Latest / Reformed Thinking / True Saints, When Absent from the Body, Are Present with the Lord | Jonathan Edwards

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True Saints, When Absent from the Body, Are Present with the Lord | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to another session. You are tuning into Reformed
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  thinking. I'm your host, and as always,
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  I'm joined by our resident expert to chew on some some
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  pretty heavy theological content.
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  It is good to be here. So today we're going to talk
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  about, well, the one statistic that holds true for every single
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  person on the planet. One out of one, people die.
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  It is the thing we spend most of our lives, you know, trying to
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  think about, trying to delay, trying to ignore, right?
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  But eventually the clock runs out for everyone.
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  It does, and for the Christian, that moment, I mean the very
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  nanosecond after the heart stops, that is probably the most
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  significant moment of their entire existence.
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  It absolutely is, and there's so much confusion surrounding it.
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  Right. There's so much bad information
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  out there. You see it in movies, you hear
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  it in eulogies that are, well, let's just say optimistic, but
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  maybe not not biblically grounded.
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  Oh for sure. You hear about people becoming
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  angels, which is not a thing. Not a thing or people haunting
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  their old houses or or this big one.
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  People just going to sleep for a few 1000 years.
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  The soul sleep idea, yeah, that's a very persistent.
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  One it is so to clear the fog, we are going back to the
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  archives. Today we are pulling down a
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  manuscript from one of the one of the sharpest minds in church
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  history. I think I know where you're
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  going with this. We are looking at Jonathan
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  Edwards. The Puritan giant, of course.
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  The man himself, and specifically we're looking at a
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  discourse he wrote titled True Saints, when absent from the
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  body, are present with the Lord. It's based on 2nd Corinthians
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  5.8. It is, and I have to say reading
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  through this, Edwards does not mess around.
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  He treats death and the afterlife with the I don't know
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  the precision of a surgeon. That is Edwards trademark, isn't
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  it? He believed that clarity on
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  these issues wasn't just, you know, academic.
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  It was necessary for survival. How so?
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  Well, if you don't know where you're going, you are going to
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  be terrified when it is time to leave.
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  It's that simple. That makes sense.
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  So the mission for this deep dive is pretty straightforward.
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  We want to know, according to Edwards and the Scriptures he is
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  using, what actually happens to a believer the moment they die.
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  Not a week later. No, not at the end of the world,
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  but right then the. Immediate transition.
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  Exactly. So let's start restarts with the
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  Apostle Paul. Edwards kicks this whole thing
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  off by analyzing Paul's attitude in Second Corinthians.
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  And honestly, Paul sounds, I don't know, a little crazy to
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  the modern ear. In what way?
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  He talks about being confident in the face of death.
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  It is strange, isn't it? Most people approach death with,
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  I guess, resignation. Well, I had a good run, right?
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  But Paul is almost aggressive about it.
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  He is looking forward to it. And Edwards points out that this
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  wasn't just Paul being a tough guy.
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  No, it was a calculation. A calculation like like math.
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  In a way, yeah. Paul was constantly weighing
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  things. You see this all over his
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  letters. He weighs the light, momentary
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  affliction against the eternal weight of glory.
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  OK. In this text, Edwards notes that
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  Paul's willingness to face shipwrecks, beatings,
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  starvation, execution, all of that came from a specific belief
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  which was he believed the future privilege outweighed, the
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  present pain massively outweighed.
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  It so there's a cost benefit analysis.
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  It is. I mean, think about it, if I
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  tell you that walking through a room of fire will get you a
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  $10.00 gift card. I'm not doing it.
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  Definitely not. Of course not.
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  But if I tell you that walking through that room gets you
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  infinite, unending happiness and the complete restoration of your
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  soul, well, the fire is still hot, but the calculation changes
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  completely. Edward says Paul's confidence
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  wasn't an emotion, it was a fortitude.
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  It was a strength built on facts he held to be true.
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  OK, let's dig into that word confident then, because like I
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  said, I can be confident that my sports team is going to win, but
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  I could be wrong. Is that the kind of confidence
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  Paul has here? No, and Edwards is very careful
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  to make that distinction. The Greek word there implies A
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  settled stability. It's not a guess, it's
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  knowledge, and that knowledge is about the nature of the
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  transition itself. Paul uses 2 very specific terms,
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  absent from the body and present with the Lord.
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  I want to stop on that second one, present with the Lord,
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  because Edwards brings up a nuance in the Greek there that
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  honestly I'd never seen before. You're talking about the
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  domestic language, yeah. He says it implies like dwelling
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  in the same city or even the same home.
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  That is right. It's the difference between
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  seeing a celebrity on a giant stage from the Nosebleed seats
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  versus having dinner with them in their living room.
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  Paul isn't expecting to be in the general vicinity of Jesus.
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  He's expecting to move in. Exactly.
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  He's expecting to be at home with him.
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  That completely changes the vibe.
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  It makes it so much more relational, so much more
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  intimate. And that explains the other
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  phrase Paul uses willing. Rather, he says he is willing
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  rather to be absent from the body.
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  Edwards points out that this means it is more pleasing to
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  him. It's a preference.
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  It's a genuine preference. It was a hard pill to swallow
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  for us though, isn't it? We love our lives here.
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  We love our families, our stuff, our bodies.
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  You know when they work, Paul saying no, I prefer the other
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  place. Because he knew the other place
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  was home. You don't prefer a hotel to your
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  own home. No matter how nice the hotel is,
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  home is home. OK, now this brings us to the
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  timing issue. And this is where Edwards really
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  picks a fight with that Soul Sleep crowd.
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  He does. Can you just quickly explain
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  what that view is just so we are all on the same page?
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  Sure. Soul sleep, or the technical
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  term is psychopanychia, is the idea that when you die, your
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  body goes into the ground and your soul just it turns off, it
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  goes dormant, it goes into a state of unconsciousness.
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  You're asleep, you don't know anything, you don't feel
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  anything until the resurrection at the very end of history.
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  So it's kind of like being under anesthesia.
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  You close your eyes and then blip.
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  You wake up 1000 years later, but to you it feels like only a
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  second has passed. That's the theory, but Edwards
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  looks at the text and says no way.
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  Not possible. He argues the transition is
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  immediate. It happens at absence from the
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  body. The very moment you are gone
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  from here, you are there. So what's his proof?
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  What's the biblical argument? Well, his primary text besides
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  this one is Philippians 1.23. Paul says he has a desire to
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  depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
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  Edwards argues the logic here is just airtight.
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  If Paul had to wait thousands of years in a coma to see Jesus,
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  why on earth would he want to depart?
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  Right. That doesn't make any sense.
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  If he stays, he can help the churches, he can preach, he can
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  save souls. That is good, productive work.
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  Exactly, and if he dies and just sleeps, he isn't seeing Jesus
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  any faster than if he stayed alive and waited for the second
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  coming. In fact, he is just losing time
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  he could have used for ministry. That's a net loss.
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  It's a total loss. So for Paul to say that dying is
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  far better, it has to imply that the very act of dying brings him
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  into some immediate gain. So the separation of the soul
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  from the body is the catalyst, the door opening.
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  That's it, Edward says. This knowledge, the certainty,
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  provides the courage for the Christian life right now.
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  You can endure the dying of the Lord Jesus in your body, the
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  suffering, the aging, the pain, because you know the life of
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  Jesus is waiting for you instantly.
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  There is no waiting period. There is no gap.
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  OK, so we have established the when it happens right away, the
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  moment the brain waves stop, the soul is active and with Christ.
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  Now let's talk about the where. This is a part of Edward's
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  argument that really fascinated me, because he gets into, well,
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  he gets into physics. The metaphysics of the
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  incarnation. Yeah, it's brilliant.
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  He starts by refuting the idea of a holding tank.
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  Some people call it the intermediate state or a Hades of
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  the Happy. Like a waiting room where you
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  read old magazines until the real heaven opens up.
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  Exactly. Edwards says no.
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  Edwards rejects that concept of a distinct place.
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  He argues the destination is the highest heaven, which is often
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  called the 3rd heaven in Scripture.
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  And his proof of this rests almost entirely on the body of
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  Jesus. Yes, walk us through that
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  because we usually think of spiritual things as so floaty,
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  non physical. We do.
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  We tend to be Gnostics by accident, I think.
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  We think spirit good matter bad. But Christianity is a very
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  physical religion. Edwards reminds us that Jesus is
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  fully God, yes, but he is also the only man.
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  He has a human soul and he has a glorified human body.
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  The body that walked out of the tomb.
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  The body that ate fish on the beach.
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  That same body, the one that ascended into heaven.
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  Now here's the physics part. A human body, even a glorified
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  1, is finite. It has dimensions, It occupies
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  space. So it cannot be everywhere at
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  once, right? Jesus in his divine nature is
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  omnipresent. He's everywhere.
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  But Jesus in his human nature is located.
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  He is at a specific set of coordinates in the universe.
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  That is a wild thing to think about, that somewhere in this
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  universe, or maybe outside of our visible universe, there is a
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  physical place where Jesus is physically standing right now.
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  Edwards insists on it. If Christ's body is a real
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  physical body, it must be somewhere, and scripture calls
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  that place the right hand of the Father or the 3rd heaven.
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  So the logic follows if the promise is to be with Christ and
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  Christ is in a specific zip code.
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  Then the Saints must go to that zip code.
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  You can't be with Christ in a location where the hue in Christ
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  is not. You nailed it.
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  If he is in the highest heaven and you are absent from the body
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  to be present with him, then you are in the highest heaven.
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  You aren't in a waiting room. You are in the throne room.
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  From the very start. And Edwards, he backs us up with
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  some biblical examples, too. He isn't just using abstract
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  logic. He points to Enoch and Elijah.
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  Yeah, the Old Testament Saints who didn't die in the
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  traditional sense, they were just taken up bodily.
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  So Edwards asks, where do they go?
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  Right. They didn't just dissolve into
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  the atmosphere, They went to a place specific place.
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  And then there is Moses, the Transfiguration.
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  This one is really interesting, yes.
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  This is a crucial one for his argument.
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  Moses died, His body was buried by God.
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  We know that. But on the Mount of
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  Transfiguration, centuries later, he shows up alongside
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  Elijah and they are talking with Jesus.
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  So what's the implication? Edwards argues this implies they
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  are companions. They came from the same abode to
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  meet with Christ. It would make any sense for
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  Elijah, who went up bodily to come from the highest heaven,
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  and for Moses to come from some, I don't know, some basement
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  waiting room to have a chat. They're clearly in the same
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  place. They are together and then you
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  have the New Testament examples, Stephen in Acts 7.
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  I have always loved that scene. Oh, it's so powerful.
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  He is being stoned to death. It is a brutal, bloody, horrific
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  execution. Yeah.
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  And he looks up. And he sees the heavens opened,
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  not just the sky, but the spiritual realm.
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  And he sees Jesus. But notice the posture.
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  Usually the creed says Jesus sits at the right hand of God,
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  but Steven sees Jesus standing like.
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  He is getting up to welcome him home.
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  That is the beautiful implication.
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  And Steven, praise Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
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  Edwards points out that Stephen fully expected his spirit to go
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  strictly to where he was looking, to that opening in the
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  heavens where the man Christ Jesus was standing.
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  And we can't forget the thief on the cross.
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  I mean, that is the buzzer beater of all buzzer beaters.
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  Today Jesus says, today shalt thou be with me in paradise?
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  Not. Someday, not after a long sleep.
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  Today and Edwards connects that word paradise to the 3rd heaven.
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  How does he do that? He does it using Paul's account
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  in 2nd Corinthians 12 where Paul talks about being caught up to
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  the 3rd heaven and then in the next verse calls that same
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  experience being caught up to paradise.
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  So they're the same place. For Edwards, they are
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  synonymous, so geographically, he considers this case closed.
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  The soul goes to the father's house, it goes to the city, the
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  main event. OK, so we are there.
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  We have arrived. The soul has left the body, it
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  has traveled to this specific location where Jesus is.
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  Now what? What is the experience, right?
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  Edwards breaks this down into several aspects, and the very
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  first one he deals with his vision.
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  The beatific vision. This is the classic theological
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  term for seeing God. But Edwards makes a really
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  careful distinction between faith and sight.
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  Because, you know, we talked about seeing God on earth,
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  right? We see him in nature or in the
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  Bible. True, but Scripture itself calls
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  that seeing through a glass darkly.
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  What does that mean? Well, in the ancient world,
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  mirrors weren't glass like ours. They were made of polished
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  metal, like bronze. They were dim.
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  They were warped. You got a blurry, imperfect
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  reflection. Edwards compares our earthly
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  view of God to the dawning of the morning.
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  To Gray light before the sun actually comes up.
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  Exactly. You can see shapes, you can walk
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  around without bumping into the furniture, but there is a lot of
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  shadow mixed in with the light. It's imperfect.
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  And heaven, then, is. What heaven is the sun fully
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  risen above the horizon, No clouds, high noon.
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  You're getting a full disk of the sun.
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  Direct beams, perfect day, Edwards says.
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  The mixture of darkness is gone forever.
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  But here's a tricky part. And Edwards holds to this the
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  standard theology that God the Father is invisible, king,
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  eternal, immortal, invisible, like the hymn says.
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  So if God is invisible, what are we looking at?
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  This is where Edwards is so helpful because he is strictly
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  Christocentric. He's all about Christ.
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  He says the Saints see the glory of God through Christ.
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  How does that work? Christ is the image of the
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  invisible God. Think of him as the interface.
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  The raw glory of the Godhead, which would just incinerate us
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  if we saw it directly, shines through the glorified humanity
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  of Jesus. So Jesus is the lens or to the
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  screen that we watch it on? Interface is a good modern word
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  for it. The glory is tempered so we can
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  bear it, but it is also perfectly revealed.
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  When you look into the face of Jesus, you are seeing the
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  Father. That reminds me of what Jesus
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  said to Philip in the Gospel of John.
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  He that has seen me has seen the Father.
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  That is it. In heaven, that statement
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  becomes the total lived reality for every believer.
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  And Edwards gets really specific about what we see in that face
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  doesn't have the bright, generic light, he says.
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  We see the work of redemption. We see the whole story.
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  We see the history of what He did and why He did it.
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  We see the harmony of God's attributes.
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  What? Do you mean by that?
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  Well, on earth we struggle to reconcile things.
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  How can God be perfectly just and perfectly merciful at the
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  same time? How can he be sovereign and yet
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  we have real responsibility? They seem like contradictions
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  sometime. They do in heaven, Edwards says.
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  We see how His infinite wisdom, His Holiness, His grace, His
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  justice, we see how they all fit together perfectly in the person
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  and work of Christ. It all makes sense.
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  But the part that really got me, and this is where Edward shows
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  his pastor's heart, is when he says the believer sees the
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  specific dying love of Christ for them, for that one person.
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  That is the game changer, isn't it?
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  It is not just God loves the world, it is God loves me,
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  Edward says. You see the specific intent
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  Christ had when He went to the cross for you personally.
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  You see that when He was suffering, He had your name on
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  His mind. You see the breadth, length,
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  depth and height of that grace without any of the doubts that
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  plague us down here. And I think we all struggle with
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  that doubt. Does God really love me?
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  I mean, I messed up again today. In heaven, that doubt is
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  impossible. It can't exist because the
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  evidence is literally staring you in the face.
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  You are looking at the scars that bought you.
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  So if you are looking at something that perfect, that
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  intent, it has to change you, right?
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  You can't just stare at the sun and not get warm.
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  You can't. And that that leads directly to
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  his next point, perfection of union and conformity.
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  The principle is simple. We become like what we behold.
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  But Edwards starts by being really honest about our
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  condition. Now he talks about clogs.
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  I love that word choice logs like a drain backing up.
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  Or a heavyweight dragging you down.
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  He mentions indwelling, sin, temptation, and what he calls
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  carnal objects. The stuff of this world.
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  The stuff of this world that pulls our attention away from
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  God, Edward says. These things act like a
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  separating wall. We are united to Christ.
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  Legally, that's a done deal. We are saved.
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  But the vital flow of that life is strictly limited.
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  He uses an analogy, doesn't. He Yeah, it's like a garden hose
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  with a big kink in it. The water is there at the
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  source, but it's just trickling out at the other end.
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  So death unkinks the hose. Death destroys the hose and
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  replaces it with a river. The wall is smashed.
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  And here comes another one of his brilliant solar analogies.
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  OK, he says that in the full blaze of the sun's Meridian
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  light, high noon darkness cannot exist.
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  Right. Shadows disappear at high noon.
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  If the light is coming from directly above, there is nowhere
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  for a shadow to hide. Correct.
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  And he applies that to the soul. In the full view of Christ's
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  glory, no spiritual deformity can remain, no sin, no
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  selfishness, no pride. The soul becomes, in His words,
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  a little sun. A little sun.
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  That is a beautiful image. It perfectly reflects the
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  original Sun of Righteousness. It becomes pure light, just like
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  him. It's perfectly conformed to his
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  image. This brings up the theological
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  distinction Edwards makes that we should probably unpack so we
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  don't lose anyone. He talks about relative union
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  versus vital union. Good idea.
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  Relative union is your legal standing.
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  Think of it like a marriage license.
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  The moment you say I do and sign the paper, you are legally
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  married. That is a fact.
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  For the Christian, that happens. The moment of faith, it's
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  perfect and complete. Got it.
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  So what's vital? Union?
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  Vital union is the actual shared life.
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  It's the communication of thoughts, feelings, love,
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  intimacy. In a human marriage.
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  You can have the license, the relative union, but have a
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  terrible relationship where you barely talk.
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  That's poor vital union. OK, that makes sense.
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  So on Earth we have the license, but the communication is full of
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  static. Yes, our sin, our clogs create
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  the static, but in heaven the vital union finally catches up
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  to the relative union. The reality matches the legal
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  status. Perfectly the communication of
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  life, what he calls the SAP flowing from the vine to the
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  branch, is wide open. The soul lives entirely by
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  Christ's life, with no remainder of spiritual death.
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  That sounds exhausting if it were just us trying to keep up,
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  but it's his life flowing through us.
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  Which is why it is total rest. Let's pivot a bit to the
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  relationship dynamic. Section 5 in our breakdown is
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  intimate intercourse and converse.
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  Now we should probably clarify that in 18th century English,
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  intercourse meant conversation and social interaction.
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  Right. Let's be very clear on that.
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  It means deep, familiar fellowship.
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  And Edwards addresses a paradox here that I think is brilliant.
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  What's that? Usually great majesty creates
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  distance. Absolutely.
• 18:37
  If I were to meet the King of England, I would run up and hug
• 18:39
  him. I'd stand back.
• 18:40
  I'd be nervous. There is protocol.
• 18:44
  The majesty pushes me away. Keep your distance.
• 18:47
  That is what human power and glory says.
• 18:50
  But Edwards argues that with Christ, His Majesty works the
• 18:53
  opposite way. It promotes intimacy.
• 18:56
  How does that work? That seems counterintuitive.
• 18:58
  Because Christ is exalted for the sake of the Saints, He is
• 19:01
  King for us. His power is designed to protect
• 19:03
  us and bless us, so when we see His Majesty, it doesn't make us
• 19:07
  cower, it makes us feel completely safe.
• 19:09
  So his glory draws us in instead of pushing us away.
• 19:12
  It does, and Edwards uses the language of friendship.
• 19:15
  Here he talks about the unbosoming of Christ.
• 19:18
  That is a word we just do not use anymore.
• 19:20
  What does it mean? It is a strong old word.
• 19:22
  It means to reveal what is in your heart, literally, to open
• 19:26
  your bosom, to open your jacket and show what you are carrying
• 19:29
  inside, Edwards says. Christ opens his heart
• 19:32
  completely to the Saints in heaven.
• 19:34
  He manifests the infinite riches of His love without any
• 19:37
  restraint. On Earth, I feel like if we saw
• 19:39
  that we would burn out. We couldn't handle the voltage.
• 19:41
  We were short circuit for sure, but in heaven our capacity is
• 19:46
  upgraded to handle the load. Edwards uses the story from the
• 19:49
  Gospels to illustrate this point.
• 19:50
  Mary Magdalene in John chapter 20, the famous touch me not
• 19:54
  scene. I have always gotten that verse
• 19:56
  confusing. She's so happy to see him.
• 19:58
  She wants to hug him and he says don't touch me.
• 20:01
  It seems cold. It does seem cold if you read it
• 20:04
  as a final rejection, but Edwards interprets it as a
• 20:08
  postponement. A postponement?
• 20:10
  He says Jesus is essentially saying Mary, this earth, this
• 20:14
  time before my ascension, is not the place for the kind of
• 20:18
  perfect embrace you are looking for.
• 20:20
  Wait. So he isn't saying no, never.
• 20:22
  He is saying not here, not yet. Exactly, he is saying heaven is
• 20:26
  the appointed place for the full and unhindered enjoyment of our
• 20:29
  mutual love, the embrace she wanted.
• 20:32
  That total connection requires the heavenly state and.
• 20:35
  When that connection finally happens in heaven, Edwards
• 20:37
  describes it as the soul swimming in the ocean of love.
• 20:40
  Really swallowed up by it. Think about that for a second.
• 20:43
  Being totally immersed in an ocean, you are surrounded on all
• 20:46
  sides, you are supported by it and you reflect it back.
• 20:49
  It's a constant cycle of receiving a returning love.
• 20:51
  An infinite loop of joy. It sounds incredibly personal
• 20:54
  and private. You know, just the soul and
• 20:57
  Jesus. But Edwards doesn't stop there.
• 21:00
  He widens the lens in the next section to talk about fellowship
• 21:03
  and glory. Right.
• 21:05
  We are just observers. We are joint heirs.
• 21:08
  This is where the theology, it's really, really robust, he says.
• 21:11
  We don't just watch Christ enjoy the Father, we participate in
• 21:15
  His relation to the Father. That is a heavy concept.
• 21:17
  Break that down for us. OK, think of a river.
• 21:20
  Edwards calls it the river of pleasure.
• 21:23
  Christ, as the eternal Son of God, drinks from the infinite
• 21:27
  enjoyment of the Father's love. That is his eternal right.
• 21:30
  That is His joy. OK, I'm with you.
• 21:32
  But because we are united to Him, because we are the body of
• 21:35
  Christ, He pulls us over and allows us to drink from that
• 21:37
  same river. We don't get a different,
• 21:40
  cheaper brand of water. We get the King's Cup.
• 21:42
  We get to drink from the very source of Trinitarian joy.
• 21:45
  So we share in the internal life and joy the Trinity.
• 21:48
  That is the staggering implication.
• 21:50
  That is what Jesus meant in John 17 when he prayed his high
• 21:53
  priestly prayer. He prayed that the love
• 21:55
  wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.
• 21:58
  So he wants the Father to love us with the same love he has for
• 22:01
  the Son. That is the request.
• 22:03
  It is. I mean, I don't even have a word
• 22:05
  for that. It's an elevation so far beyond
• 22:08
  what we could ever deserve or. Imagine is grace upon grace.
• 22:11
  It is. We're right.
• 22:12
  And it extends to Dominion too. We are not just drinking, we are
• 22:15
  raining. Right Revelation 3.21 To him
• 22:19
  that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne?
• 22:22
  Edwards points out that because we are united to the air of all
• 22:26
  things, we possess all things. We are part of the ruling family
• 22:30
  of the universe. Even the angels.
• 22:32
  Even the angels, those mighty burning spirits, are described
• 22:35
  as ministering spirits sent to serve the Saints.
• 22:39
  They serve us. Now here's a part of the text
• 22:41
  that I think will surprise some people.
• 22:43
  I grew up with this idea that people in heaven are so happy
• 22:46
  they have basically forgotten about us down here.
• 22:49
  Like if my grandmother's in heaven, she can't see me
• 22:51
  struggling because if she did she'd be sad.
• 22:53
  And there is no sadness in heaven, so she must have some
• 22:57
  kind of holy amnesia. That is a very common view and
• 23:00
  it is meant to be comforting. But Edwards completely debunks
• 23:03
  it. He says no, that doesn't make
• 23:04
  any sense at all. He uses what he calls the royal
• 23:08
  family concept. Go on.
• 23:10
  He asks the simple question, If you are living in the palace
• 23:14
  with the king, do you know less about the King's business than
• 23:18
  the peasants out in the field? No, of course not.
• 23:20
  You'd know more. You were at headquarters.
• 23:22
  Exactly. You were in the inner circle.
• 23:24
  The Saints and angels witnessed the progress of the Kingdom of
• 23:27
  grace on earth. They see conversions, they see
• 23:30
  victories over Satan. Edwards argues they have a
• 23:33
  better view of church history than we do.
• 23:35
  He. Uses that mountain analogy,
• 23:37
  right? Yes, he says.
• 23:39
  We are down in the deep valley or the thick forest.
• 23:41
  We can only see the tree that's right in front of our face.
• 23:44
  We see the bad news, the persecution, the confusion.
• 23:47
  The Saints are on the top of the mountain.
• 23:50
  They see the whole landscape. They see how the battle lines
• 23:52
  are actually moving. They see the end from the
• 23:54
  beginning. So if they see us struggling,
• 23:56
  they aren't sad. They aren't sad because they see
• 23:59
  the full context. They see how God is using that
• 24:02
  struggle to produce glory. They see the rescue that's
• 24:05
  coming. They are despairing.
• 24:06
  They are anticipating the victory.
• 24:08
  So they are not indifferent spectators, they are invested.
• 24:11
  Highly invested, Which leads us right into the eschatology
• 24:15
  section. The latter days.
• 24:16
  This is where Edwards connects the Saints in heaven to the
• 24:19
  future of the earth. We often hear that verse The
• 24:23
  meek shall inherit the earth. Does Edward say this applies to
• 24:26
  the Saints already in heaven too?
• 24:28
  He does. He argues that the Saints in
• 24:30
  heaven participate in the joy of Christ's victories on earth
• 24:34
  during history. So when the gospel advances in a
• 24:36
  new country, when a revival breaks out, when an oppressive
• 24:39
  regime falls, what Edwards would call the fall of Antichrist, the
• 24:43
  Saints above are celebrating that victory in real time.
• 24:46
  So they're checking the scoreboard.
• 24:48
  And they're cheering. It's their victory too, because
• 24:50
  it is Christ's victory. They share in what the Bible
• 24:53
  calls the iron rod that breaks the opposition.
• 24:56
  That is a fierce image. We usually think of Saints as
• 25:00
  passive, gentle souls playing harps, but here they are sharing
• 25:03
  in the triumph over nations. Well, look at Revelation 18 and
• 25:06
  19. It describes heaven rejoicing
• 25:09
  over the destruction of the enemies of the church.
• 25:11
  Smoke goes up forever and ever, and words doesn't shy away from
• 25:15
  that. He says there is a holy joy in
• 25:16
  heaven when God's justice is finally vindicated on earth.
• 25:20
  Their wills align perfectly with God's judgement.
• 25:23
  So heaven is definitely not passive.
• 25:26
  Which brings us to the next point he makes active service.
• 25:29
  I think a lot of people fear heaven will be boring.
• 25:31
  Just one long eternal church service.
• 25:34
  Right. Well, Edwards is very clear.
• 25:36
  His servants shall serve him. That is from Revelation 22.3.
• 25:40
  Heaven involves action. It isn't just sitting and
• 25:42
  contemplating. But the primary action is
• 25:44
  praise. Now, before people roll their
• 25:46
  eyes and say Seed is a church service, let's talk about the
• 25:49
  quality of this praise. It is a choir, yes, but look who
• 25:52
  the choir director is. It's Christ.
• 25:54
  It's Christ himself. Edwards compares Christ to Moses
• 25:58
  leading the Israelites in song at the Red Sea.
• 26:00
  That is a great scene. The entire Egyptian army is
• 26:03
  washed away, the people are finally free, and Moses just
• 26:06
  starts singing. I will sing unto the Lord, for
• 26:09
  he has triumphed gloriously, Edwards says.
• 26:13
  In the same way, Christ leads the glorified assembly in hymns
• 26:17
  of praise to the Father. He is the song leader.
• 26:19
  I love that image. Jesus conducting the worship of
• 26:22
  heaven. It emphasizes his ongoing role
• 26:25
  as the great High Priest. Even in eternity, He is the one
• 26:29
  leading us into the presence of the Father.
• 26:31
  He is the mediator of our praise.
• 26:33
  We have covered a massive amount of theological ground here.
• 26:37
  We have gone from the deathbed to the 3rd heaven to the very
• 26:40
  end of history. But Edwards was a pastor.
• 26:43
  He didn't write this just to show off how smart he was.
• 26:45
  He wrote it to help people live and die well.
• 26:47
  That brings us to the final part of his sermon, the application
• 26:50
  and the eulogy. He starts with a very direct
• 26:53
  reality check. He looks at the listener, at you
• 26:56
  and says, essentially, look at your body.
• 26:57
  It is a frail Tabernacle. A tent.
• 26:59
  A tent is not a house. It is temporary, It is flimsy,
• 27:02
  it tears easily. Edwards reminds us that our
• 27:05
  bodies are liable to be overthrown by a million
• 27:07
  different things. Sickness and accident.
• 27:10
  Just age. The tent stakes could get pulled
• 27:13
  up at any moment. So since eviction is certain,
• 27:16
  and it is certain, you better make sure you have a permanent
• 27:19
  home to go to. And not just any place.
• 27:21
  He compares this privilege to what the disciples experienced
• 27:24
  on the Mount of Transfiguration. Remember Peter?
• 27:26
  Yeah, he wanted to build tents and just stay there.
• 27:29
  Lord, it is good for us to be here.
• 27:31
  He saw a tiny glimpse of Christ's glory and he didn't
• 27:34
  want to leave, right? And Edwards says if seeing a
• 27:37
  tiny glimpse of glory through a veil made them want to stay
• 27:40
  there forever, how much more the reality?
• 27:42
  If the appetizer is that good, just imagine the feast.
• 27:46
  And then, to really drive this home, Edwards moves into a
• 27:49
  eulogy. Now, the text doesn't explicitly
• 27:52
  name the person, but historians are fairly certain this
• 27:55
  discourse was preached at the funeral of David Brainard.
• 27:58
  The young missionary to the Native Americans, a remarkable
• 28:01
  figure. And he died of tuberculosis in
• 28:03
  Jonathan Edwards own house. Edwards watched him die.
• 28:07
  He saw this entire process up close.
• 28:09
  He did. But Edwards treats him as a case
• 28:11
  study. In the text he calls him an
• 28:13
  eminent servant and he profiles him.
• 28:16
  This is fascinating to me because it shows us what Edwards
• 28:20
  valued in a Christian Yes. It is a portrait of a St. who is
• 28:24
  ready for launch. Let's look at the intellectual
• 28:26
  profile first. Yeah, I think modern
• 28:28
  Christianity can often downplay the mind.
• 28:31
  It's all about feelings, but Edwards praises Brainerd's
• 28:35
  intellect. He really does.
• 28:37
  He notes that this young man didn't just have emotional
• 28:39
  frights or frantic religious experiences.
• 28:42
  He had deep convictions. He had a rational, solid
• 28:45
  illumination of conscience. Edwards uses phrases like
• 28:48
  penetrating genius, strong memory, clear, thought it was a
• 28:51
  sharp guy. Edwards had no patience for anti
• 28:54
  intellectual Christianity. He believed that light produces
• 28:57
  heat. If you want true, lasting fire
• 28:59
  in the heart, you need solid fuel in the mind.
• 29:02
  He says Brainerd he liked affected noisiness and
• 29:05
  preaching. He didn't like performative
• 29:07
  hype. But on the other hand, he also
• 29:08
  despised cold delivery. It had to be both.
• 29:11
  It had to be both passion and truth, fire and logs.
• 29:14
  And then his spiritual profile. This is This is pretty
• 29:17
  convicting. It is he abhorred living on past
• 29:20
  experiences. You know the type people who are
• 29:23
  always talking about what God did for them ten years ago at a
• 29:25
  summer camp, but they have nothing fresh to say.
• 29:28
  I walked an aisle in 1995 and that was it.
• 29:31
  Exactly. Brainerd sought daily progress
• 29:34
  in holiness. He was terrified of spiritual
• 29:37
  stagnation. And total devotion.
• 29:39
  Edwards says he devoted himself and all his property entirely to
• 29:42
  God. He is presented as a vessel made
• 29:45
  meat or made fit for the masters use.
• 29:48
  And the lesson being, this is what a person looks like who is
• 29:52
  ready for that immediate transition.
• 29:53
  His absence from the body is assuredly presence with the
• 29:57
  Lord, because in a very real sense, his life was already
• 30:00
  present with the Lord, He was just waiting for the location to
• 30:02
  catch up with his heart. That is the goal, isn't it?
• 30:04
  To live in such a way that death is just a change of address, not
• 30:08
  a change of company. Beautifully put, yes.
• 30:10
  So let's try to bring this all together.
• 30:12
  We have walked through the certainty of the immediate
• 30:14
  transition, no soul sleep. We have looked at the location,
• 30:18
  a real place with a real physical Christ.
• 30:22
  We have discussed the vision, seeing God through the interface
• 30:26
  of Christ, and the union becoming a little sun without
• 30:29
  any spots. The converse.
• 30:31
  That intimate, unbosomed friendship where the King opens
• 30:34
  his heart and the fellowship, drinking from the same river of
• 30:38
  pleasure as Christ himself. And the active engagement
• 30:40
  watching church history unfold from the mountaintop, cheering
• 30:44
  for the Kingdom and singing in the great choir led by Jesus.
• 30:47
  It really changes how you view death, doesn't it?
• 30:50
  It's not a blackout, it's a breakout.
• 30:52
  It is the moment the wall comes down.
• 30:53
  It is the moment the clogs are finally removed.
• 30:57
  Here is a final thought. I want to leave you with
• 30:58
  something to chew on as you go about your week.
• 31:01
  Edward suggests the Saints in heaven know more about the
• 31:04
  success of the gospel on earth than we do.
• 31:07
  They are the cloud of witnesses mentioned in the book of
• 31:09
  Hebrews. That's right, they're watching.
• 31:12
  So if they are cheering for the expansion of the Kingdom right
• 31:15
  now, if they are watching the scoreboard of grace, how does
• 31:20
  that change the way you view your current struggles in the
• 31:23
  faith? That is a heavy question.
• 31:25
  If you knew that David Brainard and the Apostle Paul and your
• 31:29
  own believing ancestors were watching you run this race,
• 31:33
  would you run differently? Are you living in a way that
• 31:37
  adds to the joy of that cloud of witnesses?
• 31:40
  Are you giving them something to cheer about?
• 31:42
  It makes the spiritual battle feel a lot less lonely.
• 31:45
  I think we are not just fighting in a vacuum, we are in an arena.
• 31:49
  We are surrounded. Thank you for listening to this
• 31:51
  session of Reformed Thinking. We hope this deep dive into
• 31:54
  Jonathan Edwards has given you some solid ground to stand on.
• 31:57
  And read the source material if you can.
• 31:59
  It is dense, but it is worth the effort.
• 32:01
  Absolutely. Until next time, keep thinking.
• 32:03
  And keep looking up.