JONATHAN EDWARDS: RESOLVED TO GRACE...enjoying the beauty and sweetness of Christ

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions,
and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
-Titus 2:11-12

Jonathan Edwards kept a diary where he “rigorously” evaluated his progress and later came to say regarding this rigor “as involving ‘too great a dependence on my own strength; which afterwards proved a great damage to me.’” (see his 70 Resolutions)

A new friend in ministry (who wrote his dissertation on Edwards) shared this helpful insight:

Written within 1-2 years of his conversion, Edwards’ resolutions were more reflective of his admitted immaturity and youthful zeal than of his later reflections of the nature of the Christian life. For the mature Edwards, the steadfast life of faith is built upon a love of the beauty of God’s perfections as most prominently displayed in the person and redemptive work of Christ. As we grow in such love and knowledge, so we are increasingly conformed to the image of Christ, and in a love reflected in faithfulness to Him in thought and deed. The later reflections of Edwards are a far cry from the slavish and often painful attempts of Edwards at sanctification by resolution. We do well to learn from his lessons, and not to imitate what he himself came to view as problematic.

How refreshing to see a man of Edwards' stature, learning, and influence come to a place of real resolve by relinquishing the vain pursuit of his own moorings to that which is grace-based upon the Word of God and the Spirit of God alone. "Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?" May Edwards' following words of humility encourage us all to "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."

"My longings after it, put me upon pursuing and pressing after them. It was my continual strife day and night, and constant inquiry, how I should be more holy, and live more holily, and more becoming a child of God, and disciple of Christ. I sought an increase of grace and holiness, and that I might live an holy life, with vastly more earnestness, than ever I sought grace, before I had it. I used to be continually examining myself, and studying and contriving for likely ways and means, how I should live holily, with far greater diligence and earnestness, than ever I pursued anything in my life: but with too great a dependence on my own strength; which afterwards proved a great damage to me. My experience had not then taught me, as it has done since, my extreme feebleness and impotence, every manner of way; and the innumerable and bottomless depths of secret corruption and deceit, that there was in my heart."

Source of Edwards quote: (Marsden, Jonathan Edwards, 53). The quote is from his “Personal Narrative” in the Yale Works, 16:797.