As a pastor who preaches three messages a week, I have a love and appreciation for sermons, hopefully not just as an “art form” but rather for their value to me personally and to the Church of God as a whole.  Recently I read a sermon by Jonathan Edwards that I was thrilled with.  Following are some highlights from the message, along with some of my thoughts.

 As a preacher, Jonathan Edwards is undoubtedly best known for his sermon, “Sinners In The Hands of an Angry God” (“Infamous” may be the better term to describe how many feel about it!)  But Edwards was hardly a “Johnny one-note” preacher.  This message, “Jesus Christ Is the Shining Forth of the Father’s Glory” comes from The Glory and Honor of God, a book of previously unpublished Edwards sermons.  The text for the message is Hebrews 1:3, “Who is the radiance of His glory, and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power …”. 

 THE DOCTRINAL SECTION

“Jesus Christ Is The Shining Forth of the Father’s Glory” begins with a brief introduction of the historical background of Hebrews, and the context of Chapter 1, verse 3.  Then Edwards commences with the Doctrinal section of his sermon.  (In what I understand is typical Puritan sermonic style, Edwards spends the first half of his message on doctrinal concerns arising from the text, and the second part of it making application – somewhat similar to what we find in the outline of the Book of Ephesians).  The doctrinal portion of this message is a grand theological treatise on the Person of Christ, the like of which I have not previously read in a sermon.  He speaks of the “eternal proceeding” of Jesus from the Father – a vital doctrine that teaches us that Jesus is not a “created” being but eternally God.  Edwards says: “He is not only the brightness of the Father’s glory now, but He was so even before the world was created.  He was always so.”  While admitting the difficulty in understanding this, Edwards does help clarify it with an illustration:

“The Son of God proceeds from the Father naturally and necessarily, as brightness naturally proceeds from the sun. The sun necessarily shines … as always whenever there was a sun it shined or light proceeded from it, so always whenever there was a God the Son of God proceeded from Him or was begotten from Him … He is therefore an eternal emanation” from the Father. 

I have never heard a better explanation of what is to many a difficult and obscure – but actually very vital — doctrine of the Christian faith: that Jesus was never created, but always was and is the Second Person of the Godhead. 

One interesting assertion Edwards made in the doctrinal portion was: “The Father is never seen but by Christ.  Therefore He is said in Colossians 1:15, to be ‘the image of the invisible God’ … God the Father in Himself is invisible and never can be seen immediately.  Whenever He is seen it must be by Christ His image …”.   He goes on to say: “Accordingly ‘tis said in many places of Scripture that is was Christ by whom God appeared of old to the patriarchs …”.  I had heard this claim before but never had seen someone trace the theological underpinnings of it.  I found it curious, though, in light of that, to read later in the message where Edwards stated: “We therefore are under greater advantage to see His glory in (Christ) than in any other way.”  I was not quite sure how he reconciled this with his earlier statement that whenever God was seen, it MUST be by Christ? 

 Regardless of my shortcomings in understanding, when I finished the doctrinal portion of the sermon, I felt like I had just emerged from a systematic theology class!  “Jesus Christ Is the Shining Forth of the Father’s Glory” presents a wealth of scriptures and illustrations for understanding the Doctrine of Christ.  But Edwards did not stop there!  Like the Apostle Paul, he moved on to some masterful applications of those doctrines. 

 THE APPLICATION

Edwards begins the application section: “If it be so that Christ is the shining forth of the glory of God the Father, here we may learn how sufficient a Savior He is.”  Since Jesus is all that Hebrews 1:3 says He is, the very radiance of the glory of God, what does that mean to us? 

 First, Edwards asserts: “This shows how sufficient the sacrifice of Christ to atone for our sins.  This shows the preciousness of the blood of Christ.”  In fact, he goes on to say that in light of the glory of God in Christ, how great a thing it was “for the One who was the very brightness of His image to be so vilified and reproached and spit upon.  How great a thing for Him who was so infinitely beautiful in God’s eyes to be thus treated as the filth and off-scouring of the world … How great a thing … that He who was the very effulgence of divine brightness should be thus delivered over into such darkness and the shadow of death. SUCH A SACRIFICE IN SUCH A MANNER IS DOUBTLESS SUFFICIENT TO ATONE FOR THE GREATEST SINS.”  What a tremendous truth!  The more we understand the glory of God in Christ, the more we can appreciate how sufficient His sacrifice was for our sins!  “This is enough to appease the greatest anger of God … It is enough to balance the debt contracted by the sins of the whole world.”  The last sentence almost does not sound like it came from the lips of one who believed in a limited atonement – but it is an assertion that magnifies the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Jesus for us!

 Secondly, Edwards said, because Jesus is the radiance of the Father’s glory, “How amiable it will render us in the eyes of God the Father if we are clothed (in His righteousness) … How can any doubt but that they shall be accepted of God if they are clothed with such a garment?”  What comfort and assurance this gives to every person who makes the claim of the old song: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness … dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless I stand before the throne”!  If Jesus is the very radiance of the glory of God, and we are clothed in Him, then how acceptable in God’s sight are those of us who have taken refuge in His righteousness! 

 Finally, one application served as a warning: “How great must their guilt be who here have this glorious Person offered to them any hundreds of times, how as it were, had Him knocking at their door … and yet rejected and despised Him.”  Even those of us who deny the TULIP’s assertion of “irresistible grace” can be comfortable with that language!  But what an application of the doctrine of the radiance of His glory: because Jesus IS so glorious, what condemnation will necessarily come upon those who reject Him!  Those who refuse the sacrifice of the very radiance and glory of God the Father, He surely will not spare. 

 When I completed reading “Jesus Christ Is the Shining Forth of the Father’s Glory”, I placed the book down with an appreciative awe.  It was one of the greatest sermons I have ever read.  The doctrinal segment was worthy of a systematic theology; the application was both comforting to the believer, and challenging to any who might reject Christ.  Jesus Christ is indeed “the Shining Forth of the Father’s Glory” – and we can be grateful for how God used Jonathan Edwards to point us to His glory in Jesus.