“Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom and of hell.” (Resolution 10).
We might be tempted to think of this as just a mind game or trick that Edwards used in order to win over pain or to make life easier in a day that did not have the pain relief medication that we have in our day. However, we should not think of these Resolutions like that. The Resolutions were meant to help Edwards focus on eternity in order to live to the glory of God now and forever. So we will attempt to understand this in that light.
What spiritual benefits could there have been that Edwards was thinking of in this Resolution and how will it help us in our day? I think that there are a few possible ways of looking at this. One, there is always the possibility that Edwards was striving to understand how to endure pain to the glory of God. After all, we should suffer pain to the glory of God since whatever we do is to be done to the glory of God (I Cor 10:31). Paul was spoken about in Acts 9:16 when the text says this: for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.” Paul’s sufferings were indeed used by God to advance the kingdom of God and the Gospel to the known world at that time. We can then see Paul’s view in the next two verses:
Romans 8:17 – and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
Philippians 1:29 – For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,
While it is hard to know what kind of pain Edwards was speaking of, whether physical or internal, or pain of illness or of persecution, we don’t have to exclude any of these. While Paul was more likely speaking of pain inflicted by persecutors of the faith, the verses do not have to be limited to that in principle. We know that God disciplines and trains His children in many ways (Heb 12:4-11). We know that God brings illness on His children for His purposes of training them. So we should learn to deal with pain and discomfort in a way that we would glorify Him and indeed would be to suffer for His sake. Whether we live or die we are His: “8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom 8:8-9). No matter where we are or what condition we are in, we should live to the glory of God.
This also teaches us to think of things from the eternal perspective. The pain of martyrdom is something that each believer should prepare for. Any believer might at any moment be called upon to die for Christ, even in the United States. Acts 7:20 gives us a powerful example of what each believer is called to do: “And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed.” The Greek word for “witness” in this text is martus. In Acts 23:11 we have another very interesting verse in this light: “But on the night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side and said, “Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also.” The word for witness in this text is martureo. At this point, I think, the root of the English word “martyr” should be clear. Stephen was the Lord’s WITNESS when he died. Paul was called to be a WITNESS when he went to Rome to preach Christ there. In Revelation 1:5 Jesus is called the faithful witness. And then we have the case of Antipas: “and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells (Rev 2:13).
We then have the words of Revelation 12:11: “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” In that text we have the word “testimony” which is marturia in the original language. To be a witness of Christ and to bear testimony to Him was to be a martyr in that day and in some way our own. Each person that bears witness to Christ has to die to self in order to bear witness to Christ out of a true love for Him. Each person should realize that to be killed for that witness is possible. So we must train ourselves to think through certain thought processes now in order to stand firm at a time like that. One of those is to think of pain that we have now and realize that we must honor Christ with and in that pain. Another way that Edwards mentions is to think of how little the pain is in light of the pains of hell. That points to the grace of God who delivers sinners from the pains of hell.
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