Jonathan Edwards Selected Shor
instantaneous or gradual?
4. Whether the divine assistance or influence, by which men may obtain true and saving virtue, be sovereign and arbitrary, or whether God, in giving this assistance and its effects, limits himself to certain exact and stated rules, revealed in his Word and established by his promises? 13. Eph. 1:19-20, "What is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward, according to the working of his mighty power," or the effectual working, as the word signifies — These words, according to the effectual working of his power, we shall find applied to conversion, to growth in grace, and to raising us up at last. You have them applied to conversion, Eph. 3:7, "Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God, given to me, by the effectual working of his power." So likewise to grow in grace, Eph. 4:16, "The whole body increaseth with the increase of God, by the effectual working in the measure of every part." — And to the resurrection to glory at the last day, Phil. 3:21, "He will change our vile bodies, according to the effectual working of his might power, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself."
And that the power of God in conversion, or in giving faith and the spiritual blessings that attend it, is here meant, may be argued from the apostle's change of phrase, that whereas in the foregoing verse, he spoke of the riches of the glory of Christ's inheritance in the saints, he does not go on to say, "and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards them," (i.e. the saints), which surely would have been most natural, if he still had respect only to the power of God in bestowing the inheritance of future glory. But, instead of that, we see he changes the phrase, "and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe;" plainly intimating some kind of change of the subject, or a respect to the subject of salvation with regard to something diverse. Whereas before he spoke of saints in their future state only, now he speaks of something that the saints, we that dwell in this world that believe, are the subjects of. And as the apostle includes himself, so it is the more likely he should have the mighty power of God in conversion in his thought: his conversion having been so visible and remarkable an instance of God's marvelous power. Again, the apostle, in praying that they "knowing the exceeding greatness of God's power," etc. prays for such a knowledge and conviction of the power of God to bring them to life and glory, which was a most special remedy against such doubts as the church in the then present state was most exposed to, viz. that their being preserved to glory and salvation through all their trials, persecutions, and the great opposition that was made by the enemies of Christ and their souls. Therefore, after mentioning the glory of their inheritance, he, for their comfort and establishment, mentions the power of God to bring them to the possession of this inheritance, as the apostle Peter does, 1 Pet. 1:4-5, "To an inheritance incorruptible — who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." He speaks to their hearts, for here was their difficulty and temptation to doubting. But if the keeping them in faith showed such great power, much more did the first bringing them from heathenism and the power of sin, darkness, and spiritual death and ruin, into a state of faith and salvation quickening them when dead in trespasses and sins: as it is a greater instance of divine power to raise the dead, than to maintain life that is exposed to danger, and it is a greater work to reconcile us being enemies, than to keep us friends being reconciled. It was natural for the apostle to put them in mind of the power of God manifested in their conversion as he would strengthen their faith in his power to raise them at the last day, and glorify them to eternity. Dr. Goodwin says, he finds most of the Greek fathers ran this way in interpreting the place. He mentions Theophylact and Chrysostom, and cites these words of Chrysostom: "The apostle's scope is to demonstrate by what already was manifested in them, viz. The power of God in working faith, and to raise up their hearts to believe what was not manifested, viz. the raising of them from death to life. It being (saith he) a far more wonderful work to persuade a soul to believe in Christ, than to raise up a dead man, a far more admirable work of the two." Besides, what the apostle says in the continuation of his discourse, explains his meaning, and puts the matter of his intending to include the power of God manifested in their conversion, out of all doubt, as in the very next sentence, "and you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;" and every word that follows to the end of the second chapter, confirms the same thing. I shall mention a few of them: Eph 2:2, "Wherein in time past ye walked — according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh effectually in the children of disobedience." This shows the exceeding greatness of power in their being delivered from such a state, wherein they were held by the great power of so strong an enemy. Eph 2:5-6, "Even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together in Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." These things tend to show how the power of God in their conversion, and the happy, honorable, and glorious change of their state by it, was according to the power that wrought in Christ when he was quickened, raised up, and made to sit in heavenly places, as Eph. 1:19-21. Now to back this with a parallel place, as here in this place the apostle speaks of the greatness of God's power in working faith, and parallels it with the power that raised up Christ from the dead, so we find he says the very same thing in Col. 2:12-13, "Ye are buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." In that text in Ephesians the apostle speaks of faith, "the power that works in us that believe." So in this text in Colossians, "ye are risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." Again, secondly, in Ephesians, together with what there follows in chap. 2, he compares believing to a rising from the dead. So here in Colossians, "ye are risen with him through faith." Thirdly, as in Ephesians the apostle speaks of the work of God in giving faith, as parallel with his work in raising Christ, so he does here in Colossians, "Ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." Fourthly, as we in Ephesians are said to believe, according to the efficacious working of God, the word ενεργειας is also used here in Colossians. It is called faith of the operation, or effectual working of God. And as there God is said to be the author, the same that raised up Christ, and to work faith in them, so here it is the faith of the operation of God who raised Christ from the dead, so that, every way, one place is parallel with the other. Some pretend that in that expression, through the faith of the operation of God, there is no respect to God's operation as the efficient cause of faith, but only to the operation of God that raised Christ as the object of faith, which believes that power and operation as it was manifested in raising Christ, and which is believed to be sufficient to raise us up also. But that the apostle means the operation of God in giving faith, appears by Col. 2:11, which introduces these words, where the apostle says, "In whom ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without