The Most Grossly Undervalued Truth!

My friend (and former roommate after college) Dave Scudder, posted this from Jonathan Edwards. It surfaces one of most underrated truths in the history of mankind. Sadly, I'm not exaggerating one bit! Nor am I referring to the world, who are incapable of understanding this gem of a truth! No, I am talking about self-proclaimed Christians who should be intimately aware on this point! The very essence of salvation is that the believer is transformed in order that he may know God intimately (John 17:3). And the reason Christ died was not to give us peace, free us from sin, Satan and the world, or to make a place for us in heaven (though all these are wonderful concomitants of our redemption) No, the purpose of salvation is that God might enable us as new creatures to be able to see and adore the beauty of God, to really know Him! Oh, how few today really see this as the goal of salvation. This truth is not the exclusive possession of a few dessert mystics. Oh, no! This is the very heart of the matter, the essence of God's great work of re-creation, yes, the "one thing necessary." Do not let this truth or the following quotation get away from you by reading it too quickly. Focus on it. Ponder it. REALLY. Please. Edwards knew his Lord well. We in this day need to love Him again!

God is the highest good of the reasonable creature, and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied....
 
To go to heaven and fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here.
 
Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows.
 
But the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean.

Therefore it becomes us to spend this life only as a journey towards heaven, as it becomes us to make the seeking of our highest end and proper good, the whole work of our lives, to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labor for, or set our hearts on anything else, but that which is our proper end, and true happiness?”

-Jonathan Edwards

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