Latest / Reformed Thinking / God Glorified in Man's Dependence (1 Corinthians 1:29-31) | Jonathan Edwards

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God Glorified in Man's Dependence (1 Corinthians 1:29-31) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to the show. We're doing something a little
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  different today. We are opening a file that sits
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  right at the center of our identity, and we're putting a
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  specific label on this deep dive reform thinking.
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  It's good to be here and that label is, well, it's very
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  fitting we are going back to the bedrock today.
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  We really are. We're looking at a document that
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  helps explain the the architecture of how a human
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  being relates to God, specifically through the lens of
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  the Reformed tradition. And it's a relationship that I
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  think feels a little uncomfortable at first glance.
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  If you look at our modern culture or, you know, even the
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  broader church culture in the West.
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  What are the ideas we see everywhere?
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  About independence. Self-reliance.
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  Taking ownership, the idea that you've got this.
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  Right. We live in a world that
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  absolutely idolizes autonomy. The self-made man is the hero.
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  We respect the person who pulls themselves up by their
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  bootstraps. But the document we're looking
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  at today just flips that table over completely.
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  It does. It argues that the Christian
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  life operates on a mechanic that is the exact opposite of
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  autonomy. It's about absolute total
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  continuous dependence. That is the core theme, and the
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  argument here is that this dependence is not a flaw in the
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  system. It's not a bug, it's the main
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  feature. It's the design.
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  The universe is designed that way on purpose.
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  So let's set the scene. We're traveling back in time for
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  this one. Who's our guide for this deep
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  dive? We're going back to July 8th,
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  1731. We're in Boston, specifically at
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  a public lecture, and standing in the pulpit is a young man,
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  only, what, 27 years old? So young.
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  His name is Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards.
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  Now, for some listening, that name might conjure up images of
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  sinners in the hands of an angry God.
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  You know, fire and brimstone scare tactics.
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  Which is a bit of a caricature, really.
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  Edwards was certainly intense, but he was primarily a
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  theologian of joy and glory. And this sermon we're
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  discussing, titled God Glorified in Man's Dependence, was
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  actually his first published piece.
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  This was his debut to the wider world.
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  So this is young Edwards planting his flag.
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  Precisely. He's stepping into the
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  intellectual hub of the colonies, Boston, and he is
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  laying out his theological manifesto.
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  And he's using a text from First Corinthians to do it.
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  Yeah, specifically verses 29 through 31.
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  And he's using it to just dismantle human pride brick by
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  brick. So the mission for this deep
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  dive is to understand that manifesto.
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  We want to see how Edwards uses this text to argue that God has
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  set up the game. If I can use that phrase so that
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  man has 0 grounds for boasting. That is it.
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  Edwards's central argument is that God has designed the entire
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  system of redemption specifically to ensure that the
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  creatures cannot take a single ounce of credit.
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  The goal is that God receives all the glory, not some.
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  All, let's start with the biblical context Edwards is
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  working from. You mentioned First Corinthians.
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  What's happening in that text? Well, the apostle Paul is
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  writing to the church in Corinth, and you have to
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  remember where Corinth is. It's near Athens.
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  Right, the seat of Greek philosophy and rhetoric.
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  The smart guys. Exactly.
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  The Greeks were obsessed with human intellect.
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  They loved a good debate. They loved the idea that man
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  could figure out the universe through logic.
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  They valued status, wisdom, strength.
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  And Bull comes along and says something that must have
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  sounded, well, ridiculous to them.
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  He says, essentially, look around your room.
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  Not many of you are wise by human standards.
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  Not many are powerful. He argues that God intentionally
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  chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.
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  He chose the weak things to shame the strong.
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  It's a complete inversion of values.
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  Totally. And Paul explains why God did
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  this in verse 29. And this, this is the hinge of
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  Edwards's entire sermon. Paul says God do it this way,
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  that no flesh should glory in his presence.
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  That no flesh should. So the elimination of human
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  boasting is not just a side effect of salvation.
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  No, it's the target. It's the divine aim.
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  It is, Edwards points out, that human nature, with the Bible
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  calls flesh, has this gravitational pull toward
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  glorying in itself. We want to be the hero of our
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  own story. Of course we want to look at our
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  salvation and say, well, God did his part, but I made the smart
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  choice. I had the willpower.
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  I closed the deal. Right.
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  And Edwards says says no, The Gospel is a direct
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  countermeasure to that pride. God arranged the disposition of
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  things so that man is absolute zero and God is infinite
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  everything. OK, so how does God achieve
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  this? If the goal is no boasting,
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  what's the means of attainment? The means is what Edwards calls
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  absolute and immediate dependence.
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  God sets it up so that we have to rely on Him for absolutely
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  everything. And Edwards breaks this down
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  using First Corinthians one, verse 30.
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  But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
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  us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.
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  A powerful verse. It is, and Edwards loves lists,
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  and he breaks this down into four benefits.
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  These four things cover the entirety of what a human being
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  needs to be saved and happy. OK, let's run through them.
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  First up, wisdom. Yeah, and this is a direct shot
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  at the Greeks. They wanted philosophy, but
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  Edward says true wisdom isn't something you generate in your
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  brain. It's not self produced.
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  No, Christ is our wisdom. He is the true light and
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  knowledge of God. We are naturally in the dark.
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  We only know anything because He reveals it.
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  So we're dependent on him for our very understanding of
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  reality. Totally second righteousness.
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  This is legal standing justification.
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  Right. It means being received into
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  favor by the judge. And we don't have righteousness.
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  We're bankrupt criminals. Christ has made righteousness
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  unto us. We borrow his record.
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  That's a good way to put it. We're wearing his perfection.
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  3rd on the list sanctification. This is the internal change, the
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  true Excellency of heart, as Edwards calls it.
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  This is inherent holiness. But again, it's not ours.
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  It's derived from him. Yes, a continuous flow.
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  And finally, redemption. Edwards uses this word to mean
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  the final package, the whole thing, deliverance from all
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  misery and the bestow all of glory, the finish line.
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  So the total package, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
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  redemption. Edward's point is that we don't
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  bring any of these to the table. None.
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  Zero. We don't bring the ingredients,
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  we don't cook the meal, we don't even set the table.
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  We are dependent for the entire list.
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  Now, Edwards doesn't stop with just we depend on God.
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  He gets very specific about who in God we depend on.
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  He structures this as a Trinitarian operation.
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  This is. It's classic Reformed theology.
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  Salvation is not just a generic God loves you.
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  It involves the distinct work of the Father, the Son and the Holy
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  Spirit. And Edwards wants us to see that
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  we're checkmated by grace on every side.
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  That's a great phrase for it, yeah.
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  Let's breakdown the rolls. We depend on the son.
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  Well, obviously He is the wisdom, righteousness,
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  sanctification, and redemption we just talked about.
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  He's the content of our salvation.
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  He's the stuff itself. But we also depend on the
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  Father. Yes, Edwards points out that the
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  Father is the one who gave Christ to us.
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  Why do we have a Savior at all? It wasn't our idea.
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  Not at all. It's because the Father, in his
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  eternal design, selected the Son and sent him.
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  We depend on the Father's choice and the Father's acceptance of
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  the Son's work. OK, so the Father designs it,
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  the Son accomplishes it. What about the Holy Ghost?
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  This is crucial. We depend on the Spirit to be in
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  Christ. You can have a savior provided,
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  but how do you get connected to Him?
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  Right. How do you get in on it?
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  Edward says it is the Spirit who gives faith and unites the
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  believer to the Savior. The Spirit is the divine glue.
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  So without the spirit, the work of the sun just stays outside of
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  us. It's a nice story, but it
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  doesn't apply to me. Correct.
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  So the take away is that the believer is dependent on each
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  person of the Trinity for all their good.
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  You cannot bypass any of them. This leads us into the core
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  structure of this sermon. Edwards is a very logical guy.
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  He loves his prepositions. He does very precise.
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  He says our dependence is shown in three ways.
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  We have all of God, we have all through God, and we have all in
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  God. It sounds like a grammar lesson,
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  but it's actually a map of the universe of through and in.
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  Let's start with the first one. We have all of God.
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  This refers to God as the author or the 'cause.
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  Right. This goes back to the Father
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  primarily. God is the first 'cause the
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  source Edwards makes the point that we are the beneficiaries of
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  a rescue mission we did not plan and did not ask for.
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  He says God gives the purchaser and affords the thing purchased.
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  Think about that. I mean, just pause on that
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  phrase. Usually if you're in debt, you
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  have to find a benefactor to pay your debt.
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  Here the one you are in debt to, God provides the benefactor
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  Christ to pay the debt back to Himself.
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  It's a closed loop of grace. It's unbelievable.
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  It's all internal to God. Edwards also touches on faith
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  here. He quotes Ephesians 2.8.
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  For by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of
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  yourselves is the gift of God. And this is a vital point for
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  Edwards. A critic might say, OK, God
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  provided the Savior, but I had the wisdom to believe in him.
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  I provided the faith. That's my contribution.
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  And Edward says no. Even the act of closing with
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  Christ, the act of faith itself, is a gift.
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  You don't generate faith, you receive it.
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  Now here's where it gets really interesting to me.
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  Edwards makes a comparison between Adam, humanity before
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  the fall, and the believer, humanity after the fall.
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  Yes. And he argues that the believer
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  is actually more dependent on God than Adam was.
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  This is a fascinating theological distinction, and
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  it's so counterintuitive. Let's look at Adam before the
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  fall. Adam was holy.
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  He had what Edwards calls inherent righteousness.
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  He was built that way. He was.
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  It was his factory setting. OK, now Adam depended on God's
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  goodness for the reward. If Adam obeyed, God would give
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  him eternal life. God wasn't obligated to promise
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  that, but he did. However, Adam had the equipment
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  to obey inside himself. He stood on his own 2 feet, so
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  to speak. But the believer?
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  The believer is in a much, much worse starting position.
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  We're not just neutral, we're negative.
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  We are enemies. We're dead in sin.
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  A very deep 1. So, Edwards argues, we depend on
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  God for more. Now we don't just need grace for
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  a reward. We need grace to escape hell and
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  eternal wrath. It's the difference between
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  asking someone for a promotion and asking someone to pardon you
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  from death row and then give you a promotion.
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  That's a perfect analogy, exactly.
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  And there's another layer. Adam was created holy, and
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  Edwards says it was fitting for God to create a holy man.
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  It makes sense. That's what a good God would do.
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  Right. But for God to take a corrupt,
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  rebellious Sinner and make him holy, that is an act of
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  arbitrary sovereign grace. Arbitrary here doesn't mean
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  random, right? That word can be tricky.
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  No. In 18th century language,
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  arbitrary meant dependence solely on the will or judgement
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  of the actor. It means God didn't have to do
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  it. It wasn't fitting in the sense
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  of being natural. It was a miraculous pure will
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  intervention. Edwards lists 3 contrasts to
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  show this greater dependence. He says we are first sinful,
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  then holy. We are first objects of wrath,
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  then objects of favor. And we are first naked, then
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  enriched. He's emphasizing the change, the
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  delta. Yes, because we start as the
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  opposite of what we become. It's obvious the change came
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  from outside us. If you see a rock suddenly start
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  flying, you know something picked it up.
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  Rocks don't fly. Rocks don't fly, and sinners do
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  not make themselves holy. This leads him to talk about the
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  sheer power of God. He uses some pretty heavy
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  rhetoric here. He says creating a new creature
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  is a greater work than creating the world from nothing.
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  That is a bold statement, but follow his logic.
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  Creation X nihilo from nothing has no opposition.
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  There was nothing there to resist God.
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  But the human heart? The human heart is actively
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  hostile. It fights back.
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  It loves the darkness. So raising a dead soul to life
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  is harder than raising a dead body.
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  Yes, a dead body just lies there.
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  It's passive. A dead soul, a spiritually dead
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  soul, loves its death and hates the light.
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  Overcoming that resistance requires what Paul calls the
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  exceeding greatness of his power.
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  And it's not just the initial conversion.
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  This is huge. Edwards talks about
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  preservation, yes. This is a crucial concept.
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  We often think of salvation like a wind up toy.
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  God winds us up at conversion, and then we run on our own.
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  And we just have to, you know, try to keep the spring wound.
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  And Edwards says no. The power required to keep a
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  Christian believing in holy is like the sun maintaining light
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  in the atmosphere. I love that analogy.
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  Explain that a bit more. Well, if the sun goes out, the
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  light doesn't stick around for a few hours.
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  It's gone instantly. The light is a continuous
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  emanation from the sun. The moment the sun stops
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  shining, the atmosphere goes dark.
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  So our Holiness. Is a continuous stream of power
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  from God. If he withdrew his hand for a
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  millisecond, we would revert to total darkness.
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  So we are on a life support system of grace essentially.
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  Constant moment by moment dependence, we never, ever
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  graduate to independence. All right, that covers the Ugly
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  God as the source and power. Now let's move to the second
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  preposition we have all through God.
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  This brings us to the Mediator, God as the medium.
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  And why do we need a medium? Because of the distance, the
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  infinite gap between a holy God and a sinful creature, there has
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  to be a bridge, a go between. And Edward's point is that the
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  bridge is also God, The. Bridge is God.
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  It's Christ. But Edwards unpacks this idea of
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  purchase in a way that makes your head spin a little.
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  It really does he. Says we have blessings by
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  purchase. OK, fair enough.
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  So then he says God gives the purchaser, and God is the
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  purchaser and God is the price. That is mind bending.
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  God is the purchaser and the price Christ offered himself He
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  is God. So God paid God with God to
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  redeem man. It really highlights the the
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  self-sufficiency of God and salvation.
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  We are just the recipients. We're not even part of the
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  transaction. Not at all.
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  And this also brings up the concept of alien righteousness,
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  which is a key Reformed doctrine.
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  Alien righteousness. It sounds like something from a
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  sci-fi movie, but it means righteousness from outside.
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  Exactly. Remember Adam, His righteousness
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  was inherent. It was his own.
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  It was inside him. It was native.
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  To him, yes, but under the New Covenant, our righteousness is
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  Christ's righteousness imputed to us.
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  It belongs to God, yet it counts for us.
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  US Edwards quotes Jeremiah 23.6 The Lord, our righteousness.
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  That is the name of Messiah. So when God looks at a believer,
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  he doesn't see my little attempts at being good.
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  He sees the perfect, infinite righteousness of God the Son.
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  So we are dependent on a righteousness that is
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  technically not even ours. It's worn by us, but it belongs
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  to him. So we have all of God as the
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  source and all through God as the means.
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  Now we get to the third one and Edward says this is the most
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  mystical part. We have all in God.
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  This is where Edwards really shines as a theologian of
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  religious affection. He moves past the legal stuff,
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  the courtroom drama, and gets to the relationship.
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  He focuses on that preposition in.
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  And he distinguishes between objective good and inherent
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  good. Let's start with objective Good.
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  Objective good is the thing you get.
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  It's the prize? Edwards asks what is the
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  inheritance of the Saints? What is the treasure at the end
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  of the rainbow? Most people would say heaven or
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  no pain or you know, seeing grandma again.
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  Right. And Edward says, sure, those
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  things are there, but the substance of the reward, the
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  thing itself, is God himself. He is the portion of the soul.
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  He makes a beautiful point about loving others in heaven.
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  He says we will enjoy the angels in each other, but what we enjoy
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  in them is the reflection of God.
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  Yes, it's like loving a painting because you love the artist's
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  style. In heaven we see God's beauty
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  refracted through millions of Saints and angels, but
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  ultimately we are enjoying God in them.
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  He is the All in all. So that's the objective good.
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  Then he talks about inherent good.
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  This is the holiness inside us. And this is where he defines
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  holiness in a very specific way. He calls it a participation in
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  the divine nature. He cites Tepper, Peter 1.4.
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  Use two analogies here, the sun and the spring.
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  We already touched on the sun. The moon is only bright because
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  it reflects the sun. Our holiness is a reflected
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  glory. But the spring analogy is also
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  powerful. He quotes Jesus saying the
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  Spirit is a well of water springing up.
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  What does that mean for us? What's the take away there?
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  It means that the holiness in a Christian is not just a change
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  of habit. It's not just me trying harder.
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  It is the Holy Spirit, God Himself, acting in the soul.
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  The Spirit is the water, the Spirit is the holiness.
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  We are just the vessel. So when I am patient or kind or
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  loving, that is not me doing better.
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  That is the Spirit of God's bringing up in me.
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  Exactly. Edwards connects this to the
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  river of the water of life. In Revelation, he argues that
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  the Holy Spirit is that river. The Spirit is the sum of the
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  blessings Christ purchased. Wait, say that again.
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  The thing Christ bought for us is the Spirit.
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  Yes, that's the ultimate purchase.
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  The Father gives the Son to purchase the Spirit.
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  For us. It's a Trinitarian gift
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  exchange, and we get caught up in the glorious middle of it.
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  We have all of the Father through the Son in the Spirit.
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  That really summarizes the prepositions.
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  It does. It shows that God is the
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  beginning, the middle and the end.
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  Source means and substance. OK.
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  So Edwards has built this massive theological structure.
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  He's shown we are utterly dependent on the Trinity in
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  every conceivable way. Now part six of the sermon is
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  where he lands the plane. The argument How does this
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  glorify God? This is the So what section.
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  This is the payoff. Edwards argues that this setup
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  forces a specific reaction from the creature.
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  His first point is occasion for notice.
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  Basically, you pay attention to what you rely on.
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  If you are walking on a tightrope, you are very, very
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  aware of the rope. You are dependent on it.
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  If you're standing on solid ground, you ignore the ground.
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  You take it for granted. Exactly.
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  The greater the dependence, the greater the obligation to
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  notice. If we saved ourselves, we would
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  spend eternity looking in the mirror, congratulating
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  ourselves. But since we're helpless.
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  Our eyes are forced upward. We must look at him.
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  OK, his second point is demonstration of all
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  sufficiency. This is about contrast.
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  Man's total emptiness acts like a black velvet backdrop for the
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  diamond of God's fullness. The fact that we are voids
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  allows God to be seen as the fountain.
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  And then comparative glory. This is a tough one for human
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  pride, Edward says. This setup ensures God is
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  infinitely above the creature. It forces a comparison where man
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  is nothing and God is all. It sounds harsh to our modern
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  years to say man is nothing. We're all about self esteem.
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  It does sound harsh, but in Edward's worldview,
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  acknowledging you are nothing is actually the path to joy.
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  Because if you are nothing, you stop trying to be God.
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  You stop carrying the weight of the universe.
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  You let God be God. You let God be God, you rest.
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  And his final point in this section is undivided respect.
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  This is just logical. If we depended 50% on God and
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  50% on ourselves, our worship would be split.
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  We'd sing how great thou art and then adverse how great I am.
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  The remix nobody wants. Right.
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  But because it is 100% God, our heart unites wholly on Him.
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  There's no conflict of interest in our worship.
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  We're moving into the final section of the sermon now, the
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  use or the application. Edwards looks at all this
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  theology and says, what do we do with this?
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  First, he just stands back and admires the marvelous wisdom of
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  God. He talks about the fall, the
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  tragedy of Adam's sinning, and says God turned it into a setup
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  for greater glory. It's the concept of the happy
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  fault, or Felix Culper. God allowed man to fall into a
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  dismal abyss so that when he rescued him, man would be lifted
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  to a height greater than Adam. Yeah, with even less ground to
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  boast. Exactly.
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  We are higher than Adam, but humbler.
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  That's the paradox. That's the design.
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  High status, So pride. That's.
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  It then Edwards goes on the offensive.
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  He offers a critique of other theological systems.
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  He doesn't name names, but he's pretty clear about what he
• 20:01
  rejects. Oh yeah.
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  He warns against any scheme that diminishes absolute dependence.
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  He's talking about Arminianism or any theology that says God
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  votes for you, Satan bites against you, and you cast the
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  tie breaking vote. He lists a few specifics.
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  Schemes that allow partial dependence on self
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  righteousness, schemes that credit God for the gift of the
• 20:19
  Redeemer but claim the obtaining of interest in Him is up to
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  man's free will alone. And that's the big one.
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  If you say God provided the bridge, but I walked across it
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  by my own strength, Edward says. You are robbing God, you are
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  stealing glory. He says anything that robs God
• 20:36
  of being the All in all is repugnant to the gospel.
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  Strong words, repugnant. He sees it as a deep insult to
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  the work of Christ. So then he defines faith.
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  And this is really helpful because if we're totally
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  dependent, what is faith? Is it a work?
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  Is it my 1 contribution? No, absolutely not.
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  Edwards defines faith as sensible acknowledgement of
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  absolute dependence. Unpack that sensible
• 20:59
  acknowledgement. Faith is not doing something,
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  it's realizing you can't do anything.
• 21:03
  It's the moment the drowning man stops fighting the water and
• 21:05
  just grabs the life preserver. He uses the image of a little
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  child. Receiving the Kingdom as a
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  little child. A child is helpless.
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  A child brings nothing to the family economy.
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  They just receive. They have open hands.
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  So faith is emptying oneself. Yes, it abases men and exalts
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  God. So faith is basically admitting
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  I have nothing, I am nothing, I need everything from you.
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  Precisely, and that admission is what connects the wire to the
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  power source. We're coming to the end of the
• 21:34
  deep dive. Edwards wraps up with the final
• 21:37
  exhortation, straight from the text.
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  Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord.
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  It's the call to action. He asks the listeners to check
• 21:45
  themselves. It's a diagnostic.
• 21:47
  He asks if you have hope of salvation, who gets the credit?
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  Right. If you think you're going to
• 21:52
  heaven, why? Is it because you are a
• 21:54
  generally nice person? Because you made a smart
• 21:57
  decision one day? Or is it because God dragged you
• 22:00
  out of the grave when you were kicking and screaming?
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  He also asks if you are eminent in holiness, if you're a really
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  good Christian, do you see it as your achievement or God's light
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  reflecting off? You and that is the danger zone
• 22:13
  for religious people, isn't it? We start to think our holiness
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  is ours, Edward says. No, it is God's light.
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  Do not take credit for the sun. It reminds me of the moon
• 22:21
  analogy again. The moon has no light of its
• 22:23
  own, it's just a rock. If it shines, it's purely
• 22:27
  because of its position, not its composition.
• 22:29
  That is a great way to put it. Position, not composition.
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  We are rocks that God has positioned in the light of His
• 22:36
  sun. So as we close out, I want to
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  leave our listener with a provocative thought.
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  We've been talking about dependence, which, you know, it
• 22:44
  sounds like weakness. In our world, dependence is
• 22:46
  weakness, strength is independence.
• 22:49
  But in Edwards theology, strength is the capacity to
• 22:51
  realize you are empty. Yes, the paradox of the
• 22:55
  Christian life is that the most powerful Christian is the one
• 22:58
  who realizes they are the most dependent, the one who is most
• 23:01
  aware of their own bankruptcy. So the moment you feel strong in
• 23:04
  yourself. You have actually lost the
• 23:06
  connection to the source. You have cut the power line.
• 23:09
  You're running on a battery that's about to die.
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  So true glory and true strength is found only in total reliance.
• 23:15
  Absolute, immediate universal dependence.
• 23:19
  That is a lot to chew on. Jonathan Edwards, July 1731
• 23:23
  Reminding us that we are nothing so that God can be everything to
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  us. A timeless reminder, absolutely
• 23:29
  essential. Thanks for joining us on this
• 23:31
  deep dive into reformed thinking.
• 23:33
  We'll catch you next time.