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The Manner in Which the Salvation of the Soul Is to Be Sought (Genesis 6:22) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. This is the deep dive where we
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take the sources you're curious about, the books, the sermons,
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the classic writings, and we try to pull out the critical
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insights. We really just want to connect
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the dots and give you the full context, not just a surface
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level reading. And today, our mission, well, it
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takes us back to a giant of the faith, Jonathan Edwards.
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We're looking at one of his sermons on Genesis 6.22.
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Right. The sermon is called the manner
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in which the salvation of the soul is to be sought.
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And it all starts with this one verse, Genesis 6.22.
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Thus did Noah according to all that God commanded him, so did
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he. It sounds so simple.
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It does. It sounds like just a plain
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statement of fact. But for Edwards, that phrase,
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according to all that God commanded him, that's the whole
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key. Right.
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It points to a complete a thorough obedience, not just
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starting the work, but seeing it all the way through down to the
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last detail. And from that, Edwards pulls out
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this doctrine that, frankly, is incredibly demanding.
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He says we should be willing to engage in and go through great
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undertakings for our own salvation.
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So that's our goal for this deep dive, to really unpack that.
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What does Edwards even mean by a great undertaking, and why is
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that willingness so central to seeking salvation?
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To get a handle on the spiritual effort Edwards is talking about,
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he first makes us look at the physical task Noah faced.
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I mean, the context is the coming flood.
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God gives him a command. And the Ark is the only way out,
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the only way to save himself and his family.
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Right. And Edwards uses that physical
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salvation, you know, being saved from a flood of water as a
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tangible picture, a shadow of what it means to be saved from
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the flood of God's wrath. We tend to read the story of
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Noah almost like a children's book, you know, with the cute
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animals. But Edwards reads it like an
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engineer's report. He sees it as this huge
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architectural and logistical challenge.
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He really does. He starts with the size 300
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cubits long, 50 cubits wide, 30 cubits high.
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Now we often think of a cubit as what about a foot and 1/2?
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Yeah, that's the standard Sunday school answer.
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But this is where I was so struck by Edwards scholarship.
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He talks about learned men in his day who are actually
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measuring ancient structures like the pyramids in Egypt, and
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they were finding that the ancient cubit was probably
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closer to 22 inches, not 18. And that small change, Just 4
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inches, it completely transforms the scale of the Ark.
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Edwards uses that detail to show that the Ark was actually way
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bigger than people thought. So what are the new numbers
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then? He calculates it to be over 550
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feet long, about 90 feet wide and 50 feet high.
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That makes it almost double the size that people were commonly
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assuming. Wow.
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So it's not just a big boat, it's a colossal floating
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structure, a warehouse really built with all these specific
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rooms and divisions inside, designed to survive on the water
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for, well, a very long. Time and built with absolute
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precision, following God's directions to the letter, but
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the size is almost secondary to the time it took. 120 years. 120
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years. Edwards draws that from Genesis,
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where God says his Spirit won't always strive with man and that
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his days shall be 120 years. That is just.
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It's hard to even wrap your head around that.
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A project that demands your constant attention for your
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entire adult life. And then some.
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Edwards points out that we would call an undertaking great if it
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kept us busy for even half that time.
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For Noah, this was 12 decades of constant work, constant
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supervision, constant care. He couldn't take a few years
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off, He couldn't get distracted. He had to be continually
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occupied with this one single business.
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Right. And that duration flows directly
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into the next point, which is the sheer cost of it all, the
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expense and the sacrifice. I mean a project of that size
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for that long, it requires a huge number of workers.
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You need people to find the wood, cut the wood, shape it,
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fit it all together. And Edwards has this very
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realistic, almost cynical view of the people around Noah.
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He says it's not probable that anyone from that wicked
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generation would lift a finger to help.
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Without being paid in full. Right.
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They're not volunteering for Noah's Folly.
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So Noah isn't just a builder, he's the sole financier of this
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massive century long construction project.
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Which leads Edwards to speculate that Noah must have been an
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incredibly wealthy man to begin with, maybe on the level of an
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Abraham or a Job. But here's the crucial parallel
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for our salvation. Edwards argues that it is very
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likely Noah spent all his worldly substance on the ark.
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He poured every last bit of his wealth into it.
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That's a staggering thought. Financial ruin as an act of
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faith. Well, think about it.
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If you truly believe God's word that a flood is coming that will
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destroy everything on earth, then what's the point of holding
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on to your wealth? It's all going to be washed away
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anyway. Suspending it all on the one
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thing that offers safety is the only logical move.
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It's a demonstration that you actually believe what God has
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said. It set such a high bar for us.
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It does, but then Edwards says there was a cost that was maybe
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even harder to bear than the financial one.
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The social cost, The ridicule. For 120 years, he was is the
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laughingstock of the entire world.
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Can you imagine every single day people walking by seeing this
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gigantic wooden structure being built on dry land, miles from
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any significant body of water? They would have called it Noah's
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Folly, a monument to one man's delusion.
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And Edwards says it's incredible.
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Which brings us to Edwards first big proposition.
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There is a required work, a business that men must undertake
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and finish if they are to be saved.
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Put simply, you can't expect to be saved while doing nothing.
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You can't just drift into heaven and idleness.
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There's a great work that has to be done.
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And what does that work look like?
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He says it's pursued through the constant observance of all duty
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found in God's Word. It's not a pick and choose
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situation. No, it requires obedience to all
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of God's commands, participating in every institution of worship,
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diligently using all the means of grace He's appointed.
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So this can't be a side hustle, it can't be a business by the
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by, as he puts it, it has to be the main thing, the great
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concern of your life. Yes, done with all your might,
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with great desire, with a strong resolution.
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It's that idea of the one thing I do that we see from the
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Apostle Paul. Everything else in life has to
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take a backseat to this one great business.
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And that means real sacrifice, he says.
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We have to be ready to give up everything.
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Not just the obvious sinful pleasures, but our worldly
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reputation, our money, our friends, even our own life it
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comes to it. It's that total self denial
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taking up the cross. He brings up the rich young
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ruler here, and it's such a perfect example of failure on
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this point. The young man says he wants
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salvation. He says he's kept the commands.
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But when Christ tests him, when he asked him to part with his
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estate to make that total sacrifice, he can't do it.
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He walks away sad because he wasn't willing to go through
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with a great undertaking. And that failure really hinged
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on perseverance, didn't it? Edwards says.
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It's not enough to be really zealous for a little while and
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then just, you know. Relax, right?
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It has to be a constant, persevering devotion.
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Just like Noah, who kept it as great work until it was done, we
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have to keep it the duties of religion until the flood of
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death comes for us. OK, so this is where I think a
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lot of us, especially from a Reformed background, start to
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get a little uncomfortable. If the work is this hard, this
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constant, this costly, doesn't it fly in the face of the gospel
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being free? We believe in justification by
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faith alone, through grace alone.
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It sounds an awful lot like we're earning our salvation
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through sheer effort. How does Edwards square that
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circle? That is the absolute central
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question and he knows he has to address it head on.
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It's the first thing he does. He asks why is all this work
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necessary, and his first answer is the most critical one.
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It is not to merit salvation. So the work isn't the price tag.
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It is not the price tag. Edwards is crystal clear on
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this. The work we do is never intended
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to recommend us to God's mercy as a meritorious 'cause, he
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says, if we're only talking about the meritorious cause, men
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are saved, holy, without any work of their own.
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He quotes Titus 3.5. Not by works of righteousness
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which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved
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us. Correct.
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Our legal standing before God, our justification that's secured
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entirely by what Christ did on the cross.
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It's a free gift. Christ paid the price.
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That's the foundation and it's non negotiable.
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OK, so if the work isn't the price, what is it?
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It's the appointed way. God, for reasons of his own
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wisdom and holiness, has decided that people will come to their
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final salvation. That is the actual state of
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being glorified in heaven, in no other way than through a life of
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good works that we do. So it's not what gets you in the
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door, but it's the path you must walk once you're inside.
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Is that a fairway to put? It that's a very good way to put
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it. It's the appointed pathway.
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He points to Philippians 2.1 quote.
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Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
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The work is the evidence that you have spiritual life.
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It's the necessary path to final glory.
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If there's no work, there's no evidence of life and therefore
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no reason to expect final salvation.
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But again, why? If justification is a free gift,
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why does God insist on this difficult path?
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Edwards gives a few reasons. What he calls the wise ends for
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this. He does.
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The first one is all about the glory of God.
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It just wouldn't reflect well on God's character, on His wisdom
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and holiness, if the way to salvation encourage people to be
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lazy or wicked. Right.
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If heaven was just a handout to people who did nothing, it would
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sort of cheapen the whole enterprise.
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God made us for activity for business, and the primary
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business He made us for is religion.
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So God sets up salvation in a way that promotes diligence and
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holiness. It's about shaping us to be the
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kind of creatures who reflect his own character.
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And the second reason has to do with value instilling a due
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sense of value. Yeah, this is just basic human
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psychology. We don't tend to value things
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that come too easily. Think about any great
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achievement in life, in learning, in the arts, in
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building a business. It's never easy.
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The difficulty is part of what makes it valuable.
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So if salvation, most precious thing imaginable, was just
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obtained with no effort, we'd undervalue it.
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We treat it lightly. We'd be ungrateful for it.
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The labor involved forces us to understand just how great a
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deliverance it is. And that leads to the third wise
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end, which is all about preparation.
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The work itself prepares us for salvation.
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How? So well.
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By going through this long, hard struggle, we get a much better
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sense of our own weakness, our own neediness, our own
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unworthiness. The struggle is designed to
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break our pride. Right.
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It shows us that we can't actually do it on our own power,
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which makes us rely even more on Christ even as we're working.
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So it's not just about outward actions, it's an internal
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process. It disciplines the heart and
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mind so that when we finally receive that salvation, we
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actually prize it and we're properly thankful for it.
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If you've spent 120 years building an ark, sacrificing
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everything, you are not going to take your arrival to safety for
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granted. No, you're not.
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So this requirement for hard work is actually perfectly
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consistent with salvation being a free gift.
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Yes, because the work is never the price, it's never the
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meritorious 'cause it's the pathway and the preparation, and
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God designed it that way because it is ultimately better for us.
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It makes us suitable to receive the gift.
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OK, that clarifies the theology. So now we can move to his second
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proposition, which is that this spiritual business, this work,
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is in fact a great undertaking. Edwards knew that the Devil
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plays two different tunes here. To some people, he makes
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religion sound impossibly hard to scare them off completely.
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But the others, he does the opposite.
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He flatters them that it's an easy thing, a trivial business
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you can take care of later. And Edwards wants to completely
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destroy that second idea. He says you have to count the
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cost beforehand. You have to go into this knowing
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it's a massive project. And he gives 6 reasons why it's
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so difficult. The first one is the great labor
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and care involved. This isn't just about physical
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work, but the mental and spiritual effort of it all.
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Right. The duties are numerous.
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Duties to God, to your neighbor, to yourself, and the opposition
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you face is relentless. He says you're fighting a war on
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three fronts. First, there's Satan, who he
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calls a subtle and powerful adversary, constantly laying
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traps. Second, there's the world
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itself, with all its temptations and distractions and obstacles.
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And third, maybe the hardest one is the Enemy within Your Own
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Heart, which he describes as sluggish, carnal, proud and
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deceitful. It's constantly pulling you in
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the wrong direction. So just to stay on the path
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requires this constant careful watchfulness, a great deal of
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Labor and strife. The second difficulty is that
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it's a constant business. There's no time off.
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There's no spiritual vacation. Unlike other work where you can
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take breaks, this has to be pursued daily.
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He brings up the command to take up your cross daily.
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So that means if you get really fired up about religion for a
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few months and make a big show of it, but then you slack off
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and take it easy, that doesn't count.
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No, that kind of occasional effort is useless.
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In his view. The work is never done until
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your life is done. It requires that constant,
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disciplined vigilance day in and day out.
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Then the third difficulty is the great expense and we're back to
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that idea of selling all. It starts with giving up sinful
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pleasures, which is obvious, yeah, but it goes way beyond
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that. Right.
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It can cost you your money, your reputation, the goodwill of your
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friends and family. Sometimes it can even cost you
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your life. Think about the modern
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parallels. What does it cost you today to
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swim against the cultural tide? It can cost you career
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opportunities if your faith keeps you from making certain
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compromises. It can cost you social standing.
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The ridicule Noah faced for 120 years.
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Today, that happens in an instant on social media if you
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hold an unpopular conviction. The spiritual arc is built in
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public and the cost to your comfort and your social
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acceptance can be very high, and Edward says you have to be
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willing to pay that price. OK, the 4th difficulty is
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something he calls the Great Trouble and Exercise of Mind.
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This part is pretty sobering. It is.
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He talks very frankly about the spiritual state before a person
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finds comfort and assurance. He says people can labor for a
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long time in darkness, feeling a great distress of conscience,
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terrible fears and confusing temptations.
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He uses this phrase laboring, as it were, in the very fire,
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crying out to God and feeling like there's no answer, striving
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and feeling like you're going backward.
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It's a description of intense spiritual warfare and deep
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conviction of sin. It can lead people to the edge
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of despair. And he's clear this isn't just a
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one time thing. Even after a person finds
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comfort, they can go through seasons of darkness again.
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He mentions how a melancholy personality combined with
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temptations from Satan can cause people to spend much of their
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lives in distress. It's a recognition that this
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path can be psychologically brutal.
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And enduring that mental and spiritual hardship without
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quitting is part of the Great Work itself.
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The 5th difficulty speaks to the need for help.
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It requires much instruction and counsel.
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Yes, Edward says. This whole business is like a
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labyrinth with 10,000 wrong ways.
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There are so many rocks where souls have been shipwrecked.
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So you can't just figure it out on your own.
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Your own wisdom isn't enough. Not at all.
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You need guidance first from the scriptures, which he calls a
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light shining in a dark place. You have to diligently search
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them and you need to see counsel from wise and skilled people.
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But ultimately the guidance has to come from God himself through
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constant prayer because the gate is narrow and he says there are
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none that find it without direction from heaven.
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And again, the parallel to Noah is so powerful.
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Noah's human knowledge was totally insufficient to build a
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boat that could survive a global flood.
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He needed God's exact blueprints.
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And our spiritual ark is even more complex.
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Without God's direct guidance, we're guaranteed to fail.
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Which brings us to the final difficulty #6 the labor never
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ends till life ends. It's a lifelong project.
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The work runs parallel to your life.
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There is no retirement. You can't expect to rest from
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this struggle until death. That long continuance, the 120
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years, that's what made Noah's work so great.
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And our spiritual work is the same.
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It's not finished until we die. So even if you've had past
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spiritual successes or you feel a strong assurance of your
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salvation that doesn't give you a pass, you're not excused from
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the labor that's still required. You have to keep at the business
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right up until the flood of death arrives.
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The idea that you can reach a plateau of spiritual ease is a
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complete fantasy from Edward's perspective.
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So after laying out how incredibly difficult this all
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is, we get to the final and I think most urgent proposition.
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Right. Men must be willing to do this,
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however hard it seems. They have to be willing because
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it's for their own salvation, and that willingness is driven
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by the terrifying certainty of what happens if they don't.
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The first point here is that a deluge of wrath will surely
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come. Just like the people in Noah's
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day who laughed at his warnings, people today are skeptical about
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a final judgement. But Edwards says the threat is
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absolutely certain. A day of wrath is coming and it
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will not be delayed. And Noah's flood, as awful as it
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was, it was just a pale shadow of this coming deluge of divine.
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Wrath. And for those who don't do the
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work, the result is universal destruction.
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Anyone who fails to repair this spiritual arc will be completely
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swallowed up. There will be no place to hide.
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People will run to the hills, to the mountains, to caves, but it
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won't matter. The flood will rise above the
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highest mountains. And then Edwards takes the
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imagery a step further. He moves from water to fire, the
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final deluge of fire. He quotes from Deuteronomy about
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a fire kindled in God's anger that will burn to the lowest
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hell and consume the earth. Hiding in a cave is useless
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because The Cave itself will burn like an oven.
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He even says this applies in the moment of death.
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Wicked men who ignored this great work their whole lives.
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When you see death coming, they suddenly get very busy.
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They panic. They call for doctors.
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They cry out to God. They make promises to change
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their lives. But Edward says it's all in
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vain. They've send away their day of
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grace, Their time is up and it's too late.
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And that final state is infinitely terrible.
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Noah's flood was terrifying, but this eternal destruction is
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10,000 times worse. He describes it as an ocean
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without shores, a misery with no end.
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The metaphor he uses is a deluge of liquid fire, a lake of fire
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and brimstone. It's incredibly graphic
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language. He talks about vast liquid
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mountains of fire and brimstone rolling over the souls and
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bodies of the damned, one after another, without any break, for
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all eternity. And when you put it like that,
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the 120 years of Labor and ridicule and expense that Noah
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endured, it just seems like nothing in comparison.
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That's precisely the point. But he can't leave it there just
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with terror. He has to offer some hope or
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people would just despair. Right.
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And he does. He says the work is possible.
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Noah's task seemed impossible, but he got through it.
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And in the same way, if we undertake the spiritual work
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with sincerity and resolve, we will not fail.
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It's not beyond our God-given abilities or the opportunities
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we have. If we're sincere, if we start
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now, and if we stick with it, we will succeed.
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Which leads right into his direct application to the
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listener. He basically says count the cost
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honestly. Stop telling yourself it's going
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to be easy. Don't expect a light business.
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Sit down and calculate what it's really going to require of you.
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The labor, the expense, the scorn, the mental struggle.
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And if you look at all that and you just can't find it in your
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heart to do it, to persevere to the end.
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Then he says just be honest about it, Stop pretending,
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conclude to go to hell in that way, and never make any more
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pretenses of seeking your salvation.
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It's incredibly harsh, but it's consistent.
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He hates spiritual hypocrisy. And he says you have been
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warned, just like the people in Noah's day.
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Noah didn't just warn them with his words.
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The ark itself was a standing warning for 120 years.
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He says every knock of the hammer was like a knock of Jesus
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Christ at the door of their hearts.
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But they ignored it. And this brings up that very
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modern sounding objection, doesn't it?
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The objection of unseen reality. Yeah, the skeptic says.
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OK, I hear all these scary stories about hell, but how do I
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know it's real? I've never seen it.
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No one's come back to tell us. Maybe it's just a fable.
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How does Edwards answer that? By going right back to Nella, he
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says the people of the Old world had the exact same objection.
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They were being warned about things not seen as yet.
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They couldn't imagine where enough water to cover the
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mountains would even come from. We know A had nothing to go on
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but the bare word of God. And in the end, God's Word
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proved true, and their skepticism was proven to be
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folly. And Edward says it's the same
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for us. God's word about a coming
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judgement is more certain than the ground we stand on.
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Those who thought Noah was a fool were exposed as the fools
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themselves. And the urgency comes from the
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fact that this opportunity won't last forever.
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God's patience is limited. The whole time the Ark was being
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built, the door was open, so to speak.
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But then comes that terrifying moment in Genesis 7.1, Sin.
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After Noah and his family are inside, it says God shut him in.
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The door was closed. The day of patience was over.
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You can just imagine the scene. People who'd been laughing for
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years suddenly see the first drops of rain.
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They feel the ground shake and they come running to the Ark,
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pounding on the door, crying to be let in.
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But it's useless. God himself shut the door.
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And as Edward says, when God shuts, no man opens.
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And if you keep ignoring the warnings today, the same thing
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will happen. The door is open now, but one
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day God will shut it, and your frantic cries of Lord, Lord open
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to us will be in vain. And the most terrifying thing
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about it is the suddenness. It will probably happen when you
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least expect it, he says. Many in the Old world were
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likely asleep in their beds when the waters burst in their doors.
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A sudden, surprising destruction.
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He that is often reproved and hardens his neck, shall suddenly
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be destroyed, and that without remedy.
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And that leads to his final crushing rebuke.
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He says to neglect this great work is a form of more than
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brutish madness. What does he mean by that?
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He says even animals have the basic sense to seek safety.
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An ox knows its owner. A bird flies to a warmer climate
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before winter. Ants store up food.
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They obey their natural instincts for self preservation.
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But we who have been warned so clearly about the coming storm
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of God's wrath, we just sit there and refuse to see shelter.
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And he says God used the animals in Noah's day as a rebuke to
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mankind. All the creatures flock to the
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ark for safety, while the men who are made in God's image
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stubbornly refused it Show that their folly was greater than
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that of the brute beasts. That's a humbling and terrifying
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thought to end on. It truly is.
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It exposes the refusal to do the work as a kind of insanity that
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defies even animal instinct. So the essential take away here
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from Edwards is this powerful link between Noah's physical
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project and our spiritual one. The 120 years of work, the cost,
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the ridicule, the absolute obedience, it's all a blueprint
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for the great undertaking our own salvation requires.
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And it's so critical to remember the work is not the payment.
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It's the necessary path, the preparation.
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It requires a faithful, constant, costly perseverance
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that lasts our whole lives. That's what prepares us to
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properly receive the free gift of salvation in Christ.
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Edward said that the people of the Old World were surprised in
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the night by the waters bursting suddenly in at their doors, in
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their beds. And today you've been warned
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again. You've heard the sound of the
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Hammers building. So maybe the thought to leave
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you with is this Ponder the absolute certainty of God's
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Word, the very thing Noah relied on and which will never fail,
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and then consider the terrifying suddenness of destruction when
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you are at least expecting it. The Old world found out too late
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that they were the fools, and Edwards's great concern is that
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we don't make the same mistake.