I suppose that some of you may be a little worn out after the last message on No Sure Signs, and I also anticipate that some of you are looking forward to some encouragement as we discuss those signs that are distinguishing marks of genuine religious affections. Remember, it is possible to know that you have eternal life; in other words, it is possible to have assurance of salvation. 1 John 5:2 and 13 reveals that confidence of our spiritual state is attainable.

In the previous message we considered the inconclusive marks of genuine affections. The goal was to expose counterfeit confidence and keep us from depending on inconclusive or insufficient evidence. Now we turn our attention to the distinctive, distinguishing marks of true, spiritual affections.

The distinguishing marks were primary for Jonathan Edwards. In The Religious Affections he devoted only 65 pages (with twelve points that’s a bit over 5 pages per point) to discuss what are no sure signs. However, this third and final part of his book is substantially larger, consuming 258 pages (with another 12 points at an average of 21.5 pages per point). And even that statistic is a bit misleading, as the 12th and final sign of gracious affections is given a whopping 74 pages. That is nine more pages than all the no sure signs together! Obviously he covers a lot of ground, but I have abridged and rearranged his material so that we might at least get an overview of this important subject.

Before considering the distinguishing marks themselves, Edwards begins Part 3 with three reminders. First, he reminds us that no one can know for sure someone else’s spiritual condition and that the ultimate judgment is God’s alone. Yet God’s Word does give us guidelines for discriminating between what is true and what is counterfeit so that we may be safe from our own deceiving hearts and false comforts.

Second, Edwards reminds us that there are no signs or marks to be found by Christians who are in sin or low experiences of love and grace that will make them feel better. When grace is small in a person’s life it will be hard to pinpoint. Not only that, but when someone is living in sin, that sin causes a defect in their ability to see. No signs can be given that will encourage us or satisfy us in that condition. Edwards says,

It is like giving man rules how to distinguish visible objects in the dark. (p.122)

And so it is useless for anyone to seek immediate, full assurance of salvation if sin’s influence is strong. It is fruitless labor to pour over past experiences to find fruit if there is none today. In fact, it is not God’s design that we should have assurance any other way than habitually killing sin and increasing in spiritual, holy living.

Assurance is not to be obtained so much by self-examination as by action. (p.123)

Some people scrutinize their belly-buttons so much that they are functionally paralyzed. Consequently there is nothing to examine since they’ve been sitting still. But if we want to make our calling and election sure, there is more work to do than simply listen to a sermon and check the boxes to see if we pass the test. We’ve got to get working. The apostle Peter makes this clear in 2 Peter 1:5-11:

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Edwards’ third word of introduction is his acknowledgment that even though he hoped these signs to be helpful, he knows that some hypocrites are so self-deceived that it usually does nothing to lay before them the most convincing evidences of their hypocrisy. But perhaps God would be pleased to use His truth to awaken unbelieving hypocrites to new life and also strengthen believers in their assurance of genuine, gracious affections.

Alright, so I’ve taken Edwards’ 12 distinguishing marks (over 258 pages) and turned them into six.

1. Genuine religious affections are spiritual.

Saying that genuine affections are “spiritual” is only helpful if we can idenfity what is truly spiritual and what isn’t. This is both a simple and difficult subject, misunderstood by many.

Each and every Christian has the Holy Spirit living inside of them as a down-payment on their eternal inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14). Edwards summarizes it this way,

The Spirit of God is given to true saints to dwell in them as His proper lasting abode; and to influence their hearts as a principle of new nature, or as a divine supernatural spring of life and action. (p.127)

That’s good enough. But how do we know when the Spirit is there, and when the affections are Spirit-produced and not originating from a counterfeit spirit or our own deceitful heart? It’s not like a light starts flashing on top of our head. So how do we know?

First, we recognize the Spirit’s work when we are convicted of sin. In fact, this is one of the Spirit’s primary tasks. False affections are not typically concerned with identifying sin or sorrowing over it. Counterfeit affections tend to ignore sin or rationalize it or redefine it. But the Spirit convicts us of sin.

John 16:8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

Second, we also discern the Spirit’s work when we know and value Jesus. This too is one of the clear purposes of the Spirit: that we would prize Christ. Counterfeit affections have a self-focus and not about the great things of Jesus.

John 15:26 But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me. 16:14 He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.

Third, we perceive the Spirit’s work when we see the various facets of fruit He produces.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control;

Note as well the primary purpose of the Spirit in Galatians 5: to keep us from gratifying the desires of the flesh (v.16). Those who are spiritual are those who belong to Jesus Christ and have “crucified the flesh with it’s passions and desires” (v.24). So the Holy Spirit is not necessarily someone that we feel, but someone we recognize through our holy behavior.

Romans 8:4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

The hypocrite is not interested in putting the flesh to death, but keeping his earthly passions and adding religious talk.

And even though there are more signs of the Spirit’s work, it is also important to mention we see the Spirit’s work when He illumines Scripture to us, that is, when He helps us to understand the Word. Those without the Spirit do not, they cannot, accept the things of His Word. That’s why the apostle Paul said,

1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

The Holy Spirit is not disclosing new revelation or dreams or fresh communication. Instead He helps us to understand better what He’s already written. He is not unveiling secret and hidden messages written in Scripture but bringing to light His original intent. Some people think that something is spiritual just because they can’t explain it. They think certain feelings or impressions or imaginations are spiritual. Instead, as Edwards summarizes,

The seal of the Spirit is the vital, gracious, sanctifying communication and influence of the Spirit and not any immediate suggestion or revelation of facts by the Spirit. (p.163)

So gracious affections are spiritual, and by spiritual we mean enabled by the Holy Spirit as we are sin-sensitive, Jesus-valuing, Scripture-understanding, and holiness-increasing.

2. Genuine religious affections are Godward.

One hitch with hypocrites is that they are pleased first or primarily with the benefits and happiness they receive from God, rather than being happy with or in God Himself. They don’t appreciate God as the greatest, but their affections for God come because they see what they get from Him. Edwards relates that,

They first rejoice and are elevated with it, that they are made much of by God; and then on that ground He seems, in a sort, lovely to them. (p.176)

The joy of hypocrites is in themselves…. What they are principally taken and elevated with is not the glory of God, or the beauty of Christ, but the beauty of their own experiences. They keep thinking with themselves, What a good experience this is! What a great discovery is this! What wonderful things I have met with…. They take more comfort in their discoveries than in Christ discovered. (p.177)

But true saints are not great talkers about themselves; they are talkers about the great Jesus. Genuine religious affections are not articulated with ourselves as the hero of every story, but of God as the Lord and Savior. The goal of spiritual life is not for Christians to get gifts from God, but to get God Himself. So God does not exist to serve Christians, but they to serve Him.

The the song Much of You by Steven Curtis Chapman is a spot on sample of this Godward posture. The first verse asks,

How could I stand here
And watch the sun rise
Follow the mountains
Where they touch the sky
Ponder the vastness
And the depths of the sea
And think for a moment
The point of it all was to make much of me

The refrain is a commitment,

I want to make much of You, Jesus
I want to make much of Your love
I want to live today to give You the praise
That You alone are so worthy of
I want to make much of Your mercy
I want to make much of Your cross
I give You my life
Take it and let it be used
To make much of You

A true saint forgets himself when he sees God. He doesn’t even want to be in the picture. Edwards admits,

It would be a diversion and loss which he could not bear to take his eye off from the ravishing object of his contemplation, to survey his own experience and to spend time thinking with (about) himself…. (p.178)

It is silly to spend time thinking about ourselves when we could be thinking about God. I was running on my treadmill one day, wrestling through this concept and trying to think about how to illustrate this. I was trying to be Edwardsian in my imagery, so we’ll see how that goes.

The difference between religious affections that are manward or Godward is like the difference between seeing your reflection in a mirror or in a window. The hypocrite prides himself that he’s not looking directly on himself, since he is looking away from himself. But in his looking out, he’s actually aiming to get a bigger or better view of himself. The true saint looks out, as it were, through a window at God. Though he could position himself to catch his reflection in the window, it would be ridiculous to focus on himself when the beauty and glory of God is visible. It would a a “diversion and loss which he could not bear.”

It isn’t that we don’t see and appreciate all the benefits and happiness in what God gives us. But these things are second in line, not first. God is first. We prize God’s infinite worth and precious value for its own sake.

That is the reason hypocrites don’t value God’s holiness. They can appreciate His power since that can get them out of trouble. They can appreciate His grace since that will cover their sins. But there is nothing in His holiness that they can appreciate. It doesn’t benefit them that He is holy. So Edwards wrote,

Wicked men and devils will see and have a great sense of everything that pertains to God, except the beauty of His moral perfections. (p.190) A true love to God must begin with delight in His holiness, and not with a delight in any other attribute. (p.183)

Genuine religious affections are Godward, not focused on ourselves and focused on God as He truly is in His sovereign holiness.

3. Genuine religious affections are truth-driven.

The antithesis of truth-driven affections are affections driven by experience and/or emotion. But Edwards points out,

Holy affections are not heat without light; but evermore arise from the information of the understanding. …Knowledge is the key that first opens the heart and enlargens the affections and so opens the way. (p.192)

That’s why Edwards took it has his pastoral duty to raise the affections of his hearers as high as he possibly could, so long as they were affected with nothing but the truth. The highest zeal and deepest affection is of no eternal benefit if it is not according to truth, just as the apostle Paul said of his kinsmen,

I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (Romans 10:2)

So when Paul wrote to the Philippians he declared,

it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, (Philippians 1:9)

We should say two additional things about the truth that must drive our affections. First, spiritual understanding of truth is understanding of the Scriptures and not

in any new doctrinal knowledge, or in having suggested to the mind any new proposition not before read or heard of. (p.203)

Affections that are built on experiences, especially mystical experiences, are not stable. Subjective things are shifty and uncertain at best. But God’s Word is objecting and unchanging and more certain than any experience. Genuine affections are built on understanding of revealed truth, not personal, cryptic, inexplicable experiences or imaginations.

And second, spiritual understanding of truth is understanding of Scripture properly, not allegorical, fanciful or otherwise subjective interpretations. Edwards noted that,

It appears also that the affection which is occasioned by the coming of a text of Scripture must be in vain, when the affection is founded on something that is supposed to be taught by it, which really is not contained in it, nor in any other Scripture, because such supposed instruction is not real instruction, but a mistake and misapprehension of the mind. … Affections really arise from ignorance, rather than instruction, in these instances. (p.194)

We must never underestimate the necessity of proper hermeneutics and correct exegesis for the sake of understanding God’s truth that drives genuine religious affections.

This is one of the biggest problems with so many “church experiences”–that’s all they are, experiences. If affections are not grounded on truth, on God’s Word and His Word properly understood, then they are no sure signs. But truth-driven affections–truth from the Bible about God and His gospel–are distinguishing marks of genuine religious affections.

4. Genuine religious affections are nature-changing.

Though I suppose that this one should be obvious, it apparently is not. When the Bible talks about salvation and conversion and becoming a Christian, it uses language like “born again,” “new creatures,” “taking off the old man and putting on the new man,” “being made partakers of the divine nature” and so on. These images do not present genuine Christian life as an add-on or a surface level change or simply behavior modification. Genuine religious affections stem from an entirely different, completely changed, new nature.

Of all the changes, perhaps the single most affected part is our perspective on ourselves. That is to say, genuine religious affections are always distinguished by the presence of humility. Whereas the natural man and the hypocrite are always lifting themselves up, genuine affections cause a man to be low. We know we must decrease while Christ increases. Edwards defined this “evangelical humiliation” as the

sense that a Christian has of his own utter insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness with an answerable frame of heart. (p.237)

Religious posers compare themselves with others. They think that they are not nearly as bad as most everyone else and figure that they have done numerous noteworthy religious things. They are like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable who thanked God that he was not like others. They tend to be the hero of every story they tell.

But true saints compare themselves with God’s standard. And in proportion to God’s position and requirements, no one in this world is what they ought to be. The highest love that any have in this life is but skimpy, tepid, and diluted in comparison to what our obligations are. Edwards’ logic is watertight here.

The least sin against an infinite God has an infinite hatefulness or deformity in it; but the highest degree of holiness in a creature has not an infinite loveliness in it.

Our obligation to love and honor any being is in some proportion to his loveliness and honorableness, or to his worthiness to be loved and honored by us…We are surely under greater obligation to love a more lovely being than a less lovely; and if a Being be infinitely lovely or worthy to be loved by us, then our obligations to love Him are infinitely great, and therefore whatever is contrary to this love, has in it infinite iniquity, deformity, and unworthiness.

So much the greater distance between God and the creature, so much the less is the creature’s respect worthy of God’s notice or regard. A great degree of superiority increases the obligation of the inferior to regard the superior, and so makes the want of regard more hateful. But a great degree of inferiority diminishes the worth of the regard of the inferior; because the more he is inferior, the less he is worthy of notice; the less he is, the less is what he can offer worth…as he is little, and little worth, so is his respect little worth.

In other words, our wickedness is infinitely despicable and our best love is hardly admirable compared to what He deserves. Of course, we tend to overestimate our position and therefore underestimate the distance between ourselves and God. This is a monumental mistake.

Though the following illustration is far from Edwardsean, perhaps it will help to knock us off our proud pedestals.

Imagine that you are the curator of a worm farm. You have acquired an aquarium and collected a great number of worms for your colony. You provide your worm community with food, water, protection from attack, and all other things necessary for their pursuit of happiness. In return you require the group to follow, let’s say 10 commands. You even display those commands on a poster on the side of the aquarium for all to see. Most of the worms appreciate your care and oversight, so much so that they decided to hold weekly services to sing songs of thanks and praise.

But here are two very important questions. First, would that worm worship make you feel truly respected? When you were ignored at parties, would your self-image be boosted by remembering that at least the worms love you? Probably not. They are worms. Their admiration and submission is only worth so much.

And the second question is, what would you do if one of those worms disobeyed? Would you not find that utterly inappropriate and reprehensible? How dare a worm disregard you!

And though God is graciously more mindful of man than men are of worms, the point is in the parallel. The more we understand how infinitely great and holy God is the more we see how wicked and pathetic we are. And as we see the distance between us we will must be more humble. The best we can offer Him is worthless. The worst we can offer Him is infinitely bad. The more actually holy we get the more sense and sensitivity we will have to how holy we still are not. We will never imagine our humility to be low enough. As Edwards wrote,

It is really no argument of any great conviction of sin for some men to think themselves to be sinful beyond most others in the world; because they are so indeed very plainly and notoriously. (p.260)

So gracious affections come from a changed nature, and one evidence (on a great heap of evidences) of a changed nature is developing humility.

5. Genuine religious affections are relentless.

In other words, genuine affections are always increasing and developing. They are not stagnant nor are they easily satisfied with their attainments. They do not applaud themselves and pat themselves on the back for how far they’ve come. Truly spiritual affections are not easily satiated. They are always pressing and pushing to mature more.

The kindling and raising of gracious affections is like kindling a flame; the higher it is raised, the more ardent it is; and the more it burns, the more vehemently does it tend and seek to burn. (p.303)

A fire lit is a fire seeking to burn. Isn’t that exactly what we see of Paul?

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

This is why in the New Testament, conversion is always seen as just the beginning. Men are to run the race with commitment and not stop until the course is completed. Believers are constantly striving and agonizing, wresting against principalities and powers, fighting, standing, pressing forward, crying to God day and night. Taking a break from the battle or calling a timeout during the fight is a sure way to be toast. Satan is not resting. Sin takes no breathers. That is why we must be ever alert and always active. Edwards dreadfully warns us away from half-heartedness:

Slothfulness in the service of God in His professed servants is as damning as open rebellion; for the slothful servant is a wicked servant and shall be cast into open darkness among God’s open enemies.

But gracious and genuine affections are not intermittent or listless, they are relentless.

6. Genuine religious affections are fruitful.

Not only is this the last and longest section in The Religious Affections it is also the most important. For Edwards the best proof was always here, not in talk, not in feelings, not in imaginations and impressions, but in the fruit of Christian practice. This implied three things about the Christian’s conduct:

1. That his behavior or practice in the world, be universally conformed to, and directed by, Christian rules.
2. That he makes a business of such a holy practice above all things; that it be a business which he is chiefly engaged in, and devoted to, and pursues with highest earnestness and diligence: so that he may be said to make this practice of religion eminently his work and business.
3. That he persists in it to the end of life: so that it may be said, not only to be his business at certain seasons, the business of the Sabbath days, or extraordinary times, or the business of a month, or year, or of seven years, or his business under certain circumstances, but the business of his life; it being that business which he perseveres in through all changes, and under all trials as long as he lives. (pp.308-309)

In other words, if a man’s affections are genuine and spiritual he will see Scripture as the definitive blueprint for right behavior, he will pursue of holy practice as the highest priority of his life, and he will be consistent and persevere in this for all his life. The apostle John clarifies the conclusive property of righteous practice in 1 John 3:6-10.

No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

And I mean, why wouldn’t our lives be fruitful? God has planned and prepared good works for us (Ephesians 2:10), He has made us dead to sin by our union with Christ (Romans 6), He has given us His Holy Spirit to enable holy living (Romans 8) and to produce fruit in us (Galatians 5). The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of finishing this for the future, so He who began a good work will be faithful to complete it. God is on our side! Edwards celebrates the certainty of divinely produces fruit:

No wonder that that which is divine is powerful and effectual; for it has omnipotence on its side. If God dwells in the heart, and is vitally united to it, He will show that He is God by the efficacy of His operation. (p.315)

This good fruit should be visible to others. Inconspicuous fruit is bad fruit. Our Lord not only declares that the true nature of a heart is disclosed externally and visibly but He also directs His followers to display good works for the sake of His Father’s glory.

Matthew 7:16 You will recognize them by their fruits.

Matthew 12:33 Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.

Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Edwards explains why the fruit illustration is so fitting:

The tree is made perfect in the fruit; it is not perfected in the first quickening of the seed and in its putting forth root and sprout; nor is it perfected when it comes up out of the ground; nor is it perfected in bringing forth leaves; nor yet in putting forth blossoms: but when it has brought forth good, ripe fruit; then it is perfected, therein it reaches its end; the design of the tree is finished: all that belongs to the tree is completed and brought to its proper effect in the fruit. (p.355)

Fruit is the point and the final part of the tree’s maturation process. Likewise for the Christian fruit is the main and most proper diagnostic. It is not talk or manner of speech or expressions of emotion, but fruit. As Edwards pointed out,

Passing affections easily produce words; and words are cheap. …Christian practice is a costly, laborious thing. (p.332, emphasis added)

Not only is good fruit visible to others but our good works are the chief evidences to our own consciences. Godliness is not in a heart that intends to do the will of God, but in a heart that actually does it.

It is therefore exceedingly absurd and even ridiculous for any to pretend that they have a good heart, while they live a wicked life, or do not bring forth the fruit of universal holiness in their practice. (p.348)

So,

Christian practice is the sign of signs. (p.369)

The more fruit of holiness, the more evidence of your affections being genuine. To the degree that your practice is influenced for God, that is the degree of your affections for God.

CONCLUSION

How important is it for us to be lively and relentless and humble and Christlike and truth-driven and Godward fruit-bearers. If we long to live and do everything for the love of God, these are the things that will mark us; they will distinguish us to the world and they will be great signs of assurance that divine grace is at work in us.

Edwards’ final assertion in The Religious Affections from 300 years ago applies equally for us:

(This kind of spiritually fruitful life) would above all things, tend to convince men that there is a reality in religion, and greatly awaken them, and win them, by convincing their consciences of the importance and excellency of religion. (p.382)

We are commanded to disbelieve certain things. In his book, The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of God, Edwards basically exposits and expands on one verse that requires disbelief.

1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This text was the benchmark and the basis for Edwards’ book as well as for much of his ministry. He saw it as a biblical mandate to unbelief. Obviously this is not the kind of unbelief or lack of faith that is typical in a non-Christian who rejects Christ. Rather the kind of unbelief required in 1 John 4:1 functions as a red flag, as warning flare against certain claims when the evidence is inconclusive. We are not to believe everything that everybody tells us.

R.C. Sproul put it this way:

Any claim to spiritual power is to be tested to see if the claim can be validated by the work of God. This rests on the axiom that not all spirits are holy. (The Spirit of Revival, p. 23)

Testing the spirits is necessary not only because there are many teachers spreading fiction and falsehoods, but also because their claims are typically appealing, likable, and easy to swallow.

Edwards likens this to the problems faced by the Israelites’ in the Old Testament. Their biggest threat was not enemies warring against them–as dangerous as those enemies were. Instead, their greatest problem was the false prophets among them. The spin of the false prophets always seemed to be more popular than the truth.

And there are false prophets and deceiving spirits in the church today. The influence and work of the Holy Spirit is often imitated by counterfeit spirits, even by Satan himself (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:14). That is why it is absolutely critical to recognize what are true and reliable signs of genuine religious affections and what are not.

That is our goal. Soon we will look at Part III of The Religious Affections in which Edwards attempts to provide us with clear, distinguishing marks of genuine affections. But first we are going to consider Part II in which Edwards describes those things that are “No Sure Signs.” Here he attempts to answer the question, What are not reliable signs? These are things that don’t prove–one way or another–whether there is a true work of grace; a Holy Spirit empowered work in a person’s life.

We’ve tried to establish that God demands our religious affections, since our affections for Him are what most magnify Him. Everything we do should be for the love of God. We’ve seen that Scripture everywhere makes our affections not only the source of all we do, but the most fundamental aspect of following God.

And some of you may be thinking to yourselves, “I’ve got religious affections. I like certain things about God, church, and the Christian life.” Maybe some of you think you have had great spiritual experiences and therefore you assume that your experience must be genuine. But there are some things that are no sure signs.

Now let me say two more things before we look at what are no sure signs.

First, neither Edwards or I are making the claim to know “for sure” who are Christians are who are not. Edwards goes out of his way on numerous occasions to say that even though the Scripture gives us much instruction on how to tell the true from the false, the final judgment is God’s alone.

That does not mean, however, that we are not to consider these distinguishing marks. In fact it is crucial for shepherds to help protect and lead the sheep. Even though we cannot always distinguish between the wheat and the tares, that is not permission to ignore the evidence we have. We ought to be gracious in our dealings with those that give evidence of being posers, but we will answer for our faithlessness if we allow them to continue in their deception.

This study then is of great importance not only to shepherds but also to you. This is an excellent time to examine and consider the state of your own soul. There is no greater danger in the world than the deception of thinking yourself to be safe when in reality you are least secure. By the way, this also means you should be primarily concerned with examining your own heart–rather than those around you.

Second, this is hard stuff. Some of you who are Christians, who have been made alive by the Spirit and who have spiritually sensitive hearts will probably hear things that will cause you to question your salvation. That is appropriate, at least to a certain extent. The apostle Paul called everyone in the church to:

1 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.

And the more sensitive you are, the more likely you will be to take this seriously. Pray that God will help you to evaluate and examine in a balanced way, heeding the warnings but not going overboard.

But others do need Edwards’ teaching from Scripture to come down as a hammer on their hard hearts or as an ice pick to shatter their frozen heart. Discerning what are no sure signs may obliterate their counterfeit confidence and cause them to seek God with genuine religious affections.

There are four primary areas, or four no sure signs that I want us to consider. Edwards actually lists twelve inconclusive signs in Part II, but it would be almost impossible to cover each one of those as its own separate point as well as the fact that some of them overlap a bit anyway. So I’ve tried to summarize them under four main categories, though I’ll end up referencing ten of Edwards’ twelve throughout.

1. Just because you have religious affections is no sure sign.

Now we’ve labored to say in this series that there is no true religion without religious affections. Love, joy, gladness, zeal, sorrow for sin, etc., are all fundamental to real Christian living. On the other hand, it is no evidence that religious affections are of a spiritual and gracious nature just because someone has affections, or even because those affections are great.

For example, the Israelites were greatly affected at the Red Sea and were praising God wonderfully for His work of deliverance.

Exodus 14:31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. 15:1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. 2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

Yet it was just a short while later that they had all but forgotten God and complained against Him.

Exodus 16:3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

At Mt. Sinai they exclaimed “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

Exodus 19:7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”

But they didn’t even wait for Moses to come back down before they committed gross idolatry.

Exodus 32:1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Or how about on Palm Sunday the crowds cried out with loud voices, “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (John 12:12-13). But for some that great and affectionate cry turned to another cry just a few days later, “Crucify Him, crucify Him” (Matthew 27:15-23). Just because you have affections doesn’t prove anything.

It is also no sure sign that a person has many different kinds of affections.

As from true divine love flow all Christian affections, so from a counterfeit love in like manner naturally flow other false affections. (p.78)

Just as men can have kind of temporary sorrow like King Saul or a kind of false joy like those stony-ground hearers (Matthew 13:20-21), so they can have many different affections and it be no sure proof.

Consider again the crowd on Palm Sunday in John 12:12-18. They were following Jesus because they had seen Him raise Lazarus from the dead. They seemed to have admiration, a degree of reverence in laying down their garments for Him to walk on, they had high praises to Him and earnest desires for the coming of God’s Kingdom which they supposed Jesus was about to set up, and they appeared very zealous on His behalf. But many of these were the same ones who turned on Him and sought His death. There was no proof of true faith in their worship and many affections.

What’s more, there are certain things that move people that do not require the Holy Spirit. For example, it is natural for a man to fear hell. And it is natural for that man to feel a sense of peace and joy that he has escaped that eternal punishment. There are some who receive this word with great gladness. But after a while, the cares of this world choke out that faith and prove that initial excitement to be worthless.

In fact, even such strong and numerous affections that affect the body are no sure signs.

Just because you get all tingly or your heart starts pounding or you tremble or you cry–nothing is proven for sure one way or the other. Any affection that is strong enough has an effect on the body. Watching a movie, cheering on your favorite sports team, watching a loved one suffer–all can affect the body, and they may have nothing at all to do with God.

Great effects on the body certainly are no sure evidence that affections are spiritual; for we see that such effects oftentimes arise from great affections about temporal things, and when religion is in no way concerned. (p.59)

Just because you are really moved or excited in worship doesn’t mean you aren’t moved more by the beat or the harmony or the lighting.

And one additional element, just because you can’t explain how you came to feel the way you do, or how you have so numerous or strong affections that affect your body is no sure sign that your affections are genuine. While it is true that genuine affections are produced supernaturally, that is, by the Spirit in such a way that we can’t fully comprehend,

There are other spirits who have influence on the minds of men besides the Holy Ghost. We are directed not to believe every spirit, but to try the spirits whether they be of God. There are many false spirits, exceeding busy with men, who often transform themselves into angels of light, and do in many wonderful ways, with great subtlety and power, mimic the operations of the Spirit of God. (p.64)

Now only that, but even God’s Spirit can work in a common, non-saving way.

Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they then fall away,

So just because you have religious affections, many of them, various kinds of them, of such a degree that they affect your body, even that you can’t explain–that is no sure sign of being a true Christian.

Some of you have had momentous and meaningful moments, responding to a sermon or some retreat weekend. You spoke of the changes God made in your heart and how you were committed to loving and praising Him more. And by this time your heart has grown cold and your obedience of little concern to you. Those kind of affections are no sure signs.

2. Just because you do religious things is no sure sign.

Just as having religious feelings or senses doesn’t prove anything, so here are additionally no sure signs. You can think about religious things, talk about them, be committed to doing them, even to the extent of publicly worshiping God, and that still be no sure guarantee.

Obviously a true Christian thinks about Christ and Scripture, but you can think about Christ and the Bible and not be a Christian. In fact, it can go so far that passages of Scripture can come to your mind at different times in ways you can’t explain and that is no sure sign. Edwards observes,

What evidence is there that the devil cannot bring texts of Scripture to the mind, and misapply them to deceive them? …(I)f Satan did presume and was permitted to put Christ Himself a mind of texts of Scripture to tempt Him, what reason have we to determine that he dare not, or will not be permitted to put wicked men in mind of texts of Scripture to tempt and deceive them? (p.71)

And it doesn’t even take the devil to do this. Our own hearts are wired to deceive us (Jeremiah 17:9). Most of us get regular, heaping servings of Bible teaching, so it will not be a great surprise if your own deceitful heart/imagination brings up texts at other times that you take as a special thing. But this is no sure sign.

And not only may you think about religious things, but you can even talk a lot about religious things, and that is no sure sign. Yes, true Christians will talk much about Christ and the things of Christ. Yes, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. But this is no proof that what is in the heart is there by grace!

As a tree that is over-full of leaves seldom bears much fruit; and as a cloud, though to appearance very pregnant and full of water, if it brings with it over-much wind, seldom affords much rain to the dry and thirsty earth.

As Solomon noted,

Proverb 25:14 Like clouds and wind without rain
is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.

So Edwards concludes,

False affections, if they are equally strong are much more forward to declare themselves than true, because it is the nature of false religion to affect show and observation, as it was with the Pharisees. (p.64)

And going a step further, thinking nor talking much nor doing many religious things is a sure guarantee. Going to church doesn’t prove anything. Serving in ministry isn’t sure evidence. Preaching isn’t even a guarantee of genuine religious affections.

Yes, the tendency of a true work of grace is to cause Christians to delight in religious exercises: Bible reading, prayer, service, corporate worship, etc. They will naturally have a desire and zeal to do these things and spend much time in them. But sadly this is no sure sign. A tendency to be much involved and busy with religious things is no proof.

The Israelites were regular in their offering of sacrifices, but at times God called these sacrifices–that He had commanded them to make–abominable because it was merely external. The Pharisees made long prayers and fasted twice a week but their affections were counterfeit.

Jesus explains that He has no relationship with some who serve vigorously in His name.

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

And look at the next paragraph:

Matthew 7:24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

To a casual observer there are very few differences between the genuine and the counterfeit. Both are busy building a house. Both houses are apparently in the same vicinity–visible to one another. Both houses were pretty much the same; same floor plan, same materials. But even though there was a lot of action and business above the ground, there were massive differences in the foundation.

Time and difficulties proved the foundation. And so nothing is certain because persons spend much time and energy in religious activity, doing religious things.

Matthew 7:13 Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

The people on the broad road, having entered through the broad gate, are not irreligious and inactive people. They believe they are on the right way and that they are busy with the right things. They are surrounded by others who have the same confidence. But it is no proof that you are walking a religious road…if it is not the right road.

The final two inconclusive signs are shorter but no less significant.

3. Just because other people think your religious affections are genuine is no sure sign.

Yes, it is right and appropriate and helpful to get confirmation from others in the body of Christ as they are able to encourage us and help us identify signs of grace. However, there are a few reasons why affirmation from others cannot be foolproof.

First, it is ultimately impossible to infallibly know another person’s heart. All we can see is the external. And while that enables us to know a lot in many cases, that knowledge is never perfect or omniscient. It is hard to distinguish between the wheat and the tares at a certain point in the growing season. Besides, God does not need or seek input from others as He judges the genuineness of our affections. He is the one with whom we have to do.

Second, the other person could be immature. They might not have much wisdom or discernment or experience in these things. Asking an illiterate person if you are reading well is probably not going to furnish useful feedback.

Third, the other person might be deceived about their own condition. They might be on that same broad road too, and patting each other on the back isn’t going to change the destination.

Fourth, the other person might be giving you the benefit of the doubt in charity/love. Edwards wrote,

When there are many probable appearances of piety in others, it is the duty of the saints to receive them cordially into charity, and to love them and rejoice in them as their brethren in Christ. (p.111)

And if we are to accept those appearances, but those appearances are excellent counterfeits, we may not be able to spot the difference. Just because God helps us love someone doesn’t mean He isn’t helping us love a hypocrite.

In the worst case scenario, you may have the common influences of the Holy Spirit, joined with the delusions of Satan, and a wicked and deceitful heart. It might manifest itself in a sweet nature, a good doctrinal knowledge, and a long acquaintance with the common way Christians talk. You may have everyone fooled, but the confidence of others about your soul is no sure sign.

4. Just because you yourself are really confident that your religious affections are genuine is no sure sign.

There is a place for assurance of faith in the life of a believer. You may not be feeling a lot of that assurance right now, but it is possible. 1 John 5:13 says that it is possible to know that you have eternal life.

However, just because you think you do is no sure sign. You may have fooled others; you may be fooling yourself.

The Pharisees never doubted for a moment that they were saints, that they were the best of saints, and that there were great differences between them and others. They weren’t going hope to their wives expressing uncertainty about their spiritual condition.

Those serving the Lord in Matthew 7:21-23 seem utterly surprised. “Lord, Lord, did we not?” They don’t seem to have thought for a moment that something was wrong. For that matter, even those who killed Jesus did so confident that they were serving God’s will. But they were severely wrong. Edwards observes,

(W)hat blindness and deceit, what self-flattery, self-exaltation, and self-confidence reign in the heart of a hypocrite; we need not at all wonder that their high opinion of themselves, and confidence of their happy circumstances be as high and as a strong as a mountain. (p.100)

A hypocrite is unlikely to know his own blindness or hardness of heart. That is the point of being blind: you can’t see it. That is the point of a hard heart: you can’t feel it. And the devil does not assault the hope of a hypocrite as he does the hope of the saint. The devil is not an enemy to the hypocrite. Why would he bother one of his own?

Some professors have great confidence in their state even in the midst of serious sins. Sin doesn’t shake their assurance. That’s when they use religious arguments to justify their sin, and cry “salvation by faith alone,” forgetting that genuine faith results in works. You cannot convince them that the cistern they’re drinking from is empty. Even if you hold a mirror right in front of their nose they won’t believe their face is dirty.

And they really hate it when other people question. They count it a sin to doubt their state. So they are untouchable. They vaguely remember some distant experience or some past prayer, and their hope is rested entirely on that.

But you realize, that doubt is not only good, but necessary at the appropriate times for a true Christian? Edwards points out the benefit of uneasiness when he wrote,

When their love decays and the exercises of it fail or become weak, fear should arise; for then they need it to restrain them from sin, and to excited them to care for the good of their souls; and go to stir them up to watchfulness and diligence in religion. (p.108)

God doesn’t want you to have assurance if you are in sin and out of love with Him. It is vain for you to pour over past experiences in order to get peace and assurance if you are currently in the wrong. That is contrary to the way God has made it to be.

Yet some never doubt and have the greatest confidence. But that is no sure sign that their affections are genuine or spiritual.

CONCLUSION

So just because you had or have some religious affections, or are involved in religious activity, just because other people think you’re legit, or just because you have the greatest self-trust–in and of themselves these things don’t prove anything.

Our next task is to consider the distinguishing marks of genuine religious affections, but the point of studying no sure signs is to keep you from resting on inconclusive or insufficient evidence. Please don’t rest your case on unreliable testimony. Instead,

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.

1 Peter 1:6 is one of my all-time favorite verses of Scripture. I came to appreciate it during a very difficult season of my life as we studied through 1 Peter in one of my college Greek classes.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,

Trials are tough. That’s why they are called trials and not recess. But trials can be a great benefit to us as they tend to accomplish three things. First, they weed out the posers. Posers aren’t typically interested in playing the game once it gets difficult or if it causes them to suffer. A profession of faith–if that’s all it is–isn’t worth maintaining if it involves pain. When things get tough, the non-legit get going.

Second, trials prove the genuineness of faith. This is the other side of the coin seen clearly in verse seven:

so that the tested genuineness of your faith–more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Not only do trials tend to weed out the hypocrites, they also reveal the ones who are real. Only a true believer is going to keep following over the long haul regardless of the cost. Perseverance through hardships is a confirmation of genuine faith.

And then third, trials purify faith. Suffering refines us from impurities, as the dross is purged from gold by fire. At the end of that testing, the gold is stronger, purer, more lustrous, and more valuable.

But this is more than just a mini-sermon on trials. Notice what comes next in verse 8.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

Coming out of verse seven we see authentic, non-contaminated, strengthened faith. And when faith is real, verse eight explains that it displays itself in two ways. The first is LOVE for Christ (v.8a). The reason Peter’s readers willingly endured persecution and suffering was because of love; they were devoted to Him. They exposed themselves to all kinds of difficulties was because they had a stronger devotion to Christ than their own physical survival. Pure faith demonstrates deep love for Christ.

Genuine, purified religion also exercises itself through JOY in Christ (v.8b). Bona fide faith functions with joy, and not a little amount of it. Note that the degree of this joy is “inexpressible and filled with glory.” This is an overflowing, beyond-words joy and happiness that flies above circumstances. This unspeakable joy is a supernatural delight in Christ too strong to be described or conveyed with human words.

And 1 Peter 1:8 is the beginning and basis of Jonathan Edwards’ book, The Religious Affections. As I mentioned in Logic on Fire, his concern in the RA is to distinguish true religion* from false. Part I of his book launches from this discussion on trials to the nature and importance of affections. In particular, as trials prove and purify faith, what we see coming out of that faith is love and joy; in other words, affections. True religion is always rooted in affections.

The rest of Part I in the RA sets out to define affections and prove that authentic Christianity is found in the affections. We follow JE’s argument by considering three things: An Explanation of Religious Affections, The Evidence for Religious Affections in Scripture, and Some Exhortations Concerning Religious Affections.

* Please remember, when JE (and I) used the word “religion,” he meant it as another word for biblical Christianity. “Religion” in the 18th century did not have all the negative, legalistic, external, and oppressive connotations as it does today. So Edwards is not referring to a works based system; it is simply a synonym for Christianity.

An EXPLANATION of Religious Affections

Since the title for this entire series is: For the Love of God – The Religious Affections of Jonathan Edwards, an accurate explanation of affections is obviously very important. Though I at least tried to introduce the subject of affections in both “Shock and Awe” as well as “Logic on Fire,” I understand that if we don’t get a clear definition of affections in our minds we’ll be building on a weak foundation.

I also should admit that Part I of The Religious Affections was the most difficult for me to grasp. I’ve gotten stuck in the beginning of the book at least two or three times. The reason is because Edwards not only far exceeds my intelligence and insight, but because he starts his explanation by drawing distinctions between the different parts of man. But having meditated on this section for a while now, I think I’m tracking with him and I believe his explanation is extremely helpful.

Edwards said that God has given man two internal–that is, not physical–faculties or powers or abilities. Namely, each person has a head and a heart; understanding and affection.

With the head we are able to know certain things. With our head we can view things and think about things and distinguish between things.

But the heart goes beyond just evaluating or considering. With the heart we are either drawn toward what we see or are repelled from it. It is more than knowing; we like or dislike; we are pleased or displeased; we approve or reject. This second part is what JE calls various things, like “inclinations,” “will,” “heart,” and then of course, “affections.”

Note that “affections” for Edwards are not the same as emotions, nor are they simply feelings or some mystical sense. Affections are deeper and broader than those things. Our affections are like a ship’s rudder, providing an orientation to our lives. Or even better, they are like a magnetic force that pulls us toward some things and causes us to repel others.

So our affections are the part of us that puts feet on the knowledge. They can take us one of two ways: either toward what we like in approving and being pleased with it or away from what we are opposed to and reject.

There are only two ways the affections take us, but the degrees are endless. For example, some of our being pleased or displeased, approving or disapproving moves us maybe but just a bit beyond “perfect indifference.” In those cases affections are present, but they are thin. Then we have other affections that make us react vigorously or violently in opposition or passionately and zealously in pursuit. The more exercised and lively the affections, the more likely emotions are to be involved and perhaps sometimes even bodily reactions.

Some of the “positive” affections are love, hope, joy, gratitude, pleasure, etc. Some of the “negative” affections are hatred, fear, anger, grief. And then there are some affections that are mix, such as pity–a love for the victim but anger toward the criminal. The following is a simple chart to illustrate the direction and degrees of affections.

So even though the language may be imprecise, the heart is basically the same as the will. We know (with the head) and we respond (with the affections), sometimes strongly and other times not as strong. But any response is a work of our affections. Our affections then, positive or negative, strong or weak, are what determine every one of our choices.

All of us live by our affections. No one lives outside of this process. Everything we do comes out of our affections. Every choice is determined by our desires. And here is the kicker: We always do what we WANT to do, whatever seems most pleasing to us at the time. We NEVER go against our affections.

Some of you may be having a little argument in your head right now, thinking “I don’t always want to do my homework” or “I don’t really want to do the dishes.” But while your dislike of homework or dishes may be very strong and a genuine affection, if you go ahead and complete your homework or wash the dishes there is evidently a stronger affection that overcomes the other. Maybe it is fear of being punished or losing your allowance. Maybe it’s pride that hates being humiliated. Either way, you always do what you most want to do, and what you want to do are called affections.

The application for the Christian should be obvious: religious affections are wants, likings and dislikings, approving and disapprovings, that move us toward spiritual things. Affections are not optional for the life of faith, they are the center of it. As Edwards puts it:

True religion, in great part, consists in Holy Affections.

And here is where embarrassment sets in. If we always do what we want to do, then when we sin, we wanted sin more than God. When we are impatient, we show that we have more affection for ourselves than for God’s display of Himself through providence. When we fall asleep in church, we show that we wanted to worship our comfort more than worship God. It applies to every situation and circumstance we’re in: we do whatever our affections are strongest for, and they should be strongest for God.

Well maybe all of that sounds too simple to be true. What we really need to know is, is it biblical? That leads to our second point,

The EVIDENCE for Religious Affections in Scripture

Edwards lists 10 proofs from Scripture that true religion consists in the affections. I’ve taken liberty to combine a couple of them, reorder them a bit, and even rephrase them. And though there isn’t enough time to cover each one of them as detailed as he does, I could think of nothing better than that you would go to work on The Religious Affections yourself. But it is important to follow his flow of thought and build a solid, Scriptural foundation as we think about the importance of religious affections.

1. God made us to be moved by affections.

Affections are the “spring of men’s actions.” That is how God created us and this is why we are told to pay close attention to our hearts. For example, our affections determine our choices:

Proverb 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.

What we choose in life comes out of the heart. That is why we must be careful to guard our hearts, because if our hearts go wrong our lives will go wrong.

Affections are also the source of our words:

Matthew 12:34 … For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

What you are thinking about and longing for is what you talk about. Our mouths are filled with the object of our affections. God made it so that the things we choose and the subjects we discuss come from the heart. Edwards described it like this:

Such is man’s nature that is is very inactive any otherwise than he is influenced by some affection, either love or hatred, desire, hope, fear or some other. These affections we see to be the springs that get men a-going. (p.29)

We don’t act unless there is some love drawing us or some fear repelling us. This is true in our daily experience. We are dull and listless when we are tired and un-motivated, or perhaps the more accurate way to say it is, when the strongest affection is for our comfort as manifested in our laziness.

The significance is that knowledge alone does not get a person following God. A person may have the best intellectual understanding of God, but if he doesn’t love Him he will not worship or obey Him. Theology is insufficient without corresponding affections. So,

In a word, there never was anything considerable brought to pass in the heart or life of any man living, by the things of religion, that had not his heart deeply affected by those things. (p.31)

Until the heart is affected there will be no movement toward, or for, God. That is because God made us to be moved by affections.

2. God does not accept affection-less religion.

Edwards said,

The religion which God requires and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull, and lifeless wishes, raising us but a little above a state of indifference. (p.27)

God is not pleased when our pursuit of Him takes us but a baby step past disinterest. A weak, half-step toward Him simply does not glorify His infinite worth. Instead, God in His Word greatly insists that our affections be vigorous, lively, and totally involved. For example, the apostle Paul states in Romans 12:11,

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

This is not a new requirement. Moses told the Israelites that based on the character of God their affections were to be fully exercised.

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

The things of religion are so great and big and majestic and glorious that nothing else should or can move our affections like God. Our affections cannot rise too high because He is infinitely valuable. At the same time, nothing is so out of proportion, so odious as luke-warm, half-heartedness. God does not want our love only when it is convenient or when we give Him our left-overs.

This is why Christianity is so often compared to things where men have their affections and hearts engaged the most such as running a race, wrestling or agonizing for a great prize, fighting strong enemies seeking our very lives, or warring as those who by violence take a city. Finishing a marathon doesn’t happen without strong desire. Wrestling to win won’t happen if all we have is knowledge about the sport. Soldiers will not fight and survive if they are disinterested. And in a similar way as all of these, passion must predominate the Christian life. So Edwards summarizes,

If we be not (intensely wholehearted) in religion, and our wills and inclinations be not strongly exercised, we are nothing. (p.28)

Wherever there is true religion there will be lively and strong affections. God does not accept less.

3. Scripture everywhere places religion in the affections.

Affections are not in the margins of our Bibles, they are in the center of the page. Here is a grocery list of affections you’re familiar with:

• godly fear

Fear is more than information, it is a response. In the Bible, “the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him” (Psalm 147:11), not just those who study about Him.

• sorrow for sin

Jesus taught that, “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matthew 5:4). This is more than grasping that our sin is bad, but grieving that our sin offends God.

• hatred of sin

Hatred is one of the strongest affections and is certainly more than a simple awareness of sin. And this reaction is required for proper reverence, since “The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate” (Proverbs 8:13).

• joy

We are commanded to this positive affection. “Delight yourself in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4). “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord” (Philippians 3:1). “Rejoice always” (1 Thessalonians 5:16). It is not imperative that we know why we should be glad, but that we actually are glad in Him.

• hope

The Lord takes pleasure not only in those who fear Him, but also “in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 147:11).

• don’t forget gratitude, compassion, and zeal

We are always to “be thankful” (Colossians 3:15). We are to “put on…compassion” like Christ (Colossians 3:12). Christ’s work includes purifying people “who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14).

• And ultimately, love.

Jesus declared explicitly,

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:37-40)

The Holy Spirit works to produce this affection in us, as we see that “the fruit of the Spirit is love” (Galatians 5:22). Teaching and shepherding is not fulfilled without producing affection, as Paul states that “the aim of our charge is love” (1 Timothy 1:5).

Love is the preeminent affection. That is why Edwards wrote,

The Scriptures do represent true religion, as being summarily comprehended in love, the chief of the affections and the fountain of all other affections. (p.35)

Love is the source of all the other affections. When we love God, we will hate what He hates. When we love God we grieve when we sin against Him. When we love God we are naturally drawn to rejoice in Him, hope in Him, and give thanks to Him. And when we love God we will give our lives for Him and for others.

While more verses could be listed for each affection, but the purpose was merely to provide an overview that Scripture everywhere puts religion in the affections, ultimately in the affection of love. That is why we ought to do everything For the Love of God.

4. The saints are examples of great affections.

Those who are elevated as great examples in Scripture are those with great affections. King David was such an example, as “a man after God’s own heart” who wrote songs of intense love to God. He admired God’s glorious perfections. From his soul he desired and panted and thirsted after God. He exulted in God’s faithfulness, and grieved over his sin and the sins of the nation. One of my favorite passages of David’s desperate desire for God is Psalm 42:1-2.

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

The apostle Paul was also a man of considerable affections. Edwards observes from Paul’s letters

that he was, in the course of his life, inflamed, actuated, and entirely swallowed up by a most ardent love to his Lord, esteeming all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Him, and esteeming them but dung that he might win Christ. (p.38)

Paul himself declared,

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:8)

A person doesn’t count everything as loss or rubbish unless they’ve found something else more desirable. Philippians 3:8 is a confession of affection for God and Paul demonstrated the reality of that commitment in his affection for others. He regularly spoke of his tender love for others like that of a nursing mother. He referred to his “bowels of mercy.” He wrote of conflict of soul for his sheep. At times people thought he was beside himself. He shed tears day and night. All those describe a life driven from the heart.

David and Paul are only two of God’s examples that the religion of distinguished saints is much in the affections.

5. The saints already in heaven have great affections.

Edwards observes that,

The way to learn the true nature of anything is to go where that thing is to be found in its purity and perfection. (p.43)

And therefore,

There is doubtless true religion in heaven and true religion in its utmost purity and perfection. (p.41)

If we could visit heaven we would see what true religion looks like. No one in heaven knows God and remains indifferent. There is no sin that soils their desires or behavior. And Scripture makes it clear that those in heaven have consummate, holy, animating, engaging love for God. Their joy is expressed in fervent and exalted praise. Thousands and thousands of creatures sing with loudest voice and hottest affection.

Revelation 5:11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders [the redeemed] the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

It must be constant goose-bumps in heaven with so much affection and excitement. But as we anticipate that day we should remember that the nucleus of these affections ought to be present in us now.

The love and joy [and other affections] we have on earth is the beginning and dawning of the light, life, and blessedness of heaven. (p.42)

The difference between the affections of heaven and our affections is not nature and kind, but degree. Though theirs are unmixed and unpolluted, they are not an entirely new flavor. Ours is just a small taste of what we’ll partake of in heaven. But considering true religion in heaven educates us that true religion here and now is no less in the affections.

6. Jesus is the ultimate example of great affections.

Of all the examples of great affections, Jesus is preeminent. Edwards wrote that Jesus is

the perfect example of true religion and virtue, for the imitation of all, the Shepherd whom the whole flock should follow where He goes…was a person who was remarkably of a tender and affectionate heart, and His virtue was expressed very much in the exercise of holy affections. (p.40)

Jesus was full of zeal (John 2:17). He was often angry at sin (Mark 3:5). He had compassion on those with physical and spiritual needs. He wrestled with tears like drops of blood in His praying. His was a life dominated by affections.

And most importantly, He was and is the great example of love to God and man. His love for the Father is what enabled Him to overcome the natural fear and struggle when He faced the cross. It was not knowledge that moved Him to give His life on the cross. What motivated Christ’s sacrifice was His love.

7. The great sin of the heart is predominately hardness of heart.

The final scriptural proof that true religion is found in the affections is that lack of affections is a great sin.

Now by a hard heart is plainly mean an unaffected heart, or a heart that is not easy to be moved with virtuous affections, like a stone, insensible, stupid, unmoved, and hard to be impressed. (p.46)

How dangerous it is to have a hard heart. That is exactly what God hates. That is exactly the kind of disregard for God that is infinitely wicked, and that is exactly the kind of heart that will be judged. As the apostle Paul told the Romans,

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:5)

A hard heart is not necessarily missing knowledge, it is absent of affections. It is “impenitent,” unmovable, and unashamed. So God’s sends His grace to overtake the heart of stone and create a heart of flesh, one that is tender and sensitive and affected, and make that heart “easily susceptible of such affections” (p.47).

Everything in Scripture displays that true religion is placed not just in our knowledge about God, but in our love for God. Christianity has so much to do with the affections that,

the degree of religion is rather to be judged of by the fixedness and strength of the habit that is exercised in affection. (p.47)

In other words, true religion consists great in affections. Those affections might not always be as obvious as possible, but they will always be moving in some measure. Affections will demonstrate themselves over time, but make no mistake,

without holy affections, there is no true religion. (p.48)

In other words, if you don’t love God, if you are not drawn to Him, if He is not your greatest delight, you are not a Christian. Religious knowledge is not the issue nor are religious works. The issue is affections, stimulated by knowledge and manifested in works. The importance of affections should not be underestimated.

Some EXHORTATIONS Concerning Religious Affections

Edwards makes three inferences from the Scriptural evidence for affections and I’ve just turned his statements into three exhortations.

1. Don’t disregard or minimize affections.

While it is true that there are excesses of enthusiasm, false excitement, or perhaps even more precise, there are some kinds of religious affections that are counterfeits, the answer is not to reject affections altogether. Disingenuous affections are not fixed by disregarding affections. Most truth-driven persons swing the pendulum to the opposite extreme, but stoicism in the name of Christianity can be just as dangerous. In fact,

This…is the way to bring all religion to a mere lifeless formality…For although to true religion there must indeed be something else beside affection, yet true religion consists so much in the affections that there can be no true religion without them. He who has no religious affections is in a state of spiritual death, and is wholly destitute of the powerful, quickening, saving influences of the Spirit of God on his heart. (p.49)

So, both heat and light are necessary. “Heat” is represents the fire of affections and “light” pictures truth. One is not sufficient without the other. So there must be light in the understanding, but light without heat (a head filled with facts but with a cold and unaffected heart) is no good. And heat without light (a heart of excitement apart from truth) is not spiritually profitable either. Edwards put it this way:

A man’s having much affection does not prove that he has any true religion; but if he has no affection, it proves that he has no true religion. (p.50)

We must not disregard or minimize affections.

2. Seek to stimulate your affections with truth.

This should be a natural response for the believer. If true religion is in the affections, it is right to raise those affections and cause the fire to burn brighter. Edwards said,

If it be so that true religion lies much in the affections,…we may infer that such means are to be desired as have much of a tendency to move the affections. (p.50)

This is not just any means, however. Edwards is not encouraging us to manipulate others (or ourselves) with emotionalism; mood lighting and hypnotic music or heart-wrenching stories or drama or anything that natural man can be stirred by. Edwards is encouraging us to stimulate affections with truth and the spiritual disciplines given to us by God for that purpose.

I don’t think that ministers are to be blamed for raising the affections of their hearers too high, if that which they are affected with be only that which is worthy of affection, and their affections are not raised beyond a proportion to their importance….I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as I possibly can, provided they are affected with nothing but truth.

Affections for God cannot get too high since God is infinitely worthy of our affections. Edwards himself sought to fuel his affections through the God-appointed disciplines and then sought to spark the affections of others in his ministry of public teaching and private counseling and published writing.

The connection between heat and light is also made by the apostle Paul as he prayed for the increase of love in knowledge:

Philippians 1:9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, [NIV]

We should never be satisfied with thin joy or watery love. We must stimulate our affections with the truth of God.

3. Be ashamed that your affections are not what they should be.

If true religion lies much in the affections, hence we may learn what great cause we have to be ashamed and confounded before God that we are no more affected with the great things of religion. (p.51)

Moving three baby steps past the line of indifference is no reason to throw a party for our religious selves. The chief end of man is at stake in our affections.

God has given to mankind affections for the same purpose which He has given all the faculties and principles of the human soul…that they might be subservient to man’s chief end, and the great business for which God has created him, that is the business of religion. And yet how common it is among mankind, that their affections are much more engaged in other matters than religion. (p.51)

Our loves are often directed toward worldly interests: reputation, relationships, appearances, possessions, etc. We show that our affections are stronger for things under the sun than for the Creator beyond the sun.

How insensible and unmoved are most men about the great things of another world. How dull are their affections. (p.52)

The things of the gospel and of our Redeemer ought to get us a-going! Relationship with God ought to rouse us. All the virtues and beauty of the Lamb, His patience and long-suffering and compassion should affect us. All the strength and majesty of the Lion, His justice and His holiness should affect us. All of that intersects at the cross where our sin was judged as the infinitely wicked thing it is, and sinners were set free. But we are not affected. It ought not be so.

God has done everything and revealed what He has in such a matter as to have

the greatest possible tendency to reach our hearts in the most tender part, and move our affections most sensibly and strongly. (p.53)

May we repent from our weak and dull and misdirected affections.

CONCLUSION

As we finish our discussion on the nature and importance of religious affections, remember that it is not a question of if you have affections, it is a question of for what do you have affections? And what do your affections say about you? More importantly, what do your affections say about God?

The 16th century Reformation resulted in the creation of numerous Protestant denominations and groups–as compared to the monolithic Catholic Church. Under the threat of persecution many of these groups headed to the New World in hopes of establishing a society and culture that would allow them the freedom to worship as they desired.

Perhaps the most influential of these groups were the Puritans. Like the Reformers, the Puritans believed in basic doctrines like sola scriptura–the authority of the Bible alone, and sola fide–justification by faith alone, and, as their very name suggests, they placed a heavy emphasis on moral purity.

But even though much of the motivation for crossing the Atlantic was religious, this inspiration didn’t last long. In fact, religious affection and zeal declined even as the first generation of settlers died. There were just so many opportunities that occupied their interests, be they business projects, real estate acquisition, or other commodities. In other words, the New World was full of broken cisterns.

Yet almost everyone still went to church. Especially in New England, most remained a part of the church not only because of tradition, but also because some of the colonial rights–like voting–were open only to church members (remember that a United States federal government system was not yet in existence). By the early years of the 1700s, the churches of New England were slowly filling up with unconverted members. Personal love for God was absent but people still filled the pews.

The presence of these unconverted church members eventually hit a crisis point. Since many of the churches at the time were practicing infant baptism, were the children of these unsaved members to be baptized?

Eventually the ministers of New England devised what became known as the Half-Way Covenant, perhaps promoted most by JE’s grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. The Half-Way covenant allowed church members who did not profess salvation could have their children baptized as long as they were not “scandalous livers.” It was called the Half-Way Covenant because of the two ordinances, they got one. At this point they were still prohibited from participating in the Lord’s Supper until they professed faith in Christ.

Though the motivation of the Half-Way Covenant was to keep people happy and coming to church that they might at least sit under good preaching, the Half-Way Covenant continued to increase the number of unsaved church members. Perhaps the majority of church attenders were not believers. Whether motivated by family tradition or societal privileges or something else, they were not motivated by genuine love for God. In fact, there was no guarantee that even ministers were converted.

They needed revival.

1. The Great Awakening

Like today, the churches of New England needed revival in the early 1700s.

Throughout history, in particular American history, there have been revivals. A revival is simply a “reawakening of religious fervor.” [Note also that in the 18th century the word "religious" did not refer to a works based system opposed to faith-based Christianity. Religion was synonymous with Christianity.] Revivals brought new zeal and enthusiasm for Christ on a broad scale.

The first of these American revivals, and probably the one by which all others are judged, is known as the Great Awakening. (There were actually two seasons of increased spiritual fervor, one from 1734-1735 and the other from 1740-1742). After such formality and lifelessness in the church God was pleased to pour out His Spirit and awaken new life in Christ and fresh love for God. Martyn Lloyd-Jones described it this way, “After the drought, came showers.” While many were sucking dust for so long, God was pleased to bring countless New Englanders back to Himself as the fountain of living waters (cf. Jeremiah 2:12-13).

However, along with legitimate spiritual awakenings there were also increasing numbers of counterfeit spiritual experiences. Perhaps no one had a greater understanding of this problem than Jonathan Edwards. In fact, John Piper makes the observation that Edwards was “not only God’s kindling for the Great Awakening, but also its most penetrating analyst and critic.” Elsewhere Piper states:

On the one hand he (Edwards) wanted to defend the genuine and necessary place of affections in religious experience. On the other hand, he was ruthlessly devoted to objective truth and wanted all emotion to be rooted in a true apprehension of reality. (God’s Passion for His Glory, p.93).

Initially Edwards defended many of the odd and unusual experiences against the critics. In fact, he published two works in defense of the awakening: A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in 1937 and then in 1941 he preached and published The Distinguishing Marks of the Work of the Spirit of God. Both were written primarily to endorse the fact that God’s Spirit oftentimes makes an uncommon and unusual impact in a person. Critics of the Awakenings condemned many of these displays of affection suggesting that doctrine was being sacrificed for sake of experience. But Edwards argued that genuine spiritual life and an illuminated understanding of truth should result in persons being extraordinarily excited and enthusiastic.

However, as time went on counterfeit and excessive enthusiasm increased. Numbers in the church abandoned truth-driven affections and sought whatever experience might bring the next spiritual thrill. These excesses were not only permitted but pursued and encouraged by leaders in the church. Numerous preachers turned Christianity into an experience-seeking religion.

These errors were not new to the church. Some have doctrine with no affections and others have experience/emotion but no truth. People should get excited if they have spiritual life, yet enthusiasm itself does not guarantee the genuineness of faith.

Edwards saw both problems and did what he could to help. But by the early 1740s Edwards’ main criticism of the Great Awakening focused on much of the false enthusiasm that didn’t have any real sight of God or any real reliance on the Savior. It was form and emotional alone. Edwards, though a defender of fervent and zealous responses to God’s work, concluded that experience-driven religion wasn’t even Christian.

2. The Religious Affections

Though he defended much of the Great Awakening in his first two works on the subject, Edwards’ took a different approach in his third.

He began preaching a series titled The Religions Affections (hereafter RA in 1742 at the end of the second Great Awakening. These messages were then edited and published in 1746 containing Edwards’ seasoned, scriptural reflections almost eleven years after the first period of awakening.

He states clearly the intention of his book in the Preface:

There is no question whatsoever that is of greater importance to mankind, and that it more concerns every individual person to be well resolved in, than this: What are the distinguishing qualifications of those that are in favor with God, and entitled to His eternal rewards? Or, which comes to the same thing, What is the nature of true religion? (p.15)

In other words, the most important question for any and every individual person is, How can a person be right with God?

He quickly moves on, however, to explain that even though this is the most important question, and even though Scripture is full of answers, there is hardly a question more fiercely debated and disagreed upon—even among Christians!

Isn’t that true today? Everyone seems to have their own opinions about who is a Christian and who isn’t; what the characteristics of a Christian are and are not. Are there certain things that are necessarily Christian, and if so, what are they?

These are hotly disputed things. Conversations go round and round today about these basic, fundamental things. And these interchanges are not just between believers and unbelievers. We should expect that the world won’t get it. Lack of consensus among non-Christians is not surprising. But the disagreement Edwards addresses is among professing believers.

So his purpose in RA was to identify genuine believers and help to distinguish the characteristics of true Christians from the Bible.

But the very purpose provokes another problem. Edwards knew this. He knew that some would agree with much of what he would say while being irritated that he didn’t mention one of their pet prohibitions. Others would likely object to Edwards for not promoting their favorite Christian qualification.

But worse than that, some don’t want this judging at all. This is the criticism du jour. Preachers who attempt to distinguish or even those who just talk about distinctions are immediately branded as the worst kind of arrogant, the most malicious kind of proud, and the most dangerous kind of intolerant.

Those who distinguish and judge are often seen as making a claim to “know for sure” who is and who isn’t a Christian. This, of course, is arrogant.

But a couple things are important to note. First, JE never claimed omniscience. He never professed to know “for sure” who was and who wasn’t saved, what was a genuine religious affection in someone and what wasn’t. Multiple times he stated that there are fixed limits to what we can ascertain AND that the final judgment is God’s job.

Second, JE never claimed to invent standards or characteristics on his own, nor did he write about these things to gain control over other people. Just the opposite is true. He set out to find what God Himself had revealed about these questions from Scripture. Edwards was interested in simple faithfulness to God’s Word.

And you realize, if God has given us standards, if God has revealed guidelines for judging our own experiences and those of others, then it is actually more proud of someone to ignore those standards! If God says that—at least to some extent—we can know, then to say that we can’t know is truly arrogant. In this case we give ourselves more authority than God while making God into a liar.

So in order to be faithful to God we must know and practice His standards. This is not only an issue of faithfulness, but it is an issue of our spiritual safety and eternal joy. These are the motivations behind The Religious Affections.

Clearing away confusion on this issue is crucial:

It is by a mixture of counterfeit religion with true, not discerned and distinguished, that the devil has had his greatest advantage against the cause and kingdom of Christ…. (p.17)

That is no small phrase: the devil’s greatest advantage. So again, though Edwards wanted to defend everything that was a good and genuine work of God, he also desperately wanted to make sure that he protected against every evil and counterfeit.

It is a hard thing to be a hearty zealous friend of what has been good and glorious in the late extraordinary appearances, and to rejoice much in it; and at the same time to see the evil and pernicious tendency of what has been bad, and earnestly to oppose that. But yet I am humbly but fully persuaded, we shall never be in the way of truth, nor go on in a way acceptable to God and tending to the advancement of Christ’s kingdom, till we do so. (p.16)

When we do not distinguish between true and false Christianity, we do not please God and the kingdom of Christ is not advanced.

Why is this the case? Edwards lists three reasons why knowing and upholding God’s standards for believers is so critical:

1) Because unbelievers will be deceived to their eternal ruin.

If unbelievers think themselves to be safe and in God’s pleasure they will not seek His mercy though they have the greatest need for it. For all their religious activity they earn nothing but more wrath.

By this means the devil gratifies himself, by bringing it to pass that that should be offered to God by multitudes, under a notion of a pleasing and acceptable service to him, that is indeed above all things abominable to Him. By this means he deceives great multitudes about the state of their souls, making them think they are something when they are nothing; and so eternally undoes them; and not only so, but establishes many in a strong confidence of their eminent holiness, who are in God’s sight some of the vilest hypocrites. (p.19)

And if we in the church do not challenge the deception then we also bear guilt for our cowardice.

2) Because believers will be confused about what they’re supposed to do.

If the line between Christians and non-Christians is blurred, so will the path of obedience be obscured.

By this means he (Satan) many ways damps and wounds religion in the hearts of the saints, obscures and deforms it by corrupt mixtures, causes their religious affections woefully to degenerate, and sometimes for a considerable time to be like the manna that bred worms and stank. (p.19)

Even more,

…by what is seen of the terrible consequences of this counterfeit religion, when not distinguished from true religion, God’s people in general have their minds unhinged and unsettled in things of religion, and know not where to set their foot, or what to think or do, and many are brought into doubts, whether there be anything in religion…. (p.20)

3) Because the church is weakened by the lack of purity and distinctiveness.

When genuine is not made different from the counterfeit, there is no witness to the world. What will the world think when it sees worldly people in the church claiming to be godly people? They will not think much of God.

So it is essential to identify “the nature and signs of the gracious operations of God’s Spirit” as distinguished from counterfeits. This is for our own souls, for the sake of the church, and for the sake of showing off the glory of God.

3. Jonathan Edwards

Well, we will get into the specifics of these distinguishing marks of the Spirit as the week goes on. What I’d like to do with the remaining time is tell you why I think JE is someone worth listening to on this subject. What is it that qualifies him? And what can we learn about him and from his example that will help us today? So it is time for some biography and some observations.

Most people either love or hate JE. He doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room. Some consider him to be one of the most important Christians in church history and probably the most distinguished theologian and thinker ever in America.

But this is definitely not everyone’s perspective. Most history books refer only to Edwards as the preacher of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” and he is caricatured as a fire-and-brimstone preacher; a melancholy, if not downright mean, man. One quote I came across said,

It is not surprising that Edwards’ main business in the world was to scare silly women and little children, blaspheming the God he professed to adore…. Nothing but a disturbed or diseased mind could have produced “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” (quoted in Lloyd-Jones)

Could that be accurate? Is it worthless for us to be studying this man? Can a man wearing a powdered wig like that really have anything for us to learn? Let’s take a look at JE.

As always, by way of footnote, we never want to study a man for his own sake. It is of no value to just get historical or biographical facts in our heads, however interesting they might be. But we are commanded to learn from our teachers, even to imitate their manner of life as they follow Christ (cf. Hebrews 13:7). As Edwards himself said:

Useful men are some of the greatest blessings of a people. To have many such is more for a people’s happiness than almost anything, unless it be God’s own gracious, spiritual presence amongst them; they are precious gifts of heaven.

So while we don’t want to study men instead of studying God and His Word, some men help us to understand Scripture better and love God more. They provide not only great instruction but they provide an example for us to imitate. And both the life and teaching of JE are valuable for us today. None of us will ever be just like Jonathan Edwards. If we think we can be, we will experience great discouragement. But we can learn from his example.

With the time left I’d like to tell you some about his life, give you some reasons why I love him, and then finish with three reasons why he is worth listening to and learning from.

The Life of Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5, 1703, in East Windsor, Connecticut. His parents were Timothy and Sarah Edwards, who already had four daughters, and were to have six more daughters after Jonathan. Since all 10 of his sisters grew close to six feet, people spoke of Timothy Edwards’ “sixty feet of daughters.”

Jonathan was educated at home, primarily by his father, who regularly involved Jonathan’s older sisters in the process. Evidently JE had much scholastic aptitude and ability as he entered The Collegiate School of Connecticut in New Haven, CN (later to be named Yale) in 1716 at the age of 12. From early childhood he had interest in nature and insects, while studying languages the sciences.

In his “Personal Narrative” Edwards described his conversion that took place sometime in the late spring of 1721:

The first instance that I remember of that sort of inward, sweet delight in God and divine things that I have lived much in since, was on reading those words [1 Timothy 1:17] “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever, Amen.” As I read those words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from anything I had ever experienced before. Never any words of Scripture seemed to me as these words did. I thought with myself, how excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God, and be rapt up in Him in heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in Him forever!

Having completed his BA in 1720 and then finished his master’s degree in May of 1722. He accepted a call in August, 1722 (19 years old) to preach for a new congregation in New York. It was during this time that he wrote his ‘Resolutions.’ He was pastor there only from August to April of the next year when the new congregation decided to join back with the one they split from.

After visiting his parents in East Windsor and doing some other travels, he returned to (now called) Yale College as a tutor in the summer of 1724.

He had only been at Yale for two years when he was called in 1726 to be the assistant pastor in Northampton, MA, alongside his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. It was generally assumed that JE would ultimately take over for the aging Stoddard.

Within six months he married Sarah Pierpont. Sarah Edwards is worth not only her own post, but perhaps her own blog. You can read Marriage to a Difficult Man by Elizabeth Dodd, or for a brief look you can read or listen to Noel Piper’s biographical sketch in A God Entranced Vision of All Things. She enabled him to do all that work while taking care of the eleven children. She was an uncommon woman, and Edwards described their relationship as “an uncommon union.”

They had 11 children, and you can imagine that life at the Edwards house was always busy. Remember, there were no refrigerators, let alone supermarkets. Everything they ate–save cheese and chocolates which were purchased in Boston–they grew or raised or prepared from scratch. Some of their clothes were purchased in the city, but most apparel was likewise made at home.

And they always had visitors. We can be thankful for the Edwards’ hospitality because it was through some of their guests that we have a good amount of biographical insight. In a day when there were few if any hotels, the pastor’s house was commonly assumed to be a safe and inviting place to find lodging. Not only these visitors, but it was also common for young pastor to get some live in training. There are numerous instances of these guests as well.

In just under two years, Stoddard died and Edwards became the sole pastor. He preached every week, multiple times. The church in Northampton was arguably the most influential congregation in New England outside of Boston. This was partly due to its size: some 200 families, partly due to Solomon Stoddard’s popularity and influence, and certainly due to Edward’s own increasing esteem.

He preached and studied and wrote and prayed and counseled; all the things a pastor does. As mentioned already, he saw at least two great seasons of awakening in Northampton. He was often asked to preach in other towns as well and was one of the Great Awakenings most recognized and instrumental figures.

His third pastorate was a bit different, located in a frontier village called Stockbridge. After spending over 23 years in Northampton, he was only in Stockbridge from 1751 until 1758. There he ministered to a small group of white settlers and a large group of Indians. During these years he wrote some of his most weighty works, such as The Freedom of the Will, and On Original Sin.

In September of 1757 his son-in-law, Aaron Burr (married to JE’s daughter Esther) died. Reverend Aaron Burr (to be distinguished from his grandson by the same name who shot the man on the $20 bill) had been the president of a new school, The College of New Jersey (later to be called Princeton). So the trustees of the school invited Edwards to be the president. He reluctantly accepted the position and left his family in Stockbridge while he went ahead to prepare things in New Jersey.

But he was only there from February 16 to March 22, dying from a complication of a new smallpox vaccine. When the news of his death reached Sarah in Stockbridge, she was suffering with rheumatism so much so that she could hardly hold a pen. Even so, she wrote this letter to Esther:

What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore His goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives; and He has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father has left us! We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be.

Why I Treasure Jonathan Edwards

Having already given the most pathetic bio of Jonathan Edwards ever, I needed a good (okay, just any) excuse to talk a bit more about his life. So though there are more biographical details to come in the final message of this series, for now I’ll mention just a few of the reasons why I treasure Mr. Edwards.

I treasure JE because he was a preacher. Something about that resonates with me.

I treasure JE because he was a writer. As soon as he was old enough his dad had him reading and studying with a pen in his hand. He was always writing, not just to copy down the ideas of others but to express his own thoughts. In fact, in the basement of one of the Libraries at Yale there are over 60,000 handwritten pages by Edwards. Even when writing was inconvenient he developed a system to record his thoughts. For example, it was almost impossible to write well on horseback, especially in the cold winter months. He had a practice of pinning small pieces of cloth to his coat and charging his mind to remember what sequence of thoughts went with each piece of cloth. When he got home he would go into his study and take the pinned pieces off one at a time, writing down everything he could remember.

I treasure JE because he loved solitude and study. He loved his alone-time with God. There were days when he spent 13 hours in reading, meditation, writing, and prayer. Some evenings he would even skip dinner if he was in a study “zone.” He considered this solitude necessary not just for a pastor, but for a Christian:

Some are greatly affected when in company but have nothing that bears any manner of proportion to it in secret, in close meditation, secret prayer, and conversing with God, when alone and separated from all the world. A true Christian doubtless delights in religious fellowship and Christian conversation, and finds much to affect his heart in it, but he also delights at times to retire from all mankind to converse with God…. True religion disposes persons to be much alone in solitary places for holy meditation and prayer…. The most eminent divine favors that the saints obtained, that we read of in Scripture, were in their retirement.

I treasure Edwards because he was an outliner; he was serious; he was a Calvinist.

I treasure Edwards because he loved his wife and kids. This is so obvious, especially in some of his letters to them. He faithfully shepherded and lead his family in spiritual matters.

I treasure Edwards because he loved the church; he was a church-man. Even when he accepted the call to Princeton it was only because he received counsel to do so. This man, with his intellectual abilities and writing arsenal, chose to spend himself for the sake of the church.

I treasure Edwards because he was willing to sacrifice and give up his own comforts for what he believed in. He did not compromise the truth. More on that in a later post.

Lastly, and perhaps significant to no one but myself, he loved storms.

Scarcely anything, among all the works of nature, was so sweet to me as thunder and lightening….(I) used to take the opportunity at such times, to fix myself in order to view the clouds, and see the lightnings play, and hear the majestic and awful voice of God’s thunder, which oftentimes was exceedingly entertaining, leading me to sweet contemplations of my great and glorious God.

Edwards had intelligence, insight, and imagination like few other Americans. He was analytical like nobody’s business and disciplined to see every study through to its end. He was voracious in his learning and relentless in the work of his office. (These are things that don’t happen by watching more television or playing more video games.) He was honest and modest, and perhaps more than any of these things, he was a spiritual man in love with God.

Three Reasons to Listen to Edwards on the Affections

As we prepare to discuss religious affections in the rest of the series, why should we care what Edwards had to say?

1) Edwards had an intimate knowledge of Scripture.

Early in his Christian life he resolved:

to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same. (Resolution #28)

And it seems Edwards made good on #28. He regularly spent 13 hours a day reading, studying, praying over, and writing about Scripture. He occasionally missed meals because he was in a study “zone” and didn’t want to lose his momentum.

His Blank Bible is one of the clearest examples of this commitment. There is some disagreement in the sources I looked at, but he took a Bible and cut every page out himself, took a blank piece of paper and inserted it between every page. Then he drew a line down the middle of each page on both sides and sewed it back together so that he could take notes on every passage of the Bible. He had notes everywhere. He had firsthand acquaintance with the Bible, not just indirect contact through what other people wrote.

Almost every one of his sermons was an exposition of some passage of Scripture. His books are jam-packed with Scripture citations. And The Religious Affections, which he first preached as sermons, are replete with references to, and commentary on, Scripture.

He was a man who believed in sola Scriptura. With all of his brain-power, he submitted himself to the authority of the Bible. More than that, he loved and longed for God’s Word (cf. 1 Peter 2:1-3).

I seemed often to see so much light exhibited by every sentence, and such refreshing food communicated, that I could not get alone in reading; often dwelling long on one sentence to see the wonders contained in it, and yet almost every sentence seemed to be full of wonders.

So Ian Murray said of him:

The key to an understanding of Jonathan Edwards is that he was a man who put faithfulness to the Word of God before every other consideration. (p.471)

He was a man richly indwelt by God’s Word (cf. Colossians 3:16). We should listen to Edwards because he knew, loved, and submitted to Scripture. Maybe that is why God used JE to bring such a great awakening of affection for Himself.

2) Edwards had a vivid awareness of his pastoral responsibility.

It is not always the case that pastors take their responsibility seriously, but JE was marked by this awareness of his accountability to God. It is too easy for pastors to play the Christian game today, but Hebrews 13:17 haunts us with divine accountability.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.

Edwards understood that he would give an answer to God. He had read of all the prophets in the OT who had come to God’s people with no care but themselves; false prophets who led the people astray. And the Puritan’s most feared enemy was self-deception or hypocrisy in matters of religion. So conversion or claiming conversion was not something taken lightly in those days, and especially Puritan pastors aimed to expose the soul. Edwards refused to be negligent on his watch.

We see his soul-carefulness even in the very last sermon he preached to his congregation in Northampton. His sermon was on the text in 2 Corinthians 1:14:

just as you did partially acknowledge us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.

In that sermon he labored to make plain that ministers and their people must meet one another before Christ on the day of judgment, and both parties would give an account. He argued that pastors in particular are sent by Christ on His business. The pastor does not work from his own prerogative. And the major work of ministers was to:

…meet with their people, in public and private, in order to enlighten them concerning the state of their souls; to open and apply the rules of God’s Word to them, in order to their searching the own hearts, and discerning their state.

And he greatly feared that:

…nothing is more common than for men to be mistaken concerning their own state. Many that are abominable to God, and children of His wrath, think highly of themselves, as His precious saints and dear children. Yea, there is reason to think that often some that are most bold in their confidence of their safe and happy state, and think themselves not only true saints, but the most eminent saints in the congregation, are in a peculiar manner a smoke in God’s nostrils.

He addressed different groups of hearers that they might examine themselves to see if they were in the faith.

[to professors]: I have endeavored, according to my best ability, to search the Word of God, with regard to the distinguishing notes of true piety, those by which persons might best discover their state, and most surely and clearly judge of themselves.

[to the Christless]: Your consciences bear me witness that while I had opportunity, I have not ceased to warn you, and set before you your danger. I have studied to represent the misery and necessity of your circumstances in the clearest manner possible.

[to young people]: I have…earnestly warned you against frolicking….

So JE is worth listening to because he was not playing games. He was aware of God-given pastoral responsibility and that drove him to get knowledge and wisdom and to be as faithful as he could in the discharge of his task.

3) Edwards was a passionate, personal God-lover.

When Edwards gives us instruction on affections and love for God it is not from something he knew by distanced observation. Not only did he see that Scripture requires affections and that his main preaching work was to stir up those affections for God, love for God consumed his own heart. He was enflamed and engulfed in personal affections.

His was not the life of some cold academician, dutifully going about business as usual. Just the opposite. He was a white-hot delighter in God. There is more to come from his teaching on affections but here is just one of his descriptions of his experience of affections:

Once, as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted 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, as Mediator between God and man, and his wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens. The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception -which continued, as near as I can judge, about an hour; which kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears, and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to lie in the dust; and to be full of Christ alone; to love him with a holy and pure love; to trust in him; to live upon him; to serve and follow him; and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure, with a divine and heavenly purity. I have several other times had views very much of the same nature, and which have had the same effects.

There was a sweet marriage in Edwards between reason and affection, thought and feeling, head and heart, study and worship. That is (sadly) very rare. It was “logic on fire” as the Puritans called it.

And it was this personal, internal affection that motivated his public, external work. He understood that his own convictions and the depth and strength of his inner life was invariably related to his pastoral usefulness. He was not a boring, dull preacher. His aim was not only to teach, but to raise the affections of his hearers. So Edwards sought to put truth on fire, to enthuse, to stimulate, and to enliven. All his life was lived to point the way to God.

The love of God was his doctrinal concern (from his study of Scripture), it was his pastoral concern (as he took his responsibility seriously), and it was his personal concern (because he loved God with all his heart). Perhaps we can learn something from him about our own affections.

The phrase shock and awe comes from the military world where it was made popular only in the last ten years or so. It is a method of warfare that attempts not just to defeat the enemy, but to destroy the enemy’s will to fight through a spectacular display of power.

In order to accomplish shock and awe, the attacking army must have four things:

1. near total knowledge of self, enemy and environment;
2. rapidity and timeliness in application;
3. operational brilliance in execution; and
4. near total control and signature management of the entire operational environment.

It is like a Blitzkrieg or lightening war, where speed and power catch the enemy off-guard and unprepared. It is the kind of battle where swift troop maneuvers and rapid, precision guided munitions don’t just overpower, they steamroll the adversary and crush their very will to fight. A shock and awe campaign seeks to demoralize and dishearten. It is more than just guns and bullets and bombs. It is so many guns and bullets and bombs so well timed that it breaks the spirit, it dumbfounds, it traumatizes.

As you might imagine, shock and awe is difficult to accomplish. You need detailed knowledge of your enemy’s weakness, you must have massive amounts of firepower, you’ve got to coordinate an extensive attack, and your execution of the plan must be flawless. Only a few armies in the history of the world have been capable of this kind of attack.

But do you realize that a similar shock and awe offensive transpires every day? It is not a military campaign conducted by expertly trained soldiers. It is not a massive operation requiring extensive strategy and skillful organization. It is not an attack on some weaker enemy that is put into shock by a superior power.

This shock and awe effect is produced every day–when you get a drink.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord,
for My people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Jeremiah 2:12-13

Of course, when I talk about getting a drink, I’m not talking about a cup of coffee or a can of Coke or a glass of water. When I talk about getting a drink I’m not talking about how you quench the thirst of your body, I’m talking about how you satisfy the thirst of your soul.

Just as our tongues thirst for water so our hearts thirst for fulfillment. Every day each one of us searches out and drinks from whatever we believe will satisfy our hearts and slake the thirst of our souls for happiness and meaning and usefulness. And here’s the thing, if you don’t get this drink in the right place it is cause for shock and awe.

Look at the intensity of the vocabulary in verse 12. These are words that we don’t typically use. We don’t normally talk to one another like this. Be appalled…be shocked, be utterly desolate. In other words, be awestruck, be astounded, be horrified! This is the terminology of total unexpectedness or complete inappropriateness. This is how one might speak of things that are unbelievable, even unthinkable. Who can imagine that such things could be done?

And look who/or what is shocked, “be appalled O heavens.” In this dramatic address, “O heavens,” God is crying out to the universe as His witness of these great atrocities. All of creation is summoned to shock and awe, or as the NIV translates it, “to shudder with great terror.”

Maybe you can picture a courtroom scene with creation on the witness stand, the Lord as both Prosecutor and Judge, but who are the defendants? And what crimes could possibly be so shocking?

The defendants and the charges are found in v.13. First, the defendants, for My people. All of chapter 2 has been addressed to the Jews–to those in Jerusalem (v.2), of the house of Jacob, of the house of Israel (v.4). The ones on trial are not the ones we first expect to find. These are not the ‘scum of the earth.’ These are the good people, the good citizens; they are God’s people. These are the temple-goers, or in our day, the church-goers.

So what have they done? What could possibly be that bad? Were God’s people slaughtering women and children? Were they committing adultery or both or worse? No. They were drinking from the wrong place.

What so so shocking and appalling, what God called creation to testify against, was where His people were going to quench the thirst of their soul. They had committed two evils. First, they had forsaken God, and second, they pursued their own avenues of satisfaction.

two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Some of the evidence of this cistern-hewing was already presented earlier in chapter 2. They stopped thinking about the Lord (v.6). The Lord was not a concern in their lives. He was no longer a part of their decisions or their priorities or their pursuits, even though He was the very God who orchestrated their exodus from Egypt. In fact, even the priests stopped thinking about the Lord and disregarded His Word (v.8). Apparently some of the spiritual ‘leaders’ even turned to serve other gods (v.11).

They had forsaken God and turned to other, empty things. They “went after worthlessness” (v.4). They went after “things that do not profit” (v.8) and again after “things that do not profit” (v.11).

It doesn’t even make sense that they would do this. This isn’t rational. Look back at verse 13. If you really want to have your thirst quenched, if you want to be satisfied, where do you go to get a drink? In Israel there were probably three or four options for getting water and two of them are compared here: a fountain of living waters, and a man-made, broken, and therefore empty cisterns are the two choices here.

So what exactly is a cistern? A cistern is basically a reservoir or tank of sort, typically hewn–that is carved–out. Cisterns were carved in places that could catch the maximum amount of rain water. Cisterns were necessary for life because water was necessary for survival. In a predominately desert region, if there wasn’t a nearby well or a stream, let a alone a fountain, cisterns were the source of life.

But imagine the scene in Jeremiah 2:13. These options are not a day’s journey away, but the fountain and the broken, dry cistern are right in front of you. And let’s say it’s Tuesday and you began work at sunrise out in the fields. A few hours later the mid-day sun is beating down on you and you’ve worked up quite a thirst. So you put down your shovel or your hoe or whatever tool you have and take a break to get a drink. You’ve got two options: on one hand is this broken, empty rock with a hole carved in it, and on the other hand, a flowing, fresh, cool, bubbling fountain of water. After considering both options, you choose the dry cistern.

Of course, all you get is a mouthful of dirt. You barely have enough saliva left to lick the dust off of your lips. (Are you thirsty yet?) There is no relief, even temporarily. Your thirst is not quenched. You find no refreshment. You walk away dissatisfied. Of course you would! It was a forgone conclusion. A satisfying drink was never even possible from that bone-dry, broken hole in the ground.

And yet hour by hour you come back to try again. Day after day you choose the cistern. You carve the hole bigger and patch every leak you can find trying to fix it, but every time you bow your head to drink all you get is dirt. All the while the fresh, flowing, abundant, living fountain is right there. It is so close that you can probably hear drops splashing into larger pools. Maybe you even feel the mist from the fountain, blown by a light breeze onto the back of your neck while you’re bent over at the cistern.

But this is worse than just stupid. Most of us would see that scenario and think, “Hey, if you want to be stupid, that’s your choice.” No doubt we’d call it foolish; but God calls it evil! This is the most shocking and appalling atrocity in the universe! It is a cosmic crime to seek satisfaction for your heart from the wrong place.

Why? Why is this so outrageous? What makes this so offensive, especially compared to many other sins? Why is drinking from a cistern so wicked? Because it is an infinite disregard for God. It is the ultimate slap-in-the-face to Him. For you to see Him there and know Him to be the living fountain and then shrug Him off as no real importance and ignore Him is the most scandalous, revolting, nauseating thing in the universe. Then attempting to find a satisfying drink in other places is just the other side of the same scandal. Creation is shocked. We should be too. We don’t usually consider neglect such a serious sin. So why is this disregard so disgusting and dreadful?

It is easier to acknowledge the dishonor done to God by sins of commission than omission. Crossing a line God has prohibited is a clear violation of His authority. But simply failing to do something is typically not considered as despicable. So what is it about our drinking from broken cisterns that is cause for the creation’s shock and awe? What moves it beyond simple foolishness and makes it an ultimate and infinite evil? Let me try and expand on why it is wrong to drink from a cistern with three ideas.

1. It is a disregard of God’s infinite position.

When we ignore God it is not like neglecting a stranger that we have no relation to. It is not like brushing off a friend or a sibling, someone we have a relationship with, someone we consider to be on our level of importance. Even more, it isn’t like disregarding our parents who provide necessary food, shelter, and clothing–let alone love and guidance–as disrespectful as that is.

Or looking at it from the other side, we don’t like it when someone doesn’t trust us. We take offense when we serve and care for someone who disregards us. Spurned love is ugly, as you might imagine a husband who doesn’t appreciate his wife. Unthankfulness is ugly, as when kids fail to demonstrate gratitude. Those kinds of disregard are inappropriate, disgraceful, and perhaps we might say that to varying degrees even shocking.

So then a disregard for God is an infinite evil because He is infinitely greater than us. He is no stranger, He is not on our level, He is not just providing a few of our daily needs. His position is infinitely superior and we are totally dependent on Him. God is our life! We don’t have another breath without Him! Nothing could be more inexcusable or more despicable than to disregard Him. It is almost unspeakable.

In a book titled, The End for Which God Created the World, Jonathan Edwards suggests this fictional, yet thought provoking scenario. Imagine if there were an infinitely wise, third party observer between God and men. And what if this third party observer were to make judgments between God and creation as to their worth and value and how much. The one task of this detached judge would be to weigh things in the balance to see who was greater and who was lesser and by what degree one was greater and the other lesser.

And imagine that all the parties (namely, God and men/creation) agreed beforehand that after this wise judge made his conclusions, it would be necessary that:

the degree of regard should always be in…the proportion of existence and proportion of excellence. (p.142)

It wouldn’t even stretch the judge’s wisdom or take too many calculations to determine what proportion of regard should be allotted to the Creator and what portion to His creatures. As Edwards concludes, in our case the whole system of created beings would be regarded as “light dust on the balance or even as the air itself” compared to God in His eternal existence and infinite excellence.

As He is every way the first and supreme, and as His excellency is in all respects the supreme beauty and glory, the original good, and fountain of all good, so He must have in all respects the supreme glory. (p.143)

(So)…every wheel, in all its rotations, should move with a constant invariable regard to Him. (p.144)

To Him belongs the whole of the respect that any intelligent being is capable of. To Him belongs ALL the heart. (emphasis Edwards, p.141).

He is the supreme source and so deserves the supreme respect. Every time a wheel goes around it should not do anything but give regard to God, without fail, without taking a break. And so if God has just part of your heart, that is an infinite sin in proportion to His existence and excellence. When we value something of lesser value, when we drink from the broken cistern rather than the living fountain, we have substituted something of utter inferiority for the infinitely superior God. There is no greater call for shock and awe.

In considering what is so shocking about drinking from broken cisterns we saw that it is a disregard of God’s infinite position, and now we turn to the second reason.

2. It is a disregard for God’s eternal purpose.

Not only does it fail to give proper attention to His greatness, but attempting to drink from the wrong source dismisses God’s primary and eternal plan.

What is His ultimate, eternal purpose? Soli Deo Gloria–for the glory of God alone! We spent an entire session on this at last year’s retreat. “All things are from Him and through Him and to Him. To Him be all the glory forever” (cf. Romans 11:33-36). Everything He does is for the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:6, 13).

God is passionate for His own glory. He has to be.

All things else, with regard to worthiness, importance, and excellence, are perfectly as nothing in comparison of Him. And therefore, if God has respect to things according to their nature and proportions, He must necessarily have the greatest respect to Himself. (The End for Which God Created the World, p.140)

This is brilliant logic. In other words, if He is omniscient (and He is), then He knows all thing perfectly. Therefore He knows infallibly what has the greatest value, the most importance, and the supreme excellence. In every case, He must recognize Himself to be the best.

God could not esteem His creation greater than Himself as it would be inappropriate to honor the universe higher than its Creator. God could not favor any other being more than Himself since He Himself is source of all life.

So if God is the best–and infinitely so–then for Him to seek the glory of anyone else but Himself would be wrong. He would ultimately be an idolator to recognize or regard anything else higher than Himself. He is the only being in the universe for whom getting glory for self is not only okay, it is righteous.

I should think that these things might incline us to suppose that God has not forgot Himself in the ends for which He proposed the creation of the world. (p.145)

God knows what He’s doing and it is for Himself and His glory alone.

For My own sake, for My own sake, I do it, for how should My name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. Isaiah 48:11

And as God values His glory, and does everything He does for His glory, so He expects–here is His eternal purpose–that He creatures are passionate for His glory, and do everything they do for it. It is His eternal purpose to get glory for Himself from us.

So we come to one of the key questions: if glorifying God is His eternal purpose, and if God expects us to be passionate about glorifying Him to the degree of honor He deserves, how do we give God glory?

Edwards denotes two ways. First, God is glorified by us knowing Him. When we know and see and understand, both from creation and from Scripture, who He is and what He is like and what He has done, etc., God is glorified. Our knowledge of Him is decisive. If we don’t study God and know God we will be unable to honor Him appropriately. We won’t appreciate Him properly without learning about His supremacy. That is why truth and doctrine and theology must not be overlooked or forgotten. Truth expands and shapes our understanding of God’s greatness.

However, knowledge of God is not the only way to give God glory, and certainly not the highest way. Right knowledge of Him is necessary, but knowledge alone is not enough. If knowledge about God was the only requirement then we could give God no more glory than Satan and the demons can. Even those currently suffering in hell know far more of the reality of God’s greatness than we do. The truth is that many people know a lot of things about God but do not give Him glory.

So what is the answer? How does God fulfill His eternal purpose to get glory for Himself in us?

God glorifies Himself toward the creatures…in two ways: 1. By appearing to…their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying the manifestations which He makes of Himself….God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that He might communicate, and the creature receive, His glory; and that it might be received both by the mind and heart. He that testifies his idea of God’s glory doesn’t glorify God so much as he that testifies also of his approbation of it and his delight in it.

This is why everything must be done for the love of God. We do not glory God to the degree He deserves by simply knowing facts about Him. Knowing details of doctrine is worthless if that’s all we have. Facts are necessary, but facts must lead to affection.

Here is the second way to glorify Him: God is glorified by us loving Him. From eternity past His purpose has been to get glory, and so the Father planned to communicate to us in a way that we would love Him. He sent His Son to die on the cross to pay our penalty for not loving Him, and then sent His Spirit to take away our hearts of stone so that we could love Him. All three Persons of the Trinity are a part of this plan to arouse our affections for Him. Our abounding love for Him was His plan in eternity past and is His everlasting purpose towards the getting of His greatest glory.

There are may reasons to think that what God as in view, in an increasing communication of Himself through eternity, is an increasing knowledge of God, love to Him, and joy in Him. (p.159)

So if we are drinking from other fountains, we are delighting in and loving something more than God. If God is not the satisfaction of our hearts, then we are guilty of disregarding the entire point of existent. Knowledge of, and love for, God are the center of God’s eternal plan to bring Himself praise. That is why all of life must be lived for the love of God if we are going to glorify Him as He deserves. The ultimate end of creation hangs on us not just knowing about the fountain, but drinking from it.

To marinate our minds a bit longer in this truth, right knowledge is necessary, but it’s not enough. There must be knowledge AND love. And not only is this reasonable, more importantly it is biblical:

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp-stands. ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for My nameÕs sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp-stand from its place, unless you repent.’ Revelation 2:1-5

The church in Ephesus was doctrinally sound–testing and rejecting the false teaching. They were patient in suffering and sacrificing on behalf of the Lord. But God still had something against them: they had abandoned their love. They no longer had white hot affection for Him like at the beginning of their relationship. This lack of love demanded repentance because lack of love is a disregard for God and His purpose to get glory. In other words,

Sin is trying to quench our un-quenchable soul-thirst anywhere but in God. Or, more subtly, sin is pursuing satisfaction in the right direction, but with lukewarm, halfhearted affections. (John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory, p. 81)

For a creature to disregard the Creator’s eternal purpose is shockingly sinful.

Not only is drinking out of a cistern to satisfy our soul thirst shocking because it is a disregard of God’s infinite position and because it is a disregard of God’s eternal purpose, here is the final reason.

3. It is a disregard for God’s gracious promise.

Even though it is not explicit there is a promise in Jeremiah 2:13. The promise is of satisfaction. Though we don’t deserve it, though all of us have hewn our own cisterns and tried to suck life out of dirt, God beckons us to come and drink deeply from the fountain of His pleasures. The implication in verse 13 is that if we would only drink we would obtain delight and satisfaction. Water from the fountain of living waters is available to quench our thirst!

It is astonishing that we can have it! The fountain is not days off in the distance. God has not hidden or obscured it. It doesn’t require epic journeys or heroic feats to have this water. He has generously promised it to us if we will but turn to Him–the fountain of living waters. So, “Drink!” “Be satisfied!”

This call to drink is in other passages as well. For example,

When the poor and needy seek water,and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. Isaiah 41:17-18

Note that God is personally interested and involved in providing for the thirsty who seek Him.

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live. Isaiah 55:1-3

But perhaps the most well known and specific of these promises comes from Jesus Himself.

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:7-14

This is a gracious promise indeed, and what a mockery it is to seek life by sucking from the dust and disregarding His promise.

Where we drink from is of universal, eternal, and divine interest. Where you seek satisfaction and happiness either regards God appropriately or it disregards Him infinitely. When we drink from other sources than God Himself, that is a disregard for His infinite position, His eternal purpose, and His gracious promise.

Drinking from a cistern is a sin of infinite proportions because it makes God appear only as glorious as the proportion of our affections for Him. Failing to love Him with all of our hearts and souls and minds and strength relegates Him to a lower position. Our weak affections make it look like He is not worthy or lovely which couldn’t be further from reality. This is a great insult and a bold-faced scorning of God which He doesn’t take lightly. His wrath is coming on those who, though they know about God, do not honor Him as God or give Him thanks (Romans 1:21).

CONCLUSION

As much as anyone else in church history, Jonathan Edwards understood the incredible shock and awe of disregard for God. He understood the incomparable insult of ignoring God. Since the living fountain is infinitely superior our drinking from a cistern is infinitely wicked. It was Edwards’ understanding of God’s outrage over this sin that gave rise to preaching like this:

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; His wrath towards you burns like fire; He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in His sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in His eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. (from Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”)

In his life Edwards fought to satisfy his own soul-thirst from the fountain by knowing God precisely and loving Him intimately. In his ministry he sought to point others to God and to warn them of the danger of turning to broken cisterns.

This is why Edwards is so important for us today. He fought on two fronts that pose a threat to us today as well. He battled against those who had doctrine but no affections and against those who had emotion but no truth.

Some of us know the right place to get the water. We can describe the fountain of living water with great accuracy. Maybe we even understand a little bit about how the fountain works. But we don’t drink! We’ve got a view, but we have not tasted. We’ve got truth, but we don’t have experience. We’ve got the head knowledge but not the heart love. This is not enough, because as Edwards pointed out, God is not glorified by being known as much as He is glorified by being known and loved!

On the other hand, some of us know that we’re supposed to drink, we feel the need to drink, but we assume that drinking from any water near the fountain is good enough. We enjoy drinking, but any water will do. This is the group that has experience, but it is experience minus theology. Zeal without knowledge is not enough. Imagining that just because there is ‘love’ everything is okay is a false hope. If it isn’t the right love, it is worthless emotion. In fact, we may love our good feelings more than we love God.

Either way, knowledge without affection or affection without knowledge is shocking and appalling. Knowing the right fountain but not drinking is shocking. Drinking but not from the right fountain is appalling.

It is our obligation then, to pursue knowledge of and love for God. When we realize what is at stake, we cannot do this halfheartedly. I hope that Edwards will help us to know more precisely and to love more profoundly. For all Edwards’ brain power, he was the furthest thing from a dispassionate or disinterested lecturer. He was a passionate preacher who knew the heart of the issue was not just affirmations about God, but affection for God.