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Reason and the Purpose of Creation | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine a being of infinite might, a being lacking
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absolutely nothing, existing in perfect contentment.
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Why would that being ever bother to create a universe?
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Right, that is the big question. It is, and to answer that we
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have to put theology on hold for a second and look at pure, cold,
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unadulterated logic. Which is a fascinating shift in
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perspective. Yeah.
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So welcome to reform Thinking. We are doing a new deep dive
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into the source material today. Specifically, we are looking at
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Jonathan Edwards A. Dissertation concerning the end
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for which God created the world. Yes, and specifically the
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section titled Some things observed in general, which
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reason dictates. I want to speak directly to you,
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the listener, to frame the massive theological question on
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the table. Why did God bring anything into
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existence at all? Precisely.
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Usually when we ask that question, we turn immediately to
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Genesis or the Psalms or the letters of Paul.
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Which makes sense for Christians to do.
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Right. But Edwards does something
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highly unusual here. We are going to analyze this
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from a purely rational standpoint before looking at
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Scripture. We are analyzing what logic
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itself demands of a perfect creator.
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Exactly. I mean, it's spot on.
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We will look at what must be mathematically and logically
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true about God's motives if he is indeed infinite and perfect.
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It is excellent to begin this analysis when we approach a
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thinker like Edwards, particularly from our shared
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perspective resting on the Westminster Confession.
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We are looking at the very mechanics of God's self,
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existence and sovereignty. Yeah, we have to understand the
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historical battlefield Edwards was walking onto, right?
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We do. He was writing during the height
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of the Enlightenment. Philosophers and deists of his
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era were arguing that human reason was the highest judge of
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truth. They were really pushing the
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idea of a detached creator. Yeah, they were arguing that a
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rational God would simply wind up the clock of the universe and
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step back. Or you know that human beings
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could deduce the entire nature of the divine using only their
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own intellect. So Edwards decides to employ a
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brilliant tactical maneuver. He does.
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He agrees to meet his philosophical opponents on their
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own turf first. He essentially says let us use
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pure logic. Right.
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He wants to demonstrate that even if we isolate human reason
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and apply it rigorously to the concept of a supreme being, that
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reason will inevitably lead us to the same towering conclusions
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about God's glory that we find in the biblical text.
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So we are dealing with precise analytical theology.
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Today. We are going to examine the
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fundamental nature of reality and the logical necessities that
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govern a perfect creator's actions.
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But before we start applying that logic, Edwards establishes
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A strict boundary line. Yeah, he defines what human
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logic cannot do on its own. He asserts that the question of
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creation's purpose is primarily an affair of divine revelation.
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Because God is the architect. Right, and therefore he best
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knows his own heart. Edwards points out that mankind
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without revelation, despite all our advances in science and
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philosophy, could not even deduce who the author of the
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world was. Let.
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Alone what his motives were. Yeah, I mean, he describes A
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revelation as a light shining in a dark place, which is actually
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trained human faculties to reason better in the first
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place. He clarifies that he is only
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using reason here because objection use the pretended
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dictates of reason to argue against orthodoxy.
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So to visualize this for you, the listener, imagine trying to
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deduce the intended function of a highly intricate piece of
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alien technology that crashes into your backyard.
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That is a great visual. You can examine the gears, you
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can measure the metallic casing, you can calculate it's
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aerodynamic drag, you can make educated guesses.
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But without the inventor's manual, your logic hits a
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massive wall. Right, you were just projecting
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human motives onto non human engineering.
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The created mind cannot reverse engineer the uncreated mind
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without direct communication. Taking your alien technology
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analogy a step further, the Enlightenment thinkers Edwards
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was debating thought they actually possessed the manual.
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Oh wow, yes. And they believe that manual was
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their own human intellect. They assumed human logic was an
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uncorrupted, perfectly clear lens through which they could
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examine the divine. Which is a huge assumption.
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It is, but connecting this to the Reformed doctrine of human
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depravity, we recognize the noetic effects of sin.
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The fall did not just corrupt human morality.
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No, it corrupted human reasoning.
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The Westminster Confession begins by stating that the light
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of nature and the works of creation do manifest the
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goodness, wisdom and might of God.
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But they are insufficient. Yeah, they are insufficient to
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give that knowledge of God and His will which is necessary unto
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salvation. Edwards leans heavily on this
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framework. So when he calls out philosophy,
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he is pointing out that human logic is flawed, biased and
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prone to error. Right.
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We cannot build a staircase of our own syllogisms to reach the
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mind of the Almighty. We need God to speak.
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Yet because his opponents are using their pretended dictates
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of reason to attack the biblical narrative, Edwards borrows their
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weapon. He is going to use unadulterated
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logic to dismantle their arguments before he even opens
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the scriptures. He is demonstrating that their
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logic is not just unbiblical, it is actually bad logic.
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That tactical setup is brilliant because he traps them in their
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own framework. I mean, if we use flawless
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logic, where does it lead? This pushes us right into the
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first major deduction Edwards makes.
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He focuses on what a perfect being must lack.
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And the rational answer is that a perfect being lacks absolutely
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nothing. Edwards writes that no valid
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theory of creation can imply indigence, which means need or
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insufficiency or mutability in God.
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God does not depend on the creature for his happiness or
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his glory. Because creation means bringing
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something out of nothing. Therefore, the creature derives
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its absolute all from God. Because the creature receives
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everything from God, it is mathematically and logically
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impossible for the creature to add anything to God that makes
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him more than he was before. But I have to raise a very human
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objection here. When human beings create things,
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we do it to fill a deficit. That is true.
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If I build a house, I do it because I like shelter and I am
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cold. If I seek out a friendship, I do
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it because I like companionship and feel lonely.
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Or if you paint a picture, you do it because you feel an
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internal urge to express yourself.
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Right. Or leave a legacy because I am
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mortal. All human creation is driven by
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a lack. If I like absolutely nothing, I
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sit completely still. It is a valid point.
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So how do we comprehend a creator who builds a massive,
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sprawling universe without actually needing it?
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That human reflex to equate action with deficit is something
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we have to unlearn when analyzing the divine nature.
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How do we do that? Well, to comprehend this, we
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must look at the theological concept of a Sadie.
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A Sadie comes from the Latin phrase ASA, meaning from
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himself. Meaning God is completely self
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existent and self-sufficient. Yes, he is the uncaused cause.
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The Westminster Shorter Catechism states that God is
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infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being.
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So when we combine a Sadie with his unchangeable nature, we
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realize that God is infinitely happy in himself.
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Right within the fellowship of the Trinity, there is perfect
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love, perfect communication, and perfect joy that has existed
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from all eternity past. Therefore, God did not create
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the universe because He was lonely.
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He did not create humans because he required an audience to
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validate his worth. As you accurately noted, human
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creation rearranges existing materials to solve a problem or
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fill a void. But divine creation operates on
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an entirely different mechanism. Divine creation is an act of
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overflow because God is already infinitely full of goodness,
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love, and glory. Creation is the act of that
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fullness, spilling outward into a new reality.
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I mean, think about the math of Infinity.
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Yeah, let's hear it. If you possess an infinite
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amount of value and you create finite beings, the total
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absolute value of God's internal nature does not increase.
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It is mathematically impossible to add to Infinity.
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So creation is not about God acquiring something he lacked.
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No, it is about God extending and manifesting the perfection
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He already possesses in full measure.
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If the absolute value does not increase, we have to figure out
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the exact mechanism of this overflow.
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If God does not move to create out of a deficit, what is the
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actual target of the action? The logic dictates that a
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perfect being must be motivated by the pursuit of what is most
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valuable. Edwards states that whatever is
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good and valuable in itself is worthy of God's highest respect,
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but he introduces a very precise caveat.
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Here what is that? He says God's own existence and
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infinite perfection cannot be the attained end of creation
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because they existed prior to creation.
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They're not consequent on any works of God.
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Therefore, whatever was originally most valuable prior
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to creation and can actually be attained or manifested through
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creation, must be God's highest end.
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I am struggling with the timeline here though.
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How so if? God's perfection is already
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infinitely valuable, and it already exists completely.
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How does the act of creation actually attain anything?
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That is a tricky concept. If he already has it all, what
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is the thing being sought after in the act of speaking galaxies
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into existence? We have to delineate very
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carefully between a value that exists internally and a value
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that is demonstrated externally. OK, unpack that for us.
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Edwards is highly specific about this distinction.
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Think of God's internal attributes, His infinite wisdom,
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his unyielding justice, his boundless mercy.
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Those internal realities existed before the foundation of the
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world. Yes, creation cannot make God
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more wise or more just in His essence.
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That is the internal value, and it cannot be attained because it
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is eternally possessed. However, before creation, there
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was no external theater in which that wisdom, justice, and mercy
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could be displayed or exercised toward another subject.
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So what creation attains is not a new level of divine
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perfection. No, it is the external
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manifestation and communication of that perfection.
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Edwards argues that the manifestation of God's glory is
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intrinsically valuable in and of itself.
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It is good that light shines. Exactly.
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Yes, it is good that a fountain flows.
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The flowing of the fountain does not make the water wetter, but
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the flowing is a valuable reality that did not exist when
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the water was contained. And that makes a lot of sense.
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While God's internal perfection cannot be increased, the
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demonstration of that perfection can be brought forth into a
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created space. And reason demands that the
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highest possible value must be the target of the highest
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possible. Since the most valuable reality
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in existence is God himself, the most valuable achievable goal of
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creation is the maximal display and communication of God's own
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attributes. God creates to attain the
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outward expression of His inward infinite worth.
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That is the core of it, yes. So the attainment is the
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showing, not the getting. Spot on.
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If the target of creation is the highest value, and that highest
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value is God himself, this pushes us to a startling
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conclusion regarding God's motives.
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Edwards argues that if God can be his own end, he must be
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because he is infinitely the greatest and best of beings.
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All other things are perfectly as nothing in comparison to him.
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He says God's moral rectitude, which is His Holiness, consisted
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in giving due respect to objects capable of moral respect.
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Because God is infinitely the most worthy, fitness requires
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the greatest regard to be paid to Him.
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Denying this supreme regard would be infinitely unfit.
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Therefore, God's holiness actually consists in having a
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supreme regard for Himself. Let me stop right here and raise
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the obvious societal. Objection, I know exactly.
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I know precisely where you're going with this.
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If a human acts this way, demanding all the attention in a
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room, doing absolutely everything for their own
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personal glory, we call that narcissism.
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We recoil from it. We do.
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If a brilliant doctor cures a rare disease but then demands
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that everyone praise him constantly, forcing his patients
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to recite his accomplishments, we would consider him deeply
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flawed. Naturally.
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How does pure logic rescue God from the charge of cosmic
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megalomania? That is the most common modern
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reflex against this specific doctrine, and it requires us to
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understand how Edwards defines the concept of fitness.
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What does he mean by fitness? Fitness is the precise
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mathematical alignment of an action with objective reality.
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When a human being demands supreme attention or acts
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entirely for their own glory, it is obnoxious and arrogant
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precisely because it is a lie. No human being is the center of
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the universe. Right.
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No human being is self-sustaining or infinitely
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worthy. When a human demands that level
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of regard, they are demanding something that does not
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correspond to reality. It is an unfitting demand.
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It breaks the math of existence. However, God's self regard is
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entirely based on objective reality.
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God actually is the center of all things.
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He actually is the source of all life, goodness and beauty.
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For God to value anything above himself would be a mathematical
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and moral denial of truth. In fact, if God were to point to
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anything else is the highest good, He would be committing
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idolatry. He would be elevating the
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creature above the Creator. So it is a bit like a mirror
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reflecting the sun. The sun is not arrogant for
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being the brightest object in our solar system.
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It just is. That is a great way to put it.
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The immense mass and nuclear fusion of the sun dictate the
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reality of the solar system for the sun to act as if a tiny
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asteroid where the source of light would be a lie.
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That synthesis is highly accurate.
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The Westminster framework teaches us that God is the
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fountain of all good. If he wants to give his
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creatures the greatest possible gift, he must give them himself.
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Therefore, God honoring God is the most logically and morally
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sound reality possible. His Holiness, His moral
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rectitude, demands that he value few things according to their
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actual worth. Since his worth is infinite, his
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regard for himself must be infinite.
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It is not narcissism, it is perfect adherence to truth.
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He cannot deny his own infinite value without denying reality
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itself. Edwards anticipates that people
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will still struggle with this idea of God acting for his own
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glory, suspecting it might be a biased whim.
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So to prove this is not subjective bias, Edwards
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introduces an incredible thought experiment.
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He says imagine a perfectly wise, perfectly disinterested
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third person acting as an arbiter.
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This arbiter's job is to determine exactly how much
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regard every being in existence should receive.
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This judge would take a massive balance scale.
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On one side of the scale, the judge puts the creator.
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On the other side of the scale, the judge puts all of creation.
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Yeah, millions of intelligent beings, entire galaxies, every
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star, every planet, everything that has ever been made.
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Edwards states that creation, when placed on that scale
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against the creator, will be as the light dust of the balance.
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Or even as nothing in vanity. Therefore, this perfectly
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impartial arbiter would look at the scale and decree that the
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entire universe, every wheel and rotation, should move with a
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constant, invariable regard to God is the highest end.
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And Edwards concludes that God himself possesses this perfect
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discernment. Right.
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God is not disqualified from being the judge just because he
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is an interested party. Because his infinite perfection
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completely prevents any bias. The mechanics of that thought
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experiment rely on the philosophical concept of being
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in general. Edwards is asking us to look at
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the sum total of all existence. When that hypothetical
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disinterested arbiter looks at the sum total of existence, they
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see that the creature only have a finite derived amount of
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being. Every ounce of reality the
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creature possesses was borrowed from the Creator.
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God, on the other hand, has an infinite underived amount of
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being. Therefore justice, pure, blind,
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impartial justice, demands that the infinite Being receives
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infinite regard. What stands out as particularly
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striking in the text is the phrase as if the whole system
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were animated and directed by 1 common soul.
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Edwards does not view the universe as a random collection
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of disconnected events or a chaotic sequence of causes and
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effects. He views the entire cosmos as a
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singular, cohesive mechanism. Every rotation of a planet,
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every rise and fall of an empire, every microscopic
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movement of a cell is functioning together to magnify
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the creator. The whole system is calibrated
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for one specific outcome. It really is.
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It is spiritual physics. Just as mass dictates gravity in
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the physical universe, infinite moral value dictates the orbit
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of all lesser values. Yes, And regarding God being the
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arbiter, Edwards points out a flaw in human reasoning, which
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is human judges are disqualified when they have a personal
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interest in a case because human interest tends to mislead human
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judgment. We are easily corrupted by
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selfishness. We skew the scales to favor
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ourselves, but God's judgment cannot be corrupted.
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His perfection means His judgment is always entirely
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aligned with what is objectively right.
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Therefore, God, acting as the Supreme Judge of His own worth,
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is perfectly just, because He judges with flawless rectitude.
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There is no higher Court of Appeal than the perfect mind of
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God, because any other court would be relying on derived
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finite wisdom. If we establish it the universe
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functions this way, then what happens to human history?
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We have to look at the results. Right.
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How do we verify what God actually aimed at?
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Edwards reasons that whatever good and amiable thing God
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actually attains in creation must be assumed to be his
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ultimate target. He argues that God values things
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simply and absolutely on their own account, according to truth.
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Therefore, we can justly infer what God intends by what he
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actually does, because God does nothing inadvertently or without
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design. If a valuable thing is the
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actual effect of creation, then it is the intended highest end
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of creation. Let us move away from the
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classic Enlightenment analogy of the watchmaker here and think
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about an author writing a massive, complex novel.
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I love this analogy. When you read a masterpiece and
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a seemingly minor painful event in Chapter 2 perfectly resolves
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a major crisis in chapter 50, yielding an incredible emotional
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payoff at the end, you do not assume the author just got
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lucky. No, you definitely do not.
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You do not think the author dropped their pen and
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accidentally wrote a cohesive plot.
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You assume the final resolution was the intended result from the
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moment the author wrote the first sentence.
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The tension and the suffering in the middle chapters were
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deliberate mechanisms to achieve the final glory of the
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conclusion. So how does this logic apply to
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the grand scale of the universe and the events of human history?
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The analogy of the novelist captures the essence of God's
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decrees perfectly. When we look at the Westminster
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Confessions chapter on God's eternal decree, we read that God
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from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of
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his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever
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comes to pass. This means there are absolutely
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no accidents in God's universe. When we look at the sweeping arc
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of redemptive history, the fall of humanity, the calling of
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Abraham, the Exodus, the prophets, the incarnation of
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Christ, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the eventual
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consummation of all things, we are looking at the chapters of
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that novel. If the final result of all these
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events is the brilliant, unmistakable manifestation of
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God's justice, His grace, His wrath, and His mercy, then
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reason dictates that this manifestation was God's precise
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target from before the 1st moment of time.
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Edwards argues that because God is perfectly wise, he does not
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fumble his way through history. He does not react to unforeseen
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circumstances. If the universe results in the
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glory of God, it is because God engineered every single atom and
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every single historical epoch to produce that specific result.
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Yes, the final result proves the initial intent.
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But how does this apply to the friction of living in the middle
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chapters? That is a tough question when
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we. Experience intense suffering?
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Or when we look at centuries of human conflict, how does the
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logic of results equal intention hold up without making God the
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author of evil? That is the perennial challenge
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of theology, but Edwards logic holds firm here to the
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confession is clear that God is not the author of sin, nor is
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violence offered to the will of the creatures, the secondary.
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Causes human choices are real and meaningful.
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But they are entirely encompassed by the primary
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cause, which is God's sovereign design.
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Just as a villains wicked choices in a novel are genuinely
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wicked within the context of the story, they are still written by
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an author who intends to use that wickedness to display the
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triumph of justice in the final chapter.
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For the believer, this provides an immense foundation of peace.
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It means that even the darkest moments of history and the most
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difficult trials in a person's life are not inadvertent.
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They are not signs that the creator has lost control of the
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narrative. They are meticulously calibrated
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events designed to attain the highest possible good, which is
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the display of God's infinite. Worth nothing is wasted.
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Every tear, every triumph, every microscopic change in the
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weather is bending the arc of reality toward the manifestation
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of divine glory. We have covered a massive amount
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of theological and philosophical ground today.
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We really have. Let us trace the line of logic
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we have walked through, synthesizing Edwards argument.
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We started by acknowledging the strict limits of human logic,
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noting that without divine revelation we would be entirely
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lost in the dark regarding the Creator's motives.
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Projecting our own divisets onto the divine.
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Right, we established the God is absolutely self-sufficient.
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He created the universe not out of a sense of lack or indigence,
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but out of an overflow of his own infinite fullness.
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We then saw the mathematical and moral necessity that God, being
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the most valuable being in existence, must pursue his own
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supreme value. The attainment of creation is
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not acquiring new worth, but manifesting eternal worth in an
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external theater. We visualized the disinterested
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arbiter weighing the Creator against the entire cosmos,
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proving that it is perfectly just for the universe to orbit
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God's glory. And finally, we looked at the
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proof that God's actions Florida State execute his intentions.
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Meaning the results we see in history, the grand narrative of
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redemption, are the exact results God designed from
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eternity past. As we close this session, I want
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to leave you, the listener, with a final concept to Mull over on
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your own. We have talked about the sheer
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scale of this logic, the spiritual physics of an infinite
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God. It is a lot to process.
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If reason dictates that the entire universe, from the
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largest swirling galaxies to the smallest subatomic particles,
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and every single event in human history, was intentionally
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designed by a perfect arbiter to orbit the supreme worth of God,
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how does that shift your perspective on your own daily
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frustrations? That is a great question to
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reflect. On when you encounter setbacks
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or when you feel the heavy burden of trying to manage your
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own life, ask yourself a question.
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Are you exhausting yourself trying to be the center of a
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solar system that is already operating Florida State by
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orbiting something infinitely more beautiful?
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The pressure to be the main character of the universe is a
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crushing weight. But Edward's logic points us to
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the freeing reality that the center is already occupied by a
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perfect, infinitely glorious God.
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Which is a remarkably comforting thought.
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Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into the source
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material. We hope this analysis has
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sharpened your reasoning and given you a lot to consider.
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We look forward to having you with us next time.
23:10
Goodbye for now. It has been a privilege to walk
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through this text with you. Keep thinking critically and we
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will see you next time. Goodbye.