My husband has been a fan of Jonathan Edwards since 1994. Over the years, I’ve become a Jonathan Edwards fan too. Here’s why:

1. Jonathan Edwards is a spiritual mentor to my husband. He points him to Christ. He keeps him spiritually rooted, balanced, and growing in his relationship to Jesus. He keeps him theologically grounded. He has fire and truth, heat and light. JE exudes evangelistic fervor but also a deep belief in the sovereignty of God.
2. I teach about Jonathan Edwards and the First Great Awakening in my Fifth Grade class. Part of our history curriculum encompasses Colonial America, which includes Edwards. I’ve read about the revivals and his family. Students have portrayed Jonathan, his wife Sarah, and even one of his daughters, Esther, in our Living History Museum. It has become one of my favorite time periods to study in American History.
3. Edwards caught my deeper interest. As a teacher, I love all things school related. I love being a teacher, and I love school. So, I began reading more about Edwards, especially biographies. I found him to be fascinating: from his boyhood to his conversion to his preaching to his vast interest in books. I also became curious of Edwards as a teacher, as well as preacher, theologian, and pastor. I loved learning about his use of images to communicate, his use of questions with his own children and parishioners, and his desire for holiness as seen in his Personal Narrative. Then, I began actually reading Edwards instead of just reading about him, his The Images of Divine Things being a favorite.
4. His sermons speak to me too. I have enjoyed the Edwards sermons that I’ve read too, however few that may be. My favorite is The Excellency of Christ which I try to reread every Easter. It is a powerful picture of how the “diverse excellencies” of the majestic Lion of Judah and the meek Lamb of God (and other seeming paradoxes) are wonderfully met in Jesus. Jesus is both the Lion and the Lamb!
5. Reading Edwards has become a devotional practice for me. After reading some sermons, the Religious Affections treatise, several biographies, and a few other areas of study, I recently decided to read Edwards as a devotional practice. Let me tell you how that happened.

During some research and reading, I came across a quote by Wilson Kimnach which compared Edwards’ famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God to another famous sermon entitled Heaven is a World of Love. Kimnach states (WJE 8:61), “Though the much-discussed Sinners remains Edwards’ virtuoso piece, there are few other sermons in which the handling of imagery is comparably inspired. One sermon worthy of comparison with Sinners, and complementary to it in theme, is the concluding sermon of [the charity] series . . . a sermon of Dantean simplicity, scope, and grandeur . . . Perhaps for the same reasons that many who have read Dante’s ‘Inferno’ have not read his ‘Paradiso,’ this sermon has not received the attention given Sinners, and yet I feel that its vision of heaven is perhaps the supreme example of Edwards’ systematic massing of images about a theme.”

Okay, so the ‘Heaven’ sermon, that’s where I’ll head next! I took the correct Edwards’ volume of the 26-volume set, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, off the bookshelf and located the sermon. Much to my chagrin, it was then that I realized that the sermon was the FIFTEENTH sermon in the Charity and its Fruits sermon series (based on I Corinthians 13, the love chapter). Fifteen sermons?!?! What a load! Yet I felt that it would be like cheating to “jump to the end” and read only the last one, the icing on the cake, the piece de resistance! You can’t cheat with Edwards. I’ll admit, I was slightly tempted to go ahead and flip to the end, but as I was placing the book on my reading table, I noticed that the sermon was located in volume 8 of WJE (Ethical Writings), so I decided, nope, definitely not!

With a bit of trepidation, I opened the book to check out how many pages it would be before arriving at sermon fifteen. To my dismay, the Charity and its Fruits notes and sermons spanned over 350 pages. Knowing the density of these writings, it felt like a kick in the gut and not the happy sermon reading time I was hoping for. This was feeling more like an uphill trudge.

So, I began. It was super slow going. I felt discouraged at my snail’s pace. But, I finally decided to “cut myself some slack” and not worry about my slow-grinding pace, but to truly treat it as a devotional and read a bit every time I read my Bible. Then slowly but surely after a few months, something happened. I started loving it, rather than dreading it. Sometimes I only read a paragraph a day, but I always gleaned a deep truth and felt challenged, encouraged, convicted, and challenged yet again. It was changing me.

As I write this, I’m on page 249 and only concluding the sixth sermon in the series entitled, A Christian Spirit is a Humble Spirit. I chuckle as I type this because when I started sermon six, I had “rolled my eyes” about the title. A sermon on pride? I’m not prideful. I don’t go around bragging and loudly “tooting my own horn” and shouting “I’m awesome!” from the rooftops. (Spoiler alert: be careful when you think these things because you are headed for an eye opener!) Truth be told, this has been the most convicting sermon of all the ones so far. Each page, nay, each paragraph, has revealed a point of pride/contrary to a humble spirit way down deep in my marrow.

“Humility disposes a person to be be distrustful of himself, and depending only on God.” (8:239)

“It tends to prevent an ostentatious behavior.” Ok good, I’ve got this one! I don’t exude “ostentatious” behavior! Wait. Keep reading to the end . . . “If anything be done in sincerity, he is content that he, who sees in secret, beholds it.” Like every single time? Or just most times? Yikes!

“Humility will tend to prevent a willful behavior among men.” Uh oh, I feel my stubborn heart start to rise up and raise its hackles. I see the words “stiff and inflexible” approaching. Aahhh! This can’t be good. “. . . but things must go according to what they happened first to propose and manifest a stiffness or . . .” Here comes the kicker “. . . An humble man is inflexible in nothing, but in the cause of his Lord and Master and the cause of virtue. In these he should be inflexible. But in other things of less weight, or in things which only concern his own temporal interest, he is apt to yield to others.” OUCH!

But I like my plans! (Did you hear that? “My” plans!)

The next paragraph was on feelings of superiority and inferiority. Then the next on self-justifying. Ah, but then the next one brought me to tears . . .

When speaking of a spirit of divine love, what must accompany this is a humble love. A love that not only knows and acknowledges God for His greatness, by also, for his loveliness:

“A sense or discovery of God’s greatness without his loveliness will not do it. But it is a discovery of his loveliness that is the very discovery that affects the thing and makes the soul humble.” (WJE 8:244)

Oh, the loveliness of God; He IS altogether lovely!

So, what’s up next in the series?

Sermons seven and eight are on a selfish spirit and an angry spirit, respectively.

As I am preparing to receive a needed, welcomed rebuke for my selfish spirit (I’m already feeling this one — “me time”) . . .

I now realize that Jonathan Edwards isn’t just a spiritual mentor to my husband; he’s a spiritual mentor to me, too.