Last night I was finishing up a book that explored Jonathon Edwards’ view of true Christianity, and I was moved by this particular passage. The editors sum up Edwards' belief regarding a change that takes place when a sinner is regenerated.
When a person believes the gospel message, the things of Christianity, of the Bible, and of church that once seemed so ordinary compared to really interesting things – whether celebrities, or sports, or movies, or whatever else – now possess a glory greatly distinguishing them from all that is earthly and temporal.
The person seized by the Spirit cannot see Christianity any longer in earthly terms. Like a butterfly that emerges from a cocoon, the converted sinner sees Christianity and its doctrines as a thing of beauty.
Everything changes at this point for the redeemed person.
Life overflows with goodness and beauty. The existence that once had no center – or that had a destructive one – now revolves around the person of Jesus Christ, whose work suddenly leaps off every page of the Bible and pours into every corner of life.
-Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney, Essential Edwards: True Christianity (Moody Publishers, 2010)
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