“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 statement by Edwards that “he sees that in them wherein divinity chiefly consists” is another enormous statement with ramifications for preaching and theology. If our preaching and teaching primarily consists of teaching people the facts about things, this is woefully inadequate if Edwards is correct. The glory of God is not seen in teaching facts alone, but God is only seen when His glory is displayed. It is not enough to set forth a fact about God, we must teach the truth in a way to shine forth the glory of God. This is why we are to preach Christ as the shining forth of the glory of God rather than as a man-centered Deity who has done all He can do. We must know that all of our illustrations and stories may move the feelings of people but they do not in and of themselves shine forth the glory of God. It is in preaching and teaching in a way that the glory of God shines that the divinity of God shines forth in a self-evident manner. It is true, however, that no man can be the final cause of God shining His glory in the minds and hearts of other human beings. But preaching is a means of grace and when the intent in preaching is to shine the glory of God that is the means of grace of it being done. Preaching the letter of the law and preaching information only is the means to hardening and to pride (I Corinthians 8:1).
It is only when the true glory of God is set out, declared, and then admired is the truth of God then seen to be the truth of God. As Edwards says, “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.” It is not just that God is more beautiful than all other things, but He is infinitely exalted above other things by His divine beauty and chiefly by His divine beauty. It is the sight of that glory that men and women see divine things and see God (spiritual sight of the soul by faith) in them. In our churches today we are not showing forth the true glory but we are teaching morality, intellectual theology, and intellectual exegesis. Exegesis is meant to draw out what the text is really about rather than to expound some things about the text and show how that text intellectually fits in with the rest of Scripture. God has given His Scriptures in order to reveal Himself and His glory. If a preacher did not set out the truth of the glory of God in a text, that preacher has failed in his exegesis no matter how technically accurate he was.
It is not enough to talk about and use the word “glory” a lot, but instead the glory of God must be set out in its beauty. The people in the pews are bombarded moment after moment by the beauty and desirability of the world. When they come to hear the Word of God, they need to hear the distinguishing beauty and glory of God set out so that they will not be so tempted by the allure of the world. Preachers are bombarded by the things of the world too and they need to be caught up with the glory of God in order to be kept from being captured by the allure of professionalism and of large packages and of a church growth mentality. As long as preachers talk of a god that is focused on human beings, they are doing nothing but feeding the minds of people with an idol and people are being hardened into idolatry in the name of Christianity. This is also done with hard preaching and preaching on sin and morality as the Pharisees did. If the distinctive thing about God is His beauty and glory, then the distinctive thing about true preaching is the same thing. The same thing is true with Reformed churches. People are hardened under conservative morality and conservative theology if they are not lifted up to see the glory of God. It is not just that Pelagians and Arminians do this, but Reformed people are guilty of this. The bottom line is that if we are not preaching what is distinctive about God then we are not preaching the true God. No matter how much intellectual truth or orthodoxy is declared from Reformed pulpits, the true God is not being declared when His distinctive beauty and glory is not preached. We always point the finger at other people for our problems, but perhaps we should be pointing our fingers at the image we see in the mirror. Truth apart from His glory hardens hearts.
God Loves... Himself 
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