Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Jonathan Edwards on Grace at Conversion

Jonathan Edwards is preaching in this sermon about how all the spiritual gifts are interrelated.
A convert at the same moment that he is become such is possessed of all holy principles, all gracious dispositions. There is a seed of every kind of holy behavior towards God, and towards men. There are as many graces in a true Christian as there are in Jesus Christ himself; which is what the evangelist John means in John 1:14-16, "And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us....and of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace." And it cannot be otherwise; for they are renewed after Christ's image, as Colossians 3:10, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created them. But that is no true image or picture of another which has some parts wanting. An exact image has part answerable to part; the copy answers the original throughout in all parts, though it may be an obscure image, and not represent any part perfectly, as grace answers to grace. Grace in the soul is a reflection of Christ's glory. It is a reflection of his glory, as the image of a man is reflected from a glass which exhibits part for part (2 Cor. 3:18)
(pp. 245-246, Charity and its Gifts)
Edwards is talking about how the Christian is fully equipped at his conversion with all the spiritual gifts and character to live as a Christian for God. Edwards later on in the sermon compares a Christian conversion to a birth. A healthy baby has all the basic parts of a full grown adult. It just needs to grow and be nourished. Since we have the Holy Spirit within us, God is fully in us. We have all the grace we'll ever need at birth, we just have to grow into it.

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