Psalm 21:12
The Crown and the Cross
There is something else in Christianity besides self-denial or restraining our inclination. There is a crown as well as a cross. And though we are so strictly required to restrain and keep within our bounds our animal inclinations, yet God does not desire we should set any bounds to spiritual and gracious inclinations, which are the most excellent; he that is truly born again, as he has an animal appetite to meat and drink, so he hungers and thirsts after righteousness. It is his meat and his drink to do the will of his Father which is in heaven. He thirsts for God, for the living God, and sometimes his heart pants after God as the hart pants after the water brook (Psalm 42:1).
He has an appetite to Jesus Christ, who is the bread which came down from heaven. His soul lives upon Christ as his spiritual meat and drink. He has an appetite to the Word of God as to the food of his soul, for he lives not by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). He as a newborn babe desires the sincere milk of the word, that he may grow thereby (1 Peter 2:2). He has not only a desire from a rational consideration of the need and benefit of it, but it is a desire immediately flowing from his nature, like the natural appetite.
Readings taken from Day By Day With Jonathan Edwards
The Crown and the Cross
There is something else in Christianity besides self-denial or restraining our inclination. There is a crown as well as a cross. And though we are so strictly required to restrain and keep within our bounds our animal inclinations, yet God does not desire we should set any bounds to spiritual and gracious inclinations, which are the most excellent; he that is truly born again, as he has an animal appetite to meat and drink, so he hungers and thirsts after righteousness. It is his meat and his drink to do the will of his Father which is in heaven. He thirsts for God, for the living God, and sometimes his heart pants after God as the hart pants after the water brook (Psalm 42:1).
He has an appetite to Jesus Christ, who is the bread which came down from heaven. His soul lives upon Christ as his spiritual meat and drink. He has an appetite to the Word of God as to the food of his soul, for he lives not by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). He as a newborn babe desires the sincere milk of the word, that he may grow thereby (1 Peter 2:2). He has not only a desire from a rational consideration of the need and benefit of it, but it is a desire immediately flowing from his nature, like the natural appetite.
Readings taken from Day By Day With Jonathan Edwards
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment