We continue to explore the writings of Jonathan Edwards on this vital subject of humility and humiliation of the soul. This is not what modern people focus on, but it is what the older Reformed writers focused on as they looked to the work of God in the souls of human beings. Christianity is not just about being able to come to a point about believing certain things that are true, but it is about those things that are true being worked in and living in the heart of the believer. Those things are what the spiritual heart consists of. But until a sinner has been broken from his or her own sufficiency and knows from the depths of his or her heart that apart from Christ s/he can do nothing (John 15:5), that person is living by the strength of self. The whole quote from Edwards is given in a previous BLOG, Humility 36. What follows is a short quotation from the larger quote.
“Evangelical humiliation is a sense that a Christian has of his own insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness, with an answerable frame of heart. There is a distinction to be made between a legal and evangelical humiliation. The former is what men may have while in a state of nature, and have no gracious affection; the latter is peculiar to true saints. The former is from the common influence of the Spirit of God, assisting natural principles, and especially natural conscience; the latter is from the special influences of the Spirit of God, implanting and exercising supernatural and divine principles…
In the former, a sense of the awful greatness of his law, convinces men that they are exceeding sinful and guilty, and exposed to the wrath of God, as it will convince wicked men and devils at the day of judgment; but they do not see their own odiousness on account of sin; they do not see the hateful nature of sin; a sense of this is given in evangelical humiliation, by a discovery of the beauty of God’s holiness and moral perfection.”
The last BLOG (Humility 37) was spend in looking at what evangelical humiliation is in terms of what a Christian has of his own insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness. Legal humiliation, however, can be confused for the true evangelical humiliation. A person may have aspects of evangelical humiliation but only have the outward aspects of it and not have true evangelical humiliation. In the modern day the external things are seen as what is true. Yet there are things, according to Edwards, that are peculiar to true saints. Gracious affections are what true saints have, though they may be confused by some of the externals with legal humiliation. The Spirit of God does give legal humiliation but in that there is nothing more than what can be done with the natural man. These things are common because many people have them. Natural conscience can go a long way in legal humiliation. But in evangelical humiliation there is the special influence of the Spirit and this goes far beyond what the natural man can do. In this the Spirit actually implants and exercises supernatural and divine principles. In legal humiliation the Spirit works on the conscience of man, but in evangelical humiliation the Spirit implants the divine life in the soul of man. The soul is humbled and broken from self and becomes united to Christ and the Spirit dwells in that soul. That soul then bears the fruit of the Spirit and Christ lives in and through that soul. It has the divine life in it.
In legal humiliation it is possible to see something of the greatness of God and to have a sense of the awful greatness of His law. The natural man can have a sense of what it is to break a law and then of the terrible danger that he is in because of what justice will do. The natural man can have great terrors in thinking of the wrath of God to come. It does not take a new heart and a spiritual discernment to understand that we have broken the law of God in some way and to fear the punishment to come. As Edwards points out, wicked men and the devils will know on judgment day that they have sinned against God and will suffer His wrath forever. They will have a great fear and their affections will be at a great height at that time. But they do not have a sense of their own odiousness because of sin, but it is the punishment for sin that is odious to them. The natural man will hate the punishment that sin brings, but he will not see the hateful nature for sin itself. The natural man only sees things according to his natural state and so he really views sin in terms of what it does for him or to him. The spiritual man, who has evangelical humiliation, has a sense and sight of the beauty of God in His infinite and perfect holiness. The spiritual man sees sin as it is against God and against the beauty of His holiness. The spiritual man has a sense of his own odiousness because of sin rather than just the odiousness of the punishment for sin. The spiritual man takes the side of God and pronounces judgment on self rather than on God and His holy Law. Only the spiritual person has evangelical humiliation because only the spiritual person can see the beauty of God’s holiness. This is to say that only those who have a new heart and a sense of the holiness and glory of God will have true humility. Humility is to be empty of self and then to be full of the glory and presence of God. It is truly beautiful.
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