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god glorified in man's dependence

God Glorified in Man’s Dependence

By Matthew Barrett

One of my favorite sermons from the pen of Jonathan Edwards is “God Glorified in Man’s Dependence,” a sermon based off of 1 Corinthians 1:29-31. The context of the sermon is the threat of Arminianism in Edwards’ day. Edwards delivered the sermon at a public lecture on Thursday, July 8, 1731, the week of the Harvard commencement. As George Marsden points out, “Boston was filled with clergy.” Edwards was to address the young Harvard graduates. And out of all things what did Edwards choose to speak on? Why, nothing else than God’s sovereignty and man’s utter dependence on him for salvation. Marsden says, “At the foundations of his edifice he systematically closed every seam that might allow people to gain a glimmer of a supposition that their salvation was partly their own doing. So he forced them to look toward the dome around which he crafted windows that framed the light of God’s ways.” But notice the practical implication Edwards made in telling these young graduates how dependent they are on God. Is it not that there would be no room for pride? Quoting Edwards, Marsden insightfully explains,

Humans had a greater dependence on God, he pointed out, because of their fall into sin. “We are more apparently dependent on God for happiness, being first miserable, and afterwards happy.” “Schemes of divinity” that in any way questioned “an absolute and universal dependence on God, derogate his glory, and thwart the design of our redemption.” They “own an entire dependence on God for some things, but not for others.” Thus they rob the Gospel of “that which God accounts its lustre and glory.” Faith itself includes “a sensibleness and an acknowledgement of absolute dependence on God.” Far from being a human work, it “abases men, and exalts God.” So the redeemed have no room for pride. “Is any man eminent in holiness,” he concluded to his eminent audience, “let him take nothing of the glory of it to himself, but ascribe it to him whose ‘workmanship we are, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.'” [Marsden, Jonathan Edwards, 141.]

Marsden goes on to note that Thomas Prince and William Cooper reiterated this same point, explaining that our piety is lost if we do not realize our total dependence on God. There are not many truths more important to convey to a class of high-achieving graduates than their dependence on God. It is only when we realize how utterly dependent we are upon God that we are truly made humble and begin to make progress in our sanctification, for only then is pride eliminated. From beginning to end, God alone receives the glory.



Matthew Barrett (Ph.D., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the founder and executive editor of Credo Magazine. Barrett has contributed book reviews and articles to various academic journals and he also writes at Blogmatics. He is married to Elizabeth and they have two daughters, Cassandra and Georgia. He is a member of Clifton Baptist Church in Louisville, KY.

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