SAFETY, FULLNESS, AND
SWEET REFRESHMENT,
TO BE FOUND IN CHRIST
by Jonathan Edwards
(1752), minimally edited from Works, 2.929–36
Part 1 of 3
“And a man shall be as an hiding place
from the wind, and a covert from the tempest;
as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land.”
(Isaiah 32:2)
In these words we may observe,
(1) The person who is here prophesied of and commended, viz. the
Lord Jesus Christ, the King spoken of in the preceding verse, who shall reign
in righteousness. This King is abundantly prophesied of in the Old Testament,
and especially in this prophecy of Isaiah. Glorious predictions were from time
to time uttered by the prophets concerning that great King who was to come.
There is no subject which is spoken of in so magnificent and exalted a style by
the prophets of the Old Testament, as the Messiah. They saw His day and
rejoiced, and searched diligently, together with the angels, into those things,
“Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them
did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the
glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves,
but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them
that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from
heaven, which things the angels desire to look into” (1 Pet 1:11–12).
We are told here that “a man shall be as an hiding place from
the wind,” etc. There is an emphasis in the words, that “a man”
should be this. If these things had been said of God, it would not be strange
under the Old Testament; for God is frequently called a hiding place for His
people, a refuge in time of trouble, a strong rock, and a high tower. But what
is so remarkable is, that they are said of “a man.” But this is a
prophecy of the Son of God incarnate.
(2) The things here foretold of Him, and the commendations given Him.
“He shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest”:
that is, He shall be the safety and defence of His people, to which they shall
flee for protection in the time of their danger and trouble. To Him they shall
flee, as one who is abroad, and sees a terrible storm arising, makes haste to
some shelter to secure himself. So that however furious is the tempest, yet he
is safe within, and the wind and rain, though they beat never so impetuously
upon the roof and walls, are no annoyance unto him.
He shall be as “rivers of water in a dry place.” This is an allusion to the
deserts of Arabia, which was an exceedingly hot and dry country. One may travel
there many days, and see no sign of a river, brook, or spring, nothing but a
dry and parched wilderness, so that travellers are ready to be consumed with
thirst, as the children of Israel were when they were in this wilderness, when
they were faint because there was no water. Now when a man finds Jesus Christ,
he is like one that has been travelling in those deserts till he is almost
consumed with thirst, and who at last finds a river of cool and clear water.
And Christ was typified by the river of water that issued out of the rock for
the children of Israel in this desert: He is compared to a river, because there
is such a plenty and fullness in Him.
He is the “shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” Allusion is still made to
the desert of Arabia. It is not said, as the shadow of a tree, because in some
places of that country, there is nothing but dry sand and rocks for a vast
space together, not a tree to be seen. The sun beats exceedingly hot upon the
sands, and all the shade to be found there, where travellers can rest and
shelter themselves from the scorching sun, is under some great rock. They who
come to Christ find such rest and refreshment as the weary traveller in that
hot and desolate country finds under the shadow of a great rock.
We propose to speak to three propositions that are explicatory of the several
parts of the text.
I.
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There is in Christ Jesus abundant foundation of peace and safety for those
who are in fear and danger. “A man shall be as an hiding place from the wind,
a covert from the tempest.”
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II.
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There is in Christ provision for the satisfaction, and full contentment, of
the needy and thirsty soul. He shall be “as rivers of water in a dry place.”
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III.
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There are quiet rest and sweet refreshment in Christ Jesus for him who is
weary. He shall be “as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”
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I. There is in Christ
Jesus
abundant foundation of peace and safety
for those who are in fear and danger
The fears and dangers, to which men are subject, are of two kinds: temporal and
eternal. Men are frequently in distress from fear of temporal evils. We live in
an evil world, where we are liable to an abundance of sorrows and calamities. A
great part of our lives is spent in sorrowing for present or past evils, and in
fearing those which are future. What poor, distressed creatures are we, when
God is pleased to send His judgments among us? If He visits a place with mortal
and prevailing sickness, what terror seizes our hearts! If any person is taken
sick, and trembles for his life, or if our near friends are at the point of
death, or in many other dangers, how fearful is our condition! Now there is
sufficient foundation for peace and safety to those exercised with such fears,
and brought into such dangers. But Christ is a refuge in all trouble. There is
a foundation for rational support and peace in Him, whatever threatens us. He
whose heart is fixed, trusting in Christ, need not be afraid of any evil tidings.
“As the mountains are round about Jerusalem” (Ps 125:2), so Christ is round
about them that fear Him.
But it is the other kind of fear and danger to which we have a principal
respect: the fear and danger of God’s wrath. The fears of a terrified conscience,
the fearful expectation of the dire fruits of sin, and the resentment of an
angry God, these are infinitely the most dreadful. If men are in danger of
those things, and are not asleep, they will be more terrified than with the
fears of any outward evil. Men are in a most deplorable condition, as they are
by nature exposed to God’s wrath; and if they are sensible how dismal their
case is, will be in dreadful fears and dismal expectations.
God is pleased to make some sensible of their true condition. He lets them see
the storm that threatens them, how black the clouds are, and how impregnated
with thunder. [They see] that it is a burning tempest, that they are in danger
of being speedily overtaken by it, that they have nothing to shelter themselves
from it, and that they are in danger of being taken away by the fierceness of
His anger.
It is a fearful condition when one is smitten with a sense of the dreadfulness
of God’s wrath: when he has his heart impressed with the conviction that the
great God is not reconciled to him, that He holds him guilty of these and those
sins, and that He is angry enough with him to condemn him forever. It is
dreadful to lie down and rise up, it is dreadful to eat and drink, and to walk
about, in God’s anger from day to day. One, in such a case, is ready to be
afraid of everything. He is afraid of meeting God’s wrath wherever he goes. He
has no peace of mind, but there is a dreadful sound in his ears. His mind is
afflicted and tossed with tempest, and not comforted, and courage is ready to
fail, and the spirit ready to sink with fear. For how can a poor worm bear the
wrath of the great God, and what would not he give for peace of conscience,
what would not he give if he could find safety! When such fears exist to a
great degree, or are continued a long time, they greatly enfeeble the heart,
and bring it to a trembling posture and disposition.
Now for such as these there is abundant foundation for peace and safety in
Jesus Christ, and this will appear from the following things:
Christ has Undertaken to Save
First, Christ has undertaken to save all such from what they fear,
if they come to Him. It is His professional business: the work in which He
engaged before the foundation of the world. It is what He always had in His
thoughts and intentions. He undertook from everlasting to be the refuge of
those that are afraid of God’s wrath. His wisdom is such, that He would never
undertake a work for which He is not sufficient. If there were some in so
dreadful a case that He was not able to defend them, or so guilty that it was
not fit that He should save them, then He never would have undertaken for them.
Those who are in trouble and distressing fear, if they come to Jesus Christ,
have this to ease them of their fears: that Christ has promised them that He
will protect them, that they come upon His invitation, that Christ has plighted
His faith for their security if they will close with Him, and that He is
engaged by covenant to God the Father that He will save those afflicted and distressed
souls that come to Him.
Christ, by His own free act, has made Himself the surety of such; He has
voluntarily put Himself in their stead. If justice has anything against them,
He has undertaken to answer for them. By His own act, He has engaged to be
responsible for them, so that if they have exposed themselves to God’s wrath,
and to the stroke of justice, it is not their concern, but His, how to answer
or satisfy for what they have done. Let there be never so much wrath that they
have deserved. They are as safe as if they never had deserved any, because He
has undertaken to stand for them, let it be more or less. If they are in Christ
Jesus, the storm does of course light on Him, and not on them. As when we are
under a good shelter, the storm, that would otherwise come upon our heads,
lights upon the shelter.
Christ was Appointed to Save
Second, He is chosen and appointed of the Father to this work.
There needs be no fear nor jealousy, whether the Father will approve of this
undertaking of Christ Jesus, whether He will accept of Him as a surety, or
whether He will be willing that His wrath should be poured upon His own dear
Son, instead of us miserable sinners. For there was an agreement with Him
concerning it before the world was. It was a thing much upon God’s heart, that
His Son Jesus Christ should undertake this work, and it was the Father that
sent Him into the world. It is as much the act of God the Father as it is of
the Son. Therefore, when Christ was near the time of His death, He tells the Father
that He had finished the work which He gave Him to do. Christ is often called
God’s elect, or His chosen, because He was chosen by the Father for this work.
[He is called] God’s anointed, for the words Messiah and Christ signify anointed,
because He is by God appointed and fitted for this work.
Christ Fulfilled the Demands of the Law
Third, if we are in Christ Jesus, justice and the law have their
course with respect to our sins, without our hurt. The foundation of the
sinner’s fear and distress is the justice and the law of God. They are against
Him, and they are unalterable: they must have their course. Every jot and
tittle of the law must be fulfilled; heaven and earth shall be destroyed rather
than justice should not take place. There is no possibility of sin’s escaping
justice.
But yet if the distressed trembling soul who is afraid of justice, would fly to
Christ, He would be a safe hiding place. Justice and the threatening of the law
will have their course as fully, while He is safe and untouched, as if He were
to be eternally destroyed. Christ bears the stroke of justice, and the curse of
the law falls fully upon Him. Christ bears all that vengeance that belongs to
the sin that has been committed by him, and there is no need of its being borne
twice over. His temporal sufferings, by reason of the infinite dignity of His
person, are fully equivalent to the eternal sufferings of a mere creature. And
then His sufferings answer for him who flees to Him as well as if they were His
own, for indeed they are His own by virtue of the union between Christ and him.
Christ has made Himself one with them. He is the head, and they are the
members. Therefore, if Christ suffers for the believer, there is no need of his
suffering, and [of] what needs he to be afraid? His safety is not only
consistent with absolute justice, but it is consistent with the tenor of the
law. The law leaves fair room for such a thing as the answering of a surety. If
the end of punishment in maintaining the authority of the law and the majesty
of the government is fully secured by the sufferings of Christ as his surety,
then the law of God, according to the true and fair interpretation of it, has
its course as much in the sufferings of Christ, as it would have in His own
sufferings. The threatening, “thou shalt surely die,” is properly fulfilled in
the death of Christ, as it is fairly to be understood. Therefore if those who
are afraid will go to Jesus Christ, they need to fear nothing from the
threatening of the law. The threatening of the law has nothing to do with them.
Through Christ’s Propitiation, God’s
Forgiveness of us
Debases not His Honour
Fourth, those who come to Christ, need not be afraid of God’s wrath
for their sins. For God’s honour will not suffer by their escaping punishment
and being made happy. The wounded soul is sensible that he has affronted the
majesty of God, and looks upon God as a vindicator of his honour, as a jealous
God that will not be mocked, an infinitely great God that will not bear to be
affronted, [a God] that will not suffer His authority and majesty to be
trampled on, and that will not bear that His kindness should be abused. A view
of God in this light terrifies awakened souls. They think how exceedingly they
have sinned, how they have sinned against light, against frequent and
long-continued calls and warnings, and how they have slighted mercy and been
guilty of turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, taking encouragement
from God’s mercy to go on in sin against Him. They fear that God is so affronted
at the contempt and slight which they have cast upon Him, that He, being
careful of His honour, will never forgive them, but will punish them. But if
they go to Christ, the honour of God’s majesty and authority will not be in the
least hurt by their being freed and made happy. For what Christ has done has
repaired God’s honour to the full. It is a greater honour to God’s authority
and majesty, that rather than it should be wronged, so glorious a person would
suffer what the law required. It is surely a wonderful display of the honour of
God’s majesty, to see an infinite and eternal person dying for its being
wronged. And then Christ by His obedience, by that obedience which He undertook
for our sakes, has honoured God abundantly more than the sins of any of us have
dishonoured Him, how many soever, and how great soever. How great an honour is
it to God’s law that so great a person is willing to submit to it, and to obey
it! God hates our sins, but not more than He delights in Christ’s obedience
which He performed on our account. This is a sweet savour to Him, a savour of
rest. God is abundantly compensated, He desires no more. Christ’s righteousness
is of infinite worthiness and merit.
We are Beloved of the Father in Christ
Fifth, Christ is a person so dear to the Father, that those who are
in Christ need not be at all jealous of being accepted upon His account. If
Christ is accepted they must of consequence be accepted, for they are in
Christ, as members, as parts, as the same. They are the body of Christ, His
flesh and His bones. They that are in Christ Jesus, are one spirit. Therefore,
if God loves Christ Jesus, He must of necessity accept of those that are in
Him, and that are of Him. But Christ is a person exceedingly dear to the
Father: the Father’s love to the Son is really infinite. God necessarily loves
the Son. God could as soon cease to be, as cease to love the Son. He is God’s
elect, in whom his soul delighteth. He is His beloved Son, in whom He is well
pleased. He loved Him before the foundation of the world, and had infinite
delight in Him from all eternity.
A terrified conscience, therefore, may have rest here, and abundant
satisfaction that he is safe in Christ, and that there is not the least danger
but that he shall be accepted, and that God will be at peace with him in
Christ.
Christ’s Suffering was Sufficient
Sixth, God has given an open testimony that Christ has done and
suffered enough, and that He is satisfied with it, by His raising Him from the
dead. Christ, when He was in His passion, was in the hands of justice, He was
God’s prisoner for believers. It pleased God to bruise Him, and put Him to
grief and to bring Him into a low state. When He raised Him from the dead, He
set Him at liberty, whereby He declared that it was enough. If God was not
satisfied, why did He set Christ at liberty so soon? He was in the hands of
justice, why did not God pour out more wrath upon Him, and hold Him in the
chains of darkness longer? God raised Him up and opened the prison doors to
Him, because He desired no more. And now surely there is free admittance for
all sinners into God’s favour through this risen Saviour. There is enough done,
and God is satisfied, as He has declared and sealed to it by the resurrection
of Christ, who is alive, and lives for evermore, and is making intercession for
poor, distressed souls that come unto Him.
All Power has been given unto Christ
Seventh, Christ has the dispensation of safety and deliverance in
His own hands, so that we need not fear but that if we are united to Him, we
may be safe. God has given Him all power in heaven and in earth, to give
eternal life to whomsoever comes to Him. He is made head over all things to the
church, and the work of salvation is left with Himself. He may save whom He
pleases, and defend those that are in Him by His own power. What greater ground
of confidence could God have given us than that the Mediator, who died for us,
and intercedes for us, should have committed to Him the dispensation of the
very thing which He died to purchase and for which He intercedes?
Christ is Loving and Compassionate
Eighth, Christ’s love, and compassion, and gracious disposition,
are such that we may be sure He is inclined to receive all who come to Him. If
He should not do it, He would fail of His own undertaking, and also of His
promise to the Father and to us, and His wisdom and faithfulness will not allow
of that. But He is so full of love and kindness that He is disposed to nothing
but to receive and defend us, if we come to Him. Christ is exceedingly ready to
pity us. His arms are open to receive us, and He delights to receive distressed
souls that come to Him, and to protect them. He would gather them as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings (Mt 23:37). It is a work that He
exceedingly rejoices in, because He delights in acts of love, and pity, and
mercy.
Conclusion (Part 1)
I shall take occasion from what now has been said, to invite those who are
afraid of God’s wrath, to come to Christ Jesus. You are indeed in a dreadful
condition. It is dismal to have God’s wrath impending over our heads, and not
to know how soon it will fall upon us. And you are in some measure sensible
that it is a dreadful condition, you are full of fear and trouble, and you know
not where to flee for help. Your mind is, as it were, tossed with a tempest.
But how lamentable is it, that you should spend your life in such a condition,
when Christ would shelter you, as a hen shelters her chickens under her wings,
if you were but willing, and that you should live such a fearful, distressed
life, when there is so much provision made for your safety in Christ Jesus!
How happy would you be if your hearts were but persuaded to close with Jesus
Christ! Then you would be out of all danger. Whatever storms and tempests were
without, you might rest securely within. You might hear the rushing of the
wind, and the thunder roar abroad, while you are safe in this hiding place. O
be persuaded to hide yourself in Christ Jesus! What greater assurance of safety
can you desire? He has undertaken to defend and save you, if you will come to
Him. He looks upon it as His work, He engaged in it before the world was, and
He has given His faithful promise which He will not break. If you will but make
your flight there, His life shall be for yours, and He will answer for you. You
shall have nothing to do but rest quietly in Him. You may stand still and see
what the Lord will do for you. If there be anything to suffer, the suffering is
Christ’s, you will have nothing to suffer. If there be anything to be done, the
doing of it is Christ’s, you will have nothing to do but to stand still and
behold it.
You will certainly be accepted of the Father if your soul lays hold of Jesus
Christ. Christ is chosen and anointed of the Father, and sent forth for this
very end, to save those that are in danger and fear. He is greatly beloved of
God, even infinitely, and He will accept of those that are in Him. Justice and
the law will not be against you. If you are in Christ, that threatening, “in
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die” (Gen 2:17), in the proper
sense of it will not touch you. The majesty and honour of God are not against
you. You need not be afraid but that you shall be justified if you come to Him.
There is an act of justification already past and declared for all who come to
Christ by the resurrection of Christ, and as soon as ever you come, you are by
that declared free. If you come to Christ it will be a sure sign that Christ
loved you from all eternity, and that He died for you. You may be sure if He
died for you, He will not lose the end of His death, for the dispensation of
life is committed unto Him.
You need not, therefore, continue in so dangerous a condition. There is help
for you. You need not stand out in the storm so long, as there is so good a
shelter near you, whose doors are open to receive you. O make haste, therefore,
unto that man who is a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the
tempest!
Let this truth also cause believers more to prize the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider
that it is He, and He only, who defends you from wrath, and that He is a safe
defence. Your defence is a high tower, and your city of refuge is impregnable.
There is no rock like your rock. There is none like Christ, “the God of
Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the
sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms”
(Deut 33:26–27). He in whom you trust is a buckler to all that trust in Him. O
prize that Saviour, who keeps your soul in safety, while thousands of others
are carried away by the fury of God’s anger, and are tossed with raging and
burning tempests in hell! O, how much better is your case than theirs! And to
whom is it owing but to the Lord Jesus Christ? Remember what was once your
case, and what it is now, and prize Jesus Christ.
And let those Christians who are in doubts and fears concerning their
condition, renewedly fly to Jesus Christ, who is a hiding place from the wind,
and a covert from the tempest. Most Christians are at times afraid whether they
shall not miscarry at last. Such doubtings are always through some want of the
exercise of faith, and the best remedy for them is a renewed resort of the soul
to this hiding place. The same act, which at first gave comfort and peace, will
give peace again. They that clearly see the sufficiency of Christ, and the
safety of committing themselves to Him to save them from what they fear, will
rest in it that Christ will defend them. Be directed therefore at such times to
do as the psalmist, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will
praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do
unto me” (Ps 56:3–4).
Part 2 of 3