Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
— John 20:29
Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
— 1 Peter 2:7
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
— 1 Peter 1:6
And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you
— John 16:22
And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
— 1 Peter 5:4
Religious Affections Are Not Saving Because Love Appears in Them, by Jonathan Edwards. The following contains Chapter Six of Part Two of his work, “A Treatise on Religious Affections.”
1 Peter 1:8: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
It is no evidence that religious affections are saving, or that they are otherwise, because there is an appearance of love in them.
There are no professing Christians who pretend that this is an argument against the truth and saving nature of religious affections. On the other hand, there are some who suppose it is good evidence that such affections are from the sanctifying and saving influences of the Holy Ghost. Their argument is that Satan cannot love; this affection is thus directly contrary to the devil, whose very nature is enmity and malice. It is true, that nothing is more excellent, heavenly, and divine, than a spirit of true Christian love towards God and men. It is more excellent than knowledge, prophecy, miracles, or speaking with the tongue of men and angels. It is the chief grace of God’s Spirit, and it is the life, essence, and sum of all true religion. It is love by which we are most conformed to heaven, and made most contrary to hell and the devil. Yet in arguing from this, that there are no counterfeits of it, it may be observed that the more excellent anything is, the more counterfeits there will be of it. Thus, there are many more counterfeits of silver and gold, than there are of iron and copper. There are many false diamonds and rubies; who would counterfeit common stones? The more excellent things are, the more difficult it is to make anything like them, in their essential nature and internal virtues. Even so, there will be more counterfeits, the more that art and subtlety can make an exact imitation of outward appearance. Thus there is the greatest danger of being cheated in buying medicines that are of the most excellent and sovereign qualities, even though it is very difficult to imitate them with anything of similar value and virtue. It is nonetheless possible, yet their counterfeits are good for nothing when we buy them. So it is with Christian virtues and graces. The subtlety of Satan and men’s deceitful hearts want chiefly to counterfeit those that are in highest repute. So there are perhaps no graces that have more counterfeits than love and humility – these are virtues in which the beauty of a true Christian especially appears.
But with respect to love, it is plain from Scripture, that persons may have a kind of religious love, and yet have no saving grace. Christ speaks of many professing Christians that have such love, whose love will not continue, and so they will fail in salvation, Matt. 24:12-13: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” The latter words plainly show that those spoken of before, whose love will not endure to the end but will wax cold, would not be saved.
Persons may seem to have love towards God and Christ – indeed, to have very strong and violent affections of this nature – and yet have no grace. This was evidently the case with many graceless Jews, such as those who shouted so loud after Jesus, following him day and night, without food, drink, or sleep – those who said,“Lord, I will follow you wherever you go,” and cried,“Hosanna to the Son of David.”
The apostle seems to intimate that there were many in his day that had a counterfeit love towards Christ, as in Eph. 6:24: “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.” The last word, in the original, signifies incorruption; which shows, that the apostle was aware that there were many who had a kind of love towards Christ, whose love was not pure and spiritual.
So also, Christian love towards the people of God may be counterfeited. It is evident by the Scripture that there may be strong affections of this kind, without saving grace. This was true of the Galatians in their love towards the Apostle Paul, when they were ready to pluck out their eyes and give them to him; yet the apostle expresses his fear that their affections had come to nothing, and that he had labored over them in vain, Gal. 4:11, 15.
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