Tuesdays with Edwards!
After graduating from what would become Yale University in 1722, Edwards served for a period of 8 months at a Presbyterian Church in New York. In one of the first sermons Edwards gave there was “The Value of Salvation” based on Matthew 16:26 (KJV), For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
In the following selection, Edwards argues that God’s sending of Jesus Christ to die so that souls could be saved should make us conclude that the individual human soul is indeed worth more than the whole world.
You can read this sermon in its entirety at the Jonathan Edwards Center website at www.edwards.yale.edu. This selection is from Sermons and Discourses, 1720-1723, ed. Wilson H. Kimnach, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 10 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992) pages 327-328.
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Inasmuch as he has sent his own son into the world to die for the sake of the salvation of the soul of man, how highly he’s prized the salvation of the soul! That he should send his own and only son from the highest heavens, from his own bosom, down to earth to die for the sake thereof; that God, who had no need of us, whom the salvation of our souls will not profit in anywise, should as it were give up one that was the very same in substance with himself, one who was infinitely nearer and dearer to him than the nearest and dearest relations amongst men; that he should deliver up such an one to be cruelly killed and tormented for the salvation of the soul: surely, the salvation of the soul must be very precious, or else God would never value it so much as to give his son for it. What a price is here set upon salvation of the soul—the blood of the Son of God! Would any man give up his only son that was very dear to him, into the hands of wicked and cruel men to be dreadfully tormented, for anything but what was very precious? The same, with infinitely more reason, may we conclude that God would never give up his son to be cruelly tormented and killed for anything but what was very precious and valuable, but this hath God done for the sake of the salvation of the soul. Certainly, then, the salvation of the soul must be more worth than all the world. Can any man be so mad as to think that God would [be] giving his son to die that men might have gold and silver, or that they might live in worldly pleasure and honor? Surely, no. Wherefore, God has set a higher price on the soul than on the whole world.
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 