make sense within the framework of God’s general will.
God’s general will is His moral will for all believers, revealed through both command and teaching — the kingdom ethics of Jesus, the parables, the imperatives of the epistles. Sometimes it’s unmistakable:
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
Other times we discover it through reflection and application. But His specific leading never contradicts His general will.
God’s Ultimate Will — The Final “So That”
Beyond both of these lies a third category: God’s ultimate will. Jonathan Edwards distinguished between God’s subordinate ends — which serve some further purpose — and His ultimate end, which is pursued for its own sake. For Edwards, God’s ultimate end in creation is the communication of His own glory, so that His creatures might know, value, love, and delight in Him. It’s the final “so that” — the end of every “why” we could ask.
Theologians have answered that ultimate question differently. Christopher Wright, in The Mission of God, argues the biblical narrative centers on God making Himself known among the nations — a God-centered mission from which human blessing flows. J. I. Packer, in Knowing God, approaches it from the human side: we were made to know God personally. Andrew Wilson describes God’s mission as filling the earth with His glory by covering it with people who bear His image.
I’d propose it this way: God’s endgame is to fill the earth with the knowledge of His glory — to make His name known as His image-bearers discover, display, and proclaim who He is.
A Cruise Down the River of Biblical History
Let’s trace that purpose through Scripture’s grand story.
Creation. God’s first command to humanity wasn’t moral — it was missional: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth… and rule” (Genesis 1:28). As Andrew Wilson puts it, “have sex, have babies, travel, explore, and take charge over all you see.”
Babel. Here humanity inverts the calling: “Let us make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4). Babel exposes the central conflict of every human heart — will we display God’s name, or promote our own? God intervenes and scatters humanity across the earth.
Abraham. Immediately after Babel, God calls Abraham with a striking reversal: “I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing… All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2–3). Where Babel sought self-glory, God now makes a man’s name great so that blessing might reach the nations. Abraham becomes the link in restoring humanity’s original calling — a covenant people through whom God’s identity will be made known.
The Exodus. Scripture states this purpose explicitly. God first reveals His name to Moses: “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14) — the eternal, covenant-keeping, rescuing God. Then, confronting Pharaoh: “I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” (Exodus 9:16). Pharaoh thought the story was about him. It wasn’t.
David and Solomon. Facing Goliath, David declares, “The whole world will know that there is a God in Israel” (1 Samuel 17:46) — a small story read in light of the ultimate one. When Solomon dedicates the temple, he anticipates foreigners drawn by God’s reputation (1 Kings 8:41), casting Israel as a light to the nations.
The Prophets. When Israel fails its calling, the prophets diagnose more than disobedience — Israel’s conduct actively misrepresents God. Ezekiel laments, “Wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name” (Ezekiel 36:20). Isaiah reframes the mission in global terms: “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). And Habakkuk gives us the vision’s full scope: “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14) — not a promise of scattered worshipers, but of a whole earth saturated with the knowledge of Him.
Jesus. The New Testament presents Jesus as the fullest revelation of God: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9); “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son… has made him known” (John 1:18). In His high priestly prayer, Jesus describes His completed work in these very terms: “I glorified You on the earth by accomplishing the work which You have given Me to do… I have revealed Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world” (John 17:4, 6). Training the Twelve was part of that work, but John 17 points to something more fundamental still — Jesus has revealed the Father’s name and displayed His glory.
The Church. Jesus didn’t reveal the Father and simply return to heaven — He formed a people to keep making Him known, commissioning them to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18–20). Peter describes the church as a royal priesthood called to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). The church doesn’t invent its mission; it participates in God’s — displaying the character of the King and declaring His name among the nations.
Summary of the Cruise
- Creation: humanity made to reflect God’s image
- Babel: humanity seeks its own name
- Abraham: God calls a family to bless the nations
- Exodus: God declares His name will be proclaimed in all the earth
- Israel: a kingdom of priests representing Him
- Prophets: God promises to vindicate His name among the nations
- Jesus: the Son reveals the Father and makes His name known
- Church: a people commissioned to proclaim His name
The Final Destination: God’s Glory Fully Known
Jesus ends His prayer with an astonishing request — that His disciples would one day see the glory that was His before creation began (John 17:24), glory largely veiled during His earthly life as a servant.
What we know of God now is not all there is to know. It will take a new creation, with people recreated in the likeness of His resurrected body, free from the limits of our fallen existence, to see it. God’s ultimate end was never simply to rescue people from a fallen world and relocate them to heaven — it is to fill all creation with the knowledge of His glory. From creation to Babel, Abraham to Israel, the prophets to Jesus, God has been making His name known.
Through Christ, we’re restored to the purpose for which we were made: to know God, reflect His character, and make His name known. One day faith will give way to sight, and we’ll discover dimensions of His beauty our present minds cannot yet contain.
Perhaps the words over the entrance to the new creation will read: Welcome to My Discovery Zone.
We haven’t seen anything yet.
Gospel Metanarrative Summary
Two threads run through the gospel metanarrative: who God claims to be, and what He claims to do. They answer Scripture’s two great questions — Who is God? and What is He up to? — running through the Bible like the twin strands of a DNA double helix, the very framework of the gospel of the risen King.
We cannot understand the gospel without this DNA. Against a postmodernism that denies any grand metanarrative, we must unapologetically present God’s grand story — and invite people into it through the gospel.
Next: how the twin threads of this DNA — God’s name and His glory — are interconnected.
For Reflection
1. How do knowing God, glorifying God, and making His name known relate to one another?
2. In what ways did Israel fulfill—or fail to fulfill—its calling to represent God among the nations?
3. How does Jesus reveal the Father’s name and glory more fully than anyone who came before Him?
4. How should God’s ultimate purpose reshape the way we think about discipleship, vocation, and evangelism?
5. How does the promise of seeing God’s glory in the new creation give a richer picture of eternal life?
6. What practical changes would occur if you viewed your personal story as part of God’s purpose to make Himself known?
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