"Christ washing the disciple's feet" c 1520/1525, by Garofalo.
This is the 8th post in my study of Jonathan Edwards famous text Religious Affections
I struggled at first to comprehend Jonathan Edwards' second affection of the true believer.
The first lesson I learned is that reading Jonathan Edwards at night, with a weary mind, is folly. Keeping pace with this man's mind, and digging through his 18th century vernacular requires a fresh mind. Thankfully, my on-line friends, reading this text with me, saved my bacon.
Here is Edwards' second true affection:
"The first objective ground of gracious affections, is the transcendently excellent and amiable nature of diving things as they are themselves, and not any conceived relation they bear to self, or self-interest."
Here's the thing, the true believer is completely overwhelmed with the beauty of Christ and completely captivated by him. As such, this complete enrapture has absolutely no room for self and/or self interest.
When the true Christian is all alone with God, his focus is on Christ and his holiness, and not on what Christ can do for him. There are unspeakable treasures in being in God's family, and having Christ as our Elder Brother, but above all.....above all else.....the true Christian bows on his knees and cries....Holy....Holy...Holy.
I love this video with Michael English singing, "I Bowed On My Knees". Give this a listen. To me, there is a lot of visual distraction in this video, therefore, I prefer to listen and not watch.
To me, heaven is running into the arms of Jesus. It seems folly to the world, I know. But I simply don't care. If one truly believes the words of Scripture, how could you possibly desire anything more.
The rest, and what what an incredible "rest" there is, is simply mind boggling, unspeakable icing on the cake!
This is the whole of Jonathan Edwards' second affection: To be unspeakably in love with the beauty of Christ. To think of him simply takes your breath away and leaves you absolutely mute, and requires that the Holy Spirit speak on your behalf, because we simply do not have the words.
