Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and Other Puritan Sermons

Jonathan Edwards

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486115689
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

A sermon preached by Jonathan Edwards to his Enfield, Connecticut, congregation in July 1741, `Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God` is particularly noted for its vivid descriptions of the torments of Hell and mankind's natural depravity. At the same time, it was also an appeal to man's need for salvation and a reminder of the agonies that awaited the unreformed. Coming during the height of the Great Awakening — a period of religious fervor in the first half of the eighteenth century — the homily was at once regarded by many as the greatest ever given on American soil and vehemently attacked by others as puritanical `fire and brimstone.` One thing seems certain: it made a lasting impact on American Christianity.
Accompanying this landmark document are sermons by nine other influential Puritans of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, among them Thomas Shepard's `The Parable of the Ten Virgins,` Cotton Mather's `An Hortatory and Necessary Address,` John Cotton's `The Way of Life,` as well as sermons by John Winthrop, Increase Mather, Jonathan Mayhew, Thomas Hooker, Peter Bulkeley, and Samuel Willard.
Enlightening and thought-provoking, the volume will serve as primary source material in many American history and literature courses.

JONATHAN EDWARDS

(1703–1758)

GOD GLORIFIED IN THE WORK OF REDEMPTION, BY THE GREATNESS OF MAN’S DEPENDENCE UPON HIM, IN THE WHOLE OF IT (1731)

1 Cor. 1:29–31.

That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

THOSE CHRISTIANS to whom the Apostle directed this epistle, dwelt in a part of the world where human wisdom was in great repute; as the Apostle observes in the twenty-second verse of this chapter, “The Greeks seek after wisdom.” Corinth was not far from Athens, that had been for many ages the most famous seat of philosophy and learning in the world.

The Apostle therefore observes to them how that God by the gospel destroyed, and brought to naught, their human wisdom. The learned Grecians, and their great philosophers, by all their wisdom did not know God, they were not able to find out the truth in divine things. But after they had done their utmost to no effect, it pleased God at length, to reveal himself by the gospel; which they accounted foolishness: he “chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and things that are despised, yea and things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are.” And the Apostle informs them why he thus did in the verse of the text, “That no flesh should glory in his presence,” etc. In which words may be observed,

1. What God aims at in the disposition of things in the affair of redemption, viz. that man should not glory in himself, but alone in God; “That no flesh should glory in his presence. . . . That according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

2. How this end is attained in the work of redemption, viz. by that absolute and immediate dependence which men have upon God in that work, for all their good. Inasmuch as,

(1) All the good that they have is in and through Christ; he “is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” All the good of the fallen and redeemed creature is concerned in these four things, and can’t be better distributed than into them; but Christ is each of them to us, and we have none of them any otherwise than in him. He “is made of God unto us wisdom”: in him are all the proper good, and true excellency of the understanding. Wisdom was a thing that the Greeks admired; but Christ is the true light of the world, ’tis through him alone that true wisdom is imparted to the mind. ’Tis in and by Christ that we have righteousness: ’tis by being in him that we are justified, have our sins pardoned, and are received as righteous into God’s favor. ’Tis by Christ that we have sanctification: we have in him true excellency of heart, as well as of understanding; and he is made unto us inherent as well as imputed righteousness. ’Tis by Christ that we have redemption, or the actual deliverance from all misery, and the bestowment of all happiness and glory. Thus we have all our good by Christ who is God.

(2) Another instance wherein our dependence on God for all our good appears, is this, that ’tis God that has given us Christ, that we might have these benefits through him; he “of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,” etc.

(3) ’Tis of him that we are in Christ Jesus, and come to have an interest in him, and so do receive those blessings which he is made unto us. ’Tis God that gives us faith whereby we close with Christ.

So that in this verse is shown our dependence on each person in the Trinity for all our good. We are dependent on Christ the Son of God, as he is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We are dependent on the Father, who have given us Christ, and made him to be these things to us. We are dependent on the Holy Ghost, for ’tis “of him that we are in Christ Jesus”; ’tis the Spirit of God that gives faith in him, whereby we receive him, and close with him.

DOCTRINE

God is glorified in the work of redemption in this, that there
appears in it so absolute and universal a dependence of
the redeemed on him.

Here I propose to show,

I. That there is an absolute and universal dependence of the redeemed on God for all their good. And,

II. That God hereby is exalted and glorified in the work of redemption.

I. There is an absolute and universal dependence of the redeemed on God. The nature and contrivance of our redemption is such, that the redeemed are in everything directly, immediately, and entirely dependent on God: they are dependent on him for all, and are dependent on him every way.

The several ways wherein the dependence of one being may be upon another for its good, and wherein the redeemed of Jesus Christ depend on God for all their good, are these, viz. that they have all their good of him, and that they have all through him, and that they have all in him: that he be the cause and original whence all their good comes, therein it is of him; and that he be the medium by which it is obtained and conveyed, therein they have it through him; and that he be that good itself that is given and conveyed, therein it is in him.

Now those that are redeemed by Jesus Christ do in all these respects very directly and entirely depend on God for their all.

First. The redeemed have all their good of God. God is the great Author of it; he is the first cause of it, and not only so but he is the only proper cause.

’Tis of God that we have our Redeemer. ’Tis God that has provided a Savior for us. Jesus Christ is not only of God in his person, as he is the only begotten Son of God; but he is from God as we are concerned in him, and in his office of mediator; he is the gift of God to us: God chose and anointed him, appointed him his work, and sent him into the world.

And as it is God that gives, so ’tis God that accepts the Savior. As it is God that provides and gives the Redeemer to buy salvation for us, so it is of God that that salvation is bought: he gives the purchaser, and he affords the thing purchased.

’Tis of God that Christ becomes ours, that we are brought to him, and are united to him: ’tis of God that we receive faith to close with him, that we may have an interest in him. Eph. 2:8, For by grace ye are saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. ’Tis of God that we actually do receive all the benefits that Christ has purchased. ’Tis God that pardons and justifies, and delivers from going down to hell, and ’tis his favor that the redeemed are received into, and are made the objects of, when they are justified. So it is God that delivers from the dominion of sin, and cleanses us from our filthiness, and changes us from our deformity. ’Tis of God that the redeemed do receive all their true excellency, wisdom and holiness; and that two ways, viz. as the Holy Ghost by whom these things are immediately wrought is from God, proceeds from him, and is sent by him; and also as the Holy Ghost himself is God, by whose operation and indwelling, the knowledge of God and divine things, and a holy disposition, and all grace are conferred and upheld.

And though means are made use of in conferring grace on men’s souls, yet ’tis of God that we have these means of grace, and ’tis God that makes them effectual. ’Tis of God that we have the Holy Scriptures; they are the Word of God. ’Tis of God that we have ordinances, and their efficacy depends on the immediate influence of the Spirit of God. The ministers of the gospel are sent of God, and all their sufficiency is of him. 2. Cor. 4:7, We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. Their success depends entirely and absolutely on the immediate blessing and influence of God.

1. The redeemed have all of the grace of God. It was of mere grace that God gave us his only begotten Son. The grace is great in proportion to the dignity and excellency of what is given: the gift was infinitely precious, because it was of a person infinitely worthy, a person of infinite glory; and also because it was of a person infinitely near and dear to God. The grace is great in proportion to the benefit we have given us in him: the benefit is doubly infinite in that in him we have deliverance from an infinite, because an eternal misery, and do also receive eternal joy and glory. The grace in bestowing this gift is great in proportion to our unworthiness to whom it is given; instead of deserving such a gift, we merited infinitely ill of God’s hands. The grace is great according to the manner of giving, or in proportion to the humiliation and expense of the method and means by which way is made for our having the gift. He gave him to us dwelling amongst us; he gave him to us incarnate, or in our own nature; he gave him to us in our nature, in the like infirmities in which we have it in our fallen state, and which in us do accompany, and are occasioned by, the sinful corruption of our nature. He gave him to us in a low and afflicted state; and not only so but he gave him to us slain that he might be a feast for our souls.

The grace of God in bestowing this gift is most free. It was what God was under no obligation to bestow: he might have rejected fallen man, as he did the fallen angels. It was what we never did anything to merit: ’twas given while we were yet enemies, and before we had so much as repented. It was from the love of God that saw no excellency in us to attract it; and it was without expectation of ever being requited for it.

And ’tis from mere grace that the benefits of Christ are applied to such and such particular persons. Those that are called and sanctified are to attribute it alone to the good pleasure of God’s goodness, by which they are distinguished. He is sovereign and hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens.

Man hath now a greater dependence on the grace of God than he had before the fall. He depends on the free goodness of God for much more than he did then: then he depended on God’s goodness for conferring the reward of perfect obedience; for God was not obliged to promise and bestow that reward: but now we are dependent on the grace of God for much more: we stand in need of grace, not only to bestow glory upon us, but to deliver us from hell and eternal wrath. Under the first covenant we depended on God’s goodness to give us the reward of righteousness; and so we do now. And not only so, but we stand in need of God’s free and sovereign grace to give us that righteousness; and not only so, but we stand in need of his grace to pardon our sin, and release us from the guilt and infinite demerit of it.

And as we are dependent on the goodness of God for more now than under the first covenant, so we are dependent on a much greater, more free and wonderful goodness. We are now more dependent on God’s arbitrary and sovereign good pleasure. We were in our first estate dependent on God for holiness: we had our original righteousness from him; but then holiness was not bestowed in such a way of sovereign good pleasure as it is now. Man was created holy, for it became God to create holy all the reasonable creatures he created: it would have been a disparagement to the holiness of God’s nature, if he had made an intelligent creature unholy. But now when man is made holy, it is from mere and arbitrary grace; God may forever deny holiness to the fallen creature if he pleases, without any disparagement to any of his perfections.

And we are not only indeed more dependent on the grace of God, but our dependence is much more conspicuous, because our own insufficiency and helplessness in ourselves is much more apparent, in our fallen and undone state, than it was before we were either sinful or miserable. We are more apparently dependent on God for holiness, because we are first sinful, and utterly polluted, and afterward holy: so the production of the effect is sensible, and its derivation from God more obvious. If man was ever holy and always was so, it would not be so apparent, that he had not holiness necessarily, as an inseparable qualification of human nature. So we are more apparently dependent on free grace for the favor of God, for we are first justly the objects of his displeasure, and afterwards are received into favor. We are more apparently dependent on God for happiness, being first miserable, and afterwards happy. ’Tis more apparently free and without merit in us, because we are actually without any kind of excellency to merit, if there could be any such thing as merit in creature-excellency. And we are not only without any true excellency, but are full of, and wholly defiled with, that which is infinitely odious. All our good is more apparently from God, because we are first naked and wholly without any good, and afterward enriched with all good.

2. We receive all of the power of God. Man’s redemption is often spoken of as a work of wonderful power as well as grace. The great power of God appears in bringing a sinner from his low state, from the depths of sin and misery, to such an exalted state of holiness and happiness. Eph. 1:19. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.

We are dependent on God’s power through every step of our redemption. We are dependent on the power of God to convert us, and give faith in Jesus Christ, and the new nature. ’Tis a work of creation: If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, (2 Cor. 5:17). We are created in Christ Jesus, (Eph. 2:10.) The fallen creature can’t attain to true holiness, but by being created again. Eph. 4: 24, And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. ’Tis a raising from the dead. Cols. 2:12–13, Wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. Yea, ’tis a more glorious work of power than mere creation, or raising a dead body to life, in that the effect attained is greater and more excellent. That holy and happy being, and spiritual life which is reached in the work of conversion, is a far greater, and more glorious effect, than mere being and life. And the state from whence the change is made, of such a death in sin, and total corruption of nature, and depth of misery, is far more remote from the state attained, than mere death or non-entity.

’Tis by God’s power also that we are preserved in a state of grace. 1 Pet. 1:5. Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. As grace is at first from God, so ’tis continually from him, and is maintained by him, as much as light in the atmosphere is all day long from the sun, as well as at first dawning, or at sun-rising.

Men are dependent on the power of God, for every exercise of grace, and for carrying on that work in the heart, for subduing of sin and corruption, and increasing holy principles, and enabling to bring forth fruit in good works, and at last bringing grace to its perfection, in making the soul completely amiable in Christ’s glorious likeness, and filling of it with a satisfying joy and blessedness; and for the raising of the body to life, and to such a perfect state, that it shall be suitable for an habitation and organ for a soul so perfected and blessed. These are the most glorious effects of the power of God, that are seen in the series of God’s acts with respect to the creatures.

Man was dependent on the power of God in his first estate, but he is more dependent on his power now; he needs God’s power to do more things for him, and depends on a more wonderful exercise of his power. It was an effect of the power of God to make man holy at the first; but more remarkably so now, because there is a great deal of opposition and difficulty in the way. ’Tis a more glorious effect of power to make that holy that was so depraved and under the dominion of sin, than to confer holiness on that which before had nothing of the contrary. ’Tis a more glorious work of power to rescue a soul out of the hands of the devil, and from the powers of darkness, and to bring it into a state of salvation, than to confer holiness where there was no prepossession or opposition. Luke 11:21–22, When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. So ’tis a more glorious work of power to uphold a soul in a state of grace and holiness, and to carry it on till it is brought to glory, when there is so much sin remaining in the heart, resisting, and Satan with all his might opposing, than it would have been to have kept man from falling at first, when Satan had nothing in man.

Thus we have shown how the redeemed are dependent on God for all their good as they have all of him.

Second. They are also dependent on God for all, as they have all through him. ’Tis God that is the medium of it, as well as the author and fountain of it. All we have, wisdom, and the pardon of sin, deliverance from hell, acceptance into God’s favor, grace and holiness, true comfort and happiness, eternal life and glory, we have from God by a mediator; and this mediator is God; which mediator we have an absolute dependence upon, as he through whom we receive all. So that here is another way wherein we have our dependence on God for all good. God not only gives us the mediator, and accepts his mediation, and of his power and grace bestows the things purchased by the mediator, but he the mediator.

Our blessings are what we have by purchase; and the purchase is made of God, the blessings are purchased of him, and God gives the purchaser; and not only so but God is the purchaser. Yea, God is both the purchaser and the price; for Christ, who is God, purchased these blessings for us, by offering up himself as the price of our salvation. He purchased eternal life by the sacrifice of himself. Heb. 7: 27, He offered up himself. And 9:26, He hath appeared to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Indeed it was the human nature that was offered; but it was the same person with the divine, and therefore was an infinite price: it was looked upon as if God had been offered in sacrifice.

As we thus have our good through God, we have a dependence on God in a respect that man in his first estate had not. Man was to have eternal life then through his own righteousness; so that he had partly a dependence upon what was in himself; for we have a dependence upon that through which we have our good, as well as that from which we have it: and though man’s righteousness that he then depended on was indeed from God, yet it was his own, it was inherent in himself; so that his dependence was not so immediately on God. But now the righteousness that we are dependent on is not in ourselves, but in God. We are saved through the righteousness of Christ: he is made unto us righteousness; and therefore is prophesied of, Jer. 23:6, under that name of the Lord our righteousness. In that the righteousness we are justified by is the righteousness of Christ, it is the righteousness of God. 2 Cor. 5:21, That we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Thus in redemption, we han’t only all things of God, but by and through him. 1 Cor. 8:6, But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

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