We are plodding through a few statements of Jonathan Edwards on humiliation of the soul in the context of humility. We have to constantly remind ourselves that humility is not something that self can carry out on itself, but instead it is the work of God in bringing the soul to the end of self. As Edwards points out, there is a way that souls are brought to be humbled in an external sense before God but they do not love that. On judgment day every soul that has ever been created will indeed bow before God in utter helplessness, but all those without eternal life dwelling in their soul will hate ever second of it. So there must be something beyond that. Edwards calls that evangelical humiliation and it is when the soul is broken from its own works and its own ability to do for God but also it loves to abase itself and be in the dust before God out of a sense of His beauty and glory. The soul that has been humbled like this is emptied of self and delights itself in the beauty and honor of God rather than of self.
The quote from below is from Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections and the longer quote can be read in the BLOG Humility 36.
“In a legal humiliation men are made sensible that they are nothing before the great and terrible God, and that they are undone, and wholly insufficient to help themselves; as wicked men will be at the day of judgment; but they have not an answerable frame of heart, consisting in a disposition to abase themselves, and exalt God alone. This disposition is given only in evangelical humiliation, by overcoming the heart, and changing its inclination, by a discovery of God’s holy beauty. In a legal humiliation, the conscience is convinced; as the consciences of all will be most perfectly at the day of judgment; but because there is no spiritual understanding, the will is not bowed, nor the inclination altered. In legal humiliation, men are brought to despair of helping themselves; in evangelical, they are brought voluntarily to deny and renounce themselves; in the former, they are subdued and forced to the ground; in the latter, they are brought sweetly to yield, and freely and with delight to prostrate themselves at the feet of God.”
This disposition of the soul to abase itself and even to delight in the abasement of self, though not as the Pharisees would do it, is a sign of new life in the soul. When Christ lives in the soul, it is His life that comes out rather than the self life of the human being. When a soul is convinced of sin, the disposition of the soul determines (in a sense) what will happen after the soul comes to an understanding of its sin. The conscience is convinced in some, but they have no spiritual understanding, their will is not broken from self, and the inclination of the heart is not changed. The heart that loves itself in its natural understanding, hardened heart of self-will, will only love itself and when it sees something of its bondage in sin it hates it. This does not make the soul love God and it does not lessen the love of the soul for itself. So men are inclined to fight and hate the work on the conscience in bringing conviction. The soul may indeed see some sin because of its conscience and it may even become very religious. This is the kind of soul that may change its belief system and be very faithful in church attendance and even in church activities. But it has not learned to hate self and it has not truly learned to love God. This soul may think that it loves God because it thinks that God loves it. After all, the natural man loves those who love him (Luke 6:32). So we must be careful of ourselves and others who think that they love God only because He loved them first. That in fact is a teaching of Scripture, but it is changing what Scripture teaches on the subject. An unbroken heart will think it loves God if it thinks that God loves it. That can be nothing more than a form of self-love and is not the heart that is broken and is not the heart that has evangelical humiliation.
This teaching of Edwards is utterly vital. It is not vital because he taught it, but because he has captured the biblical teaching on the subject. There is so much deception in the world, the devil is called the deceiver, and then our own hearts deceive us. People latch on to false hopes of salvation quite easily and those who come along with the truth are not viewed too kindly. We are warned to beware of false prophets and they are likened to wolves. We are warned to be careful of those who try to deceive us (see I John and Acts 20:29ff for this too). It is not just any person that realizes that s/he is a sinner and wants to be saved from hell that can be saved, but instead these people have to be broken from all hope in themselves in order to be saved. It is not just any love for God that is a sign of salvation, but instead it must be a love that comes from God and is in the soul. As long as people go around telling others that God loves them and then that will be saved if they believe what was said, we are teaching a false gospel. That is nothing but a person loving what s/he thinks is God because s/he thinks that this God loves them. A person must be broken from loving things because of what it will do to self to loving God because of the glory and beauty that shines out of Him in Christ. This, of course, takes a broken heart and the grace of God to accomplish.
God Loves... Himself 
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