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A Shared Concern with Jonathan Edwards 139
examples Judas and many Jews who heard Jesus (John 2:23–25) and
Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:13, 23).
What is needed is the kind of spiritual sight that Simon Peter was
given: “Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah!
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who
is in heaven’” (Matt. 16:16–17). In other words, there is a glory in the
person of Jesus that is really there but which we are blind to apart from
God’s gift. Jesus described it like this:
I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden
these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to
little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things
have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who
the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and
anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (Luke 10:21–22)
Spiritual perception or understanding “consists in a sense and
taste of the divine, supreme, and holy excellency and beauty of those
things.” 24 In other words, there is a difference between mere intellectual
knowledge and knowledge that is rooted in the God-given spiritual
sight of divine glory that is really there. In spiritual knowledge, we not
only exercise our rational capacity but also “taste” with our spiritual
capacity. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man
who takes refuge in him!” (Ps. 34:8). “Like newborn infants, long for
the pure spiritual milk . . . if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is
good” (1 Pet. 2:2–3). “He that has perceived the sweet taste of honey,
knows much more about it than he who has only looked upon and
felt it.” 25 Thus “spiritual understanding primarily consists in this sense,
or taste of the moral beauty of divine things.” 26
The Biblical Text That Turned the Lights On
I admit that when I first read these things in Jonathan Edwards, the
language was new to me. This way of thinking was new to me. This way
24
Ibid., 297.
25
Ibid., 272.
26
Ibid., 273.