“Edwards’s spirituality exhibited itself not only in a deep humility but also in a profound holiness. All who knew him were impressed with his integrity, honesty, fairness, and modesty, all of which were rooted in his soul’s conformity to the will of God. —DAVID VAUGHAN”
Lawson, Steven J.. The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards (A Long Line of Godly Men Series Book 2) (p. 77). Ligonier Ministries. Kindle Edition.
The following are some of the highlights from chapter 5 of Steven J Lawson’s book.
[All square brackets, emboldening, underscoring and red letters are mine.]
Jonathan Edwards was committed to rooting out sin and enjoying holiness, as seen in resolutions: 3, 8, 24, 56, and 68.
He knew repentance to be a change of heart, mind and will, wherein one turned from sin with godly sorrow, confessing it to the Lord and seeking His enablement to know holiness.
When Edwards sinned, he examined it with the intention of concurring with God about it (his mind); mourning it (his heart) and choosing to remove it from his life (his will).
For example, in 68, he “resolved, to confess frankly to myself all that which I find in myself, either infirmity or sin…also to confess the whole case to God, and implore needed help.”
“Edwards believed that true repentance involved bringing sin out into the open. He must not cover it up, downplay it, or turn a blind eye to it. He despised the temptation to shift blame, argue innocence or wink at sin. Rather, he must acknowledge himself to be a sinner, justly deserving God’s wrath and displeasure, then confess his transgressions to God in order to seek His forgiveness. Confession of sin is agreeing with God about one’s sin, it is acknowledging sin to God for what it is – cosmic rebellion against a holy God.
He believed that by confessing the sin he saw in his life, he would be enabled to go even deeper in tracing the roots of evil in his heart.”
Edwards believed that doing the aforementioned would enable him to grow in self-understanding [and undoubtedly, greater understanding of God and His mercy…].
“Every believer who would pursue holiness engages in the fight against sin. Sanctification is an ongoing war with the world, the flesh and the devil to gain the high ground of godliness. It demands wholehearted commitment from every Christian soldier. Victory will never come if you do not wage war on the battlefield of your heart.
The Christian must bring his sinful flesh into subjection to the Lord…like Nehemiah, we must fight with sword in one hand and build with trowel in the other.”
I am posting the above about the saintly life of Jonathan Edwards to emphasize that sin must be dealt with in the Christian life. Most of the following points are made in Lawson’s book:
- Sin is fought on the battlefield of the Christian’s heart, the wellspring of his motives
- God’s Spirit must be sought in prayer for enablement to see sin and to fight it
- The Christian must practice self-observation or his sin will never be seen
- The Christian must put it on the table before God, so to speak, not trying to cover it up, shift blame, feign innocence, minimize, rationalize, etc.
- The Christian must examine his sin, tracing it back to its source, the particular motive that sprang from his heart and gave birth to it
- That is, Edwards focused on the root of sin, found in the motives of his heart; not the fruit of sin, found in his conduct [most people seek to improve themselves by changing fruit, not roots]
- The Christian would do well to keep a journal to record his spiritual journey; and perhaps, to enhance his own understanding of the connections between his sin, motives, thoughts, feelings, times, places, people…,as Edwards did
- Keeping a journal provides one with concrete data about his spiritual journey; by considering that record, one can evaluate spiritual progress; one might also establish spiritual goals and measure progress towards them
To reemphasize that the above process is biblical, I want to note that Christ declared His true kingdom citizens blessed, and He described them in the beatitudes.
He began that description with “poverty of spirit,” which indicated that a kingdom citizen would arrive at the discovery (as the Holy Spirit works in him) that he is spiritually bankrupt, that his total spirituality is given to him by God.
Upon discovering that, he would begin mourning his plight; thereby, he would be meeked; thereafter he would hunger and thirst for the righteousness that God provided; aided by the aforementioned, he would be enabled to know mercy for other humans – all of which are in the same state as he is in, helpless, depraved sinners unless they have Christ, who is their righteousness.
That is, Christ’s declarations in the beatitudes, outline the path of sanctification.
The beginning point is seeing, admitting, owning sin; concurring with God’s word that one is naturally depraved because of the fall, as recorded in Genesis 3.
Until a Christian discovers that he is a sinner and begins confessing his sins to God, he can never know the true mercy of God or God’s forgiveness (he’ll be trying to earn favor with God in some contrived way, to no avail).
Exo 34:6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
Exo 34:7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, [the guilty are those who do not confess sin, they either do not know they have it, or are too proud to confess it].
Some questions to consider:
- Do you openly admit and discuss sin with at least, a confidant?
- Do you practice observing your behavior and your inner thought life?
- Do you examine your sin to discover your motives?
- Do you examine your sin to discover why you love it?
- Do you examine your sin to discover why you keep repeating some sins?
- Do you feed on God’s word and have fellowship via that word and prayer?
STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS:
***Consider buying Lawson’s book
***Start journaling your private Christian experience
The following link to a downloadable self-exam might be of assistance:
DOWNLOADABLE SELF-EXAM -2- docx
The above download helps in learning to observe thoughts, feelings and behaviors and in understanding their connections. In Lawson’s book, it was stated that Edwards began looking closely at himself when he had strong feelings.
The download talks about that on the first page.