“This view or sense of the divine glory, and unparalleled beauty of the things exhibited to us in the gospel, has a tendency to convince the mind of their divinity.” (Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections p. 298)
This statement should ravish our souls with the mere thought. May this type of thinking become greater and greater until the very glory of God sweeps through our land and the world with the beauty of His glory. Here we are given a hint at the very least as to what the beauty of the Gospel really is. Though it may appear presumptive to change the sentence of Edwards around, in an effort to show at least part of his meaning with more clarity I will do so. “The unparalleled beauty of the things exhibited to us in the gospel which consists in this view or sense of the divine glory has a tendency to convince the mind of their divinity.” The unparalleled beauty of the things exhibited in the Gospel can only be the divine glory. The beauty of the Gospel is not that it saves sinners from hell, but that it manifests and exhibits the Divine glory. The Divine glory is seen in the Gospel by what it is and by what it does, and the beauty of that glory shines in such a way that there is nothing that can approach the glory of it. It is indeed an unparalleled beauty that is exhibited in the Gospel.
Psalm 27:4 – “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.”
Psalm 149:4 – “For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.”
2 Corinthians 4:4 – “In whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 6 For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
What do men see that render the Gospel desirable to them? What is it that Satan has to do to keep people from seeing the true Gospel? The true Gospel is all about the glory of God yet men teach it in such a way that the glory of it and the motives of it are aimed at the self-centered nature of man. In that case ministers are deceived and join hands with Satan in hiding the glory of God in a so-called gospel. We can preach and teach what is orthodox about the Gospel and yet miss the real issue. A man that is very orthodox can do a dissertation on the Gospel and yet miss what is the real issue with the Gospel. Our desire must be for the glory of God in all and we must desire and love His beauty and glory in the Gospel. If all we do is present men with self-centered motives about what is best for them, they have not been moved by the heart of the Gospel which is the glory of God. The unparalleled beauty of the Gospel is in the glory of God shining in the face of Christ. If people miss that, they have missed it all.
What is it that the soul is required to seek? It is “To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple” (Psa 27:4). What is it that will take a soul wrapped in the filth of sin and pride and make it beautiful to God? It is when “the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation” (Psalm 149:4). The Lord takes those ugly with sin and makes them beautiful in His eyes with salvation. What is it about salvation that makes them beautiful? It is because it is His glory that they are now clothed with. It is because it is His beauty that now resides in and shines through them. We can see this clearly in II Corinthians 4:6 when the Gospel is all about God who shines in hearts “to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” It is when the light of the knowledge (more than just intellectual) of God’s glory is seen in Christ from the heart that a person now truly knows the Gospel. It is then that the person is beautified with salvation and it is then that the soul desires nothing more than to behold the beauty of the Lord. The Gospel is a sight of the Divine glory in its beauty as it shines in the birth, life, cross/death, and then resurrection, ascension and mediating work of Christ. The devil is hard at work to get people to teach morality and orthodox theology in such a way that the glory of the Lord is not seen. He is hard at work to get people to see the Gospel as desirable for what it will do for them rather than the glory of God. Reformed theology is only beautiful to the degree that it shines with the beauty and glory of God. If it does not do that, it is deformed despite its orthodoxy. Let us never forget that the God who lives in sight of the beauty of His own glory displayed within the Trinity will never see anything else as beautiful other than Himself. Until souls feed upon the beauty of His glory they will not repent of their self-centeredness to being ravished by His beauty and glory. They will continue to be full of self like the devil.
God Loves... Himself 
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