Ben Canfield

“The new covenant ministry is a ministry of proclamation, and the subject of this proclamation is none other than the glory of Christ. There are two reasons for this. First, preachers must set the glory of Christ before the congregation in their proclamation of Scripture because the glory of Christ is legitimately to be found there. They have not truthfully proclaimed the Scripture if they have not proclaimed how it radiates Christ’s beauty. Second, getting a collective eye-full of Christ’s glory is how the church will grow up into maturity. No gimmicks or pragmatic initiatives will do for the local congregation what a sermon reveling in the excellencies of Christ will do. The body of Christ is “nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments,” and “grows with a growth that is from God” only when it holds “fast to the Head” (Col 2:19). This is how it is transformed into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another, forever.”
― Samuel Parkison, To Gaze upon God: The Beatific Vision in Doctrine, Tradition, and Practice