Jesus Christ is the Same yesterday and Today and Forever HEBREWS 13.8

After preaching a New Year Sermon on this great verse last Sunday at Oxford Evangelical Presbyterian Church, in which I quickly addressed the need to make Hebrew tooo platonic and the importance of historical Jesus, I was reading a magnificent book book by Hywel R. Jones Transfiguration and Transformation (Banner of Truth Trust, 2021). It has always troubled me that the Transfiguration is neglected by Evangelicals. It took the definitely not an Evangelical late Archbishop Michael Ramsey to address the issue. It to him we owe the oft quoted aphorism “God is Christlike, and in him is no un-Christlikeness at all. ” Then I came across (as you always do, post-preaching!) this story illustrating perfectly why the historically resurrected Christ is so very important and why His “sameness” matters “yesterday, today and forever”.

Hywel Jones writes (p.20):

Dr Carl Henry provided a semi-humoress incident about this with Karl Barth in which he himslf was involved. In 1963 Barth had visited the United States and a luncheon was held in his honour at George Washington University. At the beginning of the Q. and A., Carl Henry, having identified himself as the editor of Christianity Today, pointed out the presence of other religious news reporters and asked whether the resurrection of Jesus was the kind of event that they would have been able to report. Henry records:

Barth became angry … “Did you say Christianity Today or Christianity Yesterday?” Rather taken aback, I replied only by quoting the Scripture text “yesterday, today and forever”, certainly a hurried misappropriation. Barth responded to the question obliquely: ” The resurrection had significance for the disciples of Jesus Christ! It was to the disciples that he appeared!” But that wasn’t in question at all.

One of the correspondents said to Henry afterwards We got his answer. His answer was no. Remember that when you are tempted wade through his 14 volumes of Church Dogmatics. Read Hywel Jones instead!

“We have such a High Priest who serves (Grk.Leitourgos) in the sanctuary.” These words in Hebrews 8.2 are written of our Lord Jesus. Further, his worship/ministry/service, is said to be a superior Leitourgos (i.e. liturgy) according to verse 6. It is awesome to think that Jesus is the liturgy. It makes us cringe when we think what our liturgical offerings are like! So let no Christian contend that liturgy is unimportant. And no church should kid us that they don‘t have one! It might be good, bad or indifferent, but it‘s there all right. It is so, because I think that we all as Christ-ian people have been given liturgical hearts. In fact the new heart of the most excellent Liturgist of all, our ―High Priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven‖ (Heb 8.10). His being ―”sat” clues us into a number of points about liturgy.

 1. The work of our liturgist, Jesus is complete. The one and true worshipper, his reign and heavenly session enables and facilitates our true and only worth-ship (worship).

2. By the miracle of what theologians call a ―wonderful exchange‖ (mirifica commutatio) Christ takes what we offer and makes it His. So when all is said, sung and done, when we have exhausted our best resources (and liturgy, lit. the work of the people, should ALWAYS be a sacrifice of our very best and creative) it is accepted and transformed by the Liturgist. Without that metamorphosis it is unremarkable, no exchange has been effected. With it, heaven touches earth, the Man of Love who is at the Father‘s side presents what is our liturgy now made divine. Not for any reason did we speak in the church of the ―”divine liturgy” and it is, incidentally, why I believe we err when we jettison the term ―”service” and substitute less loaded terms, such as “celelebration” or “meeting” when we describe our gatherings. Gospel people are liturgical people. That means the whole company of God’s people, young, old, well, not so well, those we like and those we struggle to like. We serve the Living God in our liturgy and we serve all the people of God, sinfully excluding none, in recognition that we owe our Christian existence personal and corprate to pure grace. We adopt a transformationist view of worship, indeed we adopt a transformationist view of all life which is our “acceptable service”. God takes what we offer and by the sole virtue of Christ‘s liturgy which is now gloriously complete it is made acceptable.

 This means no shoddy Liturgy for Him who ―offered his all for us all “without blemish so that we may serve the living God” (Heb.9.14).

From my Rector’s Letter in the Parish Magazine JUNE 2009

This month sees our celebration of Trinity Sunday (7 June). The Threeness but Oneness of God is our great Christian distinctive. We regularly affirm our faith in One God, a Society of Three Persons. All who are baptised believers are baptised in the Name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One of the most famous expressions of that oneness is the prayer we often say together as we conclude our services and  know as “the Grace”:

 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all, evermore. Amen” (2 Cor 13.14).

It was the great revivalist preacher Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) who summed up the logic of the Trinity when he says that the Evangelist John (in 1John 4.16) says “God is love” he is actually proving that Deity must therefore exist in more than one person. Edwards avers:

“That in John (1 John) God is love shews that there are more persons than one in the deity, for it shews love to be essential and necessary to the deity … because all love respects another that is beloved.”

What is exciting about this faith is that we are shown how to live in relationship – how to love; taught by the great Beloved whom we worship and know as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are shown how to love another. That is how then we should live. Really! We in fact say, “we love … because he first loved us” (1 John 4.19). And only so. It is not that we see our lives and relationships and say “that’s how we understand God”. That’s a common mistake. Instead as Christians we look at the Society of Three Persons in their relationship and say “that’s how we should live”. That really does mean that as Christians we have a different “take” on life; an understanding which leads us to live differently.

So, for example, we know within the Society of Three there is perfect equality. Jesus said “I and my Father are one” and the Holy Spirit is always present in complete agreement and harmony. See for  the scene at the baptism of Jesus by John. The Spirit comes down on Jesus the Son and the Father speaks “you are my beloved Son”. Jesus spoke of the total oneness which he knew with his Father. In their love we are taught how we should love. How we should live. Others are equal but do we really live as though they are?

 On a personal note, I am pleased to say Sue and I are looking forward to our daughter’s ordination at Durham Cathedral on Sunday 28 June at 10.00 a m by Bishop Tom Wright. Petertide is when, of course, many throughout the land will be ordained in our Cathedrals. Victoria graduated from both Oxford (2002 and Manchester (1995), taught in two schools and has now, after a 2 year course completed her course of ordination training at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford. She is to be Curate at St. Nics (St Nicolas) in the Market Place, Durham. This was the Church made famous by Archbishop George Carey’s time ministry there some years ago when he was Vicar and is a vibrant witness to the love of God. Please remember Victoria in your thoughts and prayers and if any would like to join us on that day, you would be very welcome.

Roy Mellor (Rector)

FROM THE PARISH NEWS SHEET for MAY 2009

Come Holy Spirit This month will see the celebration of Pentecost. Now of course the original Pentecost happened once but Acts record many other “outpourings” and throughout the history of the Church there has been a steady flow of “revivals”. The coming of the Holy Spirit in great power is an indispensable need for the Church in each generation. And for every Christian. Jesus said, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” Acts 1.8. Speaking to his disciples just before His ascension He said that they would be “clothed with power from on high” when the Spirit of Promise came on them. This was the archetypal “power dressing”! We will never be effective Christians unless we know that power. Many people worry about the state of our Churches and the whole of our Church indeed. This is to be understood. There are, naturally speaking, many explanations for decline. For example, many are ageing, some have died and sadly, others are not absolutely convinced that being a Christian and being loyally committed to Christ as found in His local Body of believers (their local Church) is really important for them. But this situation has prevailed many times before in the history of the Church. Nor are these explanations the root of problem. That lies in our own hearts. We say we believe and rely on the Holy Spirit, but where’s the evidence? The solution to our plight will never be found in any business plan or mission strategy or “management shaped Church”. Holy Spirit power is the secret ingredient of every effective vibrant Church. But it appears to be so secret for some as to be none existent! In Acts 19.1 Paul asked some puzzled disciples at Ephesus “did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (they obviously didn’t look very much like they had!) and sure enough they replied “No”. There was no evidence but (and here is the key) they admitted it. Many of our Churches appear likewise to be lacking in vital signs. The answer does not lie in clever tricks to entice people to do more, give more or even in panic measures. Those particular disciples went on to experience Christ, the power of his Name, to be baptised not just with water but with Holy Spirit and his fire. They became a vibrant effective Church. This could be for you a time to be honest and ask God for the assurance of his Holy Spirit that you are really His and to fill you with his power. To ask Him to make Jesus real to you and fill you with His power. When this happens and only then, we will know God at work in new and significant ways in our lives and Churches. Jesus said “if anyone thirst let them come to me and drink”. God’s Holy Spirit will always be given to those who really want Him and when He comes watch out – things will really happen. So yes we have all we need in Christ and His promised Holy Spirit. But we need to be honest and let God in.

PARISH MAGAZINE EASTER 2007

Christus Victor is the title of a famous book first published in 1931 by a Swedish theologian, one Gustav Aulen. The main purpose of the book was to explore the three main understandings of the reasons why Jesus died and rose again. Jesus paid the price of our freedom, bore the punishment which was ours to bear for sin, ours! Jesus led by example too – how to live and die sacrificially. Gustav Aulen’s own strong preference was to emphasise the “Victor” status of Christ – the One who triumphed over sin, the devil and death and in his risen glory reigns triumphant. That victory was a cosmic victory against all the powers of evil. Easter is a time to celebrate that victory. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again! It still comes as a shock to many people that we Christians actually do believe that “on the third day” Jesus rose from the dead. Even more mind blowing is the assertion we make yet again that just as Jesus came back to life so will all those who place their faith in Christ. We do not and never have believed in re-incarnation, we do not believe that the resurrection state is vague and nebulous. Rather just as Jesus was given a resurrection body as God raised him from the dead so will all be given a resurrection body which is real. If we find this all too much to take, we should remember what Paul said: “If Christ is not been raised your faith is futile: you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15. 17). But the truth is: Christ is alive and is we can know his risen life in ours disempowering sin. The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is simply this: a Christian knows this all to be true both in history and in day by day experience. The non-Christian is puzzled and can’t quite see what all the excitement is about. Even when that earthly “day by day” life is about to end the Christian looks forward to being with Christ which is “better by far”. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the great Christian martyrs of the 20th Century. The Gestapo hanged him on the 9th April 1945 for his part in trying to end Hitler’s tyranny. As he went to the gallows his final words were “this is the end, for me the beginning of life”. He lived every moment in Resurrection Hope. The non-Christian looks on as an outsider and cannot really be excited about it all, in fact it’s all rather difficult to believe. Sadly death will appear stronger than Jesus. But as Paul triumphantly put it “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where O death, is your victory? Where O death, is your sting? … But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”. ( 1 Cor. 15. 54f) . A really happy Easter to you all.

Roy Mellor (Rector)

Written for the Parish Magazine Easter 2004

EASTER HOPE

Before and After Before the 11 Sept 2001 attack, the world may have been closing its eyes to many terrorist networks including their financial supporters. After the attack, they have been prime targets for concerted action. Before the attack we may still have been clinging to the much-loved notion that the world was really becoming a better place. With the writer American Francis Fukuyama “the End of History” was proclaimed in the sweeping triumph of Global Liberalism/Democracy. After the attack: you‟ve got to be joking! Evil is very much present and you had better believe it. We were just taking globetrotting for granted, strong financial positions, personally and nationally. After: stay at home and watch your money. Most of global history is governed by sudden radical shifts which have far reaching and mind blowing consequences. The Madrid Bomb attacks of 11 March 2004 and the consequent change of government are other cases. The extinction of the dinosaurs, the fall of the Tower of Babel, the fall of the Roman Empire, The attack on Pearl Harbour, the setting up of the Iron Curtain, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the assassination of JFK and on we could go. There was always a before and an after. One event with such a before and an after eclipses all others. Before the Cross; we were still in our sins with no hope of eternal life. After: Resurrection hope for all the world: “Now is Christ risen: He is risen indeed!” All history is divided by the before Christ and the after Christ. Before Calvary the Jewish people looked for salvation in a coming Messiah. After Christ‟s self-offering on the Cross the whole world is redeemed. Before Christ many prophets spoke for God. After, Christ‟s word was final, his sacrifice for all time, for all people across all time and history. That is why we speak of Easter Faith. It was the crucial event of all time; our time. I can remember where I was when JFK was killed. Strangely when the Valley Parade football fire happened we were in an electrical shop; when the Challenger disaster occurred we were in a video store; when the World Trade Centre was being hit by planes we were in Allders near televisions. We were there, every time we saw it and felt it, incredibly. We too were all there when at the world‟s greatest event ever, Jesus was crucified. In the words of a wonderful hymn (“How deep the Father‟s love for us”) and in response to the old spiritual (“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?) we affirm what we all feel and see: Behold the Man upon a cross, My sin upon his shoulders; Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice Call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held him there Until it was accomplished; His dying breath has brought me life – I know that it is finished. May you all experience the new life which our crucified, risen Christ brings us all at the Easter time.

Roy Mellor (Rector)

Resurgam  – from the Parish Magazine Easter  2009

 In Charlotte Bronte’s wonderful novel, Jane Eyre (1847), this word is inscribed on Helen Burns’ gravestone. It is also (appropriately) the name of a very early submarine from the Victorian era and it is the word that sums up the “sure and certain hope” – Resurgam – I SHALL RISE AGAIN of the Christian. On a number of occasions prior to the cross, Jesus predicted his rising again. But his disciples never did get their minds around it too easily. Only after it happened did they fully understand. Then there was no doubt: “He is not here. He has risen!” (Lk 24.5) and Mary’s testimony: “I have seen the Lord!” The Apostle Paul was quite clear: it is the belief by which the Church stands or falls: “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15. 17). Yet it is a curious fact that the passage of Scripture that is least requested at funeral services is the great Resurrection chapter: 1 Corinthians 15. There has got be something wrong about that. And as it was for the first disciples, so for us. Do we really understand what being a Christian is really about? This confirms what the present Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright, says in his prolific writing. See for example The Resurrection of the Son of God and Surprised by Hope. On the issue of death, so many people, both Christian and secular, do not understand the crucial and absolutely foundational Christian belief: Resurgam- I shall rise again. The resurrection of Jesus guarantees ours. I shall rise again – Resurgam is what every true Christian can say and believe. This sure and certain hope counters the hopelessness of secularism with its distinctive slogan “this is all there is!” If Christ is not risen then all human change is doomed; it is a waste of time because the ultimate change and transformation can never happen. Only a spiral of despair awaits us. But for the Christian this amazing reality is guaranteed: “we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet … the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable…” (1 Cor 15. 54f). But there is more. Ecological advance, the renewal of planet earth and the making of all things “new” are all guaranteed by Christ’s bodily resurrection and the empty tomb. Indeed, they are only assured by resurrection reality. Resurrection newness or reality is seen in Jesus of Nazareth, fresh from the tomb on the third day, seen in vibrating, pulsating newness in the early days of the Church; seen as Christ fulfils the promise of Revelation 21.5 “ I am making all things new!” Ecological resurrection promise for all creation come clearly into focus when Paul writes: “all creation is straining on tiptoe to see the children of God come into their own” (Romans 8.19 J.B. Phillips Paraphrase). On resurrection morning, all who are children of God through faith in Christ will come into unparalleled freedom and will trigger a new creation, a new heaven and earth of ultimate resurrection. Resurgam! A really happy Easter to you all.

Roy Mellor (Rector)

the notes of a sermon preached Summer 2019 in Oxford

Behold and be Saved.  JOHN 1. 1-18

The person I was ordained together with had a PH.D in The numerology of the Book of Revelation!  Other amazing numbers in John include: in the Prologue (1.1-18) there are 496 syllables; in the Epilogue (21.1-25) there are 496 words. Richard Bauckham who has written extensively on the Gospels as eye-witness accounts has noted that 496 is mathematically special: it is both a perfect number and a triangular number. The 2 Statements of purpose in 20 &21 (These things are written that you may believe …) each contain 43 words. The Bible is a literary, historic and mathematical tour-de-force. But then it is God’s very own Word , without error.

John’s magnificent statement of Who God is and who our awesome God in the Person of Jesus Christ is unmistakable in clarity and power; we can see three simple statements by the Apostle John: 1. In the beginning was the Word. 2. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. 3. We beheld His Glory.

 (1^st STATEMENT) In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God … ( 3 X “Was” =existence, relationship and proclamation). Before it all existed, there was the Word. Much of our culture wants to turn that around and say the Word was invented by what existed first. If you collude with that you don’t believe in a creator God; you are a God creator. That puts you at the centre of all things. In consequence the only meaning that exists is what you choose to give your world. You alone call the shots; are totally in charge of your destiny. That’s very, very scary. It means you are on your own:

I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

But that’s not the Bible’s view of reality: before everything “in the beginning was the Word”. He is the Unmistakable clarity: So we can see and hear and know God, so we know meaning and purpose, so we know how to live our lives. “Christ is the image of the invisible God”, (Col. 1.15)  “the radiance of God’s glory and the EXACT imprint of his Being” (Hebrews 1.3)

We see God in the “exact imprint” – only used here in the whole of the NT. It really means:  perfect imprint, flawless expression, exact imprint. “What God was the Word was” (John 1).  We really go back here to the coin or stamp/die. Think of that with Caesar’s head on it. But this perfect stamp, impression/die is not Caesar for he is not LORD – this perfect representation IS – in Him I really see what God is actually like – Jesus blessing the children, Jesus commending the Widow with her penny, Jesus throwing out the traders from the Temple, Jesus giving up his life on a wooden cross because of your sin and mine. That’s what God is really like!

Ramsey: “God is Christlike and in Him there is no unChristlikeness at all”.

         True image of the Infinite,
          Whose essence is concealed;
          Brightness of uncreated light;
          The heart of God revealed

We hear the Word: the speaking heart of God. He makes his way and our way clear: He does so in the person of Christ the Word of God: Kid’s song: God speaks: we listen John 1.18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and^[b] is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. The word was “with God” in the beginning as Jesus prayed: ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. The Word who was God was in the closest possible relationship with God. “He that has seen me has seen the Father also”. (John 14.9) Christ, the living Word is the ultimate self disclosure and expression of God. And therefore we not left floundering about, wondering what’s God’s purpose for our lives. He lets us know: Hebrews: 1.1 “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ( in types, pictures, models) ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son”. Since Jesus is known through the written Word, that’s what we need to hear. Way back pre-Jesus the people of God had everything they needed by God’s provision. Do you think that God missed anything out? And now, in Christ the living Word nothing is left out! He’s all I need! Col. 2.3: in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

God’s Word is powerful: (Psalm 33.6:) By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. The Word is bursting with energy and always sublime: Psalm 29.4 The voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is majestic. It’s not like our often vascillating and unreliable word! How many times have you heard it lately in all the political rantings: “but you said this, you said that … but now?” The Word of God is a commanding voice, a convincing voice, a compelling voice. He never goes back on his Word.

His is a saving Voice: One of the most frequently heard voices of today is that of self-help. Google it and you’ll come up three billion four hundred seventy million hits. It’s the natural default human religion. Most popular Funeral exit songs is, you’ve guessed it! Frank Sinatra’s: “I did it My Way” “I’ll do my bit” You may be very proud of it too. In fact you may get most offended if someone dares to suggest it wont get you credit with God. Most of my time as a minister was spent trying to point out the uselessness of it all. God’s Voice is a saving Voice: Psalm 107.20 “God sent forth His Word and healed them”. God’s Word saves: You’ll never qualify to be a Christian by self effort, there’ll always be more … more people to help … more charitable donations to give … It’s been said that Christ doesn’t  call the “Qualified” … he qualifies the called: “Jacob was a cheater, Peter was impetuous, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Rahab was a prostitute, Miriam was a gossip, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sara was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Abraham was old,… and Lazarus was dead. God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the CALLED!”

 2^nd STATEMENT Word became flesh and dwelt among us v.14 (C.S. Lewis calls it the “Grand Miracle” & …Calvin: “some crackbrains play and fool about with paltry sophistries, such as that the Word was said to have become Flesh, in that God sent His Son as a mental concept into the world as if the Word were, I know not what shadowy idea.”  No God came personally in Jesus Christ. “Grace and and Truth came by Jesus Christ …and from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.” As Karl Barth:  Karl Barth was lecturing to a group of students at Princeton. One student asked the German theologian “Sir, don’t you think that God has revealed himself in other religions and not only in Christianity?” Barth’s answer stunned the crowd. With a modest thunder he answered, “No, God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. He has revealed himself in his Son.”

Here, in this writing of John, He is out to bring us all “to believe in Jesus” –to become a “new creation in Him” – to know true “life”, to be changed by the same astonishing God who made the world and Who became– perfect Man, whilst still being perfect God – never forget it had to be like that. As Anselm (Med theologian) famously put it:

          It is needful that the very same person who is to make this satisfaction (i.e. pay our debt to God ) be perfect God and perfect man, since no one can do it except one who is truly God, and no one ought to do it EXCEPT ONE WHO IS TRULY MAN” . (read J. Stott’s wonderful classic on the Cross!) Therefore this is why God became Man and why “the Word became Flesh”. He had to be among us in order to make satisfaction  for our sin to a holy God. (to atone for, make a sacrifice that would save).

          For the first time in this passage “Jesus” name is used in verse 17: “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” the Word made Flesh is Jesus (He shall save). John is fond of using the Name JESUS (237x, cf Matt 150x, Mark 81x &Luke 89x). “He shall save His people from their sins”. Likewise he uses the title “Christ” more than any other Gospel writer. (He wants us to believe Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. His stated purpose is “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Has God saved you from the disaster of a wasted life? 5 yrs ago in OED New words: YOLO – You only live once (“it is appointed to humans once to die and after death comes judgement”) to come to know the true and living God, to know the light overwhelming our darkness.  Perhaps you really don’t think there’s anything seriously wrong with your life (isn’t sin just an outdated way of talking about “problems” or weaknesses or alienation  Or, you live practically as if you don’t really see the point of God (secularism). Or, if for you there is a God He’s just like you want Him to be

If we fix our gaze in another direction than our culture and its elevated icons … … after all, who would you trust most? Sir Elton John or the Apostle John, eyewitness of Jesus, “the beloved disciple”, Evangelist, writer of a Gospel,  the Book of Revelation and three Letters in our New Testament. If we fix our gaze on who Jesus is and what He did we are going to be amazed and awed:

3^rd  STATEMENT The Word became flesh AND LIVED FOR A WHILE AMONG US us (pitched his tent, encamped) and WE BEHELD HIS GLORY.

WHO IS “US” and who are the “WE”? Now of course, there is a sense in which the US refers to the disciples who were with Christ, who “saw” him day and night for three years. The amazing events of the Transfiguration spring to mind, when they truly “beheld”, gazed at the Glory. Some say that’s all there is to it. But after the “US” and the “we” John does not drift into addressing his readers as “you”. Certainly by the time we get to verse 16:”And from His fullness have we all received, grace upon grace”, well that’s definitely the whole believing church across all generations. . The right and privilege of becoming a child of God is for all who believe.

You wouldn’t want to exclude yourself from that promise, would you! None of us have physically “seen” the Word made flesh, but didn’t Jesus say to Thomas “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed”?  So we do “behold Him now with eye of faith: Paul reminds us in 1 Cor 3.18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit”.  “Beholding”, considering, gazing  transforms. The word is metamorphosis; as we gaze intently we are being metamorphosed . “Changed from one degree of glory to another”.  It’s as radical as that. AS Wesley’s great hymn picks up:

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus”

Look full in His wonderful face

          And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

          In the light of his glory and grace.

 Not left the same! Not to be more like our contemporary culture, meekly accepting everything it holds dear, but to be more like Jesus. To be transformed by gazing at the glory. Until finally we see Him face to face … “and we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as HE IS”.

And  John was fond of  words that speak of seeing God: “we beheld (despite the archaism, still captures the sense best) (we have seen) his glory”, the other John (the Baptist) is reported by this John as exclaiming “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” and in his first Letter John assures us “that which we have seen with our eyes and have looked upon and touched” is none other than the Word of Life” – the Word made Flesh. (The Word of Life of 1 John is the Word made Flesh of the Gospel of John). (hymns: “Behold Him there, the risen Lamb, my perfect spotless righteousness”. Sight transforming hearts and lives fills the Scriptures.

The picture (type – and here, as always,  the antitype or great archetype determines the type) Jesus uses in John 3 to enable us understand His death on the Cross as being like raising up the snake on a pole, (like a banner, or ensign or signal flag on a high place: Isa 11.10: ¹⁰ In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations enquire, and his resting-place shall be glorious.  ) “neath the banner of the cross” !! Back in Numbers 21 the people of Israel were on their wilderness walk: they grumbled and blamed God for everything that was wrong – no food, no water, and worst of all “God brought them here”. So God sends biting snakes to bring them to heel. Sin is compared to the venom of the serpent: sin and misery came from the serpent. What’s amazing here is that the cure (despite their sin against God) is a bit like an inoculation – the cause is turned to cure, except you don’t need an injection just a LOOK at one of these nasty biting snakes. “Whoever sees it shall live”. Look and Live! As the OT calls for Gazing at the Messiah: “Behold your God! (Isa 40.9) Proclamation of heralds. All through history we humans have used the results of attacks to scare others into submission But God reverses all that here and the poison afflicting humanity is displayed on a pole and becomes their healing. And Jesus is saying as he is raised up on a wooden pole, like a banner or ensign, He will become the way of rescue for sinners like you and me, and all we have to do is to “LOOK” and LIVE. Behold, look at intently, gaze on. Like the banner or Ensign. “To as many as received Him, who believed in His name …”

C.H. Spurgeon “Look unto Me …”  Isa 45  Funeral hymn “Ere since by faith I saw the stream …”

In his epic sermon series on Ephesians MLJ is preaching on 1.v.6&7 and the words “to the praise of the Glory of His Grace wherein he has made us accepted in the Beloved” and “the “Riches of His Grace”. His suggestion is that there are two ways you can view these amazing words and the words all around them: like some people who go into the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square and get a catalogue at the door, walk from room to room, they notice number One is a Van Dyck & say ah! “There’s a Van Dyck, there’s a Rembrandt and quickly move on. When they leave they exclaim: “Well, we’ve done the National Gallery now let’s do the Tate! Truth is they have never really “seen” the riches, the treasures. Or, you can “behold”, consider, take your time, gaze, wonder, savour, linger. We must linger too as we BEHOLD the Glory of the Word made flesh. Linger on the “glory” (tabernacle and the Shekninah Glory, back in  Exodus ³⁴ Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.) The Word has “tabernacle” among us and we have seen His Glory.  And here’s another miracle: “Of His FULNESS HAVE WE RECEIVED; Grace upon grace”. (v16)

GAZING ON THE FULNESS OF GOD Paul writes in Colossians 1.9: In Him (Christ) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell & again in 2.9: “in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily”.  It’s that same fullness that we have received. The Fulness of God!  Have you come across those people who say that God is important and of course, we should worship –but we musn’t be too narrow, must not think too much about God – we might be become narrow minded. Some Christians live as practical atheists. If we really believe all truth is God’s truth, all life is under the Lordship of Jesus, all history is God’s, all science that is true is Gods, all thinking that is true is Gods we will be the broadest people on earth. Jesus did say “I am come that people may have life in all its fullness”.  Do you live in this fullness?

 “Of His fulness we have received … Grace upon grace”. Some have read this as “wave upon wave” as in the NIV “one blessing after another”, and the Blessings of God’s grace are like that – from HIS FULNESS they flow. But we miss the full meaning if we translate it like that. It all hinges on how we translate the word we have generally as “upon”.

 Others offer various other solutions: Raymond Brown is the most extreme: “Full of Truth and Grace” and the end of v 14 becomes “filled with enduring Love” and “love in place of Love” is instead of “grace upon grace”. This is based on the obvious fact that the OT background here is Exodus 33-34 – the Tent of Meeting and God’s dealing with Moses after he broke the two tablets of the Law . Where that wonderful “Lovingkindness” (Love and Mercy (Hesdh) Steadfast Covenant Love )word is key: so he says “Love and Mercy” is more accurate. That is then the “replacement of Law”. Moses then, Christ now.

A better rendering is “grace instead of grace” which does have the merit of Law still being of Grace. So: Grace in the Law, now Grace & truth in the person of Jesus Christ. One grace replacing another but both from the “fulness” of the Word.

 The fullness of God in Christ is the past, present and the future. The grace of the Law was given in Moses, now fully perfect in Christ v. (“The Law was given through Moses, Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ – fully named here for the first time in John) The Law too, was of Grace (as in Earnest Kevan’s famous book: The Grace of Law”.  So Grace and Truth which flows to us in Jesus Christ is the completion and perfection of God’s Gift (GRACE) and Truth – (Reality, authenticity, reliability). Everyone may let you down but Jesus never. Every other way of life will involve you in a mighty struggle and you still won’t be certain of where you are, God’s pure gift of grace in Jesus guarantees release from the power of your sin, your addictions, your self deception; yes, and Truth inside. A home in heaven, forgiveness, peace of heart.

God’s grace is always His gift. Never earned, never attained, never worked up. God’s grace is the Person of Jesus Christ. Without Him there is absolutely nothing. We don’t know God except through knowing Christ.  Through this amazing Gospel: The Word WAS, He came, we Beheld. We don’t have or know the truth of and about God except through Christ. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says Jesus. We don’t have a rescue plan from sin on the table if there’s no grace in Jesus. In other words no salvation from sin outside of Christ. Have you responded to God’s Gift – do you want to praise the glory of His grace? Are you living in the good of the “riches” and fullness of God’s grace? Which sight directs your life, all the stuff that comes your way, the cultural clutter that fills our cyber space  – the sheer glory of the Word of God made Flesh. The Fulness which is known in Christ is ours to receive and grace upon amazing grace ours to live by right now.

A lightly revised Paper I delivered at the second Jonathan Edwards For the Church Conference, Durham UK in June 2016 (For my Paper at the First Jonathan Edwards For the Church Conference in Feb 2014 see the Book: Jonathan Edwards For The Church, ed. William M. Schweitzer, Welwyn Garden City, Evangelical Press, 2015

THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF SINNERS

“Sinners” is the word most often tripping off peoples’ lips when they hear the name Jonathan Edwards. So much so that it is now de rigueur to alert new readers to the alien status of that famous sermon: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God [1]at preached at Enfield on July 8^th 1741. Rather, we are assured, we should look only to the more representative body of Edwards’ works: which would normally include Charity and its Fruits, his Personal Narrative and Religious Affections. A mistake for certain; for all of Edwards’ ministry is a reaching to sinners, fallen and so short of the Glory of God.

God’s work with Sinners in His hands is adroit, apt and affective; it is never going to be a productive target for bifurcating 21^st Century Liberals. For Edwards’ God whose hands hold Sinners mercifully as a dangling spider over the abyss, and warns them, is precisely the God of Glory whose hands come with embracing arms of welcome:

“(T)he soul shall as it were all dissolve in Love in the Arms of the Glorious son of God & breath itself wholly in Extasies of divine Love into his Bosom in the most humble and adoring & yet in the most free & Intimate manner. “[2]

Yes, they are hands of rescue and upholding;

“all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life … you are thus in the hands of an angry God; nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction.” [3]

But God’s hands are not only preventative and upholding but forming and transforming hands. In his first published work; God Glorified in the Work of Redemption (1731) new creation and conversion is advanced as “a more glorious work of power than mere creation or raising a dead body to life”.[4] This claim elevates Salvation and demands we gaze at the glory of God in the Gospel. Edwards proposes a hierarchy of power: original power at creation of Man; much greater and more glorious is the power of rescue from depravity, and transformation into holiness:

” ’tis a more glorious work of power to uphold a soul in a state of grace and holiness, and to carry it on till it is brought to glory, when there is so much sin remaining in the heart, resisting, and Satan with all his might opposing, than it would have been to have kept man from falling at first, when Satan had nothing in man.”[5]

We can be sure, change and transformation in Sinners as a result of God’s grace and “workmanship” is visible and real, displaying the Glory, Beauty and Excellency of God. This can only happen if a there is an acknowledgement of God’s beauty, especially his holiness and “excellency” meaning the sum of all goodness, both moraL and aesthetic and always with the Trinity in mind. Indeed, unless a sight of the “infinite beauty, brightness and glory” of God is the precipitating factor in any affection it cannot be authentic. That is why Edwards had no problem with the claim he made at the beginning of Religious Affections: “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections”. Only when there is a sight and gaze on Holy Beauty can, or will, a transformed life, spring forth.[6]

“And this sense of spiritual beauty that has been spoken of, enables the soul to see the glory of those things which the gospel reveals concerning the person of Christ; and so enables to see the exceeding beauty and dignity of his person.”[7]

Or we can hear from a sermon preached in 1752, True Grace:

“The sight of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, works true supreme love to God: this is a sight of the proper foundation of supreme love to God, This sense of divine beauty, is the first thing in the actual change made in the soul, in true conversion, and is the foundation of everything else belonging to that change; as is evident by those words of the Apostle, 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”[8]

Edwards here is stressing the “proper foundation” of affective love to God. Such love is never born out of an experiential binge and this Edwards is never tired of underlining:

“But the saints and angels do behold the glory of God consisting in the beauty of his holiness: and ’tis this sight only, that will melt and humble the hearts of men, and wean them from the world, and draw them to God, and effectually change them.” (RA 264)[9]

That being the case, argues Edwards, how can it be true that any real love of the Beautiful God be authentic, truly holy affections, unless they originate in the Glory of God; unless built on the foundation of God’s loveliness?

In the second affirmative Sign of Religious Affections Edwards says of a person becoming a Christian that Beauty, Glory and Excellency, note the cluster, are the first objective ground of a newly found “relish”,“whereby he apprehends a beauty, glory, and supreme good, in God’s nature, as it is in itself”.[10]Many a writer/speaker who has not really bothered to read Edwards (and a few who have) or managed to get a basic purchase on Religious Affections has equated Affectionswith emotions and said “Ah, Edwards is all about emotions”. One contemporary “worship leader”/writer informs us thus and then writes this: “But (sic) there is in fact a bigger picture the Bible paints on this issue – that our emotions are derived first from God’s own character”,[11] as if Edwards is (a) equating Affections with emotions and (b) as if Edwards is completely unaware of God’s glory as the objective ground of all true faith! Such an antithetical mistaking could not have got Edwards more wrong! For Edwards it is absolutely foundational that all our “affections”, that is the understanding and will of the whole person, arise from seeing the Glory of God. He writes:

“That wonderful and unparalleled grace of God, which is manifested in the work of redemption, and shines forth in the face of Jesus Christ, is infinitely glorious in itself.”[12]

That is the awesome sight which guarantees change, which transforms sinners, so that only God is glorified. It is in gazing at the loveliness, the amiableness and Beauty of Christ: “Himself the chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely” and seeing Him alone that there will be an overcoming of hearts and captivate them for the King. On the contrary however, “fake affections” says Edwards,

“are having received what they call spiritual discoveries or experiences, their minds are taken up about them, admiring their own experiences: and whatthey are principallytaken and elevated with, is not the glory of God, or beauty of Christ, but the beauty of their experiences.”[13]

Here, it is worth mentioning that Edwards uses “glory” interchangeably with “beauty” and “excellency”.  Such a usage can be seen in these words from Edwards’ explication of the Second positive Sign on real conviction in Religious Affections:

“what chiefly renders God lovely, and must undoubtedly be the chief ground of true love, is his excellency. God’s nature, or the divinity, is infinitely excellent; yea ’tis infinite beauty, brightness, and glory itself.”[14] (p.242)

The transforming power lies in the sight, in seeing the Glory. That Glory which is a constellation all of these: the Trinity of aseity, beauty, goodness, wisdom, excellency, power, happiness holiness. Edwards distinguishes between God’s External Glory (ad extra, “toward the outside” & Internal Glory (ad intra, toward the inside). God’s clear desire is to communicate the ad intra via the ad extra. So what is clearly inherent, on the inside, such as God’s goodness flows forth externally:

“And that as there is an infinite fullness of joy and happiness, so these should have an emanation, and become a fountain flowing out in abundant streams, as beams from the sun.”[15]  

 God’s external glory is therefore, argues Edwards only the emanation of his internal glory. God’s internal Glory is summed up by Edwards as being all contained in three attributes:

“The whole of God’s internal good or glory, is in these three things, viz. his infinite knowledge; his infinite virtue or holiness, and his infinite joy and happiness.”[16] 

In the End for Which God Created the World The “fullness” of God’s glory is described in an illuminating reference by Edwards, to John 1.14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”.  The knowledge of His glory is communicated to the understanding and is His truth. His grace is communicated to the will and features his love, holiness, happiness, joy.[17]

The emanation of His Glory goes out from the Luminary (a favourite Edwardsean picture). God’s purpose is to communicate Himself; as He does so with delight His perfect Glory is made known.and later Edwards will say in a now famous image that there is a reciprocral “remanation”. That is a returning of the Glory back to God. It is a return, for Edwards, which is no illusion but real and actual:

“The beams of glory come from God, and are something of God, and are refunded back again to their original. So that the whole is of God, and in God, and to God; and God is the beginning, middle and end in this affair.”[18]

God’s clear desire is to communicate Himself; the ad intra via the ad extra. God’s desire to transform sinners is expressed by the Glory being displayed in Christ. Emanations from the Face of Christ reach the sinners’ heart and the glory “remanates” back to God. We will see with stunning clarity that theverses of 2 Corinthians 3.18 & 4.6 are massively important for Edwards. They allude firstly, to Moses’ veiling his face (Exodus 34) as he mediated God’s Law. As the Glory of God in Moses’ face was veiled so now by the Spirit when anyone turns to the Lord, the veil of unbelief, in the heart, is removed. Light reaches the heart. Second, there is an allusion to the creation.

 “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. … …For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”[19]

Edwards also appeals to Hebrews 1.3; speaking of the radiance of the Son: “Who is the brightness of His glory”; to the Transfiguration and shining of Christ’s face and to Peter’s recalling of that momentary but transformative event in 2 Peter 1:17: “For he received from God the Father, honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory”.

The degree of our life time metamorphosis (same word in two of the Transfiguration accounts as in 2 Corinthians 3.18) is magnified because of the depths to which we have sunk. That takes us back to God Glorified in the Work of Redemption: “tis more glorious” preached Edwards, than it would have been had there been no depravity to be rescued from and no life to be sanctified.  Redeemed and rescued sinners screen for all time withmagnificent resolutionGod’s Power and Beautiful Glory. But Edwards never lets us forget the future Glory – the face to face encounter with a transforming and Beautiful God. His glory is so displayed now, that is sure, although an even greater blaze of personal divine Beauty is guaranteed. In an early (1722) sermon The Value of Salvation we hear this:

“But the dwelling in such a glorious place is but the least part of the happiness of heaven. There is the conversation with saints: with holy men of old, Moses, Job, David, Elijah, etc., with the prophets [and] apostles, and besides that, with the man Christ Jesus who was crucified for mankind at Jerusalem. Neither is that the chief thing.” [20]

So what, we ask, is the chief thing? Before we answer that, ponder this clarifying aside from Edwards above. There will certainly be the fellowship of the redeemed and transformed: with the saints and Apostles. Christ, of course is there. His personal historic death in Jerusalem, “for mankind” is according to John, his glorification. Significantly, writing in the End for Which God Created the World Edwards cites Isaiah 46.13: “I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel, my Glory” and  John 12:23–24, “And Jesus answered them saying: the hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.” For Edwards: The “much fruit” is His Glory, “his offspring”, that is the conversion, salvation and happiness of those to be redeemed. Edwardslikens the void Christ experienced before his death to that of Adam before Eve, of a man without his glory – a woman. This is an amazingly clear explanation by Edwards of why the Glory of a Beautiful God is seen and known in the company of redeemed and transformed sinners:

“By Christ’s death, his fullness is abundantly diffused in many streams; and expressed in the beauty and glory of a great multitude of his spiritual offspring.”[21]

 All these redeemed saints (the “much fruit”) will mingle and converse with us. Amazing as that is, it is not the chief thing.Rather, Edwards wants to foreground the sight and vision of the Beautifully Glorified which is the ultimate transformative moment. Back to the The Value of Salvation where we read:

            “the Beatifical Vision of God: that is the tip of happiness! To see a God of infinite glory and majesty face to face, to see him as he is, and to know him as we are known; there to be admitted into the most intimate acquaintance with him, to be embraced as in his arms: this is such a privilege as Moses himself could not be admitted to while on earth. The vision and fruition of God will be so intimate and clear as to transform the soul into the likeness of God: “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is,” says the Apostle (1 John 3:2)”.[22]

In Edwards’ writings the sight of God’s transforming Beauty both now and “face to face” looms large. It is we would say in the jargon, passim. But there are two places especially where Edwards zooms in on our sight of God’s Glory and the transformation of Sinners.

 In two sermons[23] preached in 1728 and again in various forms in 1750 & 1752, Edwards spells this out and leaves us in no doubt what 2 Cor. 3.17-18 (he will quote from these verses over and again) is all about:  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Edwards’ two points are: First, Believers are transformed by the sight of the Glory of Christ in the Gospel into “a likeness of the same Glory”.  Second,^. the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ is the Executor of this transformation, in other words He makes it all happen. These are filled out in many other places.

Edwards continues by identifying the active Agent of Change, or we could better say the sole Transformer. “The Spirit” is identified as “Jesus Christ, the spiritual scope and meaning of all the Legal Dispensation”. This is entirely in line with what Edwards made clear in the History of the Work of Redemption: The Old Testament is the Gospel “under a veil”; but the New Testament contains it “unveiled”. Edwards is clear: only because of that Gospel apocalypse can we see the Glory with an “open face”, an “unveiled face”.

“the way of salvation was under the Old Testament in a great measure hid under the veil of types and shadows and more obscure revelations, as Moses put a veil over his face to hide the shining of it. But now the veil of the temple is rent from the top to the bottom and Christ, the antitype of Moses, shows the shining of his face without a veil.”[24]

 A quick search of the body of Edwards’s MSS will reveal that he referred at least 50 times to the “Open face”. In other words having your face “unveiled” was supremely important in his understanding of the Gospel.

In 1723 Edwards had preached (prior to assuming his Northampton post): “A Spiritual Understanding of Divine Things Denied to the Unregenerate”. He cites the same text as he would later in his 1728 2 Cor 3.18 sermon:  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (I Cor. 2.14). Edwards advances his argument that true spiritual knowledge, (i.e. sight) is supernaturally imparted and is transformative. Unregenerate sinners remain unchanged with only a notional knowledge. But for the regenerate there is a “sight” of truth, a sight of Excellency (beauty/glory) and most crucially an experiential understanding “of the operation of God’s Spirit”.

In order to “behold”, to gaze at the Glory of the Lord, the fog had to be dispelled. Those with foggy, blinded minds are narrow hearts, there is zero understanding of the Gospel. There is a difference. They cannot see that sin has possessed their lives and they are beclouded and bewildered. Pride prevents the entrance of light.  But the Holy Spirit works so that just as all humanity naturally know memory, sorrow, anger and the like, so all the regenerate know peace of conscience, faith and divine love.  As the fallen human knows how things work in the lived reality of being fallen from the Glory of God and in sin, so in the regenerate there is a clear purchase on living for God’s Glory. What a difference in the transformed who have had a sight of God’s Glory and Beauty! Indeed, it is difficult to describe in words.

You can never substitute a description of a Beautiful face for a face to face encounter. You will never get a burning heart of love by descriptive prowess; you need eyes on!  “One glance of the eye doth more than all the most particular descriptions that can be given.” [25] Such a glance is known by the believer:

“God has given a glance, opened to the immediate view of their minds, and there breaks in upon their souls such a heavenly sweetness, such a sense of the amiableness, as wonderfully affects the heart, and even transforms it.”[26]

Edwards cannot emphasise too much that there is a vital difference between a transformed sinner and an unregenerate sinner in which the deformity of sin reigns:  

“The first difference is, this spiritual knowledge transforms the heart, the other doth not …the believer … is become quite another man than he was before …The knowledge that he has is so substantial, so inward, and so affecting, that it has quite transformed the soul and put a new nature into the man, has quite changed his very innermost principles, …Yea, he is a new creature, he is just as if he was not the same, but were born again, created over a second time. 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, as with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord”. [27]

Only that sight of the true Glory of God gives the “all-conquering evidence”[28] necessary for a person to turn to the Lord and for the veil of unbelief to be removed, the Gospel believed and real faith established.  And it does not matter who we are. It is in Edwards’s explication of the Fifth affirmative sign in Religious Affections that we have a particularly strong account of what seeing the Glory means.

The components of the Gospel, their “unparalleled beauty” (glory) tends to our being convinced of their reality: “for in this glory, which is so vastly and inexpressibly distinguished from the glory of artificial things, and all other glory”[29] is the evidence of the reality and truth of the Gospel. Gazing at that glory is sufficient to precipitate transformative assent to  “the truth of the gospel  but by one step”.[30]  That glorious “one step” may be an instantaneous syncing of all the truths of the Gospel so that the mind is gloriously transformed, never to be the same again. The veil of unbelief and misunderstanding  is removed and in the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” a transformational miracle is born.

 Edwards posits a mind now so convinced of the utter abhorrence of sin, universal and personal, of the need for the transforming power of God in all his glory; of the need of an atoning  Saviour: of “a sense of true divine beauty being given to the soul, the soul discerns the beauty of every part of the gospel scheme”.[31]  “In every part”! And Edwards underlines this over and again. There is no picking and choosing, privileging a culturally palatable aspect of the Gospel over one currently out of favour.

None of this will be achieved by sheer force of argument. In a famous aside Edwards observes the absurdity of saying that only by an intellectual tour de force can people be convinced of the gospel: “There are at least nineteen in twenty, if not ninety-nine in an hundred” who could not be won by such a route.

 “Miserable is the condition of the Houssatunnuck Indians, and others, who have lately manifested a desire to be instructed in Christianity; if they can come at no evidence of the truth of Christianity, sufficient to induce ’em to sell all for Christ, in no other way but this.” [32]

Today, Apologetics has an important place but we should take Edwards warning and reminder seriously: “The gospel of the blessed God don’t go abroad a-begging for its evidence, so much as some think; it has its highest and most proper evidence in itself.” [33] Seeing the Glory, the Beauty and Majesty of God will always be the clincher.

In his 1728 sermon on 2 Cor..3.18 Edwards emphasises that it is the Holy Spirit who initiates all this. He lingers on his second point: a true sight of Christ is given only by the Holy Spirit. No purchase on Edwards and gazing at the Glory of God is possible without grasping this. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was clear in his opinion that the Holy Spirit was more to the fore in Edwards than in any other of the Puritans.[34] Edwards’s 1733 sermon A Divine and Supernatural Light is certainly the place where some of his more fragmentary thoughts are given clear and seminal expression. Much of it is presaged right here and also in the 1723 sermon Spiritual Understanding Denied to the Unregenerate.

In Edwards’s 1728 Sermons on 2 Cor3.18 Sun imagery is invoked to lend clarity to Edwards foregrounding of the work of the Spirit. Christ is the great luminary and the Spirit of Christ is the outshining sunrays which enlighten and illuminate. The understanding is “opened”. The imagery of “anointing” is invoked to describe this outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He applies, immediately, the Scripture to the soul.  Ephesians 1-18 is invoked:  Paul prays that God would give “the spirit of wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him the Eyes of Your Understanding being Enlightened that Ye may know what is the hope of his Calling and what the riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the saints”. The heart is worked upon. God’s “excellency” or “beauty” is felt with power on the heart. This is contrasted with mere “imagination”, an in vogue word of our generation but the Gospel word is “transformation”.  We are given not merely to imagine life in the Glory and what it might be like to live for the Glory of God, but to experience it. Unbelievers suffer from perpetual and natural aversion to God’s Glory. They are unimpressed and unconvinced by the same truths, the same scriptures which have moved believers but “have not the least Glimpse of His Glory”. You can tell a person how we are unlovely and enemies of God by nature, says Edwards; how much in His great love Jesus suffered but until the Spirit works they will be unmoved, unimpressed.

Crucially for Edwards, the heart must be won. By the Holy Spirit alone heart work is wrought. It is Just as it was at creation.  A cardiac miracle happens in an act of regeneration. God commands light out of darkness and shines in our hearts giving the “light of the knowledge of Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”.  2 Cor. 4.6 was always a favourite verse for Edwards. Just as in original creation God’s initiative and action is imperative so it is for new birth and transformation. Blind eyes need to be given sight. Just as many were sighted  by Jesus so Edwards longs for his auditors to truly “see”. He joins in Paul’s prayer “that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1.18):

“Tis the spirit of Jesus Christ that makes like to Jesus Christ. We have hear’d under the former doctrine that true believers have of the Glory and excellency of Jesus Christ upon their souls. And that the sight they have of the Glory of Christ changes them into this likeness. They have a transforming sight of the Glory of Christ. But in this doctrine we are taught that this is done by the Spirit of that person whose Glory is seen. ‘Tis Christ only that makes men like to himself by his own Spirit and he doth in his way: by Giving a sight of himself. By Revealing himself to the soul.[35]

Then in rapid fire succession Edwards mentions the ensuing “Great Change”, “new nature”, “the second birth”, “renewal and regeneraton” all worked by the Holy Spirit. The unordered human heart is likened to the first creation. Beauty and Excellency  (those are the words Edwards uses) is worked by the Spirit from beginning to end. The Holy Spirit is their “principle of holiness” and just as at Fall, the “Holy Spirit, that divine inhabitant, forsook the house”[36] so the One who received the Spirit “without measure” gives Him as the one who is the rightful inhabitant, as the transforming disposition to “humility, meekness, acts of love and an excellent and amiable behaviour”.[37]

The 1728 sermons on 2 Cor. 3.18 are indisputably packed with three truths: it is only the Holy Spirit who can open hearts and understanding, He does this by giving a “sight” or a view of the Glory of God in Jesus, and in that sight is known the transforming power of Christ, changing and making a difference.

Recall Edwards’ use of the Fountain image to help his description of Glory ad extra. To apply the truth that the Holy Spirit of Christ brings enlightenment and transformation, the Fountain and associated imagery is used repeatedly:

 this sets forth Jesus Christ in a Enjoying Charming light and Gives us a lovely view of him as it Represents him as the fountain of all Grace of all spiritual light and excellency in that it is all wrought by his spirit.[38]

 Something is “wrought” or worked in a believing heart.  In the great company of believers or “the fullness”, who are being changed from glory to glory, God has determined to show forth his beauty. Aquatic linguistics come to Edwards’ aid again. The Fountain becomes an ocean. If He is the Fountain of all heavenly excellence showered on us, argues Edwards, and if we narrow and shallow streams are worthy of love, “how much more is the Fountain which is a sea without shore or bottom”. [39]  He goes on:

Believers see that there is an ocean of Grace and love in the heart of X that there is love and Pity enough to Answer their Necessity. Necessities there is need of no more, it brings him to that fountain; to that ocean of love.[40] 

Edwards never presented truth without applying it to the soul. Beholders should expect never to be the same again. As Moses’ face was transformed by gazing at the Glory so with us. But one glimpse is all it takes:

“… believers, they have a sight of this Glory, they both see and feel a Ravishing beauty and excellency in him. They have a new sight of him … if they have but a Glimpse of his true excellency it makes him appear lovely above all … tis a sight that draws the heart after him; that makes the heart to Long for him so as to see more of him. And in that seeing we are changed from “glory to glory”: “Are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory, that is from Christ’s Glory to their own Glory, that is ‘tis from his Glory as the Cause to their Glory as the effect, as when the suns light is Reflected from a Jewel  there is one Glory derived from another Glory”. [41]

Here is derived, reflected glory.Christ Himself is the Jewel. But He is also the mirror into which we gaze at his Glory:

“The Gospel is as a to a Reflecting Glass that Refracts the Glory of Christ as the light of the sun is Reflected from a Looking Glass.”[42] The Glory of Christ is mirrored in Believers hearts and lives in a way that trumps Glory in Creation. Now, of course, Edwards famously affirms God’s Glory in creation, especially the Imago Dei in created humans, far more so than a host of theologians, but insists Edwards, “Christ our Mediator and Saviour is nowhere revealed but in the Gospel”.[43] The Ocean of love and pity to sinners could never have been known except through the Gospel of the cross; the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ – is only encountered through the Gospel. There we see Christ’s faithfulness and his great love for sinners and “effects of his love”.

A Glimpse at that face of Glory effects a permanent transformation. “It makes the change that can never be unmade”[44] says Edwards.  A true sight of God’s excellence will not result in a temporary change: it really is one that lasts all the way to Glory. And It is a powerful transformation:

The Glory of Christ is such that it is of a transforming nature;  it’s of a powerfull nature.  It Changes all that behold it into the same Image. It Reaches to the Bottom of the heart to the most Inner soul. It is a sight that purifies and beautifies.[45]

Edwards always stresses Christ-like character and Christian practice as the ultimate evidence of authenticity and in Religious Affections it is the “sign of signs”.[46] Here it is the picture is of lives blossoming and beautified by the Sun shining on them, reflecting back God’s Glory. here is dispositional evidence of love to Christ, to others, to enemies, to forgiveness and peaceable living. Others will be preferred in love, disinterested benevolence (radical self-denial and positive discrimination privileging others over yourself) as seen in David Brainerd, will be the order of the day.[47] Brainerd, although always the archetypal Missionary-Statesman for so many was read via Edwards perhaps more than anything else Edwards wrote. One reason is that his “piety” and “saintliness” perhaps even more than his missionary exploits appealed to a vast range of Christians. How may the beauty of Jesus be “seen in me”? What does it really mean to follow in the footsteps of Jesus?  Brainerd provided a model.

Following in the footsteps of Jesus will demonstrate inward charity, humility and lowliness. The excellency of the saints is that they are changed into the image of the Glory of Jesus: 

Christ has no higher Glory than this, that the saints have the Image of and Reflection of Christ … there is nothing that Can render a Creature more Glorious than this; for hereby they are said to be made Partakers of the divine Nature (2 Pet 1. 4).[48]

On the transformed, God places His own Beauty. Edwards cites Ezekiel 16.14: God speaks to a wayward Jerusalem of what He had done for her: of “thy beauty … which I had put upon thee”.[49] Lives are beautified into the “same Image of Glory of Christ” as seen in the Mirror. Again Edwards foregrounds the greater Glory of Christ in the Gospel; “bright with holiness”. If the transformation is so magnificent in this age of Grace, seeing only “through a glass darkly”, what will it be when “face to face”?  But make no mistake, already, presses Edwards: believers are “so much like Him as to be called His sons”.We are all called to examine ourselves in the light of the Glory. A fervent desire and longing after God will be evident as seen by Edwards in David Brainerd:  there was a mourning over indwelling sin and unprofitableness;

“deadness to the world; longing after God and a fervent desire to live to his glory. If the sight we have had is truly a sanctifying influence the same will be true of us.”

David Brainerd is a clear exemplar, for Edwards and for us, of a sinner who wrote often of God’s Glory and experienced the transforming effects: Of one occasion when he experienced “unspeakable glory” in a thick dark grove. He wrote:

I stood still and wondered and admired, wondered and admired! This was something, I knew, that I never had seen before, or had seen before anything comparable, … for excellency and beauty. ‘Twas widely beauty: It was widely different from all from all the conceptions that ever I had had of God.[50]

So Brainerd was brought to “a hearty disposition”[51] to exalt Him. To “aim at His honour and glory as King of the Universe”. That disposition is humility, distrust of self and the renunciation of all for the Glory of God. As Brainerd prayed he says “my heart seemed sweetly to melt and I trust, was really humbled for indwelling corruption, and I mourned like a dove”[52]. The evocative Dove simile is a powerful expression for Edwards’s description of Brainerd:

How eminently did he appear to be of a meek and quiet spirit, resembling the lamb-like, dove -like spirit of Jesus Christ! How full of love, meekness, quietness, forgiveness, and mercy.[53]

Not surprisingly, so it was that in Jim Elliot’s Ecuador diary entry not long before his martyrdom in 1956 he referred to Brianerd’s diary on the confession of pride.[54]

            We like Edwards and Brainerd are all called to examine and check ourselves in the light of the Glory. Is there real transformation? That’s the unmissable point of application to our normal lives in this paper. Where is it happening? Is it underway.? If we are Gospel people then it has to be. But we must name those areas of change. We must shame those areas which we know need to be transformed but are trapped in the stasis of sin. What about the transform of our churches? Are all wecome, none excluded. Does our leadership truly reflect the make up of our congregations – female, male, single as well as married, single parents, children and ages? The transformation of sinners’ hearts which God wrought in them and in countless others, affirms that truly we are Sinners in the Hands of a Beautiful God.  

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[1] Works of Jonathan Edwards, 26 Vols. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957-2008. 22:400-435 Also available Online at http://edwards.yale.edu

Herafter cited as WJE

[2] WJEO Works of Jonathan Edwards Online 50:373, Sermon on Romans 2:10

Volumes 27-73 are Online at http://edwards.yale.edu

Herafter cited as WJEO

[3] WJE 22:411

[4] WJE 17:205

[5] WJE 17:206

[6] WJE 2: 95

[7] WJE 2:302

[8] WJE 25:636

[9] WJE 2:264

[10]WJE 2:241

[11]Philip Percival in Then Sings My Soul (Waterloo, Australia, Matthias Media, 2015), p.90

[12] WJE 2:248

[13] WJE 2:251

[14] WJE 2;242

[15] WJE 8:433

[16] WJE 8:528

[17] See The End for Which God Created the World in WJE 8;529-530

[18] WJE:8:531

[19] 2 Corinthians 3:18 & 4:6

[20] The Value of Salvation, WJE 10:324

[21] WJE 8: 440

[22] WJE: 10: 324

[23] Sermons on 2 Corinthians 3.18, WJEO 43 Sermon Series 11, 1728-1729

[24] WJE 9:366

[25] Edwards in A Spiritual Understanding Denied to the Unregenerate, WJE 14: 79

[26], WJE 14: 79

[27] WJE 14:81

[28] Edwards in Religious Affections, WJE 2:298

[29] WJE 2:298

[30] WJE 2:299

[31] WJE 2:302

[32] WJE 2:304

[33] WJE 2: 307

[34] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors (Edinburgh:Banner of Truth Trust, 1987), p.350

[35] WJEO 43, Sermon series 11

[36] Edwards in Original Sin, WJE 3:382

[37] WJEO 43, Sermon Series 11

[38] WJEO 43, Sermon Series 11

[39] WJEO 43 Sermon Series 11

[40] WJEO 43, Sermon Series 11

[41] WJEO 43, Sermon Series 11

[42] WJEO 43, Sermon Series 11

[43] WJEO 43, Sermon Series 11

[44] WJEO 43, Sermon Series 11

[45] WJEO 43, Sermon Series  11

[46] WJE 2:443

[47] See WJE 7 for Edwards on Brainerd. For a full discussion of the concept of “dintersted benevolence” see  Joseph A. Conforti, Jonathan Edwards Religious Tradition & American Culture (Chapel Hill ,University of North Carolina  Press, 1995) chapter 3, pp.

[48] WJEO 43, Sermon Series 1163-86

[49] WJEO 43, Sermon Series 11

[50] WJE 7:138

[51] WJEO 54, Sermon Series 11

[52] WJE 7:165

[53] WJE 7:507

[54] Ellizabeth Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot(New York, 1958) p.105

From the Parish Newsletter Dec 2010

Christmas God by the Revd Roy Mellor

I write this in the middle of November and it is positively my last Pastoral letter. I would like, again, to say a very big thank you to every one of you for all your kindnesses shown in the last few months and in the farewells. Sue and I will miss you all and it goes without saying that you are more than welcome to come and see us when you are able. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, the late Michael Ramsey, once famously wrote “there is no un-Christlikeness in God”. That is compellingly and instructively true and what a truth for Christmas! Our God is a Christmas God: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” (Philippians 2.6&7). It is a tiny baby who is the Christmas icon – the true image of God. It is the baby who is the Servant King. It is in God‟s very nature and character to make something out of nothing. Indeed He works only in such a way. Theologians call this ex nihilo (out of nothing). That‟s how the universe came into being (created out of nothing) – see Hebrews 11.3 – and how each new Christian is made, as we accept our status as sinners who need a Saviour and we are “born again”. Anselm, an iconic and earlier Archbishop of Canterbury, who lived from 1033 until 1109, wrote a now famous book, called Cur Deus Homo? (Why did God become man?) The answer is because God is a Christmas God. God always calls and uses the vulnerable, the weakest to achieve His will. So if there is an Ishmael and an Isaac – the younger and older he goes for the younger; and Esau and Jacob – He goes for the younger rascal Jacob. It is no aristocrat who is named as helper of the Israeli spies in Canaan but Rahab, a prostitute who makes it into the Genealogies of the Messiah. Dangling the scarlet cord with its cross predicting power from her house she is given VIP status by the incoming and victorious forces. God‟s way is seen supremely in the taking of human form in the tiny vulnerable baby Jesus. Charles Wesley exclaimed “Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man” taking his cue from John who said it perfectly, “We beheld His glory, glory as of the one and only son of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1.14). Only by becoming one of us could God be true to Himself and secure our rescue from sin and all its dread power. Only God could do it and only a human could pay the price for our sin. So the God-Man Saviour of the world worked His miracle and we are healed. Had God not assumed our humanity we could never be healed (“the unassumed is the unhealed”). The truth of the Christmas God is summed up well in Blisworth born Graham Kendrick‟s classic hymn, “Meekness and Majesty”: Meekness and Majesty,/Wisdom unsearchable,/ God the invisible,/ Love indestructible in frailty appears,/ Lord of infinity, stooping so tenderly, /Lifts our humanity to the heights of his throne./ O what a mystery,/ meekness and majesty,/ Bow down and worship, for this is your God, This is your God!

May you all have a joyous Christmas and know God‟s grace with you in 2011 and beyond. God be with you.

Roy Mellor (Rector of Blisworth and Stoke Bruerne with Grafton Regis and Alderton, 16 Sept 2003 – 30 November 2010)