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What We Learn from God’s Early Work of Redemption | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. Today we are diving straight
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into a document that, well, it doesn't just record history, it
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really dictates how we should Live Today.
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This is a deep dive into an excerpt from Jonathan Edwards, a
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history of the Work of Redemption, and we're going to
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be looking at the improvement section.
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Right, the application part. The part where Edwards draws out
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both reproof and encouragement from the just immense scope and,
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frankly, the astronomical cost of salvation.
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Yeah, and it's less of a historical narrative here and
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more like a a grand jury presentation.
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That's a great way to put it. Edwards has spent, you know, so
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much time establishing this whole theological architecture
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of human history. He's arguing that God's main
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purpose since the fall has been the redemption of sinners
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through Christ. And so now, having sort of
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quantified the divine effort and the expense involved, he shifts,
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he turns to the courtroom of the conscience and basically asks
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how dare we treat this central act of God with anything less
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than the utmost seriousness? Right.
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So let's unpack that claim. Our mission today is to see how
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the very scale of God's work in history, we're talking 40
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centuries of preparation and then the suffering required for
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the purchase, how that actually measures the quality of our
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response right now. Right.
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If the historical effort was, for all intents and purposes,
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infinite, then our rejection of it, our neglect, it's magnified.
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It's magnified accordingly. OK, so where do we start?
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We have to set the stage first. The initial frame for the
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listener is essential. The structure that he uses here
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is so crucial because for Edwards, and for classical
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reform thought in general, the work of redemption isn't just a
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small event tacked on to the end of time.
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It is the single most important purpose of God's Providence,
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since creation gives you the very lens through which all
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other history has to be viewed. Right.
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And Edwards structures this whole timeline into two immense
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historical phases before we even get to the current gospel age.
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So the first period is the time of preparation, and this spans
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about 4000 years. It runs from the moment of
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Adam's fall straight up to the incarnation of Christ.
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And this period wasn't just waiting time.
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It wasn't God just tapping his fingers.
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It was an active, purposeful deployment of, well, Edwards
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calls it a series of wonderful provinces for four millennia.
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OK. And if you want to understand
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the seriousness of the reproofs that come later, you have to
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grasp what those provinces actually were.
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So we're not just talking about, you know, genealogies in the Old
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Testament and a few covenants here and there.
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This involves God actively steering global affairs, right?
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What are some examples of those wonderful provinces?
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The stage setting. Well, it's far reaching.
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You have to consider the initial covenant promises, the promise
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to Abraham, for instance, the preservation of the messianic
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line through all the chaos of Egyptian bondage, the wilderness
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wandering. Then you have the careful
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raising up of prophets like Isaiah, who provided these
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increasingly detailed, necessary descriptions of the coming
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Messiah. This isn't just religious
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history, he's arguing, It's geopolitical management.
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And that's where the scope just becomes cosmic.
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God didn't just separate out the nation of Israel.
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He managed the entire surrounding world to serve this
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one single purpose. The rise and fall of vast
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empires, you know, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome,
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they all become subordinate tools.
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Yes. Think about the period leading
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right up to Christ. The dispersion of the Jewish
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people after the Babylonian exile, for example.
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That helps spread monotheism and messianic expectation.
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OK. Or the Greek language
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established by Alexander the Great.
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It provided a universal tongue so the New Testament message
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could spread rapidly across the Mediterranean.
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The Roman Rd. system created an infrastructure for the apostles
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to travel safely and, you know, quickly.
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So the argument is that everything from a specific
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prophecy given to Daniel while he's under Persian rule to the
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creation of the Pax Romana, all of it, was orchestrated to make
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all things ready for one particular event in human
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history. That's an almost unfathomable
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level of divine planning. It is the definition of
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intentionality. 4000 years of world history dedicated entirely
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to setting the stage, making sure the cultural, the
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political, the linguistic, the religious climate was absolutely
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perfect for the Son of God to appear, live and die.
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And this preparation, it leads directly to the second period,
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which he calls the purchase. This period is incredibly
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intense, but very brief. It runs from the moment of the
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Incarnation up until the final moment of Christ's humiliation
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and death on the cross. This is where the actual
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redemption was, as he says, made and finished, and the cost here
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is the absolute measure of the whole operation.
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And we have to detail the nature of this purchase because it sets
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the baseline value for everything else that follows.
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What did it require? Well, it necessitated the
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incomprehensible, the union of the divine nature with the human
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in one single person, no mere profit.
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No creature could do this work, only the God man, who was at the
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same time capable of obeying perfectly and suffering
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infinitely. And the method of purchase was
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equally striking. The source materials really
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emphasize that the work was done not through, you know, visible
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glory and power, but through poverty, labor and contempt.
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He spent over 30 years living in that.
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Condition, and this is the critical contrast.
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You have the glorious person carrying out the central work of
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all history, yet he's doing it through extreme suffering and
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loneliness. The purchase wasn't secured
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until he closed his life under what Edwards calls extreme
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sufferings. This involves the Agony and
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Gethsemane, the physical and psychological abuse, the
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abandonment by the Father, and enduring the full furnace of
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God's wrath against the sins of the elect.
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So that's the transaction. The preparation was immense,
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designed to elevate the significance of the event.
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The purchase was achieved through a suffering that was
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proportional to the infinite glory of the person doing it,
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and this establishes the total value.
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That's it, and this sets up Edwards core thesis for this
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whole improvement section. Because the preparation was so
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grand and vast, a 4000 year logistical miracle, and the
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purchase was so unimaginably costly.
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The life and blood of the God man.
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Our failure to respond properly isn't just a personal failing.
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It's magnified. It becomes an act of cosmic
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offence, whether that offence shows up as unbelief or self
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righteousness or just simple neglect.
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OK, so having established that baseline value, let's move into
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that first category of offence, unbelief.
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This reproof is aimed not not primarily at the open atheist or
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the avowed enemy of Christianity.
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It's aimed at those who maintain a sort of proximity to the
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truth. The focus here is far more
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surgical. It's addressing those who
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receive him in profession Outwardly, they're the cultural
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adherents, the churchgoers, the ones who intellectually assent
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to the story. They might even, you know, wish
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that they had some of those benefits that Christ purchased.
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They want peace. They want safety.
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They want to go to heaven. But the reproof identifies the
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fatal, damning flaw. Their hearts never sincerely
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receive him. The intellect agrees, but the
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will. It just refuses to surrender.
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Edwards uses this really powerful intimate analogy of the
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heart being like a house or a city with a door and a throne,
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and the listener is accused of opening the hearts door wide to
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countless other things. They embrace worldly gains.
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They allow the vanities and pleasures of youth to sit on the
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Thrones of their hearts. So they let worldly ambition or
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material security or their own fleeting comforts rule them.
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But when Christ, the one for whom all of history was managed,
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stands at the door and knocks, what happens?
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He is always shut out. The door, which swings so easily
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for vanity and greed, is firmly locked against the savior.
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They are, he says, deaf to all his calls.
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The offense here is an ignorance.
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It is a deliberate rejection in the face of maximum historical
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revelation and personal pleading.
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So why is this rejection, this internal refusal to open the
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door, considered such a staggering sin?
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I mean, it's often minimized by people who think, well, I
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haven't committed murder. I haven't stolen anything.
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I just haven't fully committed. The guilt is magnified by the
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greatness of the person being slighted.
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You are slighting the glorious person for who's coming.
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God made such immense preparation over 4 millennia.
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If God treated the preparation with that much seriousness, your
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casual dismissal of the resulting purchase has to be
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just as serious too. It's not just a trivial error in
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judgement, it's an insult to the divine manager of history.
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It is the source material calls Christ the precious stone which
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God had laid in Zion for a foundation.
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Unbelief isn't just tripping over the stone, it is actively
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setting at naughty that stone. It means treating the very
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foundation of God's entire redemptive plan as worthless or
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disposable or just irrelevant. That is a cosmic insult.
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You're basically telling God that his entire system for
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reconciling the world, purchased at the cost of his son's life,
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is somehow less valuable than your transient worldly.
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Concerns and this leads to the staggering claim about the level
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of guilt Edwards is targeting the person who has heard the
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gospel message, who has seen the historical account of the
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preparation in the purchase. If the Savior is so glorious and
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the work so great, and the rejection of Him becomes
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profoundly provoking to God. I want to pause on that claim
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because it feels so counterintuitive to our modern
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sensibility, which often prioritizes simple morality.
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Edwards states that rejecting the Savior brings greater guilt
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than the sins of the worst of heathens who never heard of
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those things nor have had the Savior offered to them.
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He justifies that severity with the principle of revelation.
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The heathens, however morally wicked they might be, they only
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sin against the law written in their hearts, the natural
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revelation of God's existence and moral requirements.
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Their guilt is severe, but it is mitigated by their lack of
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explicit knowledge about Christ. But the person who hears the
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Gospel, who lives in this age of clear revelation, who sees the
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historical evidence of 4000 years of preparation and the
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finished work of the cross. That person's rejection is an
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active affront to the highest demonstration of God's love,
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wisdom, and power. They are despising the one thing
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God invested everything in. It's an offense against the
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gospel itself, which is a greater offense than any mere
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violation of the moral law. So the clearer the revelation,
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the greater the condemnation for sliding it.
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That's it. The clearer the revelation, the
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greater the historical context for the purchase, the more
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complete the condemnation for slighting it.
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Unbelief, therefore, is not a small sin of omission.
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It is the ultimate active sin of rejecting the cosmic
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cornerstone. OK, shifting now from the
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explicit rejector to those who who try to approach God but on
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their own terms, we come to reproof too, aimed at the folly
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of self righteousness. This is for those who take it
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upon themselves to do that great work which Christ came into the
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world to do. And this is a really complex
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area because it's so often close itself and what looks like
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piety, you know, diligence, prayer, reformation.
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But the error is in the trust they rely on, their prayers,
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their good conversations, the religious pain they experience,
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or their self denial, believing that these efforts somehow make
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atonement for their past sins or recommend them to God enough to
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secure salvation. So they're essentially trying to
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buy what Christ already purchased.
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But Edwards argues this act is not just mistaken, it is
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supremely foolish and arrogant. And we need to unpack the three
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specific charges of arrogance he levels against the
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self-righteous person. The first charge is the sheer
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arrogance of the task. We have to measure the person
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against the work. The self-righteous person is
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described in the Source as poor, worthless, vile and polluted, a
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creature that is utterly dependent and stained by sin.
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Yet this individual arrogantly takes upon you that very work
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for which the only begotten Son of God became man.
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They're attempting to satisfy infinite justice.
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That's it. The Imagine that there are few
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poor, worthless, polluted prayers or religious
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performances are excellent enough for the purpose of making
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atonement and securing a right standing before God.
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Think of the staggering contrast their effort versus the cosmic
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effort we just detailed. And the contrast is really
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heightened by the cost Christ paid.
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Edwards forces the comparison. Redemption was not obtained even
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by the Son of God, so great and glorious a person at a cheaper
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rate than his, going through a sea of blood, and passing
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through the midst of the furnace of God's wrath.
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Right. To then look at that price, the
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bloody sweat, the cross, the divine abandonment, and to
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suggest that your own occasional fasting or your consistent
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church attendance is somehow equivalent or adequate for that
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task, it's beyond arrogance. It displays in almost complete
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ignorance of the holiness of God and the depth of human
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depravity. And that leads directly to the
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second charge, which is the charge of vainness and folly.
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This is the logical consequence. If your personal righteousness
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is sufficient, then the whole divine enterprise was waste.
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It immediately nullifies all of history.
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If the Sinner can accomplish salvation through their own
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performances, then all that Christ did to purchase salvation
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and all that God did from the fall of man to prepare the way
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for it is in vain. You just rendered 4000 years of
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preparation pointless. It effectively charges God with
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the greatest folly. You're suggesting that God
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needlessly busied himself for centuries, raising up profits,
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overturning kingdoms, setting the stage, only to then send his
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son to suffer and die. When in fact, the Sinner could
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have accomplished the same result in a few days, only with
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the trouble of a few religious performances.
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Wow. I mean, imagine spending five
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years planning an intricate multimillion dollar corporate
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takeover only for an intern to walk in and say, oh, I finished
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that yesterday with a few emails.
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You could have spared the time and money.
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That is the level of perceived insult it suggests.
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Christ could have spared his blood, He could have remained in
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the Father's bosom, and God could have just called you forth
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and committed the business to you, the self-righteous
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individual. This is the critical,
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inescapable logic that undergirds Pauls condemnation in
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Galatians 2 verse 21. If righteousness come by the
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law, then Christ is dead in vain, right?
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The self-righteous system is fundamentally opposed to the
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idea that the price paid was necessary and complete.
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It demonstrates that the self-righteous person is
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ignorant not only of their own littleness and pollution, but
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also of the staggering, unique difficulty of the atonement
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itself. And this brings us to the core
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argument, the third charge usurping the greatest work of
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God. Edwards actually sets the work
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of redemption higher than anything else God has done.
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He does not mince words on this. He makes a profound assertion
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that God subordinated all his other works to this of
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redemption. He says God's works of
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Providence, steering history, sustaining creation are greater
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than his initial act of creation.
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And all of his works of Providence for 40 centuries were
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organized solely to make way for the purchasing of redemption.
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So therefore, if you try to work out your own redemption, you are
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attempting something immense. Edward summarizes it this way.
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Attempting to save yourself is a greater thing than if you had
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taken it upon you to create a world.
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That is the ultimate gauge of the offense.
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To try and save yourself is to try and perform an act more
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difficult, more central, and more historically costly than
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creating the universe. The self-righteous person is
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attempting the greatest and most difficult part of redemption,
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the purchase itself. And this is where the comparison
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really stings. The application of salvation,
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you know, the forgiveness, the sanctification.
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Christ can accomplish that without cost, but the purchase
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itself cost Christ his life and innumerable pains and laborers.
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So if a worthless human performance could achieve that,
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then why did the Father send his own Son, the Creator of the
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angels, to endure such poverty, labor and death?
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It makes no sense. The self-righteous effort, by
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suggesting its own sufficiency, charges Christ's agony, His
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bloody sweat, and His death on the cross as the greatest
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instance of folly that ever men or angels saw.
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Rather than seeing the cross as the most glorious display of
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divine grace, they make it out to be God's biggest, most
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unnecessary logistical mistake. And there's a final pointed
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warning Edwards gives here that speaks directly to the religious
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seeker. He warns against quarreling with
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God or thinking that God is somehow obliged to regard your
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prayers and pain just because you performed them.
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And if you feel that God is being unjust by not showing you
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mercy after all your spiritual efforts, then yourself
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righteousness is confirmed. You are treating your pain and
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religion as a valuable price of salvation, a transactional debt
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that God must now honor. The whole thrust of the
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historical preparation in the divine exchange is to prove that
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only the costliest price, Christ's sacrifice, is valuable
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enough. Any attempt to add to it or
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substitute it is a form of cosmic treason.
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So we've covered the outright rejector and the self-sufficient
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worker. Now we turn to, well, the vast
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majority of people who simply ignore the entire historical
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enterprise, the careless, negligent.
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This group lives a senseless kind of life, neglecting their
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souls in favor of temporary, fleeting concerns.
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This reproof is aimed squarely at apathy, at those whose focus
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is entirely on the gains of the world or the vanities and
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pleasures of youth. They make light of salvation,
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viewing it as a sideline issue, and the result is they don't
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even bother to genuinely seek it.
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And Edwards uses 4 immensely forceful expostulations or
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rhetorical appeals to show just how jarring this neglect is when
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you measure it against the cost of the purchase.
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He does. The first appeal contrasts the
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modern negligent listener with the passionate engagement of the
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Saints and prophets of old. It's the historical longing
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versus modern indifference. You think about the minds of the
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Old Testament figures, Isaiah, Daniel, David, Abraham.
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They live 2003 thousand, even 4000 years before the purchase
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was finished. Yet the source says their minds
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were much taken up with the prospect of a future redemption.
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They searched and they studied it with all their might, singing
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joyful songs and anticipating it, even though the revelation
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they had was faintly and obscurely revealed.
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David, the psalmist, even declared the coming redemption
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was all his salvation and all his desire.
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Their hope was what a blurry image on the far horizon, yet it
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captivated their entire existence.
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Now compare that to the modern listener.
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You see these things actually fulfilled under a more glorious
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dispensation. The historical evidence is
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clear, the purchase is complete. The gospel is plainly revealed.
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You have the benefit of all those centuries of preparation
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laid out before you, yet you neglect it.
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The source sites Matthew 1317. Many prophets and righteous men
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have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen,
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and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard.
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Then their disadvantage made them yearn our advantage.
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Our clear vision makes us treat it as common and unimportant.
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The neglect is fundamentally inexcusable because the sheer
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weight of revelation increases the magnitude of the offense.
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Your sin of apathy is extremely aggravated in the sight of God
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because you are not just ignoring a religious idea, you
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are ignoring the culmination of 4000 years of intentional divine
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management. The second expostulation raises
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the comparison to the activity of the angels.
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They're not immediately concerned in it.
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They don't need the salvation, yet they display this intense,
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relentless engagement. The angels are described as
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being active and as a flame of fire in all the great
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dispensations connected to redemption.
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Edwards reminds us they have been ministering spirits to
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Christ in this affair since the very fall.
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Their service paints a picture of profound, diligent attention.
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And we see this so vividly in the purchase period.
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Angels came to Zacharias and to Mary.
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They delivered warnings to Joseph, an entire multitude,
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saying glory to God in the highest at Christ's birth.
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They were there at the temptation, ministering to
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Christ in his spiritual battle. They were active during the
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Agony and Gethsemane, strengthening Him in that dark
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hour. They rolled away the stone at
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the Resurrection, and they attended Him in glory at the
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Ascension. They were the constant zealous
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attendance to the single greatest historical event.
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And we know from First Peter that they desire to look into
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these things. The primary reason for interest
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isn't personal necessity, but revelation.
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They are studying the manifold wisdom of God displayed in this
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divine exchange. So if these celestial beings who
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face no eternal ruin are so diligently engaged in studying
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and ministering this redemption, how careless is the one who
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faces eternal ruin without it? The sheer intellectual and
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spiritual curiosity of angels concerning this work, it just
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exposes human indifference as a shocking failure of intelligence
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and self preservation. And the final pair of
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expostulations bring the argument full circle, linking
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this present neglect to the ultimate price paid both
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Christ's labor and God's historical expense.
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First, there's the appeal to Christ's labor.
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Christ labored so hard, he endured such poverty and
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suffered death itself to procure salvation.
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So if that price was paid, should it not be worth your
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while to be at some labor and seeking it?
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It's the logic of effort proportional to necessity.
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If you must perish eternally without it, and the price has
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been paid, how can you not apply earnest pains to obtain an
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interest in that completed work? Your lack of effort in seeking
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the priceless purchase suggests you view the purchase itself as
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worthless. And finally, we return to the
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maximum cosmic scale of the preparation.
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God was so concerned about this salvation that he would often
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overturn the world to make way for it.
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This was not a minor effort. He raised up profits.
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He separated a people. He overturned nations and
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kingdoms one massive historical revolution after another for 40
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centuries in succession. After all that history, all that
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expense, that grand historical logistical miracle, is this
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monumental, costly central work now to be thrown by and made
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nothing of in comparison of worldly gain, gay clothing or
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youthful diversions and other such trifling things?
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The contrast is deliberately jarring, the weight of God's
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historical commitment versus the weightlessness of what the
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careless soul pursues. God manages world empires for
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four millennia. The individual manages their
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social calendar and their temporary games and dismisses
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God's great project. And the conclusion given the
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scale of the offense, is terrifying.
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Edwards invokes the severe warnings from Scripture.
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Hebrews 2, verse 3. How shall we escape, if we
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neglect so great salvation on Acts 1341?
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Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish.
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God views a careless as great enemies of the cross of Christ,
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because they treat His greatest work with contempt.
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If God values the glory of this salvation so highly that He
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destroyed many nations merely to prepare the way for it, how
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little account will He make of the lives and souls of 10,000
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such a posers and despisers. They shall be dashed to pieces
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as a Potter's vessel. The final crushing severity is
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directly proportional to the infinite scale of the
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preparation that preceded the purchase.
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OK. So after all of that, the
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severity of it, there has to be a pivot.
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We must pivot completely. Having demonstrated the severity
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of sin using the historical cost, Edwards turns to the good
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news that the very same cost provides the absolute guarantee
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of salvation for those who truly seek it.
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This section is aimed at the burden souls, those who are not
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careless, who are not self-righteous, but who make
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seeking Christ their main business, being genuinely
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sensible of their necessity and afraid of wrath.
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So the historical architecture which magnified the sin of
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rejection now becomes the ultimate source of comfort and
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assurance. Yes, the first motive for
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encouragement is the sheer unassailable completeness of the
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purchase for the burdened soul who feels they must do more to
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earn favor. Edwards insists that the work of
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purchasing salvation was hold finished during Christ's
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humiliation. And the historical fact of
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Christ's resurrection confirms the divine exchange was
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accepted. When Christ rose, the purchase
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of eternal life was completely made so that there was no need
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of anything more to be done in order to over it.
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This is a moment of pure theological clarity.
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There is no need for any personal righteousness of yours,
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no good deeds, no pain in religion, no sustained effort to
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obtain pardon and justification. The table is set, the
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transaction is done. It's that feast analogy which is
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designed to demonstrate the readiness and the graciousness
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of the offer. Matthew 22 verse 4 Behold, I
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have prepared my dinner, All things are ready.
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Come unto the marriage, The preparation is done, the cost is
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paid, and the invitation is current.
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The invitation is gracious and free.
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Come freely without money and without price.
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This demolishes the folly of the self-righteous and provides rest
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for the burdened. You're invited to come.
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Come naked as you are. Come as a poor, condemned
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criminal. Come and cast yourself down at
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Christ's feet as one justly condemned and utterly helpless.
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So you aren't asked to bring anything of value, only to bring
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your need and your trust in the completed purchase.
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And this trust leads to the second, equally powerful motive
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for encouragement, the assurance against rejection, the logic of
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God's consistent purpose. This is powerful closing
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argument for assurance. The burdened soul fears, will
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Christ reject me despite my trust?
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And Edward says you may be sure he will not.
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Because to reject one who comes trusting in the finished work
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would be to frustrate all those great things which God brought
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to pass from the Fall to the Incarnation, the entire 4000
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years of global historical management.
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A God spent 40 centuries setting the stage, preserving the line,
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raising profits, managing empires, all aimed at the single
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goal of gathering in the redeemed to a trust in the
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finished work. He's not going to just throw,
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no. And furthermore, rejection would
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frustrate all the Christ did and suffered while on earth,
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including the Incarnation, the humiliation and the suffering
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unto death. All those things were done for
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one specific historical purpose, that those might be saved who
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should come to Christ. So the final guarantee is rooted
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in the very character and consistency of God's eternal
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plan. Christ will not be backward and
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saving those who come, for He has no desire to frustrate
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himself in his own work. And likewise, God the Father
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will not refuse you. He has no desire to frustrate
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himself in all that He did for so many hundreds and thousands
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of years to prepare the way for the salvation of sinners by
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Christ. The entire weight of God's
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historical Providence, the total architecture of the cosmos,
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stands as a final, unshakable guarantee.
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If you come to Christ relying on the finished purchase, your
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salvation is secured by the cost itself.
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It's the ultimate invitation to the heavy laden and weary.
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The burden is light and the yoke is easy.
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Not because the task of salvation is simple, but because
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Christ shouldered the heaviest possible burden during the
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period of purchase, thereby guaranteeing rest for all who
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accept the divine exchange. So this deep dive into Edwards
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really demonstrates that Reformed thinking is
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fundamentally based on a historical worldview.
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The architecture is everything. 4000 years of preparation
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leading to the fully completed purchase in Christ's life and
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death. And the immense cost of that
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purchase provides the absolute measure for every spiritual
27:08
response. It heightens the offense of
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unbelief. It exposes the profound vanity
27:13
of self righteousness. And it condemns the carelessness
27:17
that prioritizes fleeting worldly things.
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But most wonderfully, for the burdened soul who recognizes
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their need, that same immense historical cosmic cost
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guarantees that salvation is absolutely complete.
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Ready and certain. So if you reflect on this
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massive scope, nations overturned, angels mobilized,
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Christ enduring the furnace of wrath, and you consider that all
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of God's Providence throughout history was deliberately
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orchestrated to make way for this one specific redemption.
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Then consider this final thought.
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What does it mean for your life today when you view your daily
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choices, your time, your labor, your focus, not as isolated
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moments, but as part of the ongoing display and
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administration of this central divine historical plan?
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Are your daily choices in keeping with the value of the
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completed purchase? That is a truth worth dwelling
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upon. Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive.