Ayn Rand, the atheistic philosopher novelist, said in Atlas Shrugged: “Admiration is the rarest of pleasures.” Now in her mouth, that was absolutely scornful, meaning, There aren’t any admirable people in the world, except me and a few philosopher business types. But in my mouth, that means I am made, unlike all other animals, to admire. And my deepest joy will consist in admiring the most admirable.
And there is only one who is most admirable: Christ, the image of God fully. And when he comes, my fullest joy will consist in fulfilling the purpose for which he came, namely to be admired. So his glory and my joy come together. Now, if you embraced this, then when you talk about, “for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
(Revelation 5:9–10),
you know why he’s doing that, why Jesus came, why he bought people from every ethnic group, why we send out missionaries. And the answer from Romans 1 is, For the sake of the name. So all of that, simply to lay a foundation here at the beginning of this volume, that if we want our heart for the nations to rest upon God’s heart for the nations, it should rest upon the basis of God’s heart for the nations, namely, God’s heart for his own glory.