The Importance of a Right Doctrine of Saving Faith
The American Puritan Revivalist, Jonathan Edwards:
"Therefore, doubtless, saving faith, whatsoever that be, is the grand condition of an interest in Christ, and his great salvation. And if it be so, of what vast importance is it, that we should have right notions of what it is! For certainly no one thing whatever, nothing in religion, is of greater importance, that that which teaches us how we may be saved. If salvation itself be of infinite importance, then it is of equal importance that we do not mistake the terms of it; and if this be of infinite importance, then that doctrine that teaches that to be the term, that is not so, but very diverse, is infinitely dangerous. What we want a revelation from God for chiefly, is to teach us the terms of his favour, and the way of salvation. And that which the revelation God has given us in the Bible teaches to be the way, is faith in Christ. Therefore, that doctrine that teaches something else to be saving faith, that is eseentially another thing, teaches entirely another way of salvation...Therefore he who teaches something else to be that faith, which is essentially diverse from what the gospel of Christ teaches, he teaches another gospel; and he does in effect teach another religion than the religion of Christ...Such doctrine as I have opposed, must be destructive and damning, i.e. directly tending to man's damnation; leading such as embrace it, to rest in something essentially different from the grand condition of salvation. And therefore I would advise you, as you would have any regard to your own soul's salvation, and to the salvation of your posterity, to beware of such doctrine as this." (emphasis added).
"Remarks on Important Theological Controversies", from The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 2, 595-596.
2 comments:
I'm looking forward to teaching this to my daughter in the coming years and I'll be praying that she has a heart ready to consider it. A concern I have though is on a different but related topic. I'm wondering about teaching the Goodness of God. Do I feel that he's good?...yes! He is good to me in more ways than I can possiby imagine; from my personal experience I can't call his goodness into question but when I look outside myself explanations of his goodness can get a bit tenuous. For example, it appears to me from scripture that he is capricious in determining who will be blessed (for his glory) with atonement. A young mind growing in critcal thinking skills may become very hung up on the idea that: 1) when a person is saved it is for God's glory and God should be thanked not only for Christ's sacrifice and what it means but also for the fact that the person's heart was 'made ready' and 2) when a person is NOT saved it is also (in some way) for God's glory, the heart was clearly not 'made ready' but the punishment for that is forever for THAT PERSON to endure. This has been a struggling point for me and I worry about how to offer an explanation of this to my daughter. Right now I lack what I need to explain his goodness in light of this. I know what Edwards say on this in "sinners in the hands..." but somehow that seems more like patch over a hole in my understanding of God as good. Maybe it feels that way only to me...maybe I just need to get over how it feels. I guess I've still got some time to wrestle with this; abstract thinking doesn't start until around age 12.
Jasen,
Good questions and very practical thoughts on a thorny theological issue.
I think one rather concise explanation for your main issue regarding the goodness of God and the glory of God in light of His sovereign freedom is the following:
We must understand the goodness of God in saving sinners as only part of the revelation of God's glory. The wrath of God in damning sinners is also a part of the revelation of God's glory.
I don't know how else to say it. Of course, the mystery between divine sovereignty and human responsibility is all over those statements.
God's sovereignty is not capricious or erratic. To us it may seem that way, but it is not. His sovereign willing is always in connection to His glorious purpose, capricious makes it sound like God just randomly chucks everyone in a grab bag and picks. He doesn't. He intentionally sets His love on some and saves them (Eph 1), and, yes, He does actively harden some and damn them (Ro 9), but He only damns the deserved.
However, the sovereignty of God always must be connected to the gospel of God. God main message is to not call people to guess at His sovereign election, but to respond to His intensely loving, utterly undeserved, love shown at the cross of Jesus Christ for any sinner who will trust Him. The inner-workings of God's sovereignty are not given to us, but the revelation of God's glory in the Gospel is on full display in Jesus, God incarnate.
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