“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)
These resolutions of Edwards are reminiscent of the covenants that people used to make with God in the Old Testament. These were covenants where all was turned over to God and a complete ownership was assigned to God in recognition of His absolute sovereignty. In II Chronicles 23 the priest made a covenant that was for all the people: “Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king, that they would be the LORD’S people” (v 16). Here we see that the covenant was between himself and all the people and the king. They covenanted that they would “the LORD’S people.” This is an all-encompassing covenant that includes all things. To be the LORD’s people is to be owned by Him with all that the people owned to be His as well. It was to be obedient to all that He commanded. It was, in other terms, a full surrender of all things to God.
It is also a term that is found in the New Covenant. “FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE” (Hebrews 8:10). For all those in the New Covenant, God promises to be their God and that they shall be His people. What does it mean to be the people of God? Paul understood himself as a bond-slave to Christ and that he was owned by God (I Cor 6:19). How complete is this ownership? Does this include the heart and the affections of the heart? If we are owned by God, then without doubt the God who commands that His people are to love Him with all of their being includes the affections in His ownership. We can see that from the New Covenant promise in that He will write His law on their hearts. What else is that but love itself since the law is only kept by love?
Later on in the book of II Chronicles we see where Josiah made a covenant with God. “Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant written in this book. 32 Moreover, he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand with him. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers” (II Chronicles 34:31-32). In that covenant Josiah covenanted before the LORD to keep His commandments, testimonies, and statutes with all of his heart and soul. That is in accordance with the Great Commandment. But we cannot imagine the king making a covenant with God to keep God’s laws with all of his being without covenanting to keep them with his entire heart which would include his affections, pleasures, joys, and sorrows.
One distinction between the Old and the New Covenants is that in the New Covenant (as seen above) God promises to work these things in the hearts of His people by writing them on their hearts. Edwards, clearly enough, was born in New Covenant times. But what we see in his resolutions, by implication, is that God has the right to all of his loves and all of his affections. In one sense Edwards sounds like Jehoida and Josiah in the covenants they made with God, but in another sense he sounds like he recognizes the truth that God owns his (Edwards’) affections and that the resolutions were simply Edwards’ commitment or covenant to use them for their rightful owner.
This is a true bowing from the total inward man and a submitting to the ownership, Lordship, and Kingship of Jesus Christ. God owns the affections and hearts of His people and He promises to write His laws of love in them. Edwards’ resolutions reflect the concept of covenanting with God and yet also reflect the submission of a heart that realizes it is owned by another and wants to use its faculties for Him and not self. If only people in our day would follow the example of Edwards and submit the whole heart to God His glory would shine far more brightly.
God Loves... Himself 
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