“God himself is the great good which [we] are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwellingplace, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honor and glory. They have none in heaven but God; he is the great good which the redeemed are received to at death, and which they are to rise to at the end of the world...the glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will for ever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another; but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in any thing else whatsoever that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what shall be seen of God in them. ”
— Jonathan Edwards, Works of Jonathan Edwards, 17, 208
“In countering an overly emotional and sometimes illogical culture, we Christians should not make the past mistake of ceding art, for example, to lost people. But if our God is beautiful, then we are by definition interested in beauty…the gospel does not shut down our imagination or our love for beautiful things, but rather fires and fuels them and directs them to the God who embodies beauty.”
— Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney, Jonathan Edwards on Beauty, p142
“The love [the Trinitarian] family shares is so intense, so rich, that it spills out from heaven into the world. In the era of the church, when Christ has accomplished His redemptive mission, the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit into the world to bring mankind into communion with them. The Holy Spirit bring the collective love and beauty of the Trinity to the hearts of sinners through the gospel. Where the gospel is received by faith, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell.”
— Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney, Jonathan Edwards on Beauty, p126
“Though Christians may at times feel downcast and beaten by their sufferings…the sovereign Lord sends trials to beautify His people and leave them fitted, framed, and polished for the life to come where no noise of these tools will sound.”
— Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney, Jonathan Edwards on Beauty, p103
“The church must preach the double-sided message of Christianity with boldness in the world, avoiding neither love nor judgment in its constant proclamation of the gospel. Yet the church’s priority must always be love and grace. As the people who drink constantly from the love of God as the result of union with Christ through faith in His atoning death and life-giving resurrection, Christians must mark themselves as a grace-filled, love-giving people. Christians must not simply receive the greatness of God’s love…but must imbibe it and present it to the world.”
— Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney, Jonathan Edwards on Beauty, p116
