My first impression of Jonathan Edwards wasn’t good. I lived for years with the distorted (and sadly common) perspective I received from a high school history textbook. It seemed like the only thing Edwards had done was preach “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
In college, an older student twisted my arm to read John Piper, where I came across quotes from Edwards. Those quotes were surprisingly bright and warm compared to the dark and morose figure I expected.
But even that wasn’t enough to get me to read Edwards right away. I assumed these glimpses must be exceptions and that his books would be inaccessible and filled with fire and brimstone. It’s tragic how common textbooks often misrepresent one of the greatest minds and hearts in American history.
My kids deserve a better introduction to Edwards. Your kids do too. For years, that wrong first impression held me back from feeding on the banquet of God-centered, Christ-adoring food spread out in the works of Jonathan Edwards.
The Boy Who Lived—for Jesus
American history is on our minds this summer as we celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary. As we teach our children about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Benjamin Franklin, let’s not forget other significant figures in our history. Edwards’s theological and evangelistic work was as important for the formation of the United States as the political philosophies of other great leaders.
Textbooks often underplay the key role Edwards played in the First Great Awakening and how revival prepared American minds and hearts for the later Revolution. And we see in him, unlike in many of our nation’s founders, a manifest love of Jesus and the Christian Scriptures. We don’t have to guess what Edwards thought on the matters of greatest importance.
Here are a few lessons I want my kids to learn from Edwards’s life and ministry.
1. God speaks in his Word and world.
Even before he became a great student and preacher of God’s Word, the boy Edwards learned to study God’s world.
Now, let’s not minimize how important it is to learn about God from his own mouth as revealed in his Word. That he has spoken and still speaks in his Word by his Spirit is a marvel worth celebrating all our days.
We don’t have to guess what Edwards thought on the matters of greatest importance.
Yet God means for his Book to go along with what we see and learn of him from his world. The heavens too are telling of his glory (Ps. 19:1). Edwards learned about God through his world by spending extended time outdoors, carefully observing creation, trying to figure out how it works and what our world teaches us about the God who made it.
Notably, Edwards had a special fascination with spiders. Rather than recoiling from them like many of us, he was curious about them. He wanted to gather all the knowledge he could about them, because he knew that their Creator made everything with purpose.
2. God doesn’t have grandchildren.
Edwards had 10 sisters and no brothers, which I’m sure made for an unusual childhood. But the most significant detail about his growing up is that he was raised in a Christian home.
His father was a pastor and was deeply concerned that all who heard his preaching would personally repent of their sin and come to know themselves as God’s adopted sons through faith. As a teenager, Edwards heard this loud and clear and came to have a deep and abiding concern for his own soul and personal faith. He didn’t presume on the faith of his parents but struggled (at times intensely) to confirm that his faith was his own and genuine.
Edwards wasn’t content to play “grandchild” of God because his parents were Christians. He wanted to experience the true faith that made him a child of God. In time, and through much agony, he came to recognize he was securely God’s own.
3. We don’t have to choose between thinking and feeling.
When I first encountered Edwards, I assumed his great intellect must mean he was handicapped in heart. My high school textbook encouraged that impression.
However, when I read Edwards myself, especially his sermons, I saw how a mind for God and a heart for Jesus go hand in hand. They’re mutually reinforcing. A great mind, rightly employed, serves a great heart for the God who made all things and the Son he sent to rescue us from our sins. Edwards both loved the person of Jesus and loved to study God’s words in the Bible.
His was one of the greatest minds of his time, and of American history. Yet with such an exacting intellect, he was still awed by Jesus and the Christian Scriptures. Edwards’s writings are filled with praise for the greatness and sweetness of knowing Jesus.
4. We can appreciate flawed heroes.
None of the heroes we encounter in church history or the pages of Scripture is perfect—except for one. Edwards made many mistakes as a pastor. One of them was going at the work of ministry alone for so long without a team of fellow pastors to check his blind spots and smooth off his rough edges.
Edwards’s writings are filled with praise for the greatness and sweetness of knowing Jesus.
More gravely, like many in his day, he was blind to the evils of slavery. At times, he acted unwisely in complex social situations. Edwards was a sinner, and his sin hurt others deeply.
But our heroes can be flawed if they own it and have a Hero in Jesus. In fact, the great Hero and the imperfect heroes of history work together to teach our children twin truths. First, that they’re flawed and sinful and need forgiveness. And second, that in Jesus, God has provided the only Hero who could rescue us from our sin. Only because of Jesus can we be counted as righteous before God or empowered by the Holy Spirit to do good for others.
We aren’t the first generation to walk in Jesus’s wake. Edwards and other heroes like him can help us, and our kids, follow the great Hero. And the earlier we start them, the better.
