“I am tempted, perhaps foolish, to compare the Puritans to the Alps, Luther and Calvin to the Himalayas, and Jonathan Edwards to Mount Everest! He has always seemed to me the man most like the Apostle Paul. —D. MARTYN LLOYD-JONES” (Lawson, Steven J.. The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards)
My purpose in this post, is to reveal several points to Christians about Jonathan Edwards’ spiritual journey; with the hope that these points might enable them to see some problems in their spiritual lives; furthermore, that Christians might see the value of keeping a journal of their walk with God, of their spiritual struggles.
The comments by me are to indicate the types of information that Edwards noted in his diary; I know from experience that such personal writing is beneficial.
The following bullet points will be emphasized, regarding Edwards’ walk with the Lord, by using quotations from Lawson’s book, chapter 3:
- Edwards made resolutions he intended to keep
- He realized he could only keep them by the power of the Holy Spirit
- He clearly saw his inability; the futility of using personal will power to walk with the Lord
- He depended upon the Lord by abiding in His appointed means of grace: prayer; Bible reading and study [partaking of the Lord’s supper and Christian fellowship]
- He clearly saw the deceitfulness of his own heart
- He practiced self-observation and self-examination by which he came to necessary spiritual realizations
- He used a journal to note self-observations and to record failures, insights, feelings, moods, assessments, action steps regarding his resolutions, etc.
- He monitored his Christian life, analyzing his failures for indications of how he was erring
- He admitted deceitfulness, pride, sin…
- He received the Holy Spirit’s illumination of his sinfulness / idolatry (dependence on self)
- He believed God’s assessment of mankind in the Bible
The following quotations are from: Lawson, Steven J.,The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards
[all underscoring, emboldening, square brackets, and red letters, are mine]:
As Jonathan Edwards penned his “Resolutions,” he was keenly aware that God alone is the Agent of sanctification. While he knew he was responsible to obey God’s Word and pursue holiness, he understood that he could not do so by sheer will power. Edwards wrote his seventy vows “to keep his heart pure and dedicated to Christ,” knowing that he could do it only by the grace of God through the enablement of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Edwards acknowledged his dependence on God in a two-sentence introduction to the “Resolutions.” This “preamble” reveals much about Edwards’ theology, providing valuable insight into how he viewed God, himself, and the Christian life.
Related Diary Entry:
Wednesday, Jan. 2, 1722–23. Dull. I find, by experience, that, let me make resolutions, and do what I will, with never so many inventions, it is all nothing, and to no purpose at all, without the motions of the Spirit of God; for if the Spirit of God should be as much withdrawn from me always, as for the week past, notwithstanding all I do, I should not grow, but should languish, and miserably fade away. I perceive, if God should withdraw His Spirit a little more, I should not hesitate to break my resolutions, and should soon arrive at my old state. There is no dependence on myself.
[Content of the above entry: feeling / mood identified and acknowledged; observation and assessment of failing to make progress regarding resolutions; realization of the need of God’s Spirit to achieve his resolutions; realization of the impossibility of progressing in the strength of his own will.]
One week later, Edwards again admitted his weakness and inability to keep the resolutions he was making. The problem was his heart, which remained deceitful. Even when he made a “strong resolution,” he had not the strength to keep it: “Wednesday, Jan. 9. At night. … How deceitful is my heart! I take up a strong resolution, but how soon doth it weaken!” Edwards was becoming an expert in his own inability.
[Content of above journal entry: feeling powerless or helpless to keep his resolutions because he was striving in his own strength; realization that his proud, self-sufficient heart kept urging him to strive in his own strength, to no avail.]
The same humbling realization struck again the next week. Edwards found he was too weak to do anything spiritually pleasing to God. He lamented: “Jan. 15, Tuesday. … But alas! How soon do I decay! O how weak, how infirm, how unable to do anything of myself! What a poor inconsistent being! What a miserable wretch, without the assistance of the Spirit of God. … How weak do I find myself! O let it teach me to depend less on myself, to be more humble.”
[Content of above journal entry: observation and acknowledgement of his own proud, self-sufficient strivings to please God; observation of being in the quicksand of personal failure as a result; acknowledgement of vacillating between the habit of self-reliance and the newly borne desire to depend upon God; greater mistrust in self, based on these observations and assessments; feelings of helplessness, sinfulness and neediness… inherent in his words.]
Coupled with Edwards’ awareness of his weakness was the recognition that he needed God’s power in order to keep his “Resolutions.” The preamble continues: “I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions.” With these words, Edwards conceded that the experience of divine power in his pursuit of godliness was not automatic. He saw that he bore a real responsibility to “entreat” the Lord for sanctifying grace, a testimony and pledge of his full dependence on God.
[Content of the above diary entry: feelings of inadequacy; realization of the personal responsibility to actively seek the Lord’s grace to walk with Him; realization that pride was an obstacle because it kept moving him to obey in his own strength, to trust in self instead of seeking God’s help.]
Wednesday, Jan. 2. … Our resolutions may be at the highest one day, and yet, the next day, we may be in a miserable dead condition, not at all like the same person who resolved. So that it is to no purpose to resolve, except we depend on the grace of God. For, if it were not for His mere grace, one might be a very good man one day, and a very wicked one the next.16 Jan. 15, Tuesday. … While I stand, I am ready to think that I stand by my own strength, and upon my own legs; and I am ready to triumph over my spiritual enemies, as if it were I myself that caused them to flee:—when alas! I am but a poor infant, upheld by Jesus Christ; who holds me up, and gives me liberty to smile to see my enemies flee, when He drives them before me.
[Content of above journal entry: The necessity of partaking in God’s MEANS of grace – reading the word, praying…to be upheld, to have the motivation and strength to walk with the Lord; the continued deceitfulness of his own heart in wanting to take the glory for personal righteousness, personal goodness , personal success that occurred; the realization that his pride caused him to quit depending on God’s grace and to subsequently fall into sin or otherwise be derailed from God’s path; the goodness of Christ in his longsuffering regarding Edwards prideful regressions / strivings.]
Edwards knew he could not expect God to respond to his entreaties for help to keep his “Resolutions” unless they were, as he put it in the preamble, “agreeable to his will.” In short, Edwards knew that God would not help him if he set out to do something that was contrary to God’s desires. Thus, in drafting his vows, he purposed not to set forth his own agenda and expect God to bless it….
Edwards recognized that submission to God’s will necessitated being completely dedicated to God. As a result, he committed himself to strive after such complete surrender. Sam Storms writes: “Although profoundly heavenly minded, Jonathan Edwards was no less dedicated to a vibrant and fruitful life for God on the earth….
Saturday, Jan. 12 [1723]. In the morning…. I have been before God, and have given myself, all that I am and have, to God; so that I am not, in any respect, my own. I can challenge no right in this understanding, this will, these affections, which are in me. Neither have I any right to this body, or any of its members—no right to this tongue, these hands, these feet; no right to these senses, these eyes, these ears, this smell, or this taste. I have given myself clear away, and have not retained any thing as my own….
Commitment:
Every believer today stands exactly where Edwards stood so long ago. Human inability to please God has not changed in the least over the past three centuries. All Christians remain in constant need of divine grace to enable them to pursue holiness. This requires, as it did for Edwards, humble submission and dedication to God, all for the honor of Christ. Only in such self-denial is divine grace multiplied in one’s life. If one is to impact this world for Jesus Christ, he must live as Edwards did, with extraordinary purpose and firm determination.
Lawson, Steven J.. The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards (A Long Line of Godly Men Series Book 2) (pp. 60-61). Ligonier Ministries. Kindle Edition.
Conclusion:
So, even if you vehemently desire to walk humbly with the Lord, you must turn your energies to abiding in His appointed means of grace: prayer; Bible reading and study; hearing the gospel preached; taking the Lord’s supper; and Christian fellowship around the word of God.
Not going out in the world and striving to be a good person in your own strength; for example, doing philanthropic works…because YOU CANNOT make yourself acceptable to God or bribe Him by works. As Jesus stated in the beatitudes, poverty of spirit is the first characteristic of His true kingdom citizens: the means of grace will make you poor in spirit.
It is a wonderful thing to be shown by God’s Spirit, your vain attempts to walk in your own strength; to be humbled by Him (He works via the means of grace). And as Edwards notes indicated, God’s Spirit is about showing His children such things.
It doesn’t feel good to experience poverty of spirit (spiritual bankruptcy), but the rebellious flesh must be mortified by God’s Spirit that one might know salvation and its blessings.
Therefore, if you think you are a good person, a righteous person…you will likely soon thereafter fall into sin, as Edwards apparently did, if you are a true convert. God will impress upon you that it is His Spirit that holds you up when you are enabled to walk with Christ; not in the slightest bit, your strength, will, desire….
It has taken me 15 years to understand these things and I am very motivated to help other Christians understand; that God might be glorified and that others will not suffer as many hard knocks as I have.