Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Joy

We must, therefore, be careful that our primary joy is in God, as he is in and of himself, and not in our experience of God, That we have been made recipients of his grace and are enabled to behold his beauty is a marvelous thing indeed. But it is secondary and consequential to a recognition of God's inherent excellency. What brings you greatest ad most immediate delight: your experience of a revelation of Christ, or Christ revealed?

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections,
p. 92

Joy

Indeed the saints rejoice in their interest in God, and that Christ is theirs, and so they have great reason; but this is not the first spring of their joy. They first rejoice in God as glorious and excellent in himself , and then secondarily rejoice in it that so glorious a God is theirs. They First have their hearts filled with sweetness from the view of Christ's excellency, and the excellency of his grace, and the beauty of the way of salvation by him; and then they have a secondary joy, in that so excellent a Savior and such excellent grace is theirs."

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections,
p. 91

Joy

This is, in fact, what differentiates between the joy of the hypocrite and the joy of the true child of God. The former "rejoices in himself. Self is the first foundation of his joy. The latter rejoices in God. The hypocrite has his mind pleased and delighted, in the first place, with his own privilege and the happiness which he supposes he has attained or shall attain. True saints have their minds, in the first place, inexpressibly pleased and delighted with the sweet ideas of the glorious and amiable nature of the things of God. And this is the spring of all their delights, and the cream of all their pleasures. 'Tis the joy of their joy. This sweet and ravishing entertainment they have in the view of the beautiful and delightful nature of divine things is the foundation of the joy that they have afterwards, in the consideration of [those divine things] being theirs. But the dependence of the affections of hypocrites is in a contrary order: they first rejoice, and are elevated with it, that they are made so much of by God; and then on that ground, he seems in a sort, lovely to them."

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections, p. 91

Kindness

"The saint having seen the glory of God, and his heart being overcome by it, and captivated into a supreme love to him on that account, his heart hereby becomes tender, and easily affected with kindnesses received."

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections,
p. 90

Love

Thus their affection for God is because of what they see in God himself. Love for self and what happiness they may attain in this glorious God is secondary and consequential to their recognition of his intrinsic beauty.

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An interpretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections, p. 90

Love

...the experience of love in true Christians comes about in a different way. "They don't first see that God loves them and then see that he is lovely; but they first see that God is lovely and that Christ is excellent and glorious, and their hearts are first captivated with this view, and the exercises of their love are wont from time to time to begin here, and to arise primarily from these views; and then, consequentially, they see God's love and great favor to them."

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards Religious Affections, p.90