SAFETY, FULLNESS, AND
SWEET REFRESHMENT,
TO BE FOUND IN CHRIST
by Jonathan Edwards
(1752), minimally edited from Works, 2.929–36
Part 3 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)
III. There are quiet rest
and sweet refreshment in Christ Jesus,
for those who is weary
He is “as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” The comparison that is
used in the text is very beautiful and very significative. The dry, barren, and
scorched wilderness of Arabia is a very lively
representation of the misery that men have brought upon themselves by sin. It
is destitute of any inhabitants but lions and tigers and fiery serpents. It is
barren and parched, and without any river or spring. It is a land of drought,
wherein there is seldom any rain, a land exceedingly hot and uncomfortable. The
scorching sunbeams, that are ready to consume the spirits of travellers, are a
fit representation of terror of conscience, and the inward sense of God’s
displeasure.
And there being no other shade in which travellers may rest, but only here and
there that of a great rock, it is a fit representation of Jesus Christ, who
came to redeem us from our misery. Christ is often compared to a rock, because
He is a sure foundation to builders, and because He is a sure bulwark and
defence. They who dwell upon the top of a rock, dwell in a most defensible
place. We read of those whose habitation is the munitions of rocks. He may also
be compared to a rock, as He is everlasting and unchangeable. A great rock
remains steadfast, unmoved, and unbroken by winds and storms from age to age.
Therefore God chose a rock to be an emblem of Christ in the wilderness, when He
caused water to issue forth for the children of Israel. The shadow of a great rock
is a most fit representation of the refreshment given to weary souls by Jesus
Christ.
There is Rest in Christ for the
Guilt-Laden
First, there is quiet rest and full refreshment in Christ for
sinners that are weary and heavy laden with sin. Sin is the most evil and
odious thing, as well as the most mischievous and fatal. It is the most mortal
poison. It, above all things, hazards life, and endangers the soul, exposes to
the loss of all happiness, and to the suffering of all misery, and brings the
wrath of God. All men have this dreadful evil hanging about them, and cleaving
fast to the soul, and ruling over it, and keeping it in possession, and under
absolute command: it hangs like a viper to the heart, or rather holds it as a
lion does his prey.
But yet there are multitudes who are not sensible of their misery. They are in
such a sleep that they are not very unquiet in this condition, it is not very
burthensome to them, they are so sottish that they do not know what is their
state, and what is like to become of them. But there are others who have their
sense so far restored to them that they feel the pain, and see the approaching
destruction, and sin lies like a heavy load upon their hearts. It is a load
that lies upon them day and night: they cannot lay it down to rest themselves,
but it continually oppresses them. It is bound fast unto them, and is ready to
sink them down. It is a continual labour of heart to support itself under this
burden. Thus we read of them “that labour and are heavy laden” (Mt 11:28).
Or rather, it is like the scorching heat in a dry wilderness, where the sun
beats and burns all the day long, where they have nothing to defend them, and
where they can find no shade to refresh themselves. If they lay themselves down
to rest, it is like lying down in the hot sands, where there is nothing to keep
off the heat.
Here it may be proper to inquire who are weary and heavy laden with sin, and in
what sense a sinner may be weary and burdened with sin. Sinners are not wearied
with sin from any dislike to it, or dislike of it. There is no sinner that is
burdened with sin in the sense in which a godly man carries his indwelling sin,
as his daily and greatest burden, because he loathes it, and longs to get rid
of it. He would fain be at a great distance from it, and have nothing more to
do with it. He is ready to cry out as Paul did, “O wretched man that I am! who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom 7:24). The unregenerate man
has nothing of this nature, for sin is yet his delight, he dearly loves it. If
he be under convictions, his love to sin in general is not mortified. He loves
it as well as ever, and he hides it still as a sweet morsel under his tongue.
But there is a difference between being weary and burdened with sin, and being
weary of sin. Awakened sinners are weary with sin, but not properly weary of
it.
Therefore, they are only weary of the guilt of sin: the guilt that cleaves to
their consciences is that great burden. God has put the sense of feeling into
their consciences, that were before as seared flesh, and it is guilt that pains
them. The filthiness of sin and its evil nature, as it is an offence to a holy,
gracious, and glorious God, is not a burden to them. But it is the connection
between sin and punishment, between sin and God’s wrath, that makes it a
burden. Their consciences are heavy laden with guilt, which is an obligation to
punishment. They see the threatening and curse of the law joined to their sins,
and see that the justice of God and His vengeance are against them. They are
burdened with their sins, not because there is any odiousness in them, but
because there is hell in them. This is the sting of sin, whereby it stings the
conscience, and distresses and wearies the soul.
The guilt of such and such great sins is upon the soul, and the man sees no way
to get rid of it, but he has wearisome days and wearisome nights. It makes him
ready sometimes to say as the psalmist did, “Oh that I had wings like a dove!
for then would I fly away and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off, and
remain in the wilderness…. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and
tempest” (Ps 55:6–8).
But when sinners come to Christ, He takes away that which was their burden, or
their sin and guilt, that which was so heavy upon their hearts, that so
distressed their minds.
He Takes Away Guilt
(1) He takes away the guilt of sin, from which the soul
before saw no way how it was possible to be freed, and which, if it was not
removed, led to eternal destruction. When the sinner comes to Christ, it is all
at once taken away, and the soul is left free. It is lightened of its burden,
it is delivered from its bondage, and is like a bird escaped from the snare of
the fowler (cf. Ps 91:3). The soul sees in Christ a way to peace with God, and
a way by which the law may be answered, and justice satisfied, yet he may
escape: a wonderful way indeed, but yet a certain and a glorious one. And what
rest does it give to the weary soul to see itself thus delivered, that the
foundation of its anxieties and fears is wholly removed, and that God’s wrath
ceases, that it is brought into a state of peace with God, and that there is no
more occasion to fear hell, but that it is forever safe!
How refreshing is it to the soul to be at once thus delivered of that which was
so much its trouble and terror, and to be eased of that which was so much its
burden! This is like coming to a cool shade after one has been travelling in a
dry and hot wilderness, and almost fainting under the scorching heat.
And then Christ also takes away sin itself, and mortifies that root of
bitterness which is the cause of all the inward tumults and disquietudes that
are in the mind, that make it like the troubled sea that cannot rest, and
leaves it all calm. When guilt is taken away and sin is mortified, then the
foundation of fear and trouble and pain is removed, and the soul is left in
peace and serenity.
He gives Strength and New Life
(2) Christ puts strength and a principle of new life into
the weary soul that comes to Him. The sinner, before he comes to Christ, is as
a sick man that is weakened and brought low, and whose nature is consumed by
some strong distemper: he is full of pain, and so weak that he cannot walk nor
stand. Therefore, Christ is compared to a physician. “But when Jesus heard
that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick” (Mt 9:12; Mk 2:17; Lk 5:31). When He comes and speaks the word, He
puts a principle of life into him that was before as dead. He gives a principle
of spiritual life and the beginning of eternal life. He invigorates the mind
with a communication of His own life and strength, and renews the nature and
creates it again, and makes the man to be a new creature.
So that the fainting, sinking spirits are now revived, and this principle of
spiritual life is a continual spring of refreshment, like a well of living
water. “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life” (Jn 4:14). Christ gives His Spirit, that
calms the mind, and is like a refreshing breeze of wind. He gives that strength
whereby He lifts up the hands that hang down, and strengthens the feeble knees
(cf. Heb 12:12).
He gives Comfort and Pleasure
(3) Christ gives to those who come to Him such comfort and
pleasure as are enough to make them forget all their former labour and travail.
A little of true peace, a little of the joys of the manifested love of Christ,
and a little of the true and holy hope of eternal life, are enough to
compensate for all that toil and weariness, and to erase the remembrance of it
from the mind. That peace which results from true faith passes understanding,
and that joy is joy unspeakable. There is something peculiarly sweet and
refreshing in this joy, that is not in other joys. What can more effectually
support the mind, or give a more rational ground of rejoicing, than a prospect
of eternal glory in the enjoyment of God from God’s own promise in Christ? If
we come to Christ, we may not only be refreshed by resting in His shadow, but
by eating His fruit: these things are the fruits of this tree. “I sat down under
his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste” (Song 2:3).
Before proceeding to the next particular of this proposition, I would apply
myself to those that are weary; to move them to repose themselves under
Christ’s shadow.
The great trouble of such a state, one would think, should be a motive to you
to accept of an offer of relief, and remedy. You are weary, and doubtless would
be glad to be at rest. But here you are to consider,
(a) That there is no remedy but in Jesus Christ. There is nothing else will
give you true quietness. If you could fly into heaven, you would not find it
there. If you should take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the earth, in some solitary place in the wilderness, you could not fly
from your burden. So that if you do not come to Christ, you must either
continue still weary and burdened, or which is worse, you must return to your
old dead sleep, to a state of stupidity, and not only so, but you must be
everlastingly wearied with God’s wrath.
(b) Consider that Christ is a remedy at hand. You need not wish for the wings
of a dove that you may fly afar off, and be at rest, but Christ is nigh at
hand, if you were but sensible of it. “But the righteousness which is of faith
speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven?
(that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the
deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The
word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of
faith which we preach” (Rom 10:6–8). There is no need of doing any great work
to come at this rest. The way is plain to it. It is but going to it, and it is
but sitting down under Christ’s shadow. Christ requires no money to purchase
rest of Him: He calls to us to come freely, and for nothing. If we are poor and
have no money, we may come. Christ sent out His servants to invite the poor,
the maimed, the halt, and the blind. Christ does not want to be hired to accept
of you, and to give you rest. It is His work as Mediator to give rest to the
weary. It is the work that He was anointed for, and in which He delights. “The
Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach
good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that
are bound” (Isa 61:1).
(c) Christ is not only a remedy for your weariness and trouble, but He will
give you an abundance of the contrary, joy and delight. They who come to
Christ, do not only come to a resting place after they have been wandering in a
wilderness, but they come to a banqueting house where they may rest, and where
they may feast. They may cease from their former troubles and toils, and they
may enter upon a course of delights and spiritual joys.
Christ not only delivers from fears of hell and of wrath, but He gives hopes of
heaven, and the enjoyment of God’s love. He delivers from inward tumults and
inward pain, from that guilt of conscience which is as a worm gnawing within,
and He gives delight and inward glory. He brings us out of a wilderness of pits
and drought and fiery flying spirits, and He brings us into a pleasant land, a
land flowing with milk and honey. He delivers us out of prison, and lifts us
off from the dunghill, and He sets us among princes, and causes us to inherit
the throne of glory. Wherefore, if anyone is weary, if any is in prison, if
anyone is in captivity, if anyone is in the wilderness, let him come to the
blessed Jesus, who is as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Delay not,
arise and come away.
There is Rest in Christ for the Weary
Second, there are quiet rest and sweet refreshment in Christ for
God’s people that are weary.
The saints themselves, while they remain in this imperfect state, and have so
much remains of sin in their hearts, are liable still to many troubles and
sorrows, and much weariness, and have often need to resort anew unto Jesus
Christ for rest. I shall mention three cases wherein Christ is a sufficient
remedy.
The Case of Persecution
(1) There is rest and sweet refreshment in Christ for those
that are wearied with persecutions. It has been the lot of God’s Church in this
world for the most part to be persecuted. It has had now and then some lucid
intervals of peace and outward prosperity, but generally it has been otherwise.
This has accorded with the first prophecy concerning Christ; “I will put enmity
between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed” (Gen 3:15). Those
two seeds have been at enmity ever since the time of Abel. Satan has borne
great malice against the Church of God, and so have those that are his seed.
And oftentimes God’s people have been persecuted to an extreme degree, have
been put to the most exquisite torments that wit or art could devise, and
thousands of them have been tormented to death.
But even in such a case there are rest and refreshment to be found in Christ
Jesus. When their cruel enemies have given them no rest in this world, and when
as oftentimes has been the case, they could not flee, nor in any way avoid the
rage of their adversaries (but many of them have been tormented gradually from
day to day that their torments might be lengthened), still rest has been found
even then in Christ. It has been often found by experience: the martyrs have
often showed plainly that the peace and calm of their minds were undisturbed in
the midst of the greatest bodily torment, and have sometimes rejoiced and sung
praises upon the rack and in the fire. If Christ is pleased to send forth His
Spirit to manifest His love, and speaks friendly to the soul, it will support
it even in the greatest outward torment that man can inflict. Christ is the joy
of the soul, and if the soul be but rejoiced and filled with divine light, such
joy no man can take away. Whatever outward misery there be, the Spirit will
sustain it.
The Case of Affliction
(2) There is in Christ rest for God’s people, when
exercised with afflictions. If a person labour under great bodily weakness, or
under some disease that causes frequent and strong pains, such things will tire
out so feeble a creature as man. It may to such an one be a comfort and an
effectual support to think that he has a Mediator who knows by experience what
pain is, who by His pain has purchased eternal ease and pleasure for him, and
who will make his brief sufferings to work out a far more exceeding delight to
be bestowed when he shall rest from his labours and sorrows.
If a person be brought into great straits as to outward subsistence, and
poverty brings abundance of difficulties and extremities. Yet it may be a
supporting, refreshing consideration to such an one to think, that he has a
compassionate Saviour, who when upon earth, was so poor that He had not where
to lay his head (Mt 8:20; Lk 9:58), and who became poor to make him rich (2 Cor
8:9), and purchased for him durable riches, and will make his poverty work out
an exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Cor 4:17).
If God in His providence calls His people to mourn over lost relations, and if
He repeats His stroke and takes away one after another of those that were dear
to Him, it is a supporting, refreshing consideration to think that Christ has
declared that He will be in stead of all relations unto those who trust in Him.
They are as His mother, and sister, and brother (Mt 12:49–50; Mk 3:34–35): He
has taken them into a very near relation to Himself. In every other afflictive
providence, it is a great comfort to a believing soul to think that he has an
intercessor with God, that by Him he can have access with confidence to the
throne of grace, and that in Christ we have so many great and precious
promises, that all things shall work together for good and shall issue in
eternal blessedness. God’s people, whenever they are scorched by afflictions as
by hot sunbeams, may resort to Him who is as a shadow of a great rock, and be
effectually sheltered, and sweetly refreshed.
The Case of Temptation
(3) There is in Christ quiet rest and sweet refreshment for
God’s people, when wearied with the buffetings of Satan. The devil, that
malicious enemy of God and man, does whatever lies in his power to darken and
hinder, and tempt God’s people, and render their lives uncomfortable. Often he
raises needless and groundless scruples, and casts in doubts, and fills the
mind with such fear as is tormenting, and tends to hinder them exceedingly in
the Christian course. He often raises mists and clouds of darkness, and stirs
up corruption, and thereby fills the mind with concern and anguish, and
sometimes wearies out the soul. So that they may say as the psalmist, “Many
bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped
upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion” (Ps 22:12–13).
In such a case if the soul flies to Jesus Christ, they may find rest in Him,
for He came into the world to destroy Satan, and to rescue souls out of his
hands. And He has all things put under His feet, whether they be things in
heaven, or things on earth, or things in hell. Therefore He can restrain Satan
when He pleases. And that He is doubtless ready enough to pity us under such
temptations, we may be assured, for He has been tempted and buffeted by Satan
as well as we. He is able to succour those that are tempted, and He has
promised that He will subdue Satan under His people’s feet. Let God’s people
therefore, when they are exercised with any of those kinds of weariness, make
their resort unto Jesus Christ for refuge and rest.
Reflections and
Conclusion (Part 3)
(1) We may here see great reason to admire the goodness and grace of God to us
in our low estate, that He has so provided for our help and relief. We are by
our own sin against God plunged into all sorts of evil, and God has provided a
remedy for us against every sort of evil: He has left us helpless in no
calamity. We by our sin have exposed ourselves to wrath, to a vindictive
justice, but God has done very great things that we might be saved from that
wrath. He has been at infinite cost that the law might be answered without our
suffering. We by our sins have exposed ourselves to terror of conscience, in
expectation of the dreadful storm of God’s wrath, but God has provided for us a
hiding place from the storm. He bids us enter into His chambers, and hide
ourselves from indignation. We by sin have made ourselves poor, needy
creatures, but God has provided for us gold tried in the fire. We by sin have
made ourselves naked, and when He passed by, He took notice of our want, and
has provided us white raiment that we may be clothed. We have made ourselves
blind, and God in mercy to us has provided eye salve, that we may see. We have
deprived ourselves of all spiritual food. We are like the prodigal son that
perished with hunger, and would gladly have filled his belly with husks. God
has taken notice of this our condition, and has provided for us a feast of fat
things, and has sent forth His servants to invite the poor, the maimed, the
halt, and the blind (Lk 14:21). We by sin have brought ourselves into a dry and
thirsty wilderness, but God was merciful, and took notice of our condition, and
has provided for us rivers of water, water out of the rock. We by sin have
brought upon ourselves a miserable slavery and bondage. God has made provision
for our liberty. We have exposed ourselves to weariness, and God has provided a
resting place for us. We by sin have exposed ourselves to many outward troubles
and afflictions. God has pitied us, and in Christ has provided true comfort for
us. We have exposed ourselves to our grand enemy, even Satan, to be tempted and
buffeted by him; God has pitied, and has provided for us a Saviour and Captain
of salvation, who has overcome Satan, and is able to deliver us. Thus God has
in Christ provided sufficiently for our help in all kinds of evils.
How ought we to bless God for this abundant provision He has made for us, poor
and sinful as we were, who were so undeserving and so ungrateful. He made no
such provision for the fallen angels, who are left without remedy in all the
woes and miseries into which they are plunged.
(2) We should admire the love of Christ to men, that He has thus given Himself
to be the remedy for all their evil, and a fountain of all good. Christ has
given Himself to us, to be all things to us that we need. We want clothing, and
Christ does not only give us clothing, but He gives Himself to be our clothing,
that we might put Him on. “For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ
have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27). “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make
not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom 13:14).
We want food, and Christ has given Himself to be our food. He has given His own
flesh to be our meat, and His blood to be our drink, to nourish our soul. Thus Christ
tells us that He is the bread which came down from heaven, and the bread of
life. “I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness,
and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may
eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if
any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will
give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (Jn 6:48–51). In
order to our eating of His flesh, it was necessary that He should be slain, as
the sacrifices must be slain before they could be eaten; and such was Christ’s
love to us, that He consented to be slain. He went as a sheep to the slaughter
(cf. Isa 53:7) that He might give us His flesh to be food for our poor,
famishing souls.
We are in need of a habitation: we by sin have, as it were, turned ourselves
out of house and home. Christ has given Himself to be the habitation of His
people. “LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations” (Ps 90:1).
It is promised to God’s people that they should dwell in the temple of God
for ever, and should go no more out, and we are told that Christ is the temple
of the new Jerusalem.
Christ gives Himself to His people to be all things to them that they need, and
all things that make for their happiness. “Where there is neither Greek nor
Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but
Christ is all, and in all” (Col
3:11). And that He might be so, He has refused nothing that is needful to
prepare Him to be so. When it was needful that He should be incarnate, He
refused it not, but became man, and appeared in the form of a servant (Phil
2:7). When it was needful that He should be slain, He refused it not, but gave
Himself for us, and gave Himself to us upon the cross.
Here is love for us to admire, for us to praise, and for us to rejoice in, with
joy that is full of glory forever.
— 30 June 2002
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