“Resolved, that no other end but religion shall have any influence at all on any of my actions; and that no action shall be, in the least circumstance, any otherwise than the religious end will carry it.” (Resolution 44)
“Resolved, never to allow any pleasure or grief, joy or sorrow, nor any affection at all, nor any degree of affection, nor any circumstance relating to it, but what helps religion.” (Resolution 45)
With resolutions like these the ties with many things in Scripture come to mind. The text from Romans 12:1-2 is tied in with this. “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” In one sense these verses show what Edwards meant by resolutions 44 and 45. In another sense, both the verses in Romans 12 and the resolutions flow from the Greatest Commandment.
Romans 12:1 commands the readers to present their bodies as living sacrifices. A sacrifice was not necessarily something that was killed, it was something that was completely devoted to something or totally given over to something. So in the Old Testament an animal was sacrificed because it was devoted to that purpose. Now the bodies of believers are to be totally given over and devoted to living to and for the glory of God. This is pictured in resolution 44 where Edwards says that no other end or goal “but religion shall have any influence at all on any of my actions.” In other words, he saw his body as a living sacrifice. His resolution connects with this verse in that his body is seen as something to be totally given over to God in the sense that no action should be done but that which was for the goal of religion which for Edward was the glory of God.
The text goes on to say that this is “your spiritual service of worship.” If we looked at the opposite of what the verse means, which is to show what the extent of the verse, it would tell us that if we do not present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice then we are not in worship of God. If it is true spiritual service of worship to present to God as a sacrifice our bodies, then it is a false and non-spiritual worship to say that we serve God if our bodies are not sacrificed in this manner to Him. Therefore, the 44th resolution of Edwards is not radical and over the top from the biblical perspective, it is just plain and simple Christianity. A believer’s body is to be given over and devoted to God as a holy (set apart for His use) sacrifice which is to say that it is to have no goal other than for religion purposes. For Edwards, a religious purpose was to love God with all of one’s being and that demanded that all the actions of the body be devoted to Him.
Romans 12:2 has some parallel thoughts with Edwards’ 45th resolution. This verse speaks of being transformed by the renewing of your mind. A person has to be in the process of renewing the mind not to allow any affections or pleasures and sorrows influence a decision away from doing it for the glory of God. This is a mind that is being renewed and is not being conformed to the world and its way of doing and thinking. This is a mind that if firmly set on the grace to be brought at the coming and revealing of Jesus Christ I Peter 1:13). This is a mind that desires to be holy as He is holy (I Peter 1:15-16).
The standard of holiness is as God and we know that God has no pleasures or sorrows that move Him but toward His own glory. In order to be holy as He is holy, that is, to be like God which is to share in His holiness (Heb 12:10) and to share in His divine nature (II Peter 1:4), is to be influenced in the realm of the affections as well for nothing but His glory. Man is to love God with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength which is to be like God and the moral image of God. To do this all the aspects of man is to be like God. God exists in a perfectly blessed state which is to live in perfect love within His triune Being. All that the Father does is love for the Son and all that the Son does is love for the Father and all that the Spirit does is to be the love the flows between the Father and the Son. For man to share in the life of God is for man to be brought into the flow of love of God for and within Himself. This is a love and delight that is poured out in the heart of man by the Spirit (Rom 5:5). This is the joy of Christ which He puts in and works in us (John 15:11). If one wants to argue that these things which at the very least are the rivers of pleasure and delights that flow from the throne of God (Psa 36:8) do not influence the affections and holiness of man, let them argue with signposts. The matter is delightfully clear.
God Loves... Himself 
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