"It is as though the universe is an explosion of God's glory. Perfect goodness, beauty, and love radiate from God and draw creatures to ever increasingly share in the Godhead's joy and delight. 'God's respect to the creature's good, and his respect to himself,' Edwards explained, 'is not a divided respect; but both are united as one, as the happiness of the creature aimed at is happiness in union with himself. . . .' The ultimate end of creation . . . is union in love between God and loving creatures. Because eternity is infinite, this union between God and the saints can be ever increasing, like a line ascending toward an infinite height but never reaching it. So the saints' happiness will continually increase as they are drawn ever closer toward perfect union with the Godhead."
It is a vision of "an exploding God-centered universe in which God creates in order ever increasingly to share divine happiness with his creatures." -George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life, pg. 463.
Eric Ortlund
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