"To Lie in the Dust"

The following is Edwards' recollection of an hour long walk. Wish my walks resulted in stuff like this!

" Once, as I rid out into the woods for my health, having lit from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer; I had a view, that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God...The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception." The ecstasy lasted "about an hour; which kept me, the bigger part of the time, in a flood of tears, and weeping aloud." During this time he felt "an ardency of soul," which he could describe only as "to be emptied and annihilated; to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ alone; to log whim with a holy and pure love."

Just another standard walk for ol' Jonny I guess.

Quoted in Marsden's "Jonathan Edwards-A life" p. 185

The Preacher's Goal

George Marsden beautifully expounds on how Jonathan Edwards crafted sermons:

"With his usual thoroughness he fashioned his sermonic architecture. At the foundations of his edifice he systematically closed every seam that might allow people to gain a glimmer of a supposition that their salvation was partly their own doing. So he forced them to look toward the dome around which he crafted windows that framed the light of God's ways."

Jonathan Edwards, "A Life." p. 141

Excellent Fullness

Edwards:

I have sometimes had a sense of the excellent fullness of Christ, and his meekness and suitableness as a Savior; whereby he has appeared to me, far above all, the chief of ten thousands. His blood and atonement have appeared sweet, and his righteousness sweet; which was always accompanied with ardency of spirit; and inward strugglings and breathings, and groanings that cannot be uttered, to be emptied of myself, and swallowed up in Christ.

Jonathan Edwards, Personal Narrative in the Letters and Personal Writings, WJE Online, vol. 16

A Marker of Healthy Theology

All too often those in the reformed circles get the reputation of the stuffy, stodgy, cantankerous curmudgeon who is chomping at the bit for any opportunity to beat people over the head with a doctrinal bat. Unfortunately, that reputation exists for a reason. I see that in myself as well as others. While robust doctrine is absolutely necessary to live lives pleasing to God, it derails when we use it to drive unnecessary wedges in the body of Christ.

In George Marsden's biography of Jonathan Edwards, he explains how Edwards (usually the Superman of the reformed circles) held tightly to particular and confessional convictions while simultaneously yearning for unity in thought and deed in the church.

This, I'm convinced, is a marker of healthy theology.

"Edwards' call for peace was so strong that he sounded almost like one of Boston's Calvinist moderates.

 'The gospel spirit is a catholic spirit, a noble and unconfined benevolence, like unto that of our Creator, not confined to any particular part of mankind exclusive of others...To make the wickedness of men the cause of contention and strife in us, is to make one sin the cause of another. We cannot please the devil better than by hating men's personals under pretense of duty.'

Even doctrinal differences are no excuse for hatred. People can not help what they believe.

'Tis as unreasonable to strive with others because they can't be in everything of our minds, as to quarrel with another because he differs in the color of his hair or the features of his face...However pernicious his tenets, yet we ought, as much as in us lies, to endeavor to live peaceably with him.'"

I Want This

Marsden, commenting on the glories of God revealed to Edwards...

"The new sensibilities grew during the spring. As he wandered in the fields, woods, and hills near New Haven for his meditations he repeatedly saw the glory and beauty of God's love in Christ. He experienced an 'inward sweet sense' of Christ's love expressed in 'the work of redemption, and the glorious way of salvation by him.' He spent much time reading the love poetry of the Canticles or Song of Songs

..."The words seemed to me, sweetly to represent the loveliness and beauty of Jesus Christ." Such contemplations would carry him away 'from all the concerns of the world' into 'a kind of vision...sweetly conversing with Christ, and wrapped and swallowed up in God.' This new sense of divine things 'would often of a sudden as it were, kindle up a sweet buying in my heart; an ardor of my soul, that i know not how to express.'

What overwhelmed him was two seemingly opposite attributes of the triune God "in a sweet conjunction: majesty and meekness joined together: it was a sweet and gentle, and holy majesty; and also a majestic meekness; an awful sweetness; a high, and great, and holy gentleness."


...I'll have what he's having.

...But a Delightful Conviction...

Edwards on the doctrine of God's sovereignty...

"From my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God's sovereignty.... It used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me. But I remember the time very well, when I seemed to be convinced, and fully satisfied, as to this sovereignty of God....

But never could I give an account, how or by what means, I was thus convinced, not in the least imagining at the time, nor a long time after, that there was any extraordinary influence of God's Spirit in it; but only that now I saw further, and my reason apprehended the justice and reasonableness of it. However, my mind rested in it; and it put an end to all those cavils and objections.

And there has been a wonderful alteration in my mind, in respect to the doctrine of God's sovereignty, from that day to this; so that I scarce ever have found so much as the rising of an objection against it, in the most absolute sense....I have often since had not only a conviction but a delightful conviction. The doctrine has very often appeared exceeding pleasant, bright, and sweet. Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God. But my first conviction was not so."

-quoted in Desiring God p.38-39

Edwards on the Loveliness of Heaven

Per Kevin Deyoung

The Apostle tells us that God is love, 1 John 4:8. And therefore seeing he is an infinite Being, it follows that he is an infinite fountain of love, Seeing he is an all-sufficient Being, it follows that he is a full and overflowing and an inexhaustible fountain of love. Seeing he is an unchangeable and eternal Being, he is an unchangeable and eternal source of love. There even in heaven dwells that God from whom every stream of holy love, yea, every drop that is or ever was proceeds.

There dwells Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Prince of peace and love, who so loved the world that he shed his blood, and poured out his soul unto death for it. There dwells the Mediator, by whom all God’s love is expressed to the saints, by whom the fruits of it have been purchased, and through whom they are communicated, and through whom love is imparted to the hearts of all the church. There Christ dwells in both his natures, his human and divine, sitting with the Father in the same throne.

There in heaven this fountain of love, this eternal three in one, is set open without any obstacle to hinder access to it. There this glorious God is manifested and shines forth in full glory, in beams of love; there the fountain overflows in streams and rivers of love and delight, enough for all to drink at, and to swim in, yea, so as to overflow the world as it were with a deluge of love. (The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards, 245)

Submit Cheerfully

Jonathan Edwards penned this upon his death bed, his deepest hope for his wife dealing with his loss:

"...and I hope she will be supported under so great a trial, and submit cheerfully to the will of God."

Something I hope to learn how to do someday.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology: An Ocean without Shores or Bottom

Dane Ortlund. Insanely lucky to be mentored by this man, and fed gospel truths such as this.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology: An Ocean without Shores or Bottom: "Edwards, commenting on 'the God of all comfort' in 2 Cor 1:3-- There is no true comfort to be found anywhere else but in God. There are a gr..."

What Does Union with Christ Imply?

Firstly - I've realized blogging forces me to truly dwell on the content I'm posting. If the content is the Gospel, I'm dwelling on the Gospel, thus preaching it to myself. Just A recent blog benefit I'm discovering

Jonathan Edwards: "By virtue of the believer's union with Christ, he does really possess all things....But it may be asked, how does he possess all things? What is he the better for it? how is a true Christian so much richer than other men?

To answer this, I'll tell you what I mean by 'possessing all things.' I mean that god three in one, all that he is, and all that he has, and all that he does, all that he has made or done--the whole universe, bodies and spirits, earth and heaven, angels, men and devils, sun, moon and stars, land and sea, fish and fowls, all the silver and gold, kings and potentates as well as men--are as much the Christian's as the money in his pocket, the clothes he wears, the house he dwells in, or the victuals he eats; Yes, properly his, advantageously his...by virtue of the union with Christ; because Christ, who certainly does thus possess all things, is entirely his: so that the Christian possesses it all, more than a wife the share of the best and dearest husband, more than the hand possesses what the head does; it is all his...

Every atom in the universe is managed by Christ so as to be most to the advantage of the Christian, every particle of air or every ray of the sun; so that he in the other world, when he comes to see it, shall sit and enjoy all this vast inheritance with surprising, amazing joy."

.....Do we really, truly understand that we possess ALL things? My heart does not. My heart is predominantly convinced that I need more. That I am incomplete. Jesus + something. anything. = Everything.

That is simply not the case. This truth divinely derails the idolatrous train from the tracks of my heart. To think that through the righteousness of Christ, I am more than complete. I'm beyond complete. I'm infinitely clothed in majestic cloth that will never be stripped.

In light of the entire cosmos being sovereignly operated towards my overall benefit, my idols are scrawny. How do they stand up to this Great Being that loves me so?

At ease solider. Stop fretting and worrying. Stop planning and lay your anxiety to rest. Whatever you think you need, by union with Christ you already have it. He will surely satisfy the deepest longings of your heart.

"You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
   Luke 3:22

More Edwards

"God in seeking his glory seeks the good of his creatures, because the emanation of his glory...implies the...happiness of his creatures. And in communicating his fullness for them, he does it for himself, because their good, which he seeks, is so much in union and communion with himself. God is their good. Their excellency and happiness is nothing but the emanation and expression of God's glory. God, in seeking their glory and happiness, seeks himself, and in seeking himself, i.e. himself diffused...he seeks their glory and happiness."

....plumb the depths of that one

Unreal Edwards Quotes

Piper on Edwards - "God is glorified most not merely by being known, nor by merely being dutifully obeyed, but by being enjoyed in the knowing and the obeying"

Edwards - "God made the world that he might communicate, and the creature receive, his glory; but that it might be received both by the mind and heart. He that testifies his having an idea of God's glory doesn't glorify god so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it."

Piper summarizes: "In all our life and all our study and all our ministry let us seek to glorify God by being satisfied in him above all things. Let us press on to know in the depth of our being that 'the steadfast love of the Lord is better than life' (Ps. 63:3). And so let us find the god-exalting freedom from this world that will make us the most radical, sacrificial servants of good on earth--that men may see our good works and join us in glorifying god by enjoying him forever."

UNREAL. How do we even begin to wrap our minds around that?

God's Passion for His Glory

"This is a stunning truth: Namely, that God's passion for His glory is the measure of His commitment to our Joy"

Directly linked. To the degree that God passionately pursues the magnification of his supreme glory, is to the degree that he is committed to our joy.