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Letter to a New Convert | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. We are really glad you are
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hanging out with us today. We are going to open up the
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archives and blow off the dust, metaphorically Speaking of
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course, and look at a piece of history that honestly feels like
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it was written this morning. It really is great to be here.
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And you know, you're right, 1741 might seem like a really long
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time ago, but human nature hasn't changed a bit in 300
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years. I mean, the clothes are
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different, the technology has changed, but the human heart is
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the same. Yeah, the source material we
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have sitting in front of us today is a letter.
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It's titled Letter to a New Convert, and it was written by
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none other than Jonathan Edwards.
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Now, for anyone who grew up in the American school system, the
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name Jonathan Edwards usually brings up like one very specific
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image. Oh, I know what you're going to
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say. Sinners in the hands of an angry
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guy, right? Fire, brimstone, spiders
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dangling over bottomless pits, that whole thing.
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That is the stereotype, yes, and it really is a shame because it
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reduces this massive intellect and this very tender pastoral
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heart to just one single sermon. You have to remember Edwards was
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a pastor. He was the theologian who cared
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intensely about the souls of the people in his congregation.
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And this letter shows a completely different side of
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him, doesn't it? It does.
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It's tender, it's very practical, and it is incredibly
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sharp regarding the psychology of how we operate.
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It's pastoral care at its absolute finest.
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So let's let's set the scene a little bit.
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It is 1741. This is right in the middle, the
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absolute height of the Great Awakening in New England.
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The Great Awakening This was a massive spiritual revival.
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Thousands of people are professing faith.
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Emotions are just running so high.
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Everywhere you look, churches are packed to the rafters.
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People are falling down, they're crying out, having these really
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intense emotional experiences of God's holiness and their own
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need for salvation. It sounds like an amazing time
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to be alive, but also, I don't know, maybe a little chaotic?
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Oh, definitely chaotic. It was a time of incredible
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upheaval and joy, but also a time of massive confusion for a
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lot of people. Because with any high point,
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there is always that inevitable question, what happens next?
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Like Monday, morning rolls around.
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That is the big question, and that's the whole reason this
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letter exists. Edwards is writing to a young
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friend. We think it was likely a young
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woman, just based on the context of the advice he gives, who has
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just recently professed faith. She is up on that spiritual
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mountaintop. And he's writing to tell her how
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to stay up there or wait. No, he's telling her how to
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survive when those initial feelings start to fade.
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Precisely. That's the mission of our
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session. Today we're going to analyze his
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advice. He gives 17 specific, very
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detailed points on how to maintain spiritual vitality
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because let's be honest, we have all been there.
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Oh for sure. You go to a weekend retreat, or
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you hear an amazing sermon series, or you just have this
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personal moment where everything clicks.
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You are absolutely on fire. And then, well, then Tuesday
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happens. Real life hits you.
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Tuesday always happens. Gravity always wins eventually,
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and Edwards knew that. He knew that spiritual cooling
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off is a massive, massive danger, so he isn't writing to
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hyper up or give her another emotional boost.
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He is giving her a battle plan for the long haul.
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A. Battle plan.
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I really like that phrase. So let's jump into the first
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segment of this letter. Edwards starts off with a bit of
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a paradox, actually. You would normally think, OK,
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I'm saved. I'm justified.
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I can finally relax now. But he says the exact opposite.
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He. Does point number one in his
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letter is remarkably counterintuitive.
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He advises this young convert to keep up the same earnestness in
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her religion as if she were still in a state of nature and
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seeking conversion right now. State of nature is a term we
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don't hear too often today. That means before she was a
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Christian, right? Correct.
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The state of being unconverted. Living according to the flesh.
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He's basically saying, remember how desperate you were a month
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ago? Remember how you pleaded with
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God for mercy? Do not stop doing that.
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That is pretty intense because usually we tend to think of
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conversion as the finish line. I crossed the line, I got my
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medal. Now I can sit down on the grass
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and drink a Gatorade. That's.
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A very common tendency, yeah. We view salvation as fire
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insurance. Once saved, always saved.
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So I can just put my feet up and cruise.
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But from a reformed perspective, and certainly from where Edwards
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is sitting, conversion isn't the finish line.
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It is the starting gun. So the work is just beginning.
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Spot on. He argues that now that you were
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converted, you are under infinitely greater obligations
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to be watchful and laborious. Obligation.
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That's a really heavy word. Why does he use that specific
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word well? Think about it, before you were
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saved you were seeking God out of fear, or maybe just out of a
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desire for self preservation. You didn't want to go to hell.
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That is a natural, somewhat selfish instinct.
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Sure, self preservation is a pretty strong motivator, but.
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Now you've been shown mercy. You've been adopted into the
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family. The obligation now is born out
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of gratitude and love. If you worked hard to save your
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own skin, how much harder should you work to honor the one who
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actually saved it for you? Oh man, that makes a lot of
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sense. It is the difference between an
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employee working hard so they don't get fired and a business
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partner working hard because they actually own part of the
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company and love the mission. The whole motivation shifts.
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It does, and Edwards warns her that if she lacks this
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earnestness, she will Pierce herself through with many
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sorrows. She will grow cold.
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She will grow dark. He actually quotes the Apostle
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Paul in Philippians chapter 3 here.
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Where? Paul talks about pressing on.
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Yes, Paul says, he hasn't attained perfection yet, but he
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presses on toward the mark. If Paul, the giant of the faith,
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the guy who offered half the New Testament, hasn't arrived yet,
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this teenage convert certainly hasn't either.
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It's a huge call to active sanctification.
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We don't just naturally drift into holiness, so.
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You drift downstream. You have to actively swim to go
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upstream. Sanctification is a work of
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God's free grace. Yes, we believe that, but it is
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a work in which we are enabled to participate.
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We are not just passive blocks of wood.
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Moving to his second point, Edwards throws out a phrase that
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actually confused me a little bit at first.
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He tells her to pray for a kind of new conversion.
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Wait a minute. If she is already converted, why
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is she praying for a new conversion?
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Is he implying she might lose her salvation?
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Not at all, and this is where we really have to be careful with
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our theological terms. Edwards held very firmly to the
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perseverance of the Saints the idea that true believers will
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make it to the end. He is a Calvinist through and
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through. OK.
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Good, that's what I thought. So he isn't talking about re
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justification, he is talking about the experiential reality
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of the Christian life. Unpack that for us a bit.
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What does he mean by experiential reality?
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He tells her she should pray for the very same thing she prayed
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for before she was saved, that her eyes would be opened, that
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she would receive sight, that she would see the glory of God.
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He says, and I'm paraphrasing a bit, those who have the most of
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these things still have the greatest need to pray for them.
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Because we still have blind spots even after conversion.
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Because we are still partially blind, we live in this tension
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of the already in the not yet. Yes, you are saved.
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Yes, you are justified before God.
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But Edwards lists the enemies that are still inside the city
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walls. Blindness, hardness of heart,
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pride, spiritual death, those things remain in the believer.
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So asking for a new conversion is kind of like asking God to
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wake you up again it. Is asking for a fresh view of
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God's glory. It's a daily renewal of your
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spiritual senses. You know you can be married for
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20 years, but you still need to wake up today and choose to love
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your spouse, to see them clearly, to not take them for
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granted. Right.
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If you stop doing that, the marriage just goes completely
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cold. Precisely.
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And Edwards is saying the exact same thing about our
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relationship with God. Don't rely on the memory of a
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spiritual virtual experience you had three weeks ago.
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You need a fresh sight of Christ today.
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He. Actually says something really
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striking here. He says there are very few
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requests that are proper for an impenitent man that are not also
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proper for the godly. That is incredibly humbling.
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It really is. It puts the long time believer
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sitting right on the same bench as the brand new seeker.
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We are all just beggars asking for bread.
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We never graduate from the basics of the gospel, we just go
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deeper into them. A new conversion is really just
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a new realization of the gospel's daily reality.
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It is what Paul meant when he talked about the inner man being
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renewed day by day. Let's move into the second
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segment here. This is where Edwards gets into
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how we consume information, specifically how we listen to
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sermons. This is point #3 he tells her.
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Hear for yourself. Oh, this is a.
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Classic. We are all so guilty of this I.
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Know I am you. Are sitting in church the pastor
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makes a really good point about anger or greed and you
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immediately think oh I really hope my husband is listening to
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this this describes him perfectly or.
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Man, I wish my boss was here this morning.
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He really needs to hear this point about humility.
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I think we have all done that mental handoff, Edwards.
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Cuts that off the knees is when you hear a sermon, the chief
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intent of your mind must be in what respect is it's applicable
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to me? Even if the sermon is directed
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at people who aren't believers at all, say a sermon warning
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about hell. Even then, because there is
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always a personal application, if the pastor is preaching of a
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danger of hell, the believer should be asking, am I truly
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grateful that I've been delivered from this or is there
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any hypocrisy in my own heart that looks like this?
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It is all about taking personal ownership.
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You cannot grow on food that you feed to someone else.
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Oh wow, you cannot grow on food you feed to someone else.
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That is such a good line. It seems so obvious, but we are
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absolute experts at dodging conviction.
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We are. We use other people as Shields
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to deflect the word we say. Well, this doesn't apply to me
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because I'm not nearly as bad as that guy over there.
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Edwards wants to strip away all those Shields.
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He wants the word to hit the listener directly in the chest.
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Now point #4 deals with memory. Edwards tells her to remember
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her past. Specifically, he uses this
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analogy of being a bond slave in the land of Egypt.
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He is drawing heavily on the Old Testament imagery of Israel.
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There God constantly told the Israelites, remember that you
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were slaves in Egypt. Why did he do that?
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So they wouldn't get arrogant. It's very easy to think you were
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Born Free when you have been living free for a while.
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So it seems like Edwards wants her to keep her past sins in the
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rearview mirror, but close enough to still see them
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clearly. Close enough to remain humble,
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He points to Paul again. For this, Paul called himself
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the chief of sinners and the least the apostles.
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Paul never forgot that he used to literally persecute the
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church. He didn't wallow in it.
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He didn't let it paralyze him, but he didn't delete the file
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either. But.
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Isn't there a real danger there? If God is forgiven and forgotten
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my sin, why should I keep remembering it?
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Isn't that just beating myself up?
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Isn't that contrary to the joy we are supposed to have in
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salvation? There's a big difference between
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morbid guilt and humble gratitude.
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Edward's reference is Ezekiel 16 verse 63.
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It is a fascinating verse. It talks about being silent
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because of shame when God is pacified towards you.
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Wait, so God is at peace with you, but you are still silent
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because you realize how much that peace cost him?
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Yes, that is the heart of it. It is that overwhelming feeling
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of grace. If you forget your sin entirely,
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grace becomes cheap. It just becomes something you
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assume you deserve. But if you remember the bond
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slavery of Egypt, then every single day of freedom is a
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literal miracle. It fuels your worship.
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You cannot sing Amazing Grace if you have completely forgotten
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the Wretch like me part that. Makes a lot of sense now point
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#5 this is where I think a lot of listeners might pump the
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brakes hard. Edwards argues that sins
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committed after conversion are actually worse than sins
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committed before conversion. It is a shocking statement,
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isn't it? We naturally tend to think,
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well, I'm a Christian now, I'm covered by the blood, so my
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everyday sins aren't quite as big a deal anymore, Edward says.
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No, they are a much bigger deal. But why?
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What is his logic there? Because logically the pre
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conversion sins are the ones that condemned us in the 1st
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place it. All comes back to relationship
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and knowledge. Before you were converted, you
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were sinning and ignorance. Mostly you were sitting against
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the judge. You didn't really know.
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But now you are sitting against a Father who adopted you.
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You are sitting against the Christ who bled for you.
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It is a direct abuse of kindness.
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So. It's the betrayal aspect.
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It becomes intensely personal, yes.
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Think about the Westminster Confession, which Edwards would
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have fully subscribed to. It has a whole section on the
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aggravations of sin. Some sins are more heinous in
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the sight of God than others, and one of the primary things
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that makes us in more heinous is if it is committed against great
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grace. So.
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If I know the truth, if I have tasted the goodness of God, and
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then I actively choose to lie or cheat or harbor hate against
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someone, that weighs a lot more heavily on the scale.
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It does. It is rank ingratitude, and in
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the Reformed theological framework, ingratitude is one of
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the absolute ugliest sins imaginable.
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It turns the grace of God into a license for sloppy, selfish
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living. Edwards wants this young convert
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to feel the full weight of that, not to crush her spirit, but to
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keep her vigilant. He wants her to realize that
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sinning now breaks God's heart in a way it simply didn't
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before. And that leads perfectly into
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the next segment. Because if I sit here and really
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think about how my post conversion sins are actually
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worse than my old life, I could get pretty depressed.
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I could easily get crushed under that kind of way.
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You certainly could, and Edwards anticipates that completely.
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He was a master physician of the soul.
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He knows that if he pushes too hard on the guilt pedal, the
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whole engine is going to stall out, so point number six
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provides the necessary balance. He says be always greatly abased
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for your remaining sin, but yet be not discouraged.
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That is quite a tightrope walk. Greatly abased but not
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discouraged. How do you actually do both of
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those at the same time? You.
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Can only do both if you look outside of yourself.
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If I look at my sin, I am abased, I am brought low, but if
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I look at Christ, I am encouraged.
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This is where Edwards brings in The Advocate.
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Jesus Christ the righteous, Yes. And listen to the specific
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imagery he uses here. He says the preciousness of
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Christ's blood and the merit of his righteousness infinitely
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overtop the highest mountains of our sins.
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That is such a vivid picture. I just imagine my own sins as
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this massive Everest, this insurmountable, terrifying peak,
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and then Edward says Christ's merit just floods completely
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over it, drowning the peak entirely it.
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Is a comparison of the finite versus the infinite.
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Your sin, no matter how terrible it is, is finite.
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It has a limit, has a bottom. Christ's merit is infinite, has
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no bottom and no top. So you can be totally honest
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about the mountain of your sin, because you are even more
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confident in the ocean of His grace.
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So. The solution to dealing with
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guilt isn't to say, oh, my sin really isn't that bad.
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The solution is to say my sin is terrible, but my Savior is
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infinitely greater. Precisely.
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If you minimize your sin just to make yourself feel better, you
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were just playing psychological mind games.
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But if you magnify Christ to feel better, you are
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worshipping. That is the gospel key.
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I really like that phrasing. Don't minimize sin, magnify
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Christ. But then there is another enemy
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lurking right around the corner. Point #8 Edwards calls it the
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worst Viper. Pride.
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Why does he call it a Viper? That is a very specific choice
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of words. Well, a Viper is deadly, but it
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is also very quiet. It hides in the tall grass.
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You don't even see it until it strikes you.
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Edwards identifies. Pride is the most dangerous sin
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because it is the first sin ever committed, referring to Satan's
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fall, and it lies lowest in the foundation of our hearts.
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It's the root cause of everything else.
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It is the core desire to be our own God.
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It is, But what makes it a Viper, what makes it so tricky,
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is how it hides, Edward says. It creeps insensibly into the
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midst of religion. It can even hide under the
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disguise of humility itself. OK.
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That right there just blows my mind.
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How can humility be proud? Well, have you ever met someone
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who is visibly proud of how humble they are?
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I am the most humble person in this entire room.
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Yeah, I think I might have actually said that once or twice
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in my life. Right.
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Or it can be a lot more subtle than that.
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You can become proud of how much you've repented, like I cried
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more during the worship service than anyone else in my row.
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Or I felt more broken over my sin today than you did.
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That is just pride. Wearing a humility costume
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because of spiritual experience into a weird competition.
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That is terrifying honestly. It's like a virus that adapts to
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the medicine you take. You try to be humble, to kill
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the pride, and the pride just feeds on your humility.
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That is the deceitfulness of the human heart at work.
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Edwards wants her to be hyper aware of this dynamic.
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Spiritual pride is the specific danger for the new convert
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because they have just had this incredible, massive experience.
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They feel special, they feel chosen, and suddenly, almost
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without realizing it, they start looking down on everyone else
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who isn't feeling what they are feeling.
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So how do you fight something that tricky?
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If trying to be humble just makes me proud of my humility,
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what do I actually do? You have to keep looking at the
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standard. If you compare yourself to other
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people, you can always find a way to feel superior.
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But if you compare yourself to Christ, pride dies instantly.
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You cannot be proud when you are standing next to the blazing
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sun. You just feel incredibly small
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and incredibly grateful. This brings us to Segment 4,
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which is all about affections or our emotions and how to handle
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doubt. Edwards gives us a really clear
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model for true worship. In .7 he points to Mary
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Magdalene. It's that famous scene from Luke
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Chapter 7. She crashes the dinner party.
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She's weeping, washing Jesus's feet with her tears, wiping them
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with her hair. It is a scandalous scene in so
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many ways for that culture. And Edwards focuses on her
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posture. She casts herself at his feet.
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She kisses them. She pours out the expensive
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ointment. It is a.
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Picture of total, unhindered, abandoned.
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A pure and broken heart. This connects right back to the
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pride issue we were just talking about.
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Mary didn't care at all what the Pharisees thought of her.
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She didn't care about maintaining her dignity in
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public. She was just consumed with love
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for Christ. Edwards is saying to this young
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convert, be like her. Don't be the stiff, dignified
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religious person standing in the back of the room evaluating
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everything. Be the broken person weeping at
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the feet of Jesus. And then in the .9, he gives her
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a diagnostic tool. How do I know if my spiritual
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experiences are real? Because during the Great
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Awakening, people were seeing visions, they were hearing
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voices, all kinds of wild stuff was happening.
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How do you know what is legitimate and what is just
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hype? Edwards was very concerned about
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false fire. He wrote extensively on this in
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a whole book called Religious Affections.
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But here in this letter he gives 2 very simple criteria.
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First, does the experience make you feel least and lowest?
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Does it make you feel like a little child?
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And second, does it fix your heart on self denial and
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spending yourself for God? So if I have a massive spiritual
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experience that makes me feel like a giant, like I'm suddenly
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a spiritual superhero who has it all figured out, then it is.
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Probably just your ego talking. True contact with God always
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shrinks the self. It makes you feel small but
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totally safe, like a child. It destroys your sense of self
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importance. And the second part, does it
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lead to action? Does it lead to actual self
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denial? Right.
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If you claim to have a vision from God, but you still treat
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your neighbors like garbage, Edwards would say your vision is
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completely worthless. The fruit of the Spirit is
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Lovejoy, peace, patience, not just spiritual goosebumps.
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A true experience of God makes you want to serve others, not
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demand that others serve you. Moving on to .10, this one is
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huge for me personally. Handling doubt.
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Edwards talks about dark and dull frames of mind.
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Which will definitely happen. He pretty much guarantees it.
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You cannot live your whole life on the mountaintop.
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But his advice here is really surprising, he says.
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Do not consume too much time and strength in reviewing your past
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experience. Basically, don't sit around all
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day analyzing whether you were really saved three years ago.
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This is a trap that so many are foreign people fall into.
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We get so obsessed with authenticity and making sure our
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election is sure that we become spiritual archaeologists.
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We are constantly digging up our own past to see if the bones of
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our conversion are actually real, Edward says.
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Stop doing that. But why?
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It seems like examining yourself is a biblical healthy thing to
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do it. Is in moderation, but constantly
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looking at your past is looking at a dead thing.
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It's a memory, and memories are highly prone to distortion based
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on how you feel today, he says. 1 New discovery of the glory of
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Christ's face will do more towards scattering clouds of
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darkness in one minute than examining old experience through
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a whole year. Wow.
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One minute of looking at Christ is worth an entire year of
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looking at yourself. Yes, if you are doubting your
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salvation, the answer isn't to pull out your conversion
20:43
certificate and check the date. The answer is to look at Jesus
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right now, today. Do you love Him now?
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Do you need Him right now? Then go to Him now.
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Pursue new light instead of analyzing old light.
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It is the difference between checking the thermostat and just
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opening the window. You can stare at the thermostat
20:59
all day trying to figure out if it is working, or you can just
21:01
open the blinds and let the actual sun into the room.
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That is a perfect analogy, and that is exactly the concept he
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uses in .11. Regarding fear, he says you
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cannot cast out fear by fighting it directly.
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You cast it out by reviving and prevailing love.
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The quote he uses is beautiful. Darkness in a room is removed
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only by letting in the pleasant beams of the sun.
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You don't grab a shovel and try to shovel darkness out the door.
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No, you can't fight a negative with another negative.
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You fight a negative with a positive.
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If you are filled with fear or anxiety about your standing with
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God, don't just sit there trying to stop being afraid.
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That never works. You just end up thinking about
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fear more. Instead, focus on the love of
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God. Focus on what Christ has done.
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As love fills the room of your mind, fear naturally gets pushed
21:48
out the back door. Perfect love casts out fear.
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It is so incredibly practical. It is basically psychological
21:56
displacement. Fill your mind with the good
21:59
stuff and the bad stuff just has no room to live there anymore.
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It is practical, yes, but it is deeply theological.
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At its core, it asserts that Christ is infinitely more
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powerful than our internal struggles.
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We are passive in the sense that we received the light, but we
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are active in the sense that we have to walk over and open the
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curtains. Let's move into the 5th segment
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now. Practical disciplines.
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This is where the rubber really meets the road for Daily Life
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.12 deals with evangelism and admonition.
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Edwards tells this young woman to counsel and warn others, but
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again, the way she goes about it matters immensely.
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He says to do it earnestly and affectionately, and this
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specific part really stood out to me.
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He says when you are speaking to your equals, let your warnings
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be intermixed with expressions of your sense of your own
22:44
unworthiness. That is crucial advice.
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If you go to a friend and just say you need to stop sinning,
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you immediately sound like a judge.
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But if you say look I struggle with this exact same thing, I'm
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totally unworthy, but God's grace is enough for both of us
22:59
to get through this getting role, then you sound like a
23:01
fellow Pilgrim on the same Rd. he.
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Connects this to sovereign grace, he says, to acknowledge
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that grace is the only reason you differ from them.
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This is the absolute death of self righteousness.
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Why am IA Christian and my neighbor isn't?
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Is it because I'm somehow smarter?
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No, it's because I have better morals.
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No, it is solely because God mercifully intervened in my
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life. If you really believe that, you
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cannot possibly be arrogant when you share the gospel.
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You are just one beggar telling another beggar where you found
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some bread. .13 is a really quick one, but it's super
23:33
interesting. Historically, he recommends
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religious meetings of young women, basically small groups.
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It is the 18th century version of a small group Bible study.
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Edwards recognized that we are social creatures.
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We desperately need community and specifically he encourages
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peer groups here, young women meeting with young women.
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There is a safety and a specific practical application there that
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you might not get in a massive mixed assembly on a Sunday
23:58
morning. He was intentionally structuring
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her social life for spiritual support.
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Then we get to .14 fasting and confession.
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Now Edwards isn't talking about the general, forgive us our
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debts prayer. We all pray corporately on
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Sunday morning, no? Not at all.
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He advises setting apart a whole day for secret prayer and
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fasting, and the method of confession he prescribes is
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while it's intense, he calls for a very particular rehearsal.
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A particular rehearsal. What does that actually look
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like in practice? He says to go through your
24:27
entire life, from childhood all the way to the present moment.
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He wants you to list out specific sins, not just saying
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Lord, I was a rebellious teenager.
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He wants you to say I lied to my mother on this specific date
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about where I was going. I stole this specific item.
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I harbored deep hatred against this specific person.
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And he adds with the circumstances and aggravations.
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So not just the ACT itself, but the context surrounding it.
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Like I did this while fully knowing better or I did this
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right after taking communion. Exactly why does he want her to
24:58
do this? Is he just trying to make her
24:59
feel terrible about herself? No, he is trying to break the
25:02
power of denial. We love to hide behind
25:04
comfortable generalizations. Oh, I'm a Sinner.
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Nobody's perfect. That is a shield we use to
25:09
protect our pride. When you get specific, when you
25:11
say I was cruel to my sister because I was deeply jealous of
25:15
her success, you cannot hide anymore.
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You have to drag that specific ugly sin out into the light and
25:21
kill it. It totally forces you to
25:22
confront the reality of who you actually are without the
25:25
religious mask. And it makes the grace of God
25:28
feel incredibly real. If I confess a general vague
25:31
sin, I kind of just feel a general vague forgiveness.
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But if I confess a specific, ugly, detailed sin, and I
25:37
realized God still loves me and forgives me right there in that
25:40
moment, that creates a deep, unshakable assurance that
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nothing can take away it's. Like cleaning out a messy
25:46
closet. You can't just shove everything
25:48
into a cardboard box and tell yourself it's clean.
25:50
You have to take every single item out, look at it, and decide
25:54
what to do with it. And Edward says to spread all
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the abominations of your heart before him.
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God already knows all of them. You aren't surprising him with
26:02
new information, you are just finally agreeing with him about
26:05
what is actually in your heart. That brings us to the final
26:09
segment, the public walk and our final Reliance .15 is all about
26:15
reputation. Adorn the doctrine of God.
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This is what I called the Billboard effect.
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You are walking around your city wearing the jersey of Team
26:23
Jesus. How you play the game reflects
26:25
directly on the coach. He says do not let the
26:28
adversaries of the cross have occasion to reproach religion on
26:31
your account. That is a really high bar to
26:33
clear it. Is during the Great Awakening
26:35
there were plenty of critics standing on the sidelines
26:37
looking for any reason to dismiss the movement.
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They would say, oh look at those fanatics, they are hysterical.
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They are actually immoral behind closed doors, Edwards is saying
26:45
to her. Do not hand them ammunition.
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Be meek, be lowly, be full of pure love.
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Account others better than yourself.
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That is the. Ultimate key to social harmony.
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If everyone in a local church actually did that, actually
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considered the person sitting next to them in the Pew as more
27:01
important than themselves, 90% of church conflict would vanish
27:05
overnight. And then .16.
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This might be my absolute favorite imagery.
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In the whole letter. He summarizes the entire
27:11
Christian walk. The image of the child.
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Walk with God as a little poor helpless child, taking hold of
27:19
Christ's hand. It is just beautiful.
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It totally contradicts the modern idea of the strong,
27:24
independent Christian warrior in the Kingdom.
27:27
We never grow up into independence, we actually grow
27:29
down into deeper dependence. And where is the child looking
27:32
in this picture, keeping your eye on the marks of the wounds
27:35
and his hands inside? That is a relentless focus on
27:38
the Atonement. Why do we look at the wounds?
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Because that is the undeniable proof of His love.
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That is the actual payment for our sin.
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When you were walking through a terrifying life, holding
27:48
Christ's hand, and you look down and see the nail scar on that
27:51
hand, you know you are safe. And the final part of that image
27:55
is so comforting, hiding your nakedness under the skirt of the
27:59
white shining robes of his righteousness.
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That is the core doctrine of imputed righteousness.
28:04
By ourselves. We are naked in our sin.
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We have absolutely nothing of our own to cover ourselves.
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Christ wraps us in His own perfect robe.
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When God the Father looks at us, He doesn't see our nakedness or
28:15
a failure. He sees the white finding
28:18
perfect robe of Jesus. It is the entire gospel captured
28:21
in a single beautiful picture. A helpless child holding a
28:25
scarred hand wrapped in a robe that isn't theirs.
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If. You grasp that image, you grasp
28:30
Christianity, you grasp Reformed theology.
28:32
It's all right there. Total dependence substitutionary
28:35
atonement your. Putation.
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Finally, we hit .17 intercession.
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He asks her to pray for ministers and the global church.
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Specifically, he asks that God would carry on the glorious
28:44
work. Edwards fully believed the Great
28:47
Awakening was a prelude to the global triumphant Kingdom of
28:50
God. He asked this young girl to look
28:52
way beyond her own soul and pray for the whole world to be full
28:55
of God's glory. It is a great reminder that our
28:59
personal piety is meant to fuel a global mission.
29:02
We aren't just saved for our own comfort, we are part of
29:05
something massive. And notice how he signs off the
29:07
letter, your affectionate friend who rejoices over you and
29:11
desires to be your servant, this absolute giant of theology,
29:16
arguably the greatest mind America ever produced, viewing
29:19
himself as the humble servant of a teenage convert.
29:22
That is humility in actual practice.
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O we have walked through all 17 oints.
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Let's try to pull this all together.
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What is the core attention we are seeing here?
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I think the core attention is between incredibly high effort
29:34
and total helless reliance. Edwards demands a lot from her.
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He says work, watch, pray, fast, confess your sins in detail,
29:41
warn your neighbors, adorn the gospel.
29:43
It sounds completely exhausting, but at the exact same time he
29:46
says you were a helpless child, you were wrapped in a robe you
29:49
didn't buy, and Christ's infinite merit drowns your
29:51
finite sin it. Is the paradox of the Apostle
29:54
Paul. I worked harder than any of
29:55
them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is with
29:57
me. That's right, we work because we
29:59
are secure. We do not work to get secure.
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And As for relevance, does this advice land for you today?
30:05
Absolutely. We live in a culture of constant
30:08
burnout. Spiritual burnout is a massive
30:10
epidemic in the church. We have these emotional highs
30:13
and then we completely crash. Edwards offers a way to
30:16
stabilize. He says stop obsessing over your
30:19
fluctuating feelings. Stop digging around in your
30:21
past. Look at the wounds of Christ.
30:24
That is the only thing in the universe that doesn't change.
30:27
Well, here's a thought to leave you with today.
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A challenge for you, if you will.
30:31
Edwards suggests that constantly looking back at past religious
30:33
experiences is often a trap. We love to talk about the day we
30:36
were saved or that amazing youth retreat back in 1998.
30:40
But the question Edwards poses to us is not was I converted
30:43
years ago? The question is, am I seeking a
30:45
fresh view of Christ's glory today?
30:48
That is the vital question. Is your faith a Museum of old
30:51
artifacts, or is it a living room where you are interacting
30:55
with God today? And maybe, just maybe, try that
30:59
particular rehearsal of confession he talked about.
31:02
I know it sounds scary, it sounds intense to write it all
31:04
out, but if Edwards is right, it might be the pathway to a kind
31:08
of freedom you haven't felt in a really long time.
31:11
Get specific with God. He can handle it.
31:13
He. Already knows it all anyway.
31:15
Yeah, he is just waiting for you to bring it to him so he can
31:17
cover it with that white shining robe.
31:20
Thank you so much for hanging out with us on Reformed
31:22
Thinking. We hope this deep dive into
31:24
Jonathan Edwards gives you some solid tools for the long walk
31:27
home. Keep looking at the wounds, we
31:29
will. Catch you next time.