God is infinitely excellent, and that excellence is most profoundly displayed in the person and saving work of Jesus Christ. The heart of Edwards’ theology radiates the glory of God as displayed in Christ saving unworthy sinners through perfect obedience to God’s unchanging rule of righteousness. The whole of Edwards’ theology stands on the beauty and redemptive work of Christ as revealing and communicating the marvelous perfections of the Trinity. Salvation of a single soul apart from perfect conformity to God’s rule of righteousness would render God unrighteous and abolish His ultimate purpose to display and communicate His glory. Indeed, God could not be God. Revisionist interpretations of Edwards’ soteriology as inclusive or Catholic, therefore, are untenable without an overthrow and rewrite of the entirety of Edwards’ theology. Christ earned infinite merit by His obedience, the obedience comprising the righteousness by which sinners are justified. The free act of Christ giving His life was His greatest meritorious act, while all of Christ’s acts were both propitiatory and meritorious. In these, Christ accomplished God’s ultimate purpose to display and communicate His glory, consummated in heaven in the marriage of Christ to His bride, to the enjoyment of God’s glory forever.
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