Theology Essays
Reflecting on the Holy Spirit and Christian Experience
Reflections on Jonathan Edwards “A treatise concerning religious affections”.(1746)
INTRODUCTION
Is this of God? How can you tell?
These are questions that are a present reality for today’s church. In this essay we look at these questions so that we might be able to discern what is a true work of the Holy Spirit.
In the first part of this essay concentration is given to ‘God at work’ in today’s context.
In the second part of this essay concentration is given to ‘God at work’ in Jonathan Edwards’ context and his response :- ‘A treatise concerning religious affections’.(1746)
In conclusion it would be useful to take these insights into today’s context and answer these questions using Edwards’ signs.
(1) WORKS OF GOD IN TODAY’S CONTEXT:
Primary example:
It was a two day conference for Prison chaplains. This year the speaker in the afternoon seminars was speaking on ‘the healing ministry.’ He stood in the centre of the room and invited all to join hands, and he started praying. What happened next was mind blowing. To those who were present the atmosphere became so full of love and joy that you could feel it. As this happened some of the chaplains from various denominations fell backwards, some to their knees, some laughing, some crying, some looked dazed, some confused, but all enveloped in a sense that something spiritual was happening. Was it the Spirit that was at work?
Other examples:
At the same time as this remarkable happening the Christian press was alive with other moves of the Spirit. ‘The Toronto blessing’ at Airport Vineyard Fellowship in Toronto, Canada. In Sunderland, and at Holy Trinity Brompton, London.
The fundamental questions:
The fundamental questions that were being asked by church leaders were ‘is this of God’ and ‘how can you tell?’ With these questions we turn to perhaps history’s greatest revival theologian, Jonathan Edwards.
(2) WORKS OF GOD IN JONATHAN EDWARDS CONTEXT AND HIS RESPONSE TO THEM.
Jonathan Edwards’ writings bring valuable insight to these questions. Edwards lived through a number of revivals. First in his father, Timothy’s, ministry and then as his successor. He wrote a number of books, which were set as a defence of true revival against those who were in opposition and as a balance for those who were enthusiasts of revival.
These books are
‘A faithful narrative of surprising conversions,’ (1736)
‘Distinguishing marks of the spirit of God’ (1741)
‘Some thoughts concerning the present revival’ (1742)
‘A treatise concerning religious affections’ (1746).
All these books have much to say on the subject of revival and the workings of the Holy Spirit. His book ‘A treatise concerning religious affections’ gives some concentrated advice in answer to the earlier question. Valuable advice and insight that needs to be looked at in answer to these two questions.
Background:
The context that Edwards writes into is great revival but great division in the churches. This division is over what constitutes a revival and Jonathan Edwards seeks to provide some solid answers and direction.
On the one side were James Davenport, a Congregationalist minister from Southhold, Long Island and Andrew Croswell a pastor of a Congregational church in Groton, Connecticut. These men would assure people who fell to the ground, or experienced bodily tremors, or saw visions, that such experiences were a sure sign of the spirit’s converting work. Davenport claimed that he had the ability to distinguish who was among the ‘Elect of God’. A ‘gift’ which he sought to use against other ministers who were in opposition to him.
On the other side was Charles Chauncey, co-pastor of a prominent Congregationalist church in Boston, who saw Davenport as a wild fanatic or enthusiast. Chauncey launched attacks against the revival and against Davenport and Croswell. Edwards found himself in the position of giving an answer to both these sides in the debate over the true nature of revival. To zealots like Davenport he would stress the point that true Biblical faith must involve the mind and reason. To people like Chauncey he would say that genuine spirituality flows out from a heart ablaze with the love of God.
Negative and Positive Signs.
Jonathan Edwards first attempted to write about negative and positive signs in his book ‘Distinguishing marks of the spirit of God’ (1741) Where he took a sermon he preached at Yale College and expanded it. His sermon was based on 1 John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God”. He wrote a similar and more developed work called ‘A treatise concerning religious affections’ (1746). It was written as a culmination of twenty five years of thought about the nature of true spirituality and religious experience. The book is divided into three sections, which examine the subject of religious affections or how to distinguish what is a real and what is a false conversion.
Here are two helpful summaries of that book looking at signs that prove the Holy Spirit is at work and signs that do not.
Summary of the Negative signs:
(1)The strength of an affection. However strong affections might appear to be does not prove conclusively that the Spirit is at work. Edwards states that in the Bible there are many people who have had a strength of affection but it did not prove that the Spirit was at work in their lives.
(2) Effects on the body. Jonathan Edwards suggests that the Bible talks of certain effects on the body of the working of the Spirit but warns that human emotions can do the same without the Spirit being involved.
(3). Fluent, fervent and abundant talk about religious things. Abundant talking about the things of God does not prove anything. People can talk much about God and still not be changed by grace.
(4) Affections that come from without. Affections that come by supernatural means can happen by the Spirit. Edwards points out it can also happen by other spirits as well and therefore cannot be held up as conclusive proof that the Spirit is at work.
(5) The coming into the mind of texts of scripture. Although this does happen by the Spirit when people hear preaching or read privately, Edwards says that affections may come on the occasion of scripture and not properly come from scripture and scripture can be abused so as to deceive people. Consequently we cannot conclusively say that this proves the Spirit is at work.
(6) The appearance of love. Edwards argues from scripture that it is possible to have a Christian love without having a saving grace. Edwards gives examples of this from scripture. Matthew 24:12-13. Ephesians 6:24, Galatians 4:11-15. It is possible to have Christian love, but not be truly saved.
(7) The presence of many different affections at once. Just because affections accompany one another does not prove that they are a work of the Spirit. Edwards gives examples. Stony ground hearers (Matt 13:20) John Baptist’s hearers (John 5:35) Paul before his conversion (Gal 1:14 & Phil 3:6) the unbelieving Jews (Acts 22:2 and Rom 10:2) Edwards suggests that men who are not religious can display many affections and this does not prove conclusively that the Spirit is at work.
(8) The order in which affections rise. Edwards argues clear steps to conversion – A. B. C. – Conviction, condemnation, conversion, comfort. This does not prove that the Spirit is at work for some have been converted by these steps and some have not.
(9) Zeal for external duties of religion. Spending time in prayer, reading scripture, singing and attending Sunday worship although should follow a work of grace cannot be held up as proof that the Spirit is at work. In fact he says that experience shows that people who have false experiences will manifest the same zeal. Therefore this cannot be held up as proof of a work of the Holy Spirit.
(10) A desire for worship. Because someone sings and extols God this does not prove that the Spirit is at work. Edwards gives examples where proud and arrogant people have sung praises to God, people who have not been converted. This is enough for Edwards to convince him that a desire for worship does not prove anything.
(11) A confidence of Salvation. Edwards suggests that although confidence is that which should come to all of God’s people there is such a thing as proud self-confidence, an arrogant confidence. Edwards suggest this is not the quiet confidence of believers. Therefore this is not a proof that the Spirit is at work.
(12) An upright and moral life. No one can tell who are the truly godly by their good deeds. Edwards suggests that scripture declares that to judge men by their outward appearances is at best uncertain and liable to deceit. Therefore an upright and moral life proves nothing.
It must be said that all these signs do appear in the life of true believers but do not give conclusive proof to the Spirit at work.
Why did Edwards deliver such a negative view here? Again we return to the context of his writing. The atmosphere in the country was that of a ‘natural religion’ being in a Christian society, attending church was part of being a good and upright person. Infant baptism and church attendance were the normal framework of life. Edwards writes into this context and says there is more to true conversion than this. Something needs to happen in the heart. A fundamental change in the life of those who have truly been converted. He gives positive signs to stress his point.
Summary of the positive signs:
1. Truly gracious affections arise from spiritual, supernatural and divine
operations on the heart. Edwards suggests that when the Spirit is at work there is a new sense for spiritual things. He likens this to not only looking at honey but tasting its sweetness.
(2) Gracious affections see the beauty of divine things in themselves, not out of any self interest. Edwards states the deepest cause of true love for God is the supreme loveliness of God’s nature. Not to love God for what we can get out of it, but to love God for himself. To look at it any other way is to miss the point.
(3)Gracious affections are founded on the loveliness of the moral excellency of divine things: The reason people love God is they love his holiness. When the Spirit is at work he causes people to see the beauty of God’s holiness.
(4) Gracious affections arise from the enlightenment of the mind to apprehend divine things. Enlightenment, not imaginations, not making a new meaning out of scripture, but true understanding of what scripture means. Not doctrinal understanding but spiritual. Not head but heart.
(5) Gracious affections bring with them a conviction of the truth of divine things. Many revelations are moving but they can lack the ability to convince. They produce no lasting change in a person’s attitude and conduct. But gazing on the beauty and glory of God, a knowledge that Spirit gives provides a certainty and assurance – a lasting conviction.
(6) Gracious affections are attended with evangelical humiliation. A meekness, a reverencing of others before themselves, a godly modest humility. Not a show but a manner of life, A humility like this demonstrates the Spirit at work.
(7) Gracious affections are distinguished from others in that they are attended by a change of nature. Edwards says ‘all true spiritual discoveries are transforming, that they make an alteration of the very nature of the soul.’ When the Spirit is at work the human nature is transformed.
(8) Gracious affections are attended with the lamblike, dovelike spirit and temper of Jesus Christ. What we see in Jesus, his love, passion, joy, care, grace is also what we see demonstrated in people when the Spirit is at work.
(9) Gracious affections soften the heart and are followed by a tenderness of spirit. Edwards says gracious affections turn the heart of stone into a heart of flesh. The heart of a little child has a heart that is easily moved and so is the heart that has been moved upon by the Spirit.
(10) Gracious affections have beautiful symmetry and proportion. In other words those who have been touched by the Spirit of God delight both in the public fellowship with God and his saints and the private repose and meditation with God. There is a balance.
(11) Gracious affections breed spiritual hunger and longing after that which is of God. The more a true saint loves God the more they desire to love him. The more they hate sin, the more they long after that which is spiritual. Gracious affections are like a fire the higher the fire burns the more vehemently it seeks to burn.
(12) Gracious affections have their exercise in Christian practice. Three things emerge: (1) Christian practice is conformed to and governed by Christian rules. (2) Christian practice is the desire that is foremost in the mind of someone who has been touched by the Spirit. (3) Christian practice is lifelong commitment.
All these signs Edwards states show the Spirit to be at work.
CONCLUSION
Is this of God? How can you tell? How can you tell what is of God and what is not? Clearly there are things from Jonathan Edwards that are incidental signs which do not prove anything either way. At the same time Edwards bring a clear insight which can be used just as much today is it was used in Edwards time and context. It seems clear that from both Edwards context and today’s, there are those who will dismiss the moving of the Spirit as mindless hysteria, and those who seem to think that everything that happens in revival is of the Spirit, no matter how strange wild or unbalanced it may be.
From Edwards’ positive signs three main considerations emerge that are helpful to reveal what is of the Spirit and what is not.
(1) When the Spirit is at work total transformation takes place. The character and nature of a person is changed.
(2) When the Spirit is at work Jesus is glorified and held up. The Spirit always honours Christ.
(3) When the Spirit is at work there is a further seeking for more of the things of God. When the Spirit touches a life there is an ongoing desire to seek God, and to dispense with non essentials.
What is important is what happens after the Holy Spirit moves upon a person or a community. Is there a noticeable difference? In the 1904 revival in Wales the community was totally affected by the Holy Spirit, so much so that the pit ponies that were used to the profanity of the miners, were in some confusion in the instructions they received. (No profanity anymore.) In the Hebridean revivals the village pubs were closed and the Police were almost out of work. Far from being fairy stories these happenings were the result of the moving of the Spirit of God.
In Jonathan Edwards context he was a witness to many outworkings of God’s Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s effects on people that are given as examples in his work ‘a faithful narrative of surprising conversions.’ (1736) Finally it’s not so much how people go down under the so called ‘power of the spirit’ that matters but what happens when the stand up again. This too reveals the Spirit’s work.
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Reflecting on the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of Jesus
Reflections on John Owen’s “Works of John Owen by Goold Vol III & IV”
INTRODUCTION
It is worth telling ourselves that no writer has produced a treatise on the Holy Spirit with as much detail and skill as John Owen has. We normally know John Owen for his ‘Death of Death in the Death of Christ’ and on his works on the power and conquest of indwelling sin. We do not hear too much of Owens masterpiece on the Spirit. In volume III and Volume IV of Goold’s edition of his ‘Works’ we find a special contribution to the theology of the Christian church and an area of thought about the Holy Spirit that frequently is overlooked in our thinking and teaching.
(1) Reasons for John Owen’s Focus on the Holy Spirit.
There are three reasons for John Owen to focus on the Holy Spirit.
1. Historical. Born in 1616, Owen died in 1683. He was 58 when his multi-volumed Pneumatologia began to appear. He could look back over the 150 years since the reformation, he could assess the planting, budding, and flowering of reformed theology, and it’s application to the life of society in seventeenth century Puritanism. He realized that central to the reformation’s re-discovery of the gospel had been the place, person, power of the Holy Spirit. Owen could say that reformed theology was different for it took salvation out of the hands of the church and placed it back into the hands of God where it belonged. In recognizing this he also could see that no comprehensive treatment of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit had been attempted.
‘I know not any who ever went before me in this design of representing the whole economy of the holy Spirit, with all his adjuncts, operations, and effects.’ [Works, III, 7]
2. Polemical. In Owen’s day, as in ours there existed a special need to expound accurately and biblically, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. John Owen did just that. Part of the value of his work for us today is in that he had to fight for this accuracy on two fronts. (i) He faced unbiblical rationalism, which gave little or no place for the Spirit. (ii) He also came up against an unbiblical spiritism that stressed the presence of the spirit’s work and of individual divine revelation, and played down the significance of the scriptures. Exalting the so-called ‘Christ within’ above the Christ of the scriptures. Owen recognized that this had the potential to de-value the word of God.
‘He that would utterly separate the Spirit from the word had as good burn his Bible’ [Works III 192]
3. Personal. Owen was born into a Christian home. A home that was of puritan persuasion. In ‘Works’ XIII 224, Owen admits that his father was ‘a Non-conformist all his days, and a painful labourer [one who ‘took pains’ in his work] in the vineyard of the Lord’ The atmosphere in that home was godly and he was immersed in spiritual experience. But Owen could tell you that there is a great difference in knowing the knowledge of the truth, and knowing the power of the knowledge of the truth. Spiritual things can only be known by the power of the Spirit. John Owen like many worthy theologians before him had to receive and experience the power of the Holy Spirit himself. It could be said of him that he was not only a widely read theologian, but also a believer who had experienced and tasted the power of the Spirit for himself.
Owen’s work on the Holy Spirit is spread throughout his many writings, but is concentrated in volumes III &IV of his ‘Works’ Here he draws attention to a masterly theme, one that is so important ‘The ministry of the Spirit in the life and Ministry of Christ.’
(2) The Incarnation of Christ and the Ministry of the Spirit.
The incarnation is a Trinitarian event. The Father the Son and the Spirit are active. The father prepared a body for his son [Heb 10:5]; the son took hold of the seed of Abraham [Heb 2:14] but, Owen adds, none of these actions could take place apart from the ministry of the Spirit. Two questions arise when we take account the ministry of the Spirit in the Incarnation. Firstly, how did Jesus become fully one with us? And, how did Jesus fully become one with us and, yet remain free from sin?
(i) Jesus was conceived by the power of the Spirit. The conception of Jesus in the womb has all the marks of the Spirit’s operations. The Spirit overshadows the waters in Genesis 1. He overshadows the church at Pentecost in Acts 2. So he comes to Mary. Owen says ‘The framing, forming and miraculous conception of the body of Christ in the womb of the blessed virgin was the peculiar and especial work of the Holy Ghost’ (Matthew 1:18, Matthew 1:20, Luke 1:35.) The person working here is the Holy Spirit. In Owen’s words he is the ‘wonderful operator in this glorious work’
(ii) Jesus was sanctified by the Power of the Spirit. When speaking of the conception Owen states that ‘the human nature of Christ being thus formed in the womb by a creating act of the Holy spirit was in the instant of it’s conception sanctified [Heb 7:26] [Luke 1:35] and filled with grace according to the measure of it’s receptivity’. At the point of conception, according to Owen, Christ was sinless, innocent and spotless. ‘Radically filled with a perfection of grace and wisdom’ [‘Works’ III 169] This was the work of the Holy Spirit in the incarnation. At the very moment of conception the Holy spirit sanctified the human nature of Jesus – he was separate from sinners, he was endowed with fullness of grace, he was holy and harmless, he was undefiled.
The significance for Owen is that the outcome of the Spirit’s ministry is that Jesus is truly man and truly holy. In Jesus humanity and holiness are united, they become the same thing. ‘a perfection’ for the only time since Adam.
(3) The Ministry of Christ and the ministry of the Spirit.
Owen gives us two ways of looking at the Holy Spirit in the ministry of Jesus.
(1) Personal Progress:
In Isaiah 11:1-3 we have a prophecy about the work of the Spirit in the Messiah. John Owen attached great significance to this prophecy. It was by the Spirit that the Messiah would be abundant with wisdom, we can also see this quality in Luke 2:52. We can say that Jesus as the Messiah was sustained and enabled by the Holy Spirit by his continuous presence. The Spirit enabled Jesus to do human things perfectly. The Spirit of God taught Jesus the wisdom of God from the word of God. Jesus grew in the knowledge and wisdom of God through the word of the father constantly revealed and illuminated by the Spirit. Owen declares this in [Works III pp. 170-171] ‘In the representation then, of things anew to the human nature of Christ, the wisdom and knowledge of [his human nature] was objectively increased and in new trials and temptations he experimentally learned the new exercise of grace. And this was the constant work of the Holy Spirit on the human nature of Christ. He dwelt in him in fullness, for he received not him by measure. And continually, upon all occasions he gave out of his unsearchable treasures of grace for exercise in all duties and instances of it. From hence was he habitually holy and from hence did he exercise holiness entirely and universally in all things.’
(2) Public ministry. Owen gives us a window to what, for him, is distinctive about Jesus’ baptism – it is that in Jesus’ later years he received a fullness of the Spirit’s anointing for public ministry. This does not make him immune from trouble or danger. In fact temptation is seen as a Spirit led occurrence and the function of this is to advance the kingdom of God and pull down the strongholds of the enemy. In Luke we see Jesus powerfully using the sword of the Spirit with confidence and total assurance.
Just as in the incarnation we see the ministry of Jesus as being a Trinitarian ministry The Son of God being led and enabled by the Spirit of God in order to do the work of God.
(4) The Atonement of Christ and the ministry of the Spirit.
In Hebrews 9:13-14 we find a key text to consider the Spirit’s work in the atonement. Old Testament sacrifice is contrasted with the atonement. Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice to cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death. This he did ‘through the eternal Spirit’.
There are two ways of grasping this key text for Owen. One, the text might mean the personal spirit of Jesus, or two the text might mean the Holy Spirit. For Owen if the text ’Eternal Spirit’ means Holy Spirit there are two important facts to consider that the text expresses.
(1) The Sacrifice: The contrast between the Old Testament sacrifices and the Sacrifice of Jesus was that his sacrifice was an eternal sacrifice, the Old Testament sacrifices could never be said to be eternal for they were continued one after the other. In contrast Jesus’ sacrifice was eternal because it was offered through the Eternal Spirit.
(2) The Paraclete: For Owen the text implies the nature of the Spirit’s ministry in the sacrifice of Christ. Supporting and sustaining ministry. The Spirit supported Jesus generally in the decision to conform to the fathers will throughout his life and more particularly in the garden of Gethsamane. Jesus was enabled to give himself to the will of Father by constant dependence of the Spirit. The Spirit supported Jesus, he became for him the comforter (Paraclete), the Spirit that Jesus spoke of in John 14, and the ministry of that Spirit was qualified with authority because the knowledge of this was born out of his own experience. The Spirit sustained him in the breaking of his heart in his contemplation of the coming Calvary and the spirit sustained him in his dying and death. The companion of Jesus throughout his life is the Spirit By his ministry he is encouraged to grow in wisdom and in stature, by his ministry Jesus is upheld, in temptation, in confrontation, in condemnation, in crucifixion, and by the ministry of the Spirit was preserved in the darkness of the tomb.
Owen bears testimony to this in his masterly teaching on the Holy Spirit.
We find in the teaching of Owen a truthfulness to the mercy and ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus – a holy devotion from Spirit to Son.
(5) The Exaltation of Christ and the Ministry of the Spirit.
Owen attributes the resurrection and glorification of Jesus Christ to the ministry of the Spirit. In Gal 1:1 we find reference to the Father who is responsible for raising the son. In John 2:19; 10:38 we find references that suggest the responsibility lay with the Son laying down his life and taking it up again. But rightly Owen notes that in the New Testament there are strands of text that suggest and attribute the responsibility with the Holy Spirit. [Rom 1:4, 1 Tim 3:16, 1 Cor 15:43a & 45-49]
Christ was proclaimed the Son of God in power through the resurrection, the Spirit in the resurrection raised him, and Christ’s resurrection was a transformation. It was resurrection to glorification. From the tomb to the throne Jesus is dependent on the ministry of the Spirit. When we find the texts as above that attribute the role of resurrection to either Father or Son, this is true and right but happens through ministry of the Spirit. The father raises the son through the ministry of the Spirit, the son lays down his life and takes it again through the ministry of the Spirit. Owen states ‘he who first made his nature holy, now made it glorious’.[‘Works’ III p183]
When we contemplate glorification and exaltation, the words of John 16:13-14 are plain. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is in lifegiving, and exaltation to Jesus both in raising from the dead and in constantly giving glory and honour to him.
Conclusion:
John Owens masterly work in volume III of his ‘Works’ on the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus Christ encourages two things when you read it.
(1) It encourages a new joy in the Spirit of God. You can see him working in, through, and upon the conception, birth, life, death, resurrection and glorification of Christ. It reveals that the Spirit is truly the ‘giver of life’, as it says in the creed. It reveals that the Holy Spirit’s activity and ministry is promised to believers in the same manner of lifegiving and sustaining as we find in his ministry with Jesus.
(2) It encourages a new admiration and worship for Jesus. All that Jesus was, did and accomplished in his life were given to him by the Spirit of God. The strength to preach, teach, heal, touch and have compassion was invested in him by the Spirit. The strength to carry on when in difficulties, the words to say when in confrontation were all ministered to him by the Spirit of God.
This declares hope and release to the followers of Jesus today. The ones he promised ‘another comforter’ to. The ones who will guide his church until he returns through the leadership of the Spirit.
Owen’s ‘Works’ Volume III inspires excitement and renewed faith that the Spirit is involved in every aspect of God’s creation and redemption. Jesus declares that all that the Spirit was to him, the Spirit will be to his disciples. For this there is only one response. ‘Thanks be to God’.
