Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

My pastor has been preaching a series of Jonathan Edwards' Christian Classics lately. The first sermon was "Pardon For the Greatest Of Sinners." Last Sunday we heard "A Divine and Supernatural Light." And this Sunday we will be hearing Edwards' masterpiece, "Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God."

Due to the cerebral nature of Edwards' writing, and the difference in the grammar and sentence structure of this centuries-old sermon, I decided to get a head start and re-read it.

There is no wonder that this sermon is still included in American literature classes all over this country. It is the most powerful and clear description of a sinner's precarious position that I have ever heard or read. But by the same token, because of that very fact it is astounding that it remains in the classroom to this day.

I think that I read this sermon twice before: once in high school, and once in college. I don't think that I "got it" either time. I think part of the reason that I didn't is that the teacher always felt obligated to suggest that this sermon was only relevant in that it portrayed the Puritans' severity and their "incorrect" notion that God is some great smiter waiting to smite. This vision of God was always tempered with their "more enlightened" view that God is a god of love.

Don't get me wrong - I truly believe that God is a loving God. That is His greatest attribute - and, I think, the reason that He forbears in casting the lost to the judgment that they have earned. However, God is also a God of war. He is the Lord of Hosts (i.e. He is the Lord of the hosts, armies, of Heaven.) When God gets worked up to a good smiting, He makes excellent work of it. Edwards did an excellent job of illuminating this point in the sermon.

Were I to level one criticism at the sermon it would be this: that Edwards could have improved the sermon by showing that God's forbearance in casting the sinner headlong into Hell is the result of His love, His long-suffering, and His willingness that none should perish. I would have loved to have heard Edwards deliver a sermon entitled "Saints In the Bosom Of A Loving God."

There was one description that he used to describe the utter desolation of the sinner doomed to hell that actually sparked this idea. Here is the passage:

It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one second; but you must suffer it for all of eternity. There will be no end to this extreme horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains.

- Jonathan Edwards "Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God" (emphasis mine)

What a terrifying thought! Oh, that I may allow the horror of this truth to be absorbed by my mind. That I would believe this to the core of my being so that I would be moved to compel the unregenerate to be reconciled to God. I must confess that I haven't understood the scope of God's wrath against the ungodly so well as I do after reading this sermon. If I can truly get a hold of this reality, it will change the way I treat the lost. It will spur me to action.

The flip side of this description - the one that would of necessity be included in "Saints In The Bosom of A Loving God" would go something like this:

It would be blissful to experience this fierceness of love and pleasure of Almighty God one second; but you shall delight in it for all of eternity. There will be no end to this extreme glorious ecstasy. When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will be absolutely astounded by the certainty that there shall be no end, no mitigation, no cessation at all. You will know certainly that you must expend long ages, millions of millions of ages in absorbing and basking in this almighty limitless adoration; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains.

Whew.

If we only could grasp the reality of the future that awaits us how different our lives would be!

I wish Edwards had included the glories of the bliss to come for those found in Christ in this sermon. It would have balanced the message and cleared up some of the misunderstanding that has attended his sermon through the ages. Just as Moses said, "This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life..." Deuteronomy 30: 19-20a