Jonathan Edward’s life is inspiring to me, especially in his aim to discipline himself and live with all his might for the purpose of godliness. “So he rose generally between four and five to enter his study. He would always study with pen in hand, thinking out every insight and recording it in his countless notebooks.” (pg. 71). Studying with pen in hand is certainly the most beneficial method of study, because it forces us to reflect and meditate on what we are reading; to put the thoughts of the text into our own words. Writing demands that we be exact in our thoughts, helping us to think out all the implications of the text we are studying. Calvin said that he thought as he wrote and he wrote as he thought. Observing and interpreting what is contained in a text of Scripture by writing sheds light on the passage. Pens and pencils are a lens through which to view Scripture, and train us to meditate on the word of God with precision and accuracy. If we are to fully develop the thought of the text, we cannot be vague, and writing helps protect us from this temptation to ambiguity. Paul wrote to Timothy, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Tim. 2:7). As we think and meditate, the Lord will give us understanding. Notice the future, imperfect tense in the word “will”. The Lord has not given us all understanding of Scripture at some point in the past from which we can draw. No, we must think and labor in the word, or else we will dry up and we will see nothing in the word. The Lord’s giving us understanding does not replace our thinking. And our thinking does not replace His giving. We think, meditate, and labor in the text, and as we do so, the Lord will give us understanding. Developing our thoughts with pen in hand is certainly one of the best ways (if not the best way) of forcing us to think through a passage of Scripture.
The chapter on the theology of Edwards is equally as inspiring as the chapter on his life. “The goal of all that God does is to preserve and display his glory.” (pg. 79). And since all of God’s acts flow out of his infinite fullness, and not from deficiency, man cannot add anything to God. The glory of God is the fact that He does not need anything added to Him to make Him more “God”. He is not improved by man in any way, He has no glory to add to Himself; if He did, He would not be God but a creature. Therefore, since God never acts to add to His glory, because this would be impossible, but only to “preserve it and display it” (pg. 79), the duty of man is to delight in God’s glory. Delighting in God essentially means that we have affections for God; vigorous and sensible exercises of the will of the soul for God. “Delight in the glory of God includes, for example, hatred for sin, fear of displeasing God, hope in the promises of God, contentment in the fellowship of God” (pg. 80) etc. As Edwards rightly points out, those who are truly saved will (and must) persevere in these affections for God. These continuing affections for God are evidence of their conversion. “They that will not live godly lives find out for themselves that they are not elected; they that will live godly lives, have found out for themselves that they are elected.” (pg. 80). Therefore, if the saints must continue in these holy affections as evidence of God’s active grace in their lives, our preaching must strengthen the saints to persevere in these affections to the end. “Preaching is a means of grace to assist the saints to persevere.” (pg. 81). Every time we preach, we must grasp the weight of our calling, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” (2 Cor. 2:15-17).
