“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… He that truly sees the divine, transcendent, supreme glory of those things which are divine, does as it were know their divinity intuitively; he not only argues that they are divine, but he sees that they are divine; he sees that in them wherein divinity chiefly consists; for in this glory, which is so vastly and inexpressibly distinguished from the glory of artificial things, and all other glory, does mainly consist the true notion of divinity: God is God, and distinguished from all other beings, and exalted above ’em, chiefly by his divine beauty, which is infinitely diverse from all other beauty. They therefore that see the stamp of this glory in divine things, they see divinity in them, they see God in them because they see that in them wherein the truest idea of divinity does consist.”
(Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections p. 298)
The view of Christianity presented by Edwards in this quote is staggeringly different than almost anything heard in our day. In our day God is barely more than a divine genie handing out what people want as long as they jump through the proper hoops. In our day God is the great conclusion to an argument that is presented to convinced people that God exists. But Edwards says that a view or sense of the divine glory and beauty in the Gospel is what has the tendency to convince minds. Whether a person follows classical or pre-suppositional apologetics, the focus is on convincing the mind in a way where God is the conclusion of the argument. Without tossing those out altogether, Edwards tells us that what really convinces people is the beauty of what is exhibited in the Gospel, which is the divine glory. In other words, what truly convinces people of the Gospel is the beauty and glory of God in the Gospel. A person can be convinced that God is true and that the Gospel is true, but still that person does not believe in a saving way. What must happen is for the person to see the glory of God in the Gospel in order to understand and love the glory of God that shines in the Gospel.
In a very real and true sense the Gospel has virtually been lost in the modern times. We want to argue from logic, history, or in some way apart from setting forth the Gospel in a God-centered methodology. We have made the leap from the command to make disciples of all nations or people groups and have turned toward a man-centered focus and methodology. It is as if the very glory of the Gospel is all about man and what God has done for man. Once that focus and methodology has taken over, the heart of the Gospel has been lost. God is the heart of the Gospel and He is to be the focus and the methodology. He is not to be the focus and the methodology just in order to get people to make a decision, but He is to be the true focus. The Gospel is all about God and His glory. If we take people away from the glory of God in the Gospel, we have just taken out the heart of the Gospel and so we are not proclaiming the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
II Corinthians 4:3-4 sets out the peril of a gospel that does not focus on the glory of God: “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 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.” This Scripture tells us that the devil blinds the minds of the unbelieving to the Gospel so that the true Gospel is veiled to those who are perishing. We simply must get this. But why is it veiled and what is hidden from them by that veil? Those who are perishing have been blinded so that they might not see the light of the Gospel. What is that? It is the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. In other words, the devil does not mind if people heart the words and historical facts of the Gospel, but he works to keep people blinded to the glory of the Gospel. He does that because what convinces people of the Gospel is the glory of God shining in the face of Christ.
Edwards saw something that was biblical and that we must see in our day if we are to see biblical revival. We must get beyond the information of the Gospel and point people to the glory of God that shines in the face of Christ in the Gospel. We can preach the external facts of Christ and the cross until we are blue in the face and we will not have touched on the most important part. In fact, we can preach the external facts of the Gospel and all that will happen is that people will make external professions and be external Christians. A person can be in line with all the historical facts of the Reformed confessions and still see nothing of the glory of the Gospel. John Owen wrote on the glory of Christ as did Edwards. We must preach the glory they did or we won’t preach the same Christ.
God Loves... Himself 
March 9, 2010 at 9:10 am |
“The Gospe Is God.”
Brother John Piper has expressed it so very well.
May the Spirt of our living Christ impress such glorious truth into our hearts and souls.
All to His Glory.