Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners | Jonathan Edwards

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The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Usually when you walk into a courtroom, you expect to have a
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voice. Right, that is just the baseline
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assumption. Yeah.
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I mean, the entire legal system is built around the premise that
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you get to take the stand, you get to state your case to the
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judge. You offer your context or you
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know you bring in character witnesses.
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Absolutely. Maybe you point out mitigating
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circumstances, or you just point fingers at someone else.
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We inherently expect to have the floor to defend ourselves.
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You have the right to an attorney.
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You have the right to be heard. The presumption of innocence
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demands that your side of the story is placed on the record
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before any verdict comes down. But then you step into the
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theological courtroom. Jonathan Edwards and well, the
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entire paradigm just flips. It really does.
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The microphone is completely cut.
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Yes, the defense attorney does not even show up.
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Yeah, you are standing before a judge and the evidence arrayed
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against you is so flawless and so overwhelming that you are
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simply silenced. Which is a terrifying thought.
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It is welcome to reformed thinking.
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Today we are looking at a 300 year old legal and theological
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argument that attempts to prove every single human being on
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earth is already on death row. And the security footage is
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undeniable. Yes, we are doing a deep dive
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into Jonathan Edwards's rigorous sermon, The Justice of God in
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the Damnation of Sinners. It is a massive piece of
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historical theology, really. It is our mission for this deep
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dive is to unpack the mechanics of Edwards's argument.
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We will be looking at how he uses Strict Unyielding logic and
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the Texas Scripture to establish 3 main pillars.
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Right. And those are comprehensive
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human guilt, the absolute sovereignty of the divine, and
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the staggering reality altering nature of grace.
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And to you, the listener, I want to say right up front, the
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source material we are looking at today is heavy.
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Oh, very heavy. It is going to challenge modern
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sensibilities about fairness, human rights and justice.
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We live in an era that prizes self esteem and personal
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autonomy and, well, Edwards is going to take a sledgehammer to
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both of those things. He really does.
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But this text provides A crucial, historically massive
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perspective on reformed theology.
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It is the architecture of the First Great Awakening.
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It is a defining document. OK, let's unpack this.
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Where do we even begin with a text that it is so
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uncompromising in its view of human nature?
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Well, we begin right where Edwards begins, which is with a
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very specific strategic piece of the Apostle Paul's letter to the
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Romans. Right Romans chapter 3.
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Yes, Romans chapter 3, verse 19. He anchors his entire premise
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right there. And he points out that Paul's
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main goal in the book of Romans is to establish justification by
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faith alone. Precisely.
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But to get to Grace, Paul first has to prove that the law cannot
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save you. He has to prove that no human
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being can be justified by their own deeds or their own resume.
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Or their own heritage. And Edwards highlights how Paul
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systematically addresses the entire known world at that time
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to build this case. Paul starts with the Gentiles in
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the 1st chapter of Romans. Yeah, he does.
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He lays out their corruption, their idolatry and the way they
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suppress the truth. And for a Jewish reader in the
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1st century, reading that first chapter would have elicited a
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lot of nodding along. Oh definitely, they would have
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agreed that the the Pagan world was an absolute mess.
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But then Paul pivots. In the second and third
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chapters. He turns his focus directly onto
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the Jewish population. And this is where the tension
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really builds in the biblical text, Edwards channels all of
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that tension directly into his sermon.
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The historical and religious context of that Jewish audience
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is so critical here. It is, Edwards notes, that the
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Jewish people of Paul's day held an incredibly high opinion of
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themselves. They believed their external
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privileges made them pure. Yes, they had the covenant.
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They had the physical mark of circumcision.
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They had a direct, verifiable lineage tracing all the way back
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to Abraham. Right.
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And because they possessed these external God-given markers, they
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view the surrounding Gentiles as polluted and ignorant.
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So Paul is delivering a very difficult, highly offensive
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message to them. He is systematically stripping
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away their religious armor. He tells them that despite all
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their heritage, they are in the exact same legal jeopardy before
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the judge as the Pagan gentiles they despised.
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Edwards notes that it was strange doctrine to them.
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I mean, they were completely insulated by their religious
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resumes. They thought they're standing
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with the creator was just inherited.
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So Paul pulls from their own law the Old Testament text they
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revered to prove that everyone is corrupt.
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He quotes the Psalms, writing there is none.
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Righteous. No, not one.
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He goes through a literal anatomy of human sin.
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He says the throat is an open sepulchre.
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The tongue uses deceit. The poison of ASPs is under
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their lips. Their feet are swift to shed
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blood. He paints a picture of
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universal, desperate wickedness that includes the religious
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elite just as much as the Pagan outsider.
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And Paul's conclusion, which Edwards adopts is the grounding
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point of his entire argument, is that the law speaks to those
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under the law so that every mouth may be stopped.
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That phrase is so vivid, Edwards explains, that the law achieves
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the stopping of the mouth in two specific, devastating ways.
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First, it removes all boasting about personal righteousness.
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You cannot point to your heritage, your baptism, or your
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church attendance as a plea for God's favor.
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The law exposes the flaws in all of those things.
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And second, it stops you from making any excuses or objections
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against the execution of the law's sentence.
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You cannot argue against the punishment because the law has
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proven your guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt.
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Think of it like being caught absolutely red handed in a major
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crime. OK, lay that out for.
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Us imagine a scenario where the security footage is in full 4K
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resolution, showing your face clearly.
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Hard to argue with that. Right.
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Your fingerprints are all over the vault.
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The stolen money is found in the trunk of your car.
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The. Evidence is piling up.
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The police have a written confession in your own
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handwriting and your cell phone data puts you at the scene of
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the crime. The evidence is so overwhelming
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that you cannot offer a single rational excuse.
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You cannot stand before the judge and boast about how you
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volunteered at a soup kitchen last Thanksgiving.
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Your past good behavior is completely irrelevant to the
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bank robbery at hand. You are simply silenced.
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The evidence demands a guilty verdict and your mouth is
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physically and psychologically stopped.
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You have run out of words. That is the theological reality
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Edwards is establishing, and this aligns entirely with the
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Westminster Confession. Yes, which both of us, as
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Protestant Christians who hold to Reformed theology, adhere to.
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The Confession teaches that man, by his fall into a state of sin,
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has wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good
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accompanying salvation. This universal guilt, this
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complete inability to justify ourselves or excuse our
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behavior, is an absolute necessity.
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It is the only thing that paves the way for the doctrine of
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justification by faith alone. Because if you have any ground
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left to stand on, any excuse left to make, you will not rely
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entirely on the grace of God. You will rely on that tiny
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sliver of your own goodness. Edwards knows that to save the
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soul, he first has to completely destroy its self-reliance.
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So with the mouth effectively stopped, with the defense
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completely dismantled, Edwards moves into the central doctrine
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of his sermon. And this is a very tough pill
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for a modern reader to swallow. He states it is just with God
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eternally to cast off and destroy sinners.
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He bases this terrifying conclusion on 2 massive pillars,
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man's sinfulness and God's sovereignty.
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Let's look at that first pillar. Edwards gets into what I can
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only describe as the infinite mathematics of sin.
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He creates A logical formula for understanding the heinousness of
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a crime. His logic here is fascinating,
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and it is built on a framework of objective moral realism.
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He argues that the faulty nature of a crime is proportional to
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the obligation that has been breached.
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He says this is self-evident to anyone who thinks about justice.
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If you disobey someone, the severity that disobedience
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depends entirely on your obligation to obey them.
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And your obligation to love, honor, and obey a being is based
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on their loveliness, their honor, and their authority.
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We need to ground this in a real world equivalent to make sure
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the listener is tracking with his logic.
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Good idea. Give me a scenario where the
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exact same action carries vastly different weight based on the
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target of the action. We'll think about the judicial
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system we mentioned earlier. If you were walking down the
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sidewalk and you hurl roll a profane insult at a stranger, it
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is rude. It is aggressive.
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But there are rarely any legal consequences for that.
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The police will not arrest you for being a jerk on the
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sidewalk. Right.
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But if you take that exact same string of profane insults and
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hurl them at a federal judge in the middle of a courtroom while
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they're presiding over a trial, you are in trouble.
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You are going to be held in contempt of court immediately.
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You will be placed in handcuffs and thrown in a holding cell.
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The action was identical. An insult, yeah, but the
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obligation to show respect was infinitely higher in the
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courtroom due to the judge's authority and the dignity of the
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office. So Edwards takes this basic
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legal logic and scales it up to the divine level it.
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Scales it all the way up to Infinity.
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Because God is infinite in beauty, infinite in majesty, and
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possesses infinite authority as the creator of the universe.
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So our obligation to Him is infinite.
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We have an absolute moment by moment dependence on Him for our
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very existence. Therefore, Edwards argues, any
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sin against him, any violation of that infinite obligation, is
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not just a minor infraction. It is an infinite evil, and an
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infinite evil, by the strict rules of justice, deserves an
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infinite punishment. What is particularly striking
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about this section of the sermon is the geometric analogy Edwards
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uses to illustrate his point. He is trying to help a
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congregation of finite human beings comprehend the weight of
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an offense against an infinite being.
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Right. He asks the listener to imagine
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a mathematical line. This hypothetical line has
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infinite length, stretching forever in both directions.
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However, it has no breath and no thickness.
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In physical reality, a line with no breath or thickness is
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nothing. It does not exist.
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But he argues, if that line is given any breath at all, even a
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microscopic subatomic amount, and it possesses infinite
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length, then the total quantity of that line is infinite.
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It exceeds the total volume of any finite object, no matter how
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broad or thick that finite object might be.
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Wait, hold on. I get the courtroom analogy and
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the geometry makes sense on a chalkboard, but applying
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infinite math to a finite human and brain feels like a rigged
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game. I hear you let let push back on
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Edwards here. I am a finite creature.
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My brain physically cannot comprehend Infinity.
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Right, your lifespan is maybe 80 years if you are lucky.
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Exactly, I mean spot on. How is it just for a judge to
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punish me infinitely for a crime when I lack the capacity to
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fully grasp the infinite status of the one I offended?
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That is the exact friction Edwards wants you to feel, and
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it's a common philosophical objection.
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But Edwards would argue that you're inability to comprehend
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the full scope of God's majesty does not reduce God's majesty.
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Nor does it reduce your obligation.
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Ignorance of the full weight of the law does not exempt you from
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the law. In human terms, if a person
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destroys A priceless, one-of-a-kind historical
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artifact because they thought it was just a regular piece of
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trash, their ignorance does not change the objective value of
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the thing they destroyed. The loss is still catastrophic.
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Applied to sin, Edwards is saying that an offence might
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seem tiny to us in its breadth. Maybe it is a fleeting jealous
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thought, a small lie to save face, or a moment of pride.
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But because it is committed against an infinite God, it
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possesses one infinite dimension.
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The object of the offense is infinite.
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Therefore, that tiny sliver of sin becomes an infinite evil,
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demanding A consequence that matches the status of the one
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offended. So the focus shifts entirely off
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the sinner's intent and onto the worth of the Creator.
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And this leads Edwards to address another objection that
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people naturally raise. People argue that human beings
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are born with original corruption.
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We are fallen creatures, so our sinful actions are somewhat
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inevitable. Right, they say.
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It is just our nature. People try to use this
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unavoidable corruption to say there is no real fault in sin.
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It's like blaming a dog for barking.
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It is just doing what it is programmed to do.
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But Edwards cuts through that argument by pointing out that
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the light of nature teaches mankind that a voluntary injury
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is faulty. Regardless of what determined
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the will beforehand, if you choose to do harm, you are
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responsible for the harm. Even if your nature leans toward
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doing harm. And here's a brilliant
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observation Edwards makes about human hypocrisy.
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He exposes how we hold a double standard when it comes to
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justice. He points out that when we are
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wronged by someone else, we never accept their bad
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disposition as a valid excuse. If someone breaks into your
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house and steals your belongings or maliciously slanders your
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reputation to get a promotion, you do not sit back and let it
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go. You do not say, well, they are
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naturally of a selfish, haughty temper, so I cannot blame them.
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It is just who they are. No, you use their vile
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disposition to aggravate their crime.
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You say they did this because they are a terrible, selfish,
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rotten person. You demand strict
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accountability, but when it comes to our sins against God,
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we try to flip the script. We try to point to our corrupt
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fallen nature as an excuse to avoid blame.
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We say, God, you know, I am just a weak, flawed human.
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You cannot hold this against me. We act as if our bad disposition
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renders us blameless before heaven, even while we use that
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same bad disposition to condemn our neighbors on earth.
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It is a devastating critique of human logic.
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We demand strict justice and severe consequences from our
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neighbors when they hurt us, but we demand leniency and excusing
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grace from our Creator. Based on the very corruption
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that causes our offense against him in the first place.
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Edwards will not let the listener off the hook.
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He insists that the infinite majesty of God means that even
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one single sin is enough to justify eternal condemnation.
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But he does not stop at one sin. This brings us to the sheer
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volume of human guilt. It is not just one infinite
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offense, it is a lifetime of them.
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He moves from the mathematical abstract theory of infinite sin
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to the practical, crushing reality of total depravity.
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When reformed theology speaks of total depravity, it requires
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careful definition. It does not mean utter
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depravity. It does not mean that every
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person is as thoroughly evil in their actions as they possibly
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could be. We all know people who are not
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Christians who do genuinely kind things.
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Total depravity means that the corruption of sin extends to
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every single part of human nature.
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There's no faculty left untouched.
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Edwards articulates this vividly.
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He says The understanding is darkened.
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The will is perverse and the affections are disordered.
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He categorizes the physical senses, seeing, hearing,
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tasting, touching as mere inlets and outlets for sin.
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They are channels of corruption. The head and the heart are
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entirely depraved. He argues that there is pride,
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enmity, contempt, atheism and blasphemy residing in the human
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heart with exceeding strength. Even if society keeps those
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impulses somewhat in check. And he confronts his
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congregation with an exhaustive, brutal inventory of their actual
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daily behavior. He talks about a life filled
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with sin, days and nights filled up with sin.
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He calls out wasted time, hours spent on trivialities while
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ignoring the eternal state of the soul.
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He calls out those who mock their parents, and he uses a
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very specific, terrifying biblical warning for that one.
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He references Proverbs chapter 30, verse 17, right?
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Yes. That proverb warns that the eye
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that mocks a father and refuses to obey a mother will be picked
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out by the Ravens of the valley and eaten by young eagles.
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It is a visceral, horrifying image of nature turning against
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the rebellious child. He calls out malice and revenge
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against neighbors. He calls out sensual indulgence,
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lust and lasciviousness. He does not deal in vague,
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abstract categories. He brings the conviction right
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down to the specific daily lives of the people sitting in front
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of him. He confronts their covetousness,
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their inordinate love of the world, their obsession with land
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and money. He notes how they neglect
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reading the Scriptures, how they skip praying, and how they
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abandoned meditation just to pursue worldly vanities.
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He points out their pride, how they vaunt themselves and their
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apparel, showing off their clothes or their riches.
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And how it actually gulls them, how it causes them physical pain
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to see others succeed or be praised, used above them.
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There is a phrase he uses in this section that really caught
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my attention. Oh, which one?
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When describing the covetous person, a person drowning their
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soul and worldly cares and financial anxiety, he calls them
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a mere earthworm. He says they are an earthworm
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that is never in its element, but when groveling and buried in
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the dirt. It is such a stripping, humbling
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image. Edwards is basically looking at
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a congregation of New England Puritans, people whose idea of a
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wild Friday night was probably reading the Psalms by
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candlelight. And he is calling them
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earthworms, groveling in the dirt.
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You have to imagine the absolute pin drop silence in that room.
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He is taking all the things we build our self esteem on, our
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clothes, our jobs, our social standing, our bank accounts and
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reducing it all to a worm writhing in the mud.
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It forces a huge personal reckoning.
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If we look at the overarching purpose of the sermon, Edwards
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wants to ensure no one sitting in the pews can retreat into a
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fortress of perceived innocence. He asks the listener to consider
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the things done alone, the things done in the dark when no
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human eye could see. He talks about unclean
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imaginations, the silent thoughts we would be terrified
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for anyone else to know. He talks about fraudulent
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business dealings, cutting corners at work and the neglect
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of secret prayer. He even calls out hypocrisy in
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worship. He talks about people who come
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to the Lord's Table who take communion while harboring malice
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and envy in their hearts toward the person sitting three pews
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away. After laying all of this out, he
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asks A crushing rhetorical question.
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After behaving this way with this kind of internal and
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external record, are you not ashamed to talk of it being hard
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for God to cast you off? Does it become a person with
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this kind of rap sheet to open their mouth and complain against
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God's justice? He builds this mountain of guilt
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heaped up to heaven to prove his first pillar.
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Man's sinfulness makes condemnation just.
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If the math of Infinity does not convince you, the sheer volume
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of your daily rebellion will. But then he shifts to the second
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pillar of his doctrine, the absolute sovereignty of God.
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And this is where the Reformed perspective really sharpens and
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defines itself against other theological traditions.
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Yes, Edwards outlines the scope of God's sovereign power and his
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divine right. He begins with the premise that
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confronts human entitlement directly, and it is a premise
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that makes modern readers very uncomfortable.
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He states that God was under no obligation to keep angels or men
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from falling. God could, in His sovereign
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Providence, permit them to sin. He was not required to put up a
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safety net. Because if God were obligated to
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prevent sin, what happens to the concept of moral government?
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It becomes completely useless. Edwards argues that if God makes
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a reasonable creature, gives them a law, and subjects them to
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a system of moral government, but is simultaneously obligated
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to make it impossible for them to break that law, the whole
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system collapses into absurdity. What is the point of giving
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commands, making promises, or issuing threatenings if the
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creature knows God is forced to prevent them from failing?
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In that scenario, the lawgiver is the one who is actually under
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the law. It becomes God's required duty
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to ensure obedience rather than the creature's responsibility to
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obey. There would be an end to all
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divine authority over the creature.
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God would be a hostage to his own creation.
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So God permits sin. But Edwards is very careful to
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clarify that this permission is not random.
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It is not an accident. The certainty of the fall was
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ordered by infinite wisdom. That is a crucial theological
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distinction. Edwards addresses the
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philosophical idea of chance. He argues that leaving an event
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of such massive cosmic consequence.
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To blind undesigning chance is absurd.
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It is infinitely preferable that such a consequential event be
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disposed and ordered by infinite wisdom.
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Even if someone argues that God should have left it entirely to
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man's free will without any divine ordering or decree,
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Edwards counters that. He says the very first motion of
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that free will, unguided by anything, would still be a
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matter of mere contingency. Which he equates to blind
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chance. He maintains that God's wise
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disposal by permission does not infringe on the creature's
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liberty any more than blind chance would.
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But it ensures that the outcome serves a greater, infinitely
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wise purpose. This brings us to a concept that
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is central to reformed theology, but often misunderstood and
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heavily criticized federal headship.
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Edwards tackles why humanity fell as a whole.
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Why are we all implicated in Adam's choice?
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Let me phrase the objection the way most people feel it.
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Wait a minute. Why am I on the hook for a guy
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who ate a piece of fruit thousands of years ago?
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Right. I was not there.
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I did not vote for him. Yeah, how does it just that his
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failure corrupts my nature? That is the most common
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objection to the doctrine of original sin.
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Federal headship is the teaching that Adam was appointed by God
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as the moral and legal representative for all mankind.
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He was the head of the human race, not just biologically, but
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legally. Edwards defends this appointment
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as entirely fitting for divine wisdom.
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He argues that God had the sovereign right to determine
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whether every single person should stand trial for
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themselves. Or whether the first father of
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mankind should represent the rest.
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And Edwards says that appointing Adam was not injurious to
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mankind. He challenges the listener to
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find any reason in the nature of things why it would have been
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better for each of us to stand for ourselves.
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Adam was created perfect in an ideal environment with full
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knowledge of the consequences. If he failed in paradise, what
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makes us think we would do any better in our own individual
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trials? Since there is no inherent
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advantage to standing trial individually, mankind is not
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wronged by God choosing a representative.
22:06
It was a sovereign wise appointment.
22:09
Furthermore, if we reject the concept of federal headship in
22:12
Adam, we destroy the mechanism for salvation.
22:16
We cannot claim the imputed righteousness of Christ the
22:19
second Adam if we reject the concept of representation
22:22
altogether. OK, let's look at this from
22:23
another angle. I think a lot of listeners might
22:25
ask about the mechanics of redemption here.
22:28
Right. How does that work if we are all
22:30
fallen? If God established this federal
22:32
headship and Adam fell, pulling everyone down into a state of
22:36
total depravity where they are completely unable to save
22:39
themselves, does God have to offer a lifeline?
22:42
If the system God set up resulted in universal ruin,
22:46
doesn't fairness dictate that he steps in to fix what broke?
22:49
Doesn't he owe humanity a way out?
22:51
That is the natural human reaction.
22:53
We want God to balance the scales.
22:54
But Edwards firmly relies on the text and the strict legal logic
22:58
he has already built. His answer to that question is a
23:00
definitive, unyielding no. Redemption is entirely at God's
23:04
sovereign pleasure. When men are fallen, corrupt and
23:07
sinful, God has the absolute right to determine about their
23:10
redemption as He pleases. He is under no obligation to
23:14
anyone. He could have left all humanity
23:16
to perish, just as He left the fallen angels to perish without
23:20
a Savior. He could redeem all of humanity,
23:23
or he may redeem some and leave others to the justice they
23:27
deserve. Because to say God must save
23:30
anyone is a contradiction of everything established in the
23:33
first half of the sermon. That is the logical bedrock of
23:35
his argument. To suppose that a Sinner has
23:38
forfeited God's favor, broken an infinite obligation, and
23:42
deserves to perish, but then to claim God is obligated not to
23:46
let them perish, implies the Sinner still has a valid claim
23:50
to favor. You cannot be justly condemned
23:52
by the law and simultaneously hold a legal right to be
23:55
pardoned. It is a logical impossibility.
23:58
A pardon, by definition, is unmerited.
24:01
God is the sovereign possessor of heaven and earth.
24:03
He is absolutely perfect, the fountain of all wisdom, and it
24:06
is fitting that he determines everything by his own will,
24:08
without asking counsel of any creature.
24:10
If God is entirely justified in casting us off, how does this
24:13
actually play? Out Does he just throw everyone
24:15
into a generic fire or does the punishment fit the crime?
24:19
Edwards moves into the application portion of his
24:21
sermon where he addresses the sinners in the congregation who
24:24
are actively afraid of damnation.
24:26
He wants to convince them that their potential damnation is not
24:29
just legally correct on paper, but it is poetically just in
24:33
practice. He introduces the concept of
24:35
mutual answerableness or similitude.
24:38
He argues that if God eternally casts the Sinner off, the nature
24:42
of that rejection will be an exact, terrifying reflection of
24:45
how the Sinner behaved during their life.
24:47
It is not just equality of punishment, it is a mirror image
24:51
of the offense. He breaks the similitude down
24:54
into 4 devastating categories. The first category is the
24:57
sinner's treatment of God. Edwards points out that the
25:00
natural person has never exercised the least degree of
25:03
true love to God. They have never rejoiced in
25:05
God's happiness. They do not care about God's
25:07
glory. If their own private interests
25:09
are met, if they have money, health and comfort, they are
25:12
perfectly content to see God's honor dragged through the mud.
25:15
So Edwards asks A penetrating question.
25:19
Why should God be obligated to express wonderful, unspeakable
25:23
love to you when you have never loved Him?
25:25
Why should God care for your eternal welfare when you have
25:29
never cared for His glory? He notes how the Sinner has
25:32
continually slighted God's majesty.
25:34
God calls through the preaching of the Word, God commands
25:37
through the conscience, and the Sinner brushes it off as if the
25:40
honor of the infinite King is worth less than the dirt under
25:44
their feet. And then there is the abuse of
25:47
mercy. God provides food, He provides
25:50
preservation from danger, He grants recoveries from sickness,
25:53
and He gives continued days of grace.
25:55
And what does the Sinner do with these gifts?
25:58
They use the physical strength provided by God's food to
26:01
continue rebelling against Him. That specific point, presuming
26:05
on God's mercy to continue sinning, is identified by
26:08
Edwards as a uniquely heinous affront.
26:10
There is a base in gratitude, in being worse to God simply
26:13
because he is invently good. Edwards notes that sinners often
26:17
hear about God's boundless grace, and they use that
26:20
theological truth as a license to venture into greater
26:23
wickedness, thinking they can just ask for pardon later.
26:25
It is a calculated manipulation of divine goodness.
26:28
To abuse the very attribute of Divine Mercy is to provoke
26:31
justice to its highest degree. How righteous would it be,
26:35
Edwards argues, if God ordered it so that such a person never
26:39
receives the eternal benefit of the mercy they so casually
26:42
abused in life? The second category of
26:44
similitude is the sinners treatment of Jesus Christ.
26:48
Edwards says that if God casts you off, it is perfectly
26:51
agreeable to how you treated the Savior because the reality is
26:54
the natural man rejects Christ. Now I know people will
26:58
immediately object to that statement.
27:00
They will say, wait, I am terrified of hell.
27:02
I would give anything to have Christ as my savior.
27:05
I am praying for it every night. But Edwards makes a brilliant,
27:09
piercing psychological distinction here.
27:11
He distinguishes between wanting to escape punishment and
27:15
actually wanting Christ. This is a crucial diagnostic
27:18
tool in Reformed pastoral care. You can love the deliverance
27:22
without loving the deliverer. Edwards points out that the
27:24
inclination of the natural will terminates entirely on self
27:27
preservation. You do not want to burn.
27:29
That is natural. Every animal has a survival
27:32
instinct. But a survival instinct does not
27:34
mean your heart is closing with Christ and saving faith.
27:37
A forced compliance driven solely by the terror of the
27:40
flames is not the free, willing, affectionate acceptance that
27:44
Christ seeks as a bridegroom seeking a bride.
27:47
Edwards uses a powerful analogy to clarify this dynamic.
27:50
He asks us to imagine a condemned man in a Kingdom.
27:54
The king sentences this man to a tormenting, gruesome death.
27:58
But the man believes the sentence is fundamentally
28:01
unjust. He thinks he is innocent, or at
28:04
least that the punishment is way too harsh for his minor crimes.
28:07
Now if the King offers a parting to this man as an act of great
28:10
grace and clemency, the condemned man cannot truly
28:13
accept it as an act of grace. He can take the piece of paper
28:16
to save his skin, but in his heart he believes he was injured
28:19
by the king in the first place. He sees the pardon as a late
28:22
correction of an injustice, not a free gift of unmerited favor.
28:26
Because accepting Christ as a savior from the desert of hell
28:30
requires acknowledging that you actually deserve hell.
28:32
If you are not deeply convinced of your massive guilt, if you
28:35
still think you are a generally good person who just made some
28:37
mistakes, the offer of a bloody atonement is almost an insult.
28:41
It implies a charge of cosmic treason you do not believe you
28:45
committed. Furthermore, Edwards points out
28:48
that sinners demonstrate they do not truly want Christ because
28:51
they do not trust his sufficiency or His faithfulness.
28:54
He uses the analogy of a leaky ship to illustrate this lack of
28:58
trust. A man in distressing fear
29:01
standing on a dock will not willingly venture out into a
29:04
violent ocean in a ship he suspects is going to sink.
29:08
He might be afraid of what is on land, but he won't trust the
29:11
boat. In the same way, sinners under
29:12
conviction often despair because they do not actually believe
29:15
believe Christ's blood is sufficient to cover their
29:17
massive infinite guilt. They have to mean an opinion of
29:20
him, or conversely, they secretly want to hold on to
29:24
their own goodness, their own religious resume.
29:26
And they resent a way of salvation that sets their
29:29
personal achievements at zero. They want to be Co saviors.
29:32
The third category of similitude is the treatment of others.
29:35
Edwards argues that casting off the Sinner is answerable to how
29:38
they have treated their fellow human beings.
29:41
He points out how often people are secretly opposed to the
29:43
salvation of others. They envy those who receive
29:46
grace. They begrudge their neighbor's
29:48
spiritual success, much like the older brother in the parable of
29:51
the prodigal son. Who was furious that his wayward
29:54
sibling received a feast while he, the dutiful son, got
29:58
nothing. Or they actively promote the
30:00
ruin of others, they set bad examples, they lead companions
30:03
into sin, or they neglect the spiritual education of their own
30:07
children. They provide food for their kids
30:09
bodies. They send them to good schools,
30:12
but they starve their souls by never teaching them about God.
30:16
Edwards flips the script. If you have shown no regard for
30:19
the eternal state of your own family or your neighbors, why
30:22
should God be bound to exercise infinite mercy toward your
30:26
eternal state? And finally, the 4th category is
30:29
the treatment of self. The Sinner has been wildly,
30:32
recklessly careless with their own soul.
30:34
They refuse to deny themselves minor physical pleasures or take
30:38
any pains for their eternal welfare.
30:40
They obstinately persist in paths that lead to destruction,
30:43
fighting against God's warnings, the pleading of their pastors,
30:47
and the prickings of their own conscience.
30:49
Edward says if you insist on drinking poison in contempt of
30:52
the physicians advice, who can you blame when you cherish?
30:55
If you willfully, stubbornly run into the fire against all
31:00
restraints, you must blame yourself when you were burned.
31:03
The damnation of the Sinner is nothing more than God finally
31:07
giving them what they insisted on having all along.
31:10
So Edwards has painted the Sinner into an absolute,
31:12
inescapable corner. The math condemns them, the
31:15
volume of their sin condemns them, God's sovereignty offers
31:19
no required safety net, and the punishment is a perfect
31:22
reflection of their own choices. But he knows his audience.
31:25
He knows the human mind is a factory for excuses.
31:28
The moment we feel trapped, we start looking for a loophole.
31:31
So he spends the next section of the sermon dismantling the
31:34
specific objections he knows are rising in the hearts of his
31:36
listeners right in that moment. The first objection is the
31:39
classic plea of inability. I would if I could.
31:42
I want to be saved, but I cannot make myself willing to accept
31:45
Christ. Edwards tears this down by
31:48
locating the exact source of the inability.
31:50
The inability lies entirely in a perverse will.
31:53
If a person were genuinely willing to do something, but
31:56
found they lacked the physical or circumstantial ability to
32:00
carry it out, that might be a valid excuse.
32:02
For example, if you want to save a drowning man, but you are
32:05
paralyzed and cannot swim, your physical inability excuses you.
32:10
But in salvation the defect is in the will itself.
32:13
The Sinner has no sincere desire to be willing.
32:17
Edwards asks if a man hates you deeply, walks up to you and
32:20
strikes you in the face, but then says I hated you so much I
32:23
couldn't help choosing to hit you.
32:25
Does that excuse him? No, the depth of his hatred
32:28
aggravates the offense. His inability to love you is the
32:31
very crime he is guilty of. And Edwards adds that a force
32:34
willingness is worthless. If you say you would make your
32:37
self willing if you could, but that desire is only driven by
32:41
the sheer terror of hell. The exact same fear a demon has
32:45
when contemplating the lake of fire.
32:47
It possesses no moral goodness. A first hypocritical inclination
32:51
manufactured under duress cannot be offered to a holy God as an
32:55
excuse for genuine lifelong rebellion.
32:58
The second major objection Edwards anticipates is a
33:01
grievance against God's selective grace.
33:03
The Sinner looks around the congregation or looks at history
33:06
and says God shows mercy to others who have done the exact
33:09
same things I have or even worse.
33:11
Right. Why did he save Paul who
33:14
murdered Christians, but not me? Why not me?
33:18
This is a very common human reaction when faced with the
33:21
doctrine of election and sovereign grace.
33:24
We feel slighted. And Edwards responds with what
33:26
we can call the debt argument. He makes it exceedingly clear
33:30
God is not in debt to anyone. If God bestows grace on a
33:33
notoriously wicked person, He does so out of His own sovereign
33:37
pleasure to display the magnitude of His mercy.
33:40
Giving an unmerited gift to one person does not put God in debt
33:43
to another person. He references the parable in
33:45
Matthew chapter 20 verse 15, where the master of the vineyard
33:48
pays the late workers the same as the early workers.
33:51
When the early workers complain, the Master asks, Is it not not
33:54
lawful for me to do what I will with my own grace?
33:57
Is God's property to distribute as He sees fit?
34:00
He challenges the listener's view of God's autonomy.
34:03
Must the great God be tied up, unable to make a free gift of
34:06
His grace without creating a binding obligation to everyone
34:10
else in the universe? A human being has the right to
34:12
give their money to whoever they choose.
34:15
You can leave your state to one charity and ignore another, and
34:18
no one calls you unjust. Why do we deny the Creator the
34:21
same absolute property rights over His own grace?
34:25
Edwards highlights a cutting irony here, returning to the
34:28
hypocrisy of the human heart. The Sinner complaints that God
34:31
shows more respect to others than to them.
34:33
They feel their dignity has been insulted.
34:36
But Edwards points out that the Sinner has shown more respect to
34:38
the devil, to worldly wealth and to vile less than they ever
34:42
showed to God. You chose to honor worthless
34:44
things, base things, things over the infinite Creator.
34:48
Where is the injustice if God chooses to set His love on
34:51
others and reject you when you have spent your entire life
34:55
rejecting Him for lesser things? And he concludes this section on
34:58
objections by addressing the mystery of God's secret decrees.
35:02
People often try to blame predestination for their sins,
35:05
saying if God decreed it, I have no choice.
35:07
He tells the congregation that objecting to God's decrees is
35:11
unreasonable because those decrees do not alter human
35:14
liberty in real time. Let the secret counsels of God
35:17
be what they will. Your constant daily experience
35:20
teaches you that you do what you choose to do.
35:22
No one forces you to lie. No one forces you to covet.
35:26
Your conscience charges you with vile dispositions and base
35:29
behavior toward God. The secret things belong to the
35:32
Lord, but your willful rebellion is your own, and it leaves you
35:36
entirely without excuse. That is a staggering place to
35:39
leave a congregation. If the sermon ended there, it
35:42
would be a portrait of unmitigated despair.
35:44
The mouth is stopped, the guilt is mathematically infinite, the
35:48
sovereignty of God is absolute, the similitude of punishment is
35:51
perfectly poetic, and every single excuse has been
35:54
systematically dismantled. There is nowhere left to hide.
35:57
But this brings us to the final movement of the sermon, the
35:59
gospel turn. Edwards pivots to ensure the
36:02
doctrine does not leave the listener in absolute darkness.
36:05
Having crushed their self-reliance, he now points
36:08
them to the only actual hope. This is where the framework of
36:11
reformed theology shines brightest.
36:13
The bad news is as bad as it can possibly be, which makes the
36:17
good news genuinely astounding rather than just a polite offer
36:20
of assistance. Edwards transitions to the
36:23
sufficiency of grace. He tells the terrified Sinner
36:26
that while it would be entirely righteous and just for God to
36:29
cast them off forever, it would also be just for God to save
36:32
them in and through Christ. How can it be just to save the
36:35
guilty? That seems to contradict the
36:37
earlier point about strict justice.
36:40
If a judge let's a guilty murderer go free just because
36:43
the judge feels nice, we call that a corrupt judge.
36:46
It is just because complete satisfaction for all sin has
36:49
been made. God has set forth Christ to be a
36:51
propitiation. We need to break down that word
36:54
propitiation. It is essentially A theological
36:57
way of describing A wrath absorbing sponge.
37:00
It is not just overlooking a crime, it is a full transfer of
37:03
the penalty. The law is not ignored.
37:06
The law is fulfilled. The blood of Christ is so
37:08
precious, so valuable, that it is fully sufficient to pay the
37:12
massive infinite debt contracted by the Sinner.
37:15
It perfectly vindicates the divine majesty from all the
37:17
dishonor cast upon it by human rebellion.
37:19
Edwards makes a claim here that it's almost hard to comprehend.
37:22
He says it was a greater thing for Christ to die than for all
37:26
mankind to burn in hell to all eternity.
37:29
Let that sink in. The execution of the Son of God
37:33
on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem carries more weight in
37:37
the scales of cosmic justice than the eternal conscious
37:40
torment of billions of human beings.
37:42
The logic rests on Orthodox Christology.
37:45
It is based on the infinite dignity and Excellency of
37:48
Christ. Because the person suffering on
37:50
the cross is the infinite eternal Son of God, the second
37:53
Person of the Trinity, His temporary suffering possesses
37:56
infinite value. He compresses an eternity of
37:59
infinite punishment into a finite window of time because of
38:02
who he is. Therefore, God is willing to be
38:04
at peace with sinners. He can show mercy not just
38:07
kindly, but honorably. He does not sweep the sin under
38:09
the rug. The penalty is fully absorbed by
38:12
a substitute of infinite worth. The justice of God is satisfied
38:16
and the love of God is poured out simultaneously.
38:18
But Edwards maintains his rigorous guardrails even in the
38:21
offer of grace. This mercy is strictly through
38:24
Christ. It is not because of any
38:26
religious performances, prayers or tears the center offers.
38:29
God will show mercy solely on Christo's account and according
38:33
to His sovereign pleasure. He cannot be brought under
38:35
obligation by human works. You cannot buy this grace with
38:39
your repentance. Yet the invitation is thrown
38:42
wide open. There is enough in Christ for
38:45
the vilest Sinner in the congregation.
38:47
If the debt is paid by an infinite treasury, it does not
38:51
matter how overdrawn your account is.
38:53
Edwards finishes by addressing the godly those who have already
38:57
received this grace and have been justified by faith.
39:00
He calls them to remember their origins.
39:02
They were precisely the same as the condemned.
39:05
They had the same wicked hearts, the same enmity toward God, the
39:08
same stubborn refusal to hear His calls.
39:11
They abused His mercy and rejected his son.
39:14
Yet God magnified His free grace toward them, not because they
39:18
were better, but because He is merciful.
39:20
He quotes Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 63, which perfectly
39:24
encapsulates the emotional reality of Reformed theology.
39:27
The realization of the sovereign free grace should cause, as the
39:30
believer to be confounded. The text says that thou mayest
39:34
remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth anymore
39:38
because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all
39:41
that thou has done. This brings the entire argument
39:44
full circle. The law stops the mouth of the
39:47
Sinner in terror and conviction. They have no defense.
39:50
But the gospel stops the mouth of the believer in awe and
39:53
humility. They have no boast.
39:55
Self testification is replaced with a permanent posture of
39:59
lowliness and continuing. Prays for the sovereign mercy
40:03
that made them to differ from others.
40:04
So let's recap the progression of this deep dive.
40:07
We started in the courtroom of Romans 3, where the evidence of
40:10
universal guilt stops every mouth from boasting or making
40:13
excuses. We examine the terrifying
40:15
mathematics of infinite sin, where a finite creature
40:18
breaching an infinite obligation creates a debt that demands
40:22
infinite punishment. We walk through the crushing
40:24
mountain of total depravity, cataloguing the visceral secret
40:27
sins that prove our corruption. We establish the absolute,
40:30
absolute sovereignty of God, who is under no obligation to save
40:33
those who have willfully rebelled.
40:35
We analyzed the poetic justice of condemnation, seeing how
40:39
casting off the Sinner is a perfect mirror of how the Sinner
40:42
treated God, Christ, others, and themselves.
40:45
We watched Edwards systematically dismantle every
40:48
human excuse, proving that our inability is rooted in a
40:51
perverse will, not unfair circumstances.
40:54
And finally, we arrived at the staggering sufficiency of
40:57
Christ's sacrifice, a substitute of such infinite dignity that
41:02
God can honorably justify the ungodly without compromising his
41:06
justice. It is a theological structure of
41:08
immense weight. It forces a complete abandonment
41:11
of self-reliance and drives the soul entirely onto the provision
41:15
of Christ. Edwards.
41:16
Forces us to look at the absolute bottom of our depravity
41:18
to understand the heights of grace.
41:20
But here's something to Mull over today, a final provocative
41:23
thought to take with you. If we truly accepted Edwards
41:26
premise that God owes us absolutely nothing, not even our
41:29
next breath, let alone eternal salvation, how would that change
41:32
our modern culture of entitlement?
41:34
If you woke up tomorrow believing every single comfort,
41:37
every beat of your heart was an unmet, merited gift from a judge
41:41
you had offended rather than a basic human right, would you
41:44
even recognize your own life? How much of our daily anxiety,
41:48
our anger, and our bitterness is rooted in the secret belief that
41:51
we deserve better than we are getting?
41:53
Does your daily posture reflect a stopped mouth struck silent by
41:57
the staggering weight of unmerited grace?
41:59
Or if you look closely at your heart, are you still standing in
42:03
the courtroom secretly trying to hand the judge your resume?
42:06
Thank you for joining us on Reformed Thinking.
42:08
Keep analyzing the text that shape your faith.