How Do We Know the Bible is the Word of God? Feasting on Jonathan Edward's Divine and Supernatural Light

by Steve Turley

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is considered to be the greatest theological mind ever produced in the history of America. God used him as the spark of the Great Awakening, the Eighteenth century revival where thousands flocked to the church, overwhelmed with a sense of their sin and desperately seeking God's grace. The following sermon excerpt and commentary is a resounding call for Christians to awake from trivial worship and behold the majesty of their God, in all the fullness of his glory. It is upon this kind of preaching that revival caught fire, and the Great Awakening burst on to New England.

Edwards is often characterized by the secular world as a wild-eyed, fire and brimstone preacher best represented with his sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". But as one will see from the following sermon and commentary, nothing could be farther from the truth. Though Edwards did preach the full oracles of God (which is quite offensive in our therapeutic modern world), the most common adjective that one finds in his sermons is "sweetness". Edwards knew the beauties of heaven as much as the horror of hell. And since he was the spark of the Great Awakening, when Edwards speaks, we ought to listen.

The following sermon excerpt is one of Edward's greatest. Entitled "A Divine And Supernatural Light, Immediately imparted to the soul by the Spirit of God", the sermon seeks to answer the question: How do we know the Bible to be the Word of God? What is the difference between how believers and unbelievers understand Scripture? What do believers know that unbelievers do not? In response to these questions, Edwards composed the sermon, basing it on Peter's confession of Christ in Matthew 16, "Blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven." Based on this and other related passages, Edwards concludes that believers do not have a new knowledge from unbelievers who have read Scripture, but believers have a different way of knowing what is contained in Scripture.

The Divine Light from the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to taste the sweeteness, see the beauties, and smell the saving aroma of God's Words, and from this, we are convinced of the Bible's divine authorship. We are convinced the Bible is nothing less than the inspired Word of God not by arguments (though they are true), or rational inferences (though they are logical), but by being awakened from our spiritual slumbers, by having our eyes opened to see unimaginable glory in the words of Scripture. Once we see this glory, in all its sweetness, beauty and majesty, we are automatically convinced that it is the Word of God, just as seeing the Grand Canyon convinces us of its glory. One does not have to convince a person who stands looking out over the Grand Canyon that it is glorious. One does not recognize its splendor and wonder from rational arguments (though they can be given), but from simply beholding the Canyon in all its beauty. This is how believers approach Scripture. By God's grace, we see his divine glory in his Word. As a former blind person, who has just been given sight, can now gaze at the Grand Canyon, so God opens our eyes to see wondrous things in his Word. Edwards says (read slowly):

This spiritual and divine light may be thus described: [it is] a true sense of the divine excellency of the things revealed in the Word of God, and a conviction of the truth and reality of them thence arising. A spiritual and saving conviction of the truth and reality of these things, arises from such a sight of their divine excellency and glory, so that this conviction of their truth is an effect and natural consequence of this sight of their divine glory. There is therefore in this spiritual light, a true sense of the divine and superlative excellency of the things of religion: a real sense of the excellency of God and Jesus Christ, and of the work of redemption, and the ways and works of God revealed in the gospel. There is a divine and superlative glory in these things, an excellency that is of a vastly higher kind and more sublime nature than in other things, a glory greatly distinguishing them from all that is earthly and temporal. He that is spiritually enlightened truly apprehends and sees it, or has a sense of it. He does not merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he has a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart. There is not only a rational belief that God is holy, and that holiness is a good thing, but there is a sense of the loveliness of God's holiness.

Thus there is a difference between having an opinion, that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. So there is a difference between believing that a person is beautiful, and having a sense of his beauty. The former may be obtained by hearsay, but the latter only by seeing the countenance. When the heart is sensible of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension. It is implied in a person's being heartily sensible of the loveliness of a thing, that the idea of it is pleasant to his soul, which is a far different thing from having a rational opinion that it is excellent.

Edwards points out that there is a difference between knowing that honey is sweet and tasting its sweetness. The unbeliever apprehends that Christ is the Messiah, but the believer has a sense of his divine and superlative excellencies. The believer, therefore, bows down before his majesty, while the unbeliever refers to him as a curse word. He does this because he has no sense of the divine majesty of the Christ he simply apprehends. This can be compared to the photographic developing process. When the picture is first taken on the emulsion, nothing appears or can be seen. When the film is developed the picture is seen in all its color. The developer adds nothing to the picture that is already present, but it makes the picture visible. Natural men may have religious pictures on their mind, but not one of these fine pictures is ever developed. The divine and supernatural light is the developer God uses to make the beauty and sweetness of divine truth apparent to the believer. And once the Scriptures are seen in all their color and life, we are convinced of their divine origin. This divine light given to our souls by God makes the Scriptures come alive - we see colors, smell saving aromas, experience joy - in short, we hear God speak. And God's sheep know his voice. Edwards adds:

A true sense of the divine excellency of the things of God's Word does more directly and immediately convince of the truth of them, and that because the excellency of these things is so superlative. There is a beauty in them that is so divine and God-like, that it greatly and evidently distinguishes them from things merely human, or that of which men are the inventors and authors. [There is] a glory that is so high and great, that when clearly seen, commands assent to their divine reality. When there is an actual and lively discovery of this beauty and excellency, it will not allow of any such thought as that it is the fruit of men's invention. This is a kind of intuitive and immediate evidence. They believe the doctrines of God's Word to be divine, because they see a divine, and transcendent, and most evidently distinguishing glory in them. Such a glory as, if clearly seen, does not leave room to doubt of their being of God, and not of men.

If, by looking at the Grand Canyon, we are in awe of its glory, how much more will we be in awe of the glory of the divine reality of the Word, when the Grand Canyon is but a drop in the ocean of the glory of God? Such a glory, if clearly seen, leaves no doubt that Scripture is of God, and not man.

May Edward's vision of the divine excellencies of God and his Word become kindling for our worship.

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