Recently, I was reading Jonathan Edwards’s essay, “Thoughts on the Revival” and came across this quote. He was commenting on the First Great Awakening and some peoples’ objections to it because of the “violent” physical convulsions some people were experiencing as a result of the revival:
“Let us rationally consider what we profess to believe of the infinite greatness of divine wrath; divine glory, the divine infinite love and grace in Jesus Christ, and the infinite importance of eternal things; and then how reasonable it is to suppose, that if God a little withdraw the veil, to let light into the soul – and give a view of the great things of another world in their transcendent and infinite greatness – that human nature, which is as the grass, a shaking leaf, a weak withering flower, should totter under such a discovery!” (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 1)
Reading this piece makes me desire to be a part of another great awakening.
To preach salvation by good works is to flatter people and so avoid opposition.
This may seem to some to pose the alternative too starkly. But I do not think so. All Christian preachers have to face this issue.
Either we preach that human beings are rebels against God, under his just judgment and (if left to themselves) lost, and that Christ crucified who bore their sin and curse is the only available Saviour.
Or we emphasize human potential and human ability, with Christ brought in only to boost them, and with no necessity for the cross except to exhibit God’s love and so inspire us to greater endeavour.
The former is the way to be faithful, the latter the way to be popular.
It is not possible to be faithful and popular simultaneously. We need to hear again the warning of Jesus: ‘Woe to you when all men speak well of you’ (Lk. 6:26). By contrast, if we preach the cross, we may find that we are ourselves hounded to the cross.
