1041. To Say As Luther does . . .

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To say, as Luther does, that God does not exist for our sakes, but we exist for God's sake is not to deny that God unfailingly acts for our sakes, even as we are given and called to act for God's. It is simply to be consistent in affirming that any symmetry between God and ourselves necessarily rests on a more fundamental asymmetry—or, in SK's phrase, an "infinite qualitative difference."

Whereas God exists necessarily, in radical independence of anything other than God, everything other than God exists (or occurs) contingently, in radical dependence on God. To be sure, God as actual is dependent on all other actualities as well as, in their way, all possibilities. But God as existent, and so as actual only somehow, not in any particular how, is radically independent of everything else, whether actual or possible.

For the same reason, it is correct to say that we exist to serve God, God does not exist to serve us. Although God does indeed serve us, by making our existence really possible both in principle and in fact, and by making it really real and everlastingly significant, God would exist, and exist as God, were we never to exist at all. On the other hand, we exist, finally, to serve God by entrusting ourselves wholly to God and leading a blameless life, by loyally serving God by serving all that God serves.

31 January 2010