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Focus with me for a few moments on the root of Jonathan Edwards' God-entranced vision of all things. The root is sunk into three levels of salvation. And what makes Edwards' vision of all things so God-entranced and God-centered and God-exalting is that in each of these three levels of salvation God himself is sovereign and decisive and beautiful. You can see these three levels of salvation in 2 Corinthians 4:4 and 4:6.
I'll point them out and then come back and look at them more closely with you. Focus first on the last part of verse 4.
"In their case [those who are perishing] the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
Then notice the close parallel to the last words of verse 4 in the last part of verse 6:
"For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
Notice the similar words in verses 4 and 6:
Verse 4: "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God."
Verse 6: "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
In both verses the word "light" is parallel. Then the words "gospel" and "knowledge" are parallel: "Light of the gospel" and "light of knowledge." Then the term "glory of Christ" is parallel to "glory of God": "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" and "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God." And in both verses Paul adds words to show how the "glory of God" is in fact "the glory of Christ." He does it in verse 4 by saying Christ is the "image of God," so Christ's glory is the glory of God. And he does it in verse 6 by saying that God's glory is seen "in the face of Christ," so God's glory is the glory of Christ.
Now notice the three levels of salvation in these two parallel verses. The deepest level of salvation is in the term, "the glory of Christ, who is the image of God," or "the glory of God in the face of Christ." This is the deepest level of Edwards' vision - the glory of God in Christ, or the glory of Christ who is God. You cannot go beneath this. There is no deeper reality and no greater value than the glory of God in Christ. There is no prize and no satisfaction beyond this. When you have this, you are at the end. You are home. The glory of God is not a means to anything greater. This is ultimate, absolute reality. All true salvation ends here, not before and not beyond. There is no beyond. The glory of God in Christ is what makes the gospel "gospel."
The second level of salvation, moving up from the deepest level of the glory of Christ, is the gospel of Christ. This is the good news (verse 4, or, as verse 6 says, the "knowledge") of what Christ has done in history to make access to the deepest level of salvation possible for guilty sinners. What makes the good news ultimately good is that it opens the way for sinners to approach the glory of God with all-satisfying joy instead of being incinerated. We will come back in a moment to see what Christ did.
The third level of salvation, moving up from the glory of Christ and the gospel of Christ is the shining of divine light in the human heart that enables it to see and savor the gospel of the glory of Christ. You see this in the word "light" in verses 4: "light of the gospel" and verse 6: "light of the knowledge." But you see most clearly how this light comes in verse 6: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light. . ." It is not enough to hear "the gospel" mentioned in verse 4, or to have "the knowledge" mentioned in verse 6. There must be a divine work of illumination or awakening. God himself, by his Spirit, must do an act of creation as he did at the beginning of the universe when he said, "Let there be light." Edwards will call this act of God "regeneration" - being born again.
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