I posted yesterday on the relationship between our joy and the gospel and Seth left a quote in the comments from Jonathan Edwards. It is from his famous Resolutions. Here is the quote:
22. Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.
And here is my question: Are these types of resolutions helpful for believers to cut and paste into their own lives? The writings of Jonathan Edwards are enjoying a refreshing resurgence in our day, particularly among younger people. However, is it spiritually healthy to try to emulate the resolutions of this giant?
I really firmly believe that Edwards understood and regularly marinated his mind in the refreshing truth of the gospel. When you read him you see that his joy is inextricably linked to what God has done in and through Christ.
However, (and here is my concern) the propensity of the human heart to attach itself to rules and regulations for righteousness is an ever intimidating and sobering reality. We want to be active doing– so that we feel like we are– something. And the scary thing for me as both a pastor and someone who wants to pursue holiness is that we see the rules and don’t see the gospel. In other words we are so in awe of a guy like Edwards and his radical committment to Christ that we miss the joy producing, life transforming power of Christ himself and his radical committment to sinners like us.
This is a devestating error. We end up trying to be like Edwards instead of Jesus and we are depressed and dejected when we don’t measure up.
So what do we do? Do we pitch Edwards? Do we disparage those who love to read him? Of course not. Instead, we need to keep him in context. We could certainly could learn a lot from Edwards in context…stare long at Christ, his person and work, and then dip you pen in the inexhaustible fountain of grace and respond to it with a Christ-centered, cross-boasting, pride-smashing, personal resolution to live for the glory of God…because it is right and he is worth it.