The interconnected graces

In Charity and Its Fruit, Edwards argues that all the graces of Christianity-whether they be the big three of faith, hope, and love or other graces such as patience, contentment, gentleness, and the like-are connected. They are not individually packaged; that is, for reasons Edwards produces, they are affiliated and connected with each other.

Of the many reasons Edwards puts forward showing the connected-ness of the graces, I will draw you attention to just two of them.

The third reason given explaining the inseparability of the graces is that "they all have the same root and foundation, namely, the knowledge of God’s excellence." For Edwards, a knowledge of God's excellence, a real vision of who God is and what he is like, will beget the graces in the Christian's life. Thus, at conversion, an individual sees God as glorious and this spiritual vision will naturally produce the graces mentioned above as well as many others. In his words, "The same sight or sense of God’s excellency begets faith, and love, and repentance, and all the other graces. One sight of this excellence will beget all these graces, because it shows the ground and reason of all holy dispositions, and of all holy behavior toward God. They that truly know God’s nature will love him, and trust in him, and have a spirit to submit to him, and serve, and obey him."

Hence, the graces are interconnected because they all spring forth from the same apprehension of God in all his excellence. Furthermore, Edwards also suggests that the graces not only have the same source, but they also have the same end; the glory of God.

Edwards writes, "He is their end, for they all tend to him. As they are all from the same source, rising from the same fountain; and all stand on the same foundation, growing from the same root; and are all directed by the same rule, the law of God; — so they are all directed to the same end, namely, God, and his glory, and our happiness in him." Of interest is Edwards connecting the glory of God and our happiness in him, two congruent ends that the graces in the Christian life arrive at.

There are several other reasons Edwards feels that all of the graces are connected, but certainly he sees their joining together as resulting from their similar beginning and end.

The cross and the crown

There is a declaration that Jesus made about our lives which we are hesitant to claim. Jesus, speaking to his disciples said, "In the world you will have tribulation." Trials, difficulties, and tribulations are part and parcel of the Christian life. Despite what the prosperity gospel promises and the word of faith movement wishes for, we should expect that our journey of faith will have rough patches.

Jonathan Edwards was no stranger to suffering, and in his book Charity and Its Fruit he writes candidly about the difficulties in Christianity:

The sufferings that are in the way of our duty, are among the difficulties that attend religion. They are part of the cost of being religious. He, therefore, that is not willing to meet this cost, never complies with the terms of religion. He is like the man that wishes his house was built, but is not willing to meet the cost of building it; and so, in effect, refuses to build it. He that does not receive the gospel with all its difficulties, does not receive it as it is proposed to him. He that does not receive Christ with his cross as well as his crown, does not truly receive him at all. It is true that Christ invites us to come to him to find rest, and to buy wine and milk: but then he also invites us to come and take up the cross, and that daily, that we may follow him; and if we come only to accept the former, we do not in truth accept the offer of the gospel, for both go together, the rest and the yoke, the cross and the crown: and it will signify nothing, that, in accepting only the one, we accept what God never offered. to us. They that receive only the easy part of Christianity, and not the difficult, at best are but almost Christians; while they that are wholly Christians receive the whole of Christianity, and thus shall be accepted and honored, and not cast out with shame, at the last day.

From where I stand, as I survey the landscape around me, I see many Christians going through hard places and tough times. I am encouraged by their resolve to serve their God through thick and thin. My prayer is that, when I have finished my time here on earth, it will not be said of me that refused to carry my cross.

Their practice will be according to their convictions

This is great stuff by Edwards. In the 11th lecture of Charity and Its Fruit, Edwards convincingly declares that men's practice will be according to their convictions. That is, if a man truly believes something, he will act on it and if he does not act on it, it seems that he is not really and entirely convinced of that truth.

Nowhere is this more true than in man's dealings with the gospel. Gospel-truth is efficacious truth; if you believe it sincerely, your life is changed and this results in a change in the manner in which you live your life.

If a man hears important news that concerns himself, and we do not see that he alters at all for it in his practice, we at once conclude that he does not give heed to it as true; for we know the nature of man is such, that he will govern his actions by what he believes and is convinced of. And so if men are really convinced of the truth of the things they are told in the gospel, about an eternal world, and the everlasting salvation that Christ has purchased for all that will accept it, it will influence their practice. They will regulate their behavior according to such a belief, and will act in such a manner as will tend to their obtaining this eternal salvation. If men are convinced of the certain truth of the promises of the gospel, which promise eternal riches, and honors, and pleasures, and if they really believe that those are immensely more valuable than all the riches, and honors, and pleasures of the world, they will, for these, forsake the things of the world, and, if need be, sell all and follow Christ. If they are fully convinced of the truth of the promise, that Christ will indeed bestow all these things upon his people, and if all this appears real to them, it will have influence on their practice, and it will induce them to live accordingly. Their practice will be according to their convictions.

We ought to love our own happiness

In Charity and Its Fruit, famed theologian Jonathan Edwards writes about a very interesting idea concerning happiness. In the chapter entitled 'The Spirit of Charity the Opposite of a Selfish Spirit' he argues that though there are many instances of self-love that are inappropriate, the love of our own happiness is not one of them. That is, love of our own happiness cannot be too great. This is a facet of Christian Hedonism which requires and deserves serious contemplation. Consider,

First, that the inordinateness of self-love does not consist in our love of our own happiness being, absolutely considered, too great in degree. — I do not suppose it can be said of any, that their love to their own happiness, if we consider that love absolutely and not comparatively, can be in too high a degree, or that it is a thing that is liable either to increase or diminution. For I apprehend that self-love, in this sense, is not a result of the fall, but is necessary, and what belongs to the nature of all intelligent beings, and that God has made it alike in all; and that saints, and sinners, and all alike, love happiness, and have the same unalterable and instinctive inclination to desire and seek it. The change that takes place in a man, when he is converted and sanctified, is not that his love for happiness is diminished, but only that it is regulated with respect to its exercises and influence, and the courses and objects it leads to. Who will say that the happy souls in heaven do not love happiness as truly as the miserable spirits in hell? If their love of happiness is diminished by their being made holy, then that will diminish their happiness itself; for the less anyone loves happiness, the less he relishes it, and, consequently, is the less happy.

Let me draw out a few ideas from this excerpt that Edwards suggests:

1. We cannot love our own happiness too much.
2. Love of happiness is not a result of the fall but is God-given and necessary.
3. Our love of happiness results in us desiring and seeking it.
4. A regenerated man loves happiness appropriately and with balance.
5. The less we love happiness, the less we relish it, and the less happy we are.

Ultimately, what Edwards would indicate is that we can love happiness because we are most happy when we are in relationship with God as He intended. Thus, loving our happiness is loving our God.

It is clear to me that Edwards thought on an entirely different level than me.

The soul-shrinking effect of sin

In Lecture VIII of Charity and Its Fruits, Jonathan Edwards scrutinizes selfishness and contrasts it in light of charity. As Edwards notes, "The ruin that the fall brought upon the soul of man consists very much in his losing the nobler and more benevolent principles of his nature, and falling wholly under the power and government of self-love." Selfishness became an inseparable part of the human condition at the fall.

This selfishness was opposed to the way in which he was created by God; "exalted, and noble, and generous." Rather, " the mind of man shrank from its primitive greatness and expandedness, to an exceeding smallness and contractedness." This idea, the soul-shrinking effect of sin, is particularly seen in acts of selfishness.

Despite being endowed at creation with a rich, vibrant, and loving soul that was after God's own image,

soon afterward
these noble principles were immediately lost, and all this excellent enlargedness of man's soul was gone; and thenceforward he himself shrank, as it were, into a little space, circumscribed and closely shut up within itself to the exclusion of all things else. Sin, like some powerful astringent, contracted his soul to the very small dimensions of selfishness.

Edwards gives us a description of the size and shape and volume of selfishness: small. That is one of the effects sin has on us. It is a contracting, constraining, constricting cancer that minimizes, and, if left uncured, leads us to death.

Edwards continues looking at the outcomes of man's love affair with himself.

God was forsaken, and fellow creatures forsaken, and man retired within himself, and became totally governed by narrow and selfish principles and feelings. Self-love became absolute master of his soul, and the more noble and spiritual principles of his being took wings and flew away.

Fortunately, that was not the end of the story. Edwards began at the beginning of the metanarrative of the Bible with Creation. He relates the second part of the over-arching story of mankind, the fall of man. But Edwards continues with Scripture's story arc, not leaving us mired in sin, rather encouraging us with the next part of God's unfolding plan, redemption.

Edwards writes,

But God, in mercy to miserable man, entered on the work of redemption, and, by the glorious gospel of his Son, began the work of bringing the soul of man out of its confinement and contractedness, and back again to those noble and divine principles by which it was animated and governed at first. And it is through the cross of Christ that he is doing this; for our union with Christ gives us participation in his nature.

And so, the remedy for our shrinking soul is union with our saving Sovereign through his Son. Edwards explains this majestic and merciful movement of God as an enlargement, an extensiveness, and a filling out of the Christian.

And so Christianity restores an excellent enlargement, and extensiveness, and liberality to the soul, and again possesses it with that divine love or charity that we read of in the text, whereby it again embraces its fellow creatures, and is devoted to and swallowed up in the Creator. And thus charity, which is the sum of the Christian spirit, so partakes of the glorious fullness of the divine nature, that she "seeketh not her own," or is contrary to selfish spirit.

I'm sure Edwards would agree that the final eradication of the soul-shrinking effects of sin will come in the final phase of the world's history-the consummation-where we will meet Christ and he will reconcile all things. Then, and only then, will humanity reach the full stature of Christ. This largess of largness is the final chapter of the story of man and the story of God.

Edwards and self-affirmation

This flies in the face of modern concepts of self-affirmation which would recoil with ideas that consider ourselves anything less than the center of the universe:

Seek for a deep and abiding sense of your comparative meanness before God and man. 

Know God.

Confess your nothingness and ill-desert before him.

Distrust yourself.

Rely only on God.

Renounce all glory except from him.

Yield yourself heartily to his will and service.

Avoid an

aspiring,

ambitious,

ostentatious,

assuming,

arrogant,

scornful,

stubborn,

willful,

leveling,

self-justifying behavior; 

and strive for more and more of the humble spirit that Christ manifested while he was on earth.

Edwards does not just suggest that we should understand our "meanness" before God, but rather we should actively seek a sense of this lowness. This might very well be the tonic for the "world revolves around me" mentality that our culture imposes on all of us.

Edwards defines the Gospel

In Charity and Its Fruits, Jonathan Edwards defines the Gospel:

The gospel, above all things in the world, holds forth the exceeding condescension of God. No other manifestation that ever God made of himself exhibits such wonderful condescension as the Christian revelation does. The gospel teaches how God, who humbles himself to behold things that are in heaven and earth, stooped so low as to take an infinitely gracious notice of poor vile worms of the dust, and to concern himself for their salvation, and so as to send his only-begotten Son to die for them, that they might be forgiven, and elevated, and honoured, and brought into eternal fellowship with him, and to the perfect enjoyment of himself in heaven for ever.

A sentence to ponder

"All grace is wrought in the heart through the knowledge of God, or by the clear discovery of his perfections; and the knowledge of these perfections is the foundation of all grace." - Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits

A right sense and estimate

In Charity and Its Fruits, Jonathan Edwards discusses humility in the seventh lecture. Humility, the author contends, is fundamentally and foundationally concerned with a proper perspective of ourselves in light of God. Consider,

He that has a right sense and estimate of himself in comparison with God, will be likely to have his eyes open to see himself aright in all respects. Seeing truly how he stands with respect to the first and highest of all beings, will tend greatly to help him to a just apprehension of the place he stands in among creatures. And he that does not rightly know the first and greatest of beings, who is the fountain and source of all other beings, cannot truly know anything aright; but so far as he has come to a knowledge of the former, so far is he prepared for and led unto the knowledge of other things, and so of himself as related to others, and as standing among them.

Helpers on their way to glory

In Lecture V of Charity and Its Fruits by Jonathan Edwards, the author discusses the outworking of charity in our relationships with one another. Charity, the author claims, disposes us to good to others. And of the ways in which we can do good to our fellow men, "Persons may do good to the souls of others, which is the most excellent way of doing good." With that in mind, consider the following excerpt (line breaks mine):

Saints, too, may be the instruments of 
comforting and establishing one another,
and of strengthening one another in faith and obedience;
of quickening,
and animating,
and edifying one another;
of raising one another out of dull and dead frames,
and helping one another out of temptations,
and onward in the divine life;
of directing one another in doubtful and difficult cases;
of encouraging one another under darkness or trial;
and,
generally,
of promoting each other's spiritual joy and strength,
and thus being mutually fellow helpers on their way to glory.

Resentment and unforgiveness

This quote from Jonathan Edwards' classic Charity and Its Fruits was painful to read the first time and is equally so in writing this post. I am easily to take offense because I think much of myself. I know there are people out there who might think too disparagingly of themselves, but I'm not one of them. My own estimation of myself rarely displays humility, but often evidences pride. Thus, I am oft-offended and slow to forgive. Consider:

A humble spirit disinclines us to indulge resentment of injuries, for he that is little and unworthy in his own eyes, will not think so much of an injury offered to him as he that has high thoughts of himself. For it is deemed a greater and higher enormity to offend one that is great and high, than one that is mean and vile. It is pride or self-conceit that is very much the foundation of a high and bitter resentment, and of an unforgiving and revengeful spirit. (79)

The long-suffering of God

I regularly recall the marrow of lesson that Wayne Grudem taught on the common grace of God in which he vividly describes God's great mercy and patience in how he deals with mankind. To paraphrase his point, God's common grace-his mercy and long-suffering with sinful humanity-is evident every time we look outside and see something other than flames, every time we smell something other than smoke and burning sulfur, every time we feel something other than excruciating burns, every time we hear something other than screams of pain and suffering. God is patient with mankind; he does not immediately give us what we deserve.

This idea that originally came from the teachings of Grudem came to mind when I read the following quote by Jonathan Edwards from his book of lectures called Charity and Its Fruits:

If we consider the wickedness that there is in the world, and then consider how God continues the world in existence, and does not destroy it, but showers upon it innumerable mercies, the bounties of his daily providence and grace, causing his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sending rain alike on the just and on the unjust, and offering his spiritual blessings ceaselessly and to all, we shall perceive how abundant is his long-suffering toward us.

God's abundant and merciful patience is remarkable in light of all our sin. His gracious care is magnified when the transgressions and evil in this world is considered.

Are you busy?

There have been some busy months in the St. John house this fall. The past month has been particularly crazy. Some respite is in sight, however. The secondary school football team I coach plays in the "B Championship" this Saturday. The end of our football season, hopefully a win, will free up 3 hours a day. That alone will lighten the burden of business the last few months has included.

Hopefully my contributions to this blog will increase in frequency and regularity next week.

That being said, I recognize that pretty much everyone is busy; we fill our schedules with meetings, work, play, children's activities, church duties, and whatever else we might feel obligated to do. There can sometimes emerge a certain smug sense of accomplishment in the performance of all these duties. As if, in the simple acts of doing them, we have accomplished much. We can subtly believe that we have merited much in our dutiful fulfilling of our obligations.

Not so says Jonathan Edwards. In his second lecture on love in Charity and Its Fruits, Edwards deals with the misconception that performance of tasks is in and of itself profitable. The title of the lecture, "The Greatest Performance or Sufferings in Vain without Charity," gives an indication of Edwards' direction. He writes,

And as there is nothing profitable to God in any of our services or performances, so there can be nothing profitable in his sight in a mere external action without sincere love in the heart, "for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward apperance, but God looketh on the heart." The heart is just as naked and open to him as the actions. And therefore he sees our actions, and all our conduct, not merely as the external motions of a machine, but as the actions of  rational, intelligent creatures, and voluntary free agents; and therefore there can be, in his estimation, no excellence or amiableness in anything we can do, if the heart be not right with him.

Thus, we are called to act our actions and do our doings with proper motivation; love. Let's not think that in simply performing our duties we have accomplished much.

The image of God and miracles

Jonathan Edwards, in his classic Christian work on love called Charity and Its Fruits, gives charismatics a good reminder "wherein the spiritual image of God consists" in the following excerpt:

That grace or holiness, which is the effect of the ordinary influence of the Spirit of God in the hearts of the saints, is that wherein the spiritual image of God consists; and not in these extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. —The spiritual image of God does not consist in having a power to work miracles, and foretell future events,but it consists in being holy, as God is holy: in having a holy and divine principle in the heart, influencing usto holy and heavenly lives. Indeed, there is a kind of assimilation to Christ in having a power to work miracles, for Christ had such a power, and wrought a multitude of miracles (John xiv. 12) — " The works that I do shall he do also." But the moral image and likeness of Christ does much more consist in having the same mind in us which was in Christ ; in being of the same Spirit that he was of; in being meek and lowly of heart ; in having a spirit of Christian love, and walking as Christ walked. This makes a man more like Christ than if he could work ever so many miracles.

A motive for love

Jonathan Edwards on motivation for Christian living:

This spirit, even a spirit of love, is the spirit that God holds forth greater motives in the gospel to induce us to, than to any other thing whatever. The work of redemption which the gospel makes known, above all things affords motives to love; for that work was the most glorious and wonderful exhibition of love that was ever seen or heard.

All you need is love

Love to God will dispose a man to honour him, and heartily acknowledge his greatness and glory and dominion. And so it will dispose to all acts of obedience to God; for the servant that loves his master, and the subject that loves his sovereign, will be disposed to proper subjection and obedience. (6)

In some ways, The Beatles were right when they sang "All you need is love." Provided, of course, that love is directed towards God. The above quote by Jonathan Edwards is from his collection of lectures called Charity and Its Fruits.

Edwards grounds the doing of one's duties and obedience to our Sovereign in love. It is out of the overflow of love to God that we find the motivation to love God. Indeed, our sanctification is effective only through a Holy Spirit enabled delight in and desire for God. We can not will it, at least, a move of the will is not sufficient.

This resulting obedience through loving God is surely one of the reason Edwards emphasized delighting, relishing, being allured, and finding joy in God.

Loving God aright

From Jonathan Edwards' first lecture in Charity and Its Fruits:

When God and man are loved with a truly Christian love, they ate both loved from the same motives. When God is loved aright, he is loved for his excellency, and the beauty of his nature, especially the beauty of the holiness of his nature; and it is from the same motive that the saints are loved-for holiness' sake. And all things that are loved with a truly holy love, are loved from the same respect to God. Love to God is the foundation of gracious love to men; and men are loved, either because they are in some respect like God, in the possession of his nature and spiritual image, or because of the relation they stand in to him as his children or creatures-as those who are blessed of him, or to whom his mercy is offered, or in some other way from regard to him (5-6).

If we love, or are loved, we should thank our gracious and merciful heavenly Father as all true love is related to God.