Edwards on the Spiritual man (4) Jonathan Edwards on the Spiritual man (4) by Andrew McCafferty, Jan 2005   In 1740 a great awakening swept across all thirteen of the American colonies.  It entered almost every church.  It brought new life and power to worship services and preaching everywhere.  Thousands were converted to Biblical Christianity.  By the end of 1741 Christians had reason to hope that the colonies (which were soon to form the United States) were returning to their Christian roots.  But in 1742 the spirit of the awakening turned from the Bible and a spirit of Christian love to a spirit of fanaticism.  Ministers began to accuse each other of not being converted, Christians began to confuse a Christ-like spirit with a spirit of uncontrolled zeal, the newspaper was filled with stories of excess, young converts began to split churches while wiser voices were ignored.  Many would-be Christian leaders began to teach that the Holy Spirit was speaking to them directly.  They began to see visions and preach about dreams.  The most pitiful case was James Davenport.  He took over the lead of the fanatical party and outdid his followers.  In March of 1743 he and his followers burned all their religious books (except for the Bible) in the city of Boston.  The result was disastrous.  To the great disappointment of true Christians, the majority of people turned against the awakening.  By the end of 1743 the awakening died out, and the country had fallen back into a spiritual slumber.   Jonathan Edwards wrote "The Religious Affections" in 1746.  It is a biblical reflection on both the strengths and the weaknesses of the 1740-42 great awakening.  Edwards argues that the problems of the awakening arose because Christians were not able to "distinguish between true and false religion, between saving experiences and those ...  by which they are counterfeited; (Author's preface)".  The basic problem was that Christians did not distinguish between the converting work of the Holy Spirit and a spirit by pride, superstition, and fanaticism.  As a result, Christians who supported the awakening began to think that the excesses of the awakening were also from the Holy Spirit.  They also began to violently oppose anyone who tried to correct them or criticized them in anyway.    Edwards purpose in the book was to show from the bible the differences between born-again experiences and counterfeit experiences.  We can summarize Edwards' teaching this way.  True spiritual experience are experiences that have the nature of the Holy Spirit.  In the Bible, the spiritual man is the man who is becoming like the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Spiritual experiences are such things as the love of holiness, compassion for the pitiful, humility of heart, sorrow for sin, good works, and joy and love to Christ Jesus for his sacrifice on our behalf.  In the bible, those who are deluded by the devil often think that they are "spiritual" because they have experiences of the "spiritual" world.  They think they are "spiritual" because they can speak in tongues, see visions, talk to the dead, predict the future, heal the sick, or drive out demons.  But Edwards argues, these are all things that the devil, the flesh, and the world can imitate.  They do not have the nature of the Holy Spirit, and we must not confuse them with biblical spirituality.   All together, Edwards give twelve biblical signs of true conversion.  In three previous articles I discussed the first seven sign.  This article focuses on the eight sign: a Christ-like Spirit.  Edwards writes,:   VIII.  Truly gracious affections differ from those affections that are false and delusive, in that they tend to, and are attended with the lamb-like, dove-like spirit and temper of Jesus Christ.  In other words, they naturally beget and promote such a spirit of love, meekness, quietness, forgiveness and mercy as appeared in Christ.   Let me explain this as simply as I can.  God's holiness consists of all his moral virtues.  It includes both his justice and his mercy.  But the distinguishing mark of a Christian is a spirit of mercy; not a spirit of justice.  The fanatics were people who would mention love, mercy and forgiveness; but in order to justify their fanaticism, they stressed the justice of God.  They stressed that because God is just, we need to be strong and bold in condemning sin and pointing our hypocrisy.  Edwards shows that they are wrong on two accounts.  The first is that they don't understand true Christian boldness, and the second is that they don't understand that the distinguishing mark of a Christian is love and not justice.  I will take up these two points in order.   What is Christian boldness and strength? Does it consist in boldly condemning sin and opening pointing our hypocrisy? No.  The Christian is called to be a soldier, bold and strong.  But Christian boldness and strength is not seen in anger with others.  Edwards writes:   True Christian strength consist in strength of mind, through grace, and it is seen in two things.  First in ruling and suppressing unruly passions and affections of the mind; and in steadfastness freely exerting and following good affections and dispositions without being hindered by sinful fear or the opposition of enemies.    Christian strength is seen, Edwards tells us, when we are able to love our enemies, when we are able to stand silent before false accusers, when we are able to rejoice in persecution, when we are able to pray sincerely for those who sin against us, when moved by mercy we are able to control our anger.  Christian strength consists in being meek and merciful in situations where others break out in accusations and anger.  When people are often angry with others and are often condemning others, it is a sign of great weakness of character.  Isn't this exactly how the world behaves? Paul tells the Corinthians, "you are still carnal, for there is envy, strife, and divisions among you.  (1 Cor 3:3)" Strength is seen in self control.    On top of this, Edwards points out, the boldness of fanatics is driven by spiritual pride.  Sinful men love to believe that they are part of the purest group of Christian on the Earth.  This is the very heart of spiritual pride: seeing the sin in others but not seeing your own sin.  Proud men often condemn those who are not in their group as being unfaithful to Christ.  But in this condemnation, they also include a hidden message that "we" are not like you, "we" are faithful in all things.  True Christian strength is not seen in any action if it includes self-exaltation.  True Christian boldness and strength is seen when out of a love to Christ we humble ourselves, openly confess our sins, and are willing to be despised by our spiritual friends.   The mark of a Christian is a spirit of love, meekness, quietness, forgiveness and mercy.  This is something that everyone who has ever opened the New Testament knows.  Jesus came to the earth not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him from the wrath to come.  In the Gospel of Matthew our Lord tells us that it is the poor is Spirit who are blessed (Mat 5:3), that he himself is meek and lowly (Mat 11:29).  Our King comes to us meek, and sitting on a donkey (Mat 11:29).  Jesus Christ is full of grace, and from his fullness we all receive grace upon grace.  The Spirit of God descends as a dove.  And a dove, Edwards tells us, is a symbol of "meekness, harmlessness, peace and love".  In the Old Testament, "the meek" and "the godly" are used as synonyms, and are contrasted to the wicked (PS 37:10,11, PS 147:6).  Jesus often refers to his disciples as children, and tells us we must become like children to enter the kingdom (Mat 10.42, Mat 18.3, 6,10, 14, Mat 19.14, John 13:33).  Edwards particularly considers scriptures where the Lord and his apostles teach us to love, to forgive, and to be merciful.  To quote them all we would need to copy almost the entire New Testament here! How pitiful and blind men are! They can pass over the entire teaching of the New Testament and at the same time think they are the most faithful of all New Testament Christians! Without love, Paul tells us, we are nothing.  Without mercy we receive no mercy.  Without forgiveness, we are not forgiven.    Edwards stood between fanatics on his right and liberals on the left.  Fanatics I've discussed above.  Liberals preach love and mercy.  But they never preach about the judgment to come.  In their heart of hearts liberals don't believe that God will judge the world.  They don't believe that some are going into eternal life and others into eternal punishment.  So they have no boldness or passion for the salvation of souls.  Edwards tells us that a Spiritual Christian is one who is bold and passionate for the salvation of souls, but, he reminds us, it is a heart-broken, meek, mercifully, loving, forgiving, Christ-like passion.  This is a biblical mark of a spiritual man.   (Note: this article first appeared in Chinese in the CRTS quarterly bulletin.)