“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)
To many people grace is what allows people to sin and for them to go to heaven anyway. The truth of the matter is that it is grace that moves people to true holiness. Anytime a person uses the concept of grace as an excuse for sin, that person does not understand grace. People might shake their heads at these resolutions of Edwards and think that he has gotten legalistic and has fallen from grace, but what they don’t understand is that to have affections like this is grace and it takes grace to keep these resolutions at all.
The real problem is that people don’t understand the depravity and helplessness of man and as such real grace and love. Human beings cannot make resolutions like these in truth if they are going to depend on self effort. So those that do not understand depravity and grace see arrogance in Edwards for making such resolutions. But Edwards understood his depravity and also grace. It is only when one understands depravity and grace that s/he can make resolutions like this in truth. In other words, people who see themselves as helpless in doing one good thing and yet trust in the love and grace of God in them can make resolutions like this in total trust in God.
People also do not understand that they can have religions affections and loves and those not really be the work of God in the soul. Those are from themselves and selfish interests. It is not that Edwards believed that the positive affections and loves that had to be exercised in order to keep these resolutions were from him and under his control, but he knew that these were from God. He knew that any real love and joy that were exercised in him would be from the power of God in his soul. The only people that love are those that are born of God and know Him (I John 4:7-9). God is the only source of true love and so any and all true love must come from His throne mediated by Christ. That is why Christ prayed like He did: “and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). The love which dwelt in Christ He prayed would dwell in the disciples. So the love that is in believers is not from them, it is from God.
It is very important to realize that God did not make human beings in order to live good lives on earth. He made man in His own image and man’s purpose in life is to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. Man’s duty and privilege is to manifest the glory of God by the life of God living in and then through that person. If man has affections and loves that come from himself, then those do not glorify God but man. But if man is the image and temple of God and God shines for the His glory in and through man, then it is God that is being glorified.
Edwards’ resolutions show the understanding that God made man to glorify Himself and part of man that God glorifies Himself through is the affections and loves of man. If we have that understanding, which Edwards actually writes about in other places, then we can see that these resolutions are made so that the glory of God would shine in and through Edwards. The resolutions reflect the idea that his whole being is made to manifest God and not himself. So the affections and loves of self and for other ends must be put down and denied in order that the affections and loves of God would be worked in and through Edwards.
Man is utterly helpless in working up true love and affections. Even Jesus, in John 5, sets that out about Himself: Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (v. 19). The resolutions, therefore, appear to be Edward seeing what the Father worked in people and so he wanted those in himself in a far greater way. He wanted to die to himself and his own affections and loves so that those of the Father would be worked in him. That is profound theology and practice. We need more people in our day that can see their utter helplessness in themselves and their own loves and affections so that they will look to God for true loves and affections to be worked in and through them to His glory and His glory alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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