Natural and Moral

I usually blow through books like the west wind. Not so with Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections, which I began back in February of this year, and which I continue to labor with. Four months later, I’m not even halfway through it. For me, that’s an appalling performance.

That confessed, I simply can’t go any faster. I keep running into ideas I have to stop, meditate on, and (often) write about. Here’s another I think is worthwhile.

A Sharp Distinction

Edwards draws a sharp distinction between what he calls God’s “natural perfections” and his “moral perfections”. In the former category, he includes power, knowledge, eternity and immutability, among others; in the latter, justice, righteousness, truth, goodness, grace, and the like, which he sums up in the word “holiness”. He then observes that unregenerate men and women may be able to appreciate the former divine perfections but not the latter. He concludes that a love for the divine due to its moral beauty and sweetness is the starting point and source of all holy emotions.

I had never really thought about this distinction between natural and moral perfections before, but I suspect Edwards is correct.

Majesty is Not Enough

Edwards reasons as follows (though there is considerably more to his argument than this short excerpt):

“Having a strong sense of God’s awe-inspiring greatness and terrifying majesty is not enough, as this only relates to God’s natural perfection. People can see this aspect of God and still be completely blind to the beauty of his moral perfection, lacking the spiritual taste that appreciates this divine sweetness.

It is possible for those who lack grace to have a clear and deeply affecting sense of God’s greatness, mighty power, and terrifying majesty. This is something that even the devils possess, although they have lost the spiritual knowledge of God that involves a sense of the loveliness of His moral perfections. They have no appreciation for this kind of beauty, but they do have a great understanding of God’s natural glory, or His awe-inspiring greatness and majesty. They see and are affected by this, which is why they tremble before Him. On the day of judgment, everyone will witness this aspect of God’s glory, including angels, devils, saints, and sinners. Christ will reveal His infinite greatness and terrifying majesty to all in an undeniable way, as described in the Bible when ‘every eye shall see Him.’ Even those who cry out for the mountains to fall upon them and hide them from God’s presence will see His majestic glory. He has often declared His unchanging purpose to make all his enemies know Him in this respect, as seen in the numerous biblical passages that include the phrase ‘And they shall know that I am the Lord.’ ”

So then, all created beings — both regenerate and unregenerate — are capable of recognizing and acknowledging God’s natural perfections.

Clarification Time

By the way, none of this is to say that there is anything wrong with believers recognizing and appreciating the natural perfections of God in worship and elsewhere. They are just as much a part of who the Lord is as are his moral perfections. But we ought to recognize that when we concern ourselves only with the natural perfections of God, we are doing nothing more than the unsaved or even rebellious spirits might do in and of themselves. That should be food for thought when we gather to worship.

It follows, then, that emotions proceeding from appreciation of God’s moral perfections are gracious — by which I mean simply that they originate with the Holy Spirit as opposed to only the human spirit — in a way that emotions proceeding from recognition of God’s natural perfections are not. It is this appreciation of the moral perfections of God that the Spirit is hard at work fanning into flame in the hearts of God’s people.

The Father’s Focus

We see this focus, on the Father’s part at least, in the baptism of the Lord Jesus, don’t we? John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. Yet the Lord Jesus had nothing of which to repent. He pleased the Father in every possible respect. It was therefore necessary for the Spirit of God to single him out from the crowd by descending like a dove and resting on him, and equally necessary for the Father to put his appreciation of the Son into words: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

The Lord Jesus would shortly go on to display the natural perfections of God at great length. Bread and fish multiplied in his hands. The wind and the waves obeyed him. Diseases and unclean spirits fled from his presence. Even death could not withstand him. However, as far as we know from the biblical account, at the time of his baptism not one of these natural perfections was yet in evidence. It was his moral glories that so delighted the Father, and these qualities to which the Spirit draws our attention.

Emotions and Worship

Now, I’m not big on the subject of religious emotions. Mine come and go as they please. I have no more control over how I feel in church than I have over the weather. Nevertheless, it should be obvious that if we are to experience gracious emotions in worship rather than mere natural reactions — more importantly, if we are to have fellowship with the Father in focusing our attention on those things in which he is most interested — we must be feeding our minds and hearts on the moral glories of the Lord Jesus. When we attend specifically to these perfections, we are entering the Holy of Holies.