Today I would like to try to get at Jonathan Edwards’ thought on what is essential in Reformed theology and Christianity as a whole. We can be as precise as we can be with our theological precision and our creeds and still miss the real issue. Doubtless there are those who rest their hopes for salvation in their theological precision and conservative belief. But if Warfield’s and Edwards’ teaching on the central theme of Scripture is right, we see that a profession of faith is not enough. There is a vast difference between believing certain truths about the Gospel and having the light shine in the heart that gives the very knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
“Wicked men and devils will see, and have a great sense of everything that appertains to the glory of God, but only the beauty of his moral perfection. They will see his infinite greatness and majesty, his infinite power, and will be fully convinced of his omniscience, and his eternity and immutability; and they will see and know everything appertaining to his moral attributes themselves, but only the beauty and amiableness of them: they will see and know that he is perfectly just and righteous and true; and that he is a holy God…and they will see the wonderful manifestations of his infinite goodness and free grace to the saints; and there is nothing will be hid from their eyes but only the beauty of these moral attributes, and that beauty of other attributes, which arises from it. And so natural men in this world are capable of having a very affecting sense of everything else that appertains to God, but this only.” (Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, p. 264)
This is truly a disturbing view of things while beautiful in another sense. Surely it is self-evident that this teaching has major ramifications for the Gospel. Edwards tells us that wicked men and even the devils can see and sense everything pertaining to the glory of God except the beauty of His moral perfection. In other words, the devil and perhaps theologians, biblical scholars, and pastors have some sight of the glory of God and are deceived by it. These people can see something of His greatness and majesty. They can see enough about the physical universe to be amazed at His power and knowledge. They can see that this perfect God cannot lie nor do anything that is not perfectly good. They see great things by the light of academics and rationality, but they did not see the true beauty and delightfulness of God and His glory because they are spiritually dead. These are men that see something of the greatness of the free grace of God and of His love, but they don’t truly see the utter beauty of what His love and grace truly are. They have a system of theology that is rational and to some degree biblical, but they do not see the beauty of God in terms of who He really is. All the beauty they see has to do with their own minds and their own self-love. Unbelievers have some delight in the intellectual study of many things, so it is not surprising that unbelievers (though professing believers) will have some delight in the intellectual study of theology, the Bible, and the creeds. But the delight is not in the beauty and true glory of God, it is in the study and the delight of the mind in intellectual things.
It is not surprising when we read of the Pharisees and others in the history of the Church that have been largely orthodox in their theology and yet have been cold and dead. Scripture tells us that the letter of the Law kills and that is true no matter how great the intellect that teaches it nor does it keep from killing when the person is orthodox. Even the teaching of very orthodox men can be dead if there is not the true beauty and glory of God in it. Quite frankly, one can go to many conferences in our day and find many orthodox men talking about things in orthodox ways. There are men who will speak highly of God. Yet what we don’t really see is the greatness and glory of God taught in such a way that the beauty and glory of God comes down and ravishes the hearts of the people there. Indeed the music might be such in some places that men will weep and shout, but music can make unbelievers weep and shout as well. What we must seek is for the beauty and glory of God to come down from heaven so that there can be no denying of Who has come into the room. Edwards is very clear in the above quote (and many others too) that natural men can have a very affecting sense of anything regarding theology and the teaching of God. They might weep and see things that exalt God and lift Him up in many ways. But they lack the true sense of His beauty and glory. Why is that? Because men still teach about God from a man-centered viewpoint. Jonathan Edwards taught that the beauty of God is “His infinite beauty is his infinite mutual love of himself.” In other words, until we see that the beauty of God is the relation of God within the Trinity and of His love for Himself as triune, we are missing what is truly beautiful about God and the Gospel. When we miss that, we are missing the true beauty of theology and are selling our birthright of His beauty and glory for a bowl of man-centered pottage.
God Loves... Himself 
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