Edwards in 5 Sayings: Key Doctrines

Jonathan Edwards was known for his deep reflections on God’s mercy, sovereignty, and providence. Today, Stephen Nichols examines Edwards’ sermons and writings on these key doctrines.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. Last week we were talking about Jonathan Edwards and trying to get at his great mountain of teaching by looking at five sayings. We got through three, and we’re going to pick up this week. In between being with you last week and this week he had his birthday. So before we go any further, happy birthday, Jonathan Edwards. The third saying I mentioned was that “Christ has flung the door of mercy wide open.” Again, this is from his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” preached at North Hampton, but also preached in a more famous way at Enfield, Connecticut in 1741. The sermon takes as its text Deuteronomy 32 35, “Their foot shall slide in due time.” That text, dramatic enough, sets the stage for this dramatic sermon of Edwards.

It’s often used to paint Edwards to be a gloom and doom, fire and brimstone preacher. And sure enough, the sermon talks a lot about God’s wrath and the judgment that is sure to come and that sinners cannot escape except from Christ. But here’s that wonderful line. And in one sense the whole sermon leads up to it, all of this imagery to get at God’s anger and his wrath and his vengeance, and it all culminates in this imagery of the mercy of God. And so we picture a grand door, don’t we? This massive door on big hinges and Christ has flung the door of mercy wide open, and he stands in the doorway and he cries and he calls for us to come. So that’s Edwards’ third saying.

For his fourth saying, we’re going to go to another sermon. This is his sermon on “Divine and Supernatural Light.” It’s from 1734. It’s based on Matthew 16:17 and Peter’s confession of who Christ is. And Jesus turns to him and says, “Flesh and blood,” the natural, “they did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” So this kind of knowledge is a divine knowledge, a supernatural knowledge. And Edward simply says this, “There is such a thing as a spiritual and divine light immediately imparted to the soul by God.” Now that word “immediately” is key. It doesn’t mean right away. It means in its very literal sense “without a mediator.” God directly works. God directly regenerates this soul, and it is a spiritual, a supernatural, and a divine light, not a natural light. Again, this takes us back to the sovereignty of God, doesn’t it? It takes us back to who God is, and it reminds us that dead people can’t really do anything. So here we are dead in our trespasses and sins, and God immediately imparts his divine and supernatural light.

Well, for our fifth, I'm turning to one of my favorite books of Edwards. It's The History of the Work of Redemption. It's really just a bunch of sermons that Edwards preached in 1739. The whole sermon series was based on one text. I often chuckle about that. If there's one text that Northampton congregation knew, it was this one because they heard 30 sermons on it. And as he gets to the end of the sermon, he's talking about how God's plan for working out redemption leading up to Christ, the coming of Christ, and then since Christ, and he brings it all to a head by closing to remind us of the beautiful doctrine of providence. We're sort of back to the sovereignty of God, aren't we? There's the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, and it works itself out, it manifests itself in this doctrine of providence. He's likening providence to a river and how it flows. And he says, “There appears to be innumerable objects in its way, rocks and twists and even mountains, but yet, the river keeps moving.” And he says this, “Not one of all the streams fails.” That is Edwards telling us of God's providence, God's direction of our path, God guiding us along to his desired end, and we can rest assured, not one of the streams will fail. Well, let me close you with a bonus. This is from another sermon of his and Edwards reminds us, “God himself is the great good, which the Redeemed are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is our inheritance. God is the portion of our souls.” Well, that's Edwards in five sayings and a bonus thrown in. And I'm Steve Nichols and thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.