Monday, December 28, 2015

The Self-Sufficient Glory of God

Jonathan Edwards, from A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections:
The first objective ground of gracious affections, is the transcendently excellent and amiable nature of divine things as they are themselves; and not any conceived relation they bear to self, or self-interest.
There is a huge difference between being able to say "God is excellent" and "God is excellent to me." Edwards refers to the God-given revelation that God is and would continue to be excellent even if I did not exist, or the creation itself did not exist. God's glory, beauty, holiness, and joy are not contingent upon anything He has created.