July 29, 2012

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) on Sinners Rejecting the Love of God

4. As great as this wrath is, it is not greater than that love of God which you have slighted and rejected. God, in infinite mercy to lost sinners, has provided a way for them to escape future misery, and to obtain eternal life. For that end he has given his only-begotten Son, a person infinitely glorious and honorable in himself—being equal with God, and infinitely near and dear to God. It was ten thousand times more than if God had given all the angels in heaven, or the whole world, for sinners. Him he gave to be incarnate, to suffer death, to be made a curse for us, and to undergo the dreadful wrath of God in our room, and thus to purchase for us eternal glory. This glorious person has been offered to you times without number, and he has stood and knocked at your door, until his hairs were with the dews of the night. But all that he has done has not won upon you. You see no form nor loveliness in him, no beauty that you should desire him. When he has thus offered himself to you as your Savior, you never freely and heartily accept of him. This love which you have thus abused, is as great as that wrath of which you are in danger. If you would have accepted of it, you might have had the enjoyment of this love instead of enduring this terrible wrath. So that the misery you have heard of is not greater than the love you have despised, and the happiness and glory which you have rejected. How just than would it be in God to execute upon you this dreadful wrath, which is not greater than that love which you have despised! Heb. 2:3, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?"
Jonathan Edwards, “The Portion of the Wicked,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1992), 2:887. Also in Jonathan Edwards [1743], Sermons, Series II, 1735 (WJE Online Vol. 50) , Ed. Jonathan Edwards Center

Bio:  
Wiki

No comments: