Pardon for the Greatest Sinners – Sermon by Jonathan Edwards, Part 1 of 2

Jonathan Edwards was an acknowledged American philosophical theologian, born in 1703, into the family of notable Congregational ministers, in Connecticut. Jonathan Edwards wrote sermons and theological treatises that emphasized on the absolute sovereignty, as well as the beauty and holiness of God. The theologian contemplated on the divine virtues as an imitation of the loveliness and benevolence of the Creator. We will now reflect on an excerpt from a sermon by Jonathan Edwards entitled, “Pardon for the Greatest Sinners,” that invokes awakening of the soul to the reality of God’s sovereignty and divine law, as well as infinite mercy, which is a protective wing from all our iniquities. “And God allows such a plea as this: for He is moved to mercy towards us by nothing in us but the miserableness of our case. He does not pity sinners because they are worthy, but because they need His pity.” “They must come to God for mercy in and through Jesus Christ alone. All their hope of mercy must be from the consideration of what He is, what He hath done, and what He hath suffered; and that there is no other name given under Heaven, among men, whereby we can be saved, but that of Christ; that He is the Son of God, and the Savior of the world; that His blood cleanses from all sin, and that He is so worthy, that all sinners who are in Him may well be pardoned and accepted.” “But they that come in a right manner have all their hope through Christ, or from the consideration of His redemption, and the sufficiency of it. — If a person thus comes to God for mercy, the greatness of their sins will be no impediment to pardon. Let their sins be ever so many, and great, and aggravated, it will not make God in the least degree more backward to pardon them.” “The mercy of God is as sufficient for the pardon of the greatest sins, as for the least; and that because His mercy is infinite. That which is infinite, is as much above what is great, as it is above what is small. Thus, God being infinitely great, He is as much above kings as He is above beggars; He is as much above the highest angel, as He is above the meanest worm. One finite measure does not come any nearer to the extent of what is infinite than another. — So, the mercy of God being infinite, it must be as sufficient for the pardon of all sin, as of one. If one of the least sins be not beyond the mercy of God, so neither are the greatest, or ten thousand of them.”