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The Harmony of Every Christian Grace | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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If you ask 100 Christians what it means to believe all things
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or hope all things about their neighbors, I bet 99 of them will
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tell you it's basically a biblical mandate to be
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chronically gullible. Yeah, like you're supposed to
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just ignore the red flags. Right to look the other way when
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someone shows you who they are. Because having Christian love
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means you are, you know, required to assume the best in
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literally all social situations. Which is such a common way to
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read. It it really is.
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But what if the most famous chapter on love in the Bible has
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actually been completely misunderstood for centuries?
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What off? Instead of a command to be
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naive, it is actually a blueprint for the physics of the
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human soul. That is a much heavier way to
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look at it for sure. So welcome to reform thinking.
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Today we are taking a deep dive into a specific sermon by the
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18th century theologian Jonathan Edwards.
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The text is titled Charity and Its Fruits and we are zeroing in
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on his analysis of First Corinthians 13.7.
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Yeah, and our mission today is to unpack this frequently
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misunderstood Bible verse and uncover a massive theological
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fitting work about how Christian virtues operate.
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Because Edwards is not giving us a collection of inspirational
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quotes here he is handing you an X-ray machine for the soul.
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He certainly is. And you know, taking this
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approach requires us to rethink how we handle the concept of
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Christian graces all together. We often treat spiritual virtues
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like a buffet line, like you grab a little patience, maybe
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you skip the humility, load up on zeal.
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But Edwards demonstrates that these graces function as an
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indivisible Organism. Like a single cohesive unit.
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Yeah, they are totally inseparable.
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OK, let's unpack this by setting the stage with the text itself.
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The target text is First Corinthians 13.7, which says
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charity believeth all things, hope with all things.
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As I mentioned, the prevalent surface level reading turns
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charity into a kind of willed naivete, right?
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People assume Paul is saying that if you have divine love,
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you will always give the people around you the benefit of the
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doubt. And that interpretation just
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reduces a massive spiritual reality into a basic rule of
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social etiquette. Edwards entirely rejects that
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reading. He argues that Paul is doing
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something much more structurally significant.
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In this chapter, Edwards clarifies that Paul is detailing
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how charity, which is divine love, acts as a catalyst.
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A catalyst for the other graces, right?
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This love produces and sustains the other heavy Christian
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graces, specifically faith and hope.
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Charity is the engine driving the believers relationship with
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God. It is not a mandate to be
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socially gullible about other people.
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I want to look closely at the exegetical argument Edwards
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builds here because he does not just state his opinion and
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expect you to agree. He treats the Scripture like a
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rigorous legal argument. Oh absolutely, he builds A
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bulletproof case. He provides for distinct logical
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proofs for rejecting the gullibility interpretation.
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What stands out to me is how he refuses to lift a sentence out
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of its surrounding paragraph. How often do we isolate a single
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phrase from a text without looking at the author's
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overarching argument? We do it all the time.
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We treat scripture like it is meant to be printed on a coffee
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mug. We constantly strip the text of
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its context, but Edwards assumes the author is a rigorous
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logician constructing a coherent case.
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His first proof requires looking immediately backward in the
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text. Verse 5.
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Yeah, he points out that Paul had just stated in the previous
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breath that charity thinketh no evil.
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That specific phrase already covers the concept of assuming
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the best about a neighbor and, you know, not harboring
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malicious suspicions. So he already checked that box.
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Spot on. If Paul already established that
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rule, repeating the identical idea a few words later makes no
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rhetorical sense. Redundancy is not a feature of a
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tightly constructed argument, Edwards says.
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We have no logical reason to assume Paul would say the same
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thing over again using slightly different words right next to.
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Each other? Exactly.
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Well, I mean, it just wouldn't make sense.
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And the second proof builds on that structural analysis.
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Edwards notes that Paul had just concluded his list of neighbor
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directed fruits by saying charity rejoiceth not in
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iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.
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That's verse 6. Yes, this phrase acts as a
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concluding bracket. It signals a shift in the
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discourse. Paul has finished detailing how
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charity prevents evil behavior and promotes good behavior
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toward other humans. OK, so category is closing
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right? When we cross that threshold
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into the next verse, the text signals a shift to a new
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category of fruits. We should anticipate Paul
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introducing something of a different kind.
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Which brings us to the third proof.
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And honestly, this is the one that forces a complete paradigm
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shift for me. Edwards looks the entire chapter
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and identifies a pattern. The trio.
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Yes, the trio. Paul consistently links the trio
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of faith, hope, and charity. He does it throughout the
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chapter, culminating in the famous final verse and now
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abideth Faith, hope, charity, these three.
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But the greatest of these is charity.
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In that final verse. Faith and hope clearly refer to
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grace as directed at God, not neighbors.
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Faith is trusting God. Hope is anticipating God's
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promises. Consistency demands the same
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definition in verse 7. You can't just switch
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definitions midway through, right?
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You cannot have faith and hope mean trusting your neighbor in
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verse seven OK, and then suddenly mean trusting God 6
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verses later. It violates the internal logic
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of the document. If an author uses a specific
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trio of technical terms multiple times in a single argument, you
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must define them uniformly to understand the author's intent.
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So what's the 4th proof? The 4th proof pans out even
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further to the macro level. The entire aim of First
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Corinthians 13 is to show how charity relates to and surpasses
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all other spiritual gifts and graces.
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The goal is to demonstrate the supremacy of charity.
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When Paul says charity believes and hopes all things, he means
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charity is the supreme grace because it has the most
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effectual influence in producing faith and hope.
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It cherishes them. It promotes them in the soul.
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So what does this all mean for you, the listener?
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Once we understand that verse 7 is actually about the
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relationship between divine love, faith and hope, we arrive
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at this massive doctrine. And it is a massive.
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The graces of Christianity are all connected and mutually
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dependent. They're not separate
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acquisitions. If one link in the chain breaks,
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the whole structure falls apart. That is the core doctrine
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derived from this exegesis. The virtues are linked together,
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united 1 to another. They hang on one another from
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one end to the other. If one ceases to be of any
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effect, the entire system collapses.
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They cannot exist in isolation. OK, seeing the theoretical
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argument is one thing, but we need to look at the mechanics of
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how this actually operates. If these virtues are unified
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chain, how do they interact in the messy reality of a
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believer's life? That's where it gets incredibly
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practical. Right, so Edwards introduces the
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principle of coexistence. He lays down a hard rule.
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Where one grace exists, all exist, and where one is lacking,
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all are lacking. You cannot have faith without
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love, or hope without humility. It is an absolute all or nothing
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proposition. This directly challenges the
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common notion that people possess different spiritual
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strengths. We hear people say things like,
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well, my faith is strong, but my love for others is pretty weak
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right now. Or I have a lot of hope, but I
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struggle with humility. Yeah, exactly that.
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But Edwards argues that this is a categorical misunderstanding
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of what these graces actually are.
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If your love is missing, what you are calling faith is not
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actually biblical faith. Wow.
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So what is it? It might be intellectual
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agreement with a set of facts, or it might be pure presumption,
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but it is not the grace of faith.
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Because they depend on one another.
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Let's look at the intricate feedback loops Edwards describes
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to prove this dependence. Let's take faith in love first,
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he says. Faith promotes love, but love is
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the active ingredient of a living faith.
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Can you break down the causality there?
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The causality is airtight. You cannot truly love a being
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you do not believe is real. So faith, the firm conviction
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that God exists and is who He says He is, must be present for
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love to exist at all. You have to believe in the
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object before you can direct affection toward it.
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Spot on, but the reverse is equally true.
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Love makes faith possible in a relational sense.
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We are far more disposed to trust a being we already love.
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Think about it in human terms. If you deeply love your spouse
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and you know their character intimately, you have an immense
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capacity to trust them when they make a promise.
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The love fuels the faith. The affection creates the
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environment where trust can thrive.
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And then we see the loop between faith and hope.
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Faith sees and trusts in God's sufficiency to bestow blessings.
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It trusts his faithfulness to his promises.
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Hope rests entirely on that foundation of faith.
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Yeah. If faith is the bedrock
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conviction that the promises are true, hope is the joyful
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anticipation of receiving those promises.
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All gracious hope is hope resting on faith.
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You can't anticipate it if you don't believe it.
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Right. You cannot anticipate a future
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reality if you do not believe the person promising it has the
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capacity to deliver. As you anticipate those
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blessings with hope, it encourages and draws force,
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further acts of faith. They feed each other
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continuously. The stronger the belief in the
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promise, the brighter the anticipation of the fulfillment.
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Here's where it gets really interesting to me, the
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relationship between love and hope, Edward says.
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The spirit of love is the spirit of a child.
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It casts out the spirit of bondage and fear.
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Yeah, he references Romans 8 point from FIEB there.
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Right about receiving the spirit of adoption whereby we cry ABBA
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Father and 1st John 4 point waiting, which says perfect love
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casts out fear. How does the elimination of fear
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mechanically produce hope? This is a crucial psychological
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insight into the human condition.
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A slavish fear, like the paralyzing terror a prisoner has
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of a warden, makes hope structurally impossible.
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Because you're just waiting for the hammer to drop.
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Exactly. You cannot hope for a glorious,
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joyful future from someone you view only as a punishing judge
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holding a gavel over your head. The instinct is to hide from
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that person, not to hope in them.
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Like Adam and Eve in the garden? Yeah.
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But love changes the entire nature of the relationship.
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It shifts the dynamic from prisoner and warden to child and
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father. The more a person feels this
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childlike love toward God, the more natural it becomes to
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approach Him with confidence. And that confidence is the
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essence of hope. Right.
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The love literally evicts the paralyzing fear and creates the
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open space for hope to take root and flourish.
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And the loop closes when hope drives love.
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When a Christian has a correct hope in God's favor, it draws
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out further love. Edwards points to Romans 5.3 to
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5 where the apostle talks about tribulation, working patience,
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patience, working experience, and experience working hope.
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And that hope does not make us ashamed.
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Because the love of God is shed or broad in our hearts, the
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experience of seeing God's faithfulness creates hope, and
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that hope floods the heart with love.
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It functions as a self-sustaining reaction.
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When you truly hope in the eternal blessings God has
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promised, your heart naturally swells with affection for the
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one who promised them. You cannot genuinely anticipate
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a perfect eternal inheritance without feeling a surge of love
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for the Benefactor providing it. The anticipation itself
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generates the affection. I think an ecosystem is the best
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analogy for this. If you were trying to cultivate
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a healthy forest, you do not build the trees, the soil, the
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fungi, and the rain in separate silos and hope they eventually
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work together. No, they feed off each other
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continuously. Right.
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The trees drop leaves, which feed the fungi, which enrich the
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soil, which absorbs the rain, which grows the trees in the
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spiritual ecosystem. Humility lowers your view of
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yourself. That lowered view of self forces
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an increase in faith because you have to rely entirely on God, so
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you cannot rely on your own strength.
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Which then increases gratitude. Exactly.
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That increase reliance on God increases your gratitude when He
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provides, and that gratitude fuels your love for Him.
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That captures the dynamic perfectly.
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You do not go to the gym on Monday to work on your faith
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muscles and then switch over on Tuesday to work on your muscles.
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The exercise of 1 inherently requires the activation and
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strengthening of the others. Humility cherishes all other
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graces. Faith promotes all other graces.
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It is a singular, living Organism.
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But Edwards pushes this concept even further.
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He argues they do not just rely on each other in an ecosystem,
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they actually exist inside one another.
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We're moving from observing the forest to looking at the actual
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cellular structure of the trees. Yeah, this is where his analysis
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gets incredibly precise. He explains that these graces
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share the same spiritual DNA. They are implied in the nature
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of each other. He says that for several of
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these virtues, 1 is essential to another.
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It belongs to its very essence. Consider humility and faith.
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Humility is not just a companion that walks beside faith.
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Humility is implied in the very nature of a true faith.
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So it is the essence of it. Let's think about what saving
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faith actually is. It is a complete renunciation of
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your own merit and a total leaning on the merit of Christ.
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You cannot perform that action proudly.
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It is structurally impossible. Therefore, it is essential to a
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true faith that it be in humble faith.
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A proud trust is an oxymoron in this framework.
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A proud trust means you still think you are contributing
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something to the transaction. That nullifies the definition of
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biblical faith. He applies this everywhere.
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It is essential to Christian love that it be in humble love.
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Because a proud love is just a disguised form of self seeking.
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Yeah. And it is essential to
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thankfulness that it be in humble thankfulness.
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If you harbor an underlying belief that you actually deserve
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the gift you are receiving, you are not thankful.
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You're just collecting a debt. The attitude of entitlement
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destroys the possibility of genuine gratitude.
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So humility is the necessary operating system for all these
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other programs to run. But he makes an even more
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striking claim about the soul of faith.
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We talked about how faith and love feed each other in a loop.
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But here, he says, love is actually the working, operative
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nature of faith. He uses a biological analogy
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here that is really helpful. Just as the soul animates the
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human body, love animates faith. Without love, faith is a dead
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corpse. He is pulling directly from the
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apostle Paul in Galatians 5.6 which states that faith worketh
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by love, and James 2.26 which argues that faith without works
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is dead as the body without the Spirit is dead.
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So belief isn't enough. Right.
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If you possess in a intellectual belief, you acknowledge the
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historical facts of the gospel, you agree with the theology, but
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you have no love for the God of the gospel.
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Your faith is a corpse. It has the outward shape of
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belief, but no life. Love is the breath and the lungs
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of faith. I have to pause and push back
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here because this raises a massive question regarding the
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physics of the soul. When we talk about conversion,
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we usually use two distinct words, repentance and faith.
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True, we usually separate them. We tell people they need to
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repent of their fins and put their faith in Christ.
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But Edwards claims that saving repentance and saving faith are
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implied in each other. He says they are the identical
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motion of the soul. How does that work mechanically?
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How can 2 actions that sound so different actually be the exact
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same thing? This is one of his sharpest
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insights, and he provides a visual that resolves the
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tension. He asks us to imagine a person
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standing in a dark room looking at a light source.
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The act of the soul turning from sin to God through Christ is a
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single, uninterrupted event. OK, I'm picturing it.
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When you look at the thing, the person is turning away from the
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darkness, the sin, we call that action repentance.
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When you look at the thing, the person is turning toward the
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light, Christ. We call that action faith.
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But it is a single unified motion.
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You cannot physically flee darkness without moving toward
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the light. And you cannot embrace the light
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without putting your back to the darkness.
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It is the same physical rotation, the same motion of the
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heart, called by different names depending on which end of the
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trajectory you are describing. Wow, that's brilliant.
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If the language respects the darkness fled from, it is
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avoiding or repenting. If the language respects the
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light fled to it is receiving or embracing.
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That completely really eliminates the idea of a
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staggered process where someone says, well, I repented of my
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sins last year and this year I am trying to build up my faith.
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It renders that concept absurd. If you turned away from the
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dark, you must be looking at the light.
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If you are not looking at the light, you never actually turned
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away from the dark. You just closed your eyes.
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You were still standing in the same spot.
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The overlaps keep going. Thankfulness is simply love
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reacting to goodness. Reverence is simply fear mixed
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with love. He even talks about windedness
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from the world and heavenly mindedness.
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He says they were just a combination of faith, hope and
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love out competing earthly desires.
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It is a matter of superior affection.
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When faith sees the reality of heaven, hope anticipates it and
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love desires it. Natural byproduct is that the
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things of earth lose their grip on the heart.
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It's not a. Separate action?
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No, it is. Not a separate independent grace
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of detachment. It is just the necessary
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inevitable result of faith, hope and love functioning properly in
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the soul. OK, so we see the.
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Ecosystem. We see the shared DNA, but what
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is the underlying engine that forces all these virtues to act
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as a single unit? Gravity holds the planets in
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orbit. Biology holds the cells
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together. What is the spiritual gravity
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making this unity an absolute necessity?
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Edwards provides. 6 distinct causes for this interconnected
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framework. Let's analyze.
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These pillars, the first 'cause they all have the same source,
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yes? They all originate from the Holy
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Spirit. Edwards notes that while there
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are diversities of gifts, there is the same Spirit.
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Grace in the soul is literally the Holy Spirit acting in the
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soul, communicating his own holy nature to the believer.
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He uses 2 analogies here that clarify this perfectly.
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The 1st is a fountain. Many different streams might
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shoot out of a central fountain in different directions.
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They might have different shapes or pressures depending on the
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nozzle, but they're all made of the exact same water.
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The second. Analogy is sunlight.
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Light can reflect off different surfaces in different ways,
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creating various colors or intensities, but it all
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originates from one singular body of light because the.
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Graces all flow from the same divine nature.
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Their differences are chiefly relative.
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They have different names based on their objects or the specific
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mode of their exercise, but in their abstract foundational
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nature they are all the same holy substance which brings.
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Us to the second 'cause they are all communicated in the same
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work, specifically the event of conversion.
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There are not separate conversions for humility,
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repentance, and love. They don't arrive.
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On a staggered delivery schedule?
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Exactly. They are all produced by 1 and
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the same work of the Spirit. They are contained in that one
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new nature given in regeneration, the third.
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Cause is vital for understanding how Edwards views the human
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mind. He argues they all have the same
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root, which is the knowledge of God's excellence.
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He argues that one single accurate site of God's nature
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triggers the entire chain reaction of virtues, a true.
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Spiritual apprehension of who God is provides the ground and
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reason for all holy dispositions I want to challenge.
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This idea, saying the root of all these virtues is just
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knowledge or seeing God's excellence sounds overly
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intellectual. Doesn't that ignore the
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emotional or willful side of human nature?
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How does mere knowledge trigger a behavioral chain reaction that
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results in love and humility? That assumes.
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Knowledge in this context is just reciting data points like
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knowing the capital of a state. For Edwards, spiritual knowledge
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is not just intellectual assent to facts, it is an apprehension
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of beauty and reality that commands the affections.
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So it's seeing it as. Beautiful, not just seeing it as
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a fact, right if. You truly see God's excellence.
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If you apprehend His supreme worth and beauty, you cannot
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help but love Him. The sight of the beauty compels
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the affection. You cannot help but trust Him.
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You cannot help but submit to Him the knowledge.
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Itself is the root from which all these branches organically
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grow, yes. If someone truly knows God's
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name, they will put their trust in Him.
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If they do not trust Him, it proves they have not actually
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seen His excellence. The root is simply missing, so
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the sight. Of the object dictates the
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response of the heart. That makes sense.
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Let's examine the 4th 'cause they all have the same rule, The
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rule is the law of God. All the graces have respect to
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this single rule, and they all tend to conform the heart to it.
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This brings in. The legal framework he sense
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James 2.10 here whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet
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offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
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Why is that the case? Because the law is an expression
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of a single unified authority. If you have a.
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Genuine respect for one command because it comes from God.
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That same respect necessitates a respect for all His commands.
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You cannot honor the authority behind Do not steal while
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simultaneously disregarding the authority behind Do not lie.
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It is the. Identical authority issuing both
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commands. The graces are.
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Linked because they are all calibrated to the same unified
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legal standard, the 5th. Cause is that they all have the
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same end. All graces aim at God and his
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glory. They rise from the same
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fountain, grow from the same root, follow the same rule, and
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they all point toward the exact same destination they're
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designed. To bring the believer into a
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state of happiness in God to his glory and the final.
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Cause the sum of all all the graces are related to one
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specific grace as their comprehensive container, and
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that is charity or divine love. Love is.
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The fulfilling of them all right every.
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Other virtue is just a diversification, a different
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branch, or a specific mode of exercising love.
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One principle of life comprehends all its
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manifestations. Understanding.
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This flawless unified system, in theory, is fascinating.
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You can see the architectural logic of it.
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But how does it manifest in the reality of human life?
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Because we do not naturally feel like we possess this perfect
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unified chain most of the time, that is the.
21:56
Critical tension We need to look at the anatomy of the new
21:59
creation. Let's make.
22:00
Sense of a very famous verse Second Corinthians 5.100 If any
22:05
man be in Christ, he is new creature.
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Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become
22:11
new. What does that actually look
22:13
like? When it happens, it's a great.
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Question because when you. Look in the mirror after a long
22:17
day. You probably do not feel like a
22:19
new creation possessing every single grace of Christ.
22:22
You probably just feel tired, impatient, and acutely aware of
22:26
your own failures. So how does Edwards account for
22:28
the gap between this high theology and what you actually
22:30
experience on a Tuesday morning? He accounts.
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For it by making a rigorous distinction between the presence
22:35
of a grace and the maturity of a grace.
22:37
Edwards uses a biological analogy to explain this.
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He compares the new birth to the physical birth of an infant.
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OK an. Infant at the moment.
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Of the new birth, the believer receives all the graces, just as
22:49
they are linked together. When one is bestowed, all are
22:52
bestowed simultaneously. But the key.
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Is their state of development. They might be incredibly weak.
22:58
They might be feeble, just like the faculties and powers of a
23:00
newborn baby. An infant cannot run a marathon,
23:03
cannot solve a math equation, cannot even hold its own head
23:06
up. But the infant has all the
23:08
requisite parts of a human, an infant.
23:10
Is not missing a liver or lungs the baby?
23:13
Does not get its arms at birth and have to wait five years for
23:16
its legs to be delivered. The parts are all present,
23:19
they're just entirely immature a new.
23:21
Convert possesses every single grace that existed in Jesus
23:24
Christ himself. Edwards quotes John 1.16 quote
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of his fullness have all we received and grace for grace.
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There is a 1 to 1 correspondence between the graces in Christ and
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the graces implanted in the believer at conversion.
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The blueprint is. Fully executed, even if the
23:41
building is barely off the ground.
23:43
The Mirror. Analogy he uses expands on this
23:45
beautifully. He says grace in the soul is a
23:48
reflection of Christ's glory. The reflection of a person in a
23:52
mirror might be dim. The mirror might be smudged or
23:55
obscured by bad lighting, but it reflects, part for part, the
23:58
believer. 'S soul mirrors Christ's
24:00
attributes comprehensively, not selectively.
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You do not look in a mirror and see only a nose floating there,
24:06
right? You see?
24:06
The whole face, even if the image is faint.
24:09
The new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him
24:12
that created him. It is a complete image, even if
24:15
it is currently lacking high definition.
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Now there's a. Negative side of this equation,
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which is incredibly practical for the daily life of a
24:21
Christian, we must consider the mortification of sin.
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If every grace enters the heart at conversion, then every
24:28
opposing corruption is immediately under act of attack.
24:30
There is no one corruption but what has a grace opposite to it?
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Faith. Attacks unbelief.
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Love. Attacks enmity.
24:38
Humility. Attacks pride.
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Meekness Attacks revenge thankfulness.
24:42
Attacks a thankless spirit. He uses the.
24:44
Analogy of bringing a candle into a dark room.
24:47
Just as the arrival of light inherently banishes the
24:50
darkness, the arrival of these graces forces the old nature to
24:53
recede. But I want to pause on the
24:56
reality of that process. It is a violent displacement.
25:00
The old man is put off as the new man is put on.
25:04
Edwards is careful to note that all old things pass away in a
25:06
measure, but none perfectly. While we are on Earth, we are
25:09
still battling the Presence. Of the complete set of graces
25:12
means there is no sanctuary left for any sin.
25:16
Every single corruption now has an active enemy stationed in the
25:19
heart. The war has begun on every front
25:22
simultaneously, so they aren't just.
25:23
Sitting there peacefully, No a person.
25:25
Goes from having 0 graces and 0 mortified corruptions to having
25:29
all graces present and all corruptions under active
25:31
mortification. It truly is a new creation, even
25:35
if the dust of battle obscures the view.
25:37
And if a. True Christian possesses all
25:39
these traits simultaneously. Then this interconnected
25:43
framework becomes the ultimate diagnostic tool.
25:46
This is where Edwards applies the X-ray machine to the human
25:50
heart. Because the Graces always travel
25:52
as a pack, you can test the authenticity of one by looking
25:56
for its required partners. You try 1 grace by another.
25:59
Let's break. Down the diagnostic tests he
26:01
provides first testing faith and love.
26:05
Someone claims to have faith. They say they have come to
26:08
Christ and believe the gospel. How do we test that claim?
26:11
We look for the. Presence of repentance, yes.
26:13
We inquire whether they came to Christ in a broken hearted
26:16
manner, sensible of their utter unworthiness and vileness,
26:19
because if their. Faith is presumptuous.
26:21
If they have a pharisaical spirit that takes encouragement
26:24
from their own supposed goodness or intellect, then what they're
26:27
calling faith is a counterfeit. True faith relies entirely on
26:31
Christ, which structurally requires a lowly sense of self.
26:34
What about testing love? Someone says they have an
26:37
affectionate love toward God. They feel warmth during a
26:39
worship service. They get teary eyed when
26:41
thinking about heaven. How do you verify that emotion?
26:44
We test. That love by their faith.
26:47
We must ask if this affection is accompanied by a factual
26:50
conviction of gospel reality. Do they have a real conviction
26:54
in their soul of the reality of Christ and the truth of the
26:57
gospel that reveals Him? It can't just be.
26:59
An empty feeling, right? Edwards warns about a specific
27:02
kind of false affection here. He compares it to the affection
27:05
we might have toward a character in a romance novel.
27:08
This is a. Brilliant psychological
27:10
observation. Think about the experience of
27:13
reading a compelling novel. You can be moved to tears by the
27:16
plight of a fictional character. You can feel genuine warmth,
27:20
anger, and affection for them. You might stay up until 3:00 in
27:23
the morning because you were so invested in their story, but at
27:26
the end of the day, you know they are not real.
27:29
The affection. Costs you nothing in the real
27:31
world, Edwards. Argues that many people possess
27:33
a romance novel affection for God.
27:36
Their feelings are genuinely stirred, but they are stirred by
27:39
a fictionalized, comfortable version of God that they have
27:42
created in their own imaginations, rather than the
27:45
true, revealed God of the Scripture.
27:48
Because that false affection is not accompanied by a solid
27:50
conviction of reality, it will not hold up under suffering.
27:54
It will not. Influence them in duty when real
27:56
life gets hard. You do not sacrifice your life,
27:59
your money or your reputation for a fictional character,
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therefore. If your love for God does not
28:04
produce obedience and endurance in real world suffering, it is
28:07
likely a romanticized affection, not the grace of divine love.
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Let's look at. Another test, the grace of hope.
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How do we test hope against worldliness?
28:16
We test hope by observing if it produces A lowly, humble joy.
28:19
Does the anticipation of heaven lay you in the dust before God
28:22
in gratitude, or does it pump up the ego a false.
28:26
Hope lifts his possessor up with a high conceit of themselves.
28:29
It flatters the ego and hardens the heart in disobedience.
28:33
A true hope is always accompanied by humility and self
28:35
denial, which brings. Us to a fascinating distinction
28:38
Edwards makes regarding weanedness from the world.
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This is incredibly convicting many people detach from worldly
28:45
pursuits and they assume they are demonstrating advanced
28:48
spiritual maturity. But Edwards says we have to look
28:50
at the mechanics of why they detached.
28:53
He notes that. People often detach from the
28:55
world because of severe afflictions, stress or terror of
28:58
conscience. They lose their financial
29:00
stability or their health fails, or they are terrified of
29:03
judgement, so they stop pursuing certain worldly things, he says.
29:07
They are drawn or beaten or torn off from the world.
29:11
The world. Basically kicked them out.
29:12
But if the affliction vanished, if they got their money back, or
29:15
their health returned, or their conscience stopped condemning
29:18
them, they would run right back to those worldly things.
29:21
Their hearts still cleave to the world just as much as ever, they
29:25
are just temporarily blocked from enjoying it.
29:27
True. Weenedness only happens because
29:30
the heart is captivated by the love of something vastly
29:32
superior. They are so in love with God
29:36
that their affections cannot fasten on the things of the
29:38
world anymore. It is not about being exhausted
29:41
by the world. It is about being out competed
29:43
by heaven. It is the difference.
29:45
Between dropping a toy because someone hit your hand with a
29:48
ruler versus dropping a toy because someone just handed you
29:50
a bar of solid gold, the external result looks exactly
29:54
the same. The toys dropped, but the
29:56
internal mechanics driving the action are completely different.
29:59
I want to offer a. Reality check here.
30:01
If you are listening to this and you are looking at your life and
30:04
seeing glaring inconsistencies, maybe you see some zeal for God,
30:08
but you struggle with patience toward your family, is that
30:11
immediate proof of false grace? Does the presence of
30:14
inconsistency mean the whole chain is fake?
30:16
This is where. Edwards applies immense pastoral
30:18
wisdom. He's not demanding absolute
30:20
perfection. He is demanding proportionality.
30:24
He brings in a striking analogy from Hosea 7.8, describing the
30:27
tribe of Ephraim as a cake not turned.
30:30
OK, a cake. Not turned in the ancient.
30:32
World baking a cake on hot coals or ashes required turning it so
30:36
it baked evenly. If you left it on one side it
30:39
would burn to a crisp on the bottom while the top remain raw
30:42
dough. It is ruined on both sides.
30:45
Good for nothing. How does that?
30:46
Apply to diagnosing false grace. False grace.
30:49
Creates A monstrous, disproportionate picture.
30:53
A person might appear to have intense burning zeal toward God,
30:56
the burnt side, but they possess 0 charity, patience or
31:00
forgiveness toward their fellow men, the raw side or conversely.
31:05
They're incredibly generous and philanthropic to humanity, but
31:08
have no reverence or worship for God.
31:10
It is partial and inconsistent. Good in one thing, bad in
31:13
another. True grace.
31:15
On the other hand, while still battling sin and imperfection,
31:18
produces a proportional Christian they're growing in all
31:21
areas simultaneously. They're love for God and their
31:24
love for neighbor are maturing together.
31:26
They are not a monster with one giant arm and one shriveled arm.
31:29
They are a whole body growing up into the stature of Christ, the
31:32
presence of. Struggle does not mean you are a
31:33
false convert. The complete absence of an
31:36
essential grace does the scope. Of what we have covered today is
31:39
massive. We started with a single verse
31:42
about charity, believing and hoping all things, and we
31:44
uncovered an entire architectural blueprint of the
31:47
soul. The graces of Christianity are
31:50
not a buffet where you pick and choose what suits your
31:52
personality. They are.
31:54
A single indivisible chain. They are.
31:56
Born from the same spirit, they arrive in the identical moment
32:00
of conversion, and they act together to mortify every
32:03
opposing sin. You cannot separate faith from
32:06
love or hope from humility. It is a.
32:08
Cohesive system. And because it is cohesive, it
32:11
allows us to test our own hearts with remarkable clarity.
32:15
We're not left guessing whether our spiritual experiences are
32:17
genuine. We can apply the X-ray of
32:20
interconnected graces before we. Sign Off We want to leave you
32:23
with a final thought to examine on your own, circling back to
32:26
that concept of weedness from the world.
32:29
Look at your own detachments, the things you have walked away
32:31
from or the habits you have stopped.
32:34
Are you letting go of certain earthly ambitions or
32:36
relationships simply because you are exhausted, stressed out, or
32:39
afraid of the consequences? Or are you?
32:41
Letting go of them because your affection has been entirely
32:45
captured by a superior spiritual reality.
32:48
Diagnosing. The why behind your actions
32:50
might reveal the true nature of your faith.
32:52
Are you just a beaten off worldly person or are you a
32:55
captivated heavenly person? That is a thought that will
32:58
linger. Thank you for joining this deep
33:00
dive into reformed thinking. Keep examining your text, keep
33:03
testing the connections and we will see you next time.