Fully Satisfied In Christ

 Fully Satisfied In Christ

Dedicated to all those who know and love Jesus

Jonathan Edwards is hard to beat.  If a Christian was to claim him as his or her favorite theologian of all time--no informed person could criticize such esteem.

Here are some of Edwards' words from his sermon, entitled, "Safety, Fulness, and Sweet Refreshment To Be Found in Christ."  This sermon is expounding Isaiah 32:2. . . .

"But Jesus Christ has true excellency, that when [sinners] come to see it they look no further, but the mind rests there. It sees a transcendent glory and an ineffable sweetness in Him; it sees that till now it has been pursuing shadows, but that now it has found the substance; that before it had been seeking happiness in the stream, but that now it has found the ocean. The excellency of Christ is an object adequate to the natural cravings of the soul, and is sufficient to fill the capacity. It is an infinite excellency, such a one as the mind desires, in which it can find no bounds; and the more the mind is used to it, the more excellent it appears. Every new discovery makes this beauty appear more ravishing, and the minds sees no end; here is room enough for the mind to go deeper and deeper, and never come to the bottom. . . . "

In the sentence before this great quote, Edwards intimated how unregenerate persons seek all their happiness in anything other than Jesus, and find themselves as frustrated as they were before their search.

The point of today's treatise, is that those who are in Christ, via the miraculous new birth wrought by the Holy Spirit, are both fully satisfied in Christ; and, in their sane (or Spirit-led) lives, they seek nothing good anywhere else.

This doctrine neither means nor implies that the children of God do not enjoy everything their Father has created and given them--but it does insist that these things are appropriately relished in Jesus alone.

But the main thing we want to consider is this: "Why is Jesus Christ completely sufficient for all of our happiness; and how do we maintain our enjoyment of Him?"

The answer is to be found in Who Jesus Christ is.  He is, in Himself, the full embodiment, in human flesh, of the Godhead.  He is, Himself, the very essence of all life; and He is the "bread" and "wine" of life.

The reason the churched saints remain constantly enamored of Him, is because there is no limit to His greatness, His beauty, His loveliness, and His love.  The more we delve in to Him, the more we want Him.

Everything else in the created world has a limit to it; but there are no bounds on Christ.

One can even say, as I believe Jonathan Edwards does aver elsewhere, that the redeemed saints of God are so certain of their belief system (in Christ), that virtually nothing can shake it, expel it, or change their minds.  This is because of the work of the Holy Spirit, whereby He "cements" the Person of Jesus to our souls.

I remember, as a 19 year-old newly-converted college student, walking around the campus, wondering to myself, "What will I believe in another forty or fifty years? Will I still feel and think this way?"  This year (of 2025), will mark for me fifty years of being in Christ; and I can readily-affirm, with all the other sinner/saints who have been sovereignly brought to this Redeemer, that Jesus is just as fresh to me now, as He was in 1975--(even more so, really).

I want to encourage anybody reading these words, to give yourself wholly to Christ.  It may seem a bit "scary" at first; but I am one (of many) who will testify, that you will not regret it.

Jesus Christ will not let you down.  Anyone (and everyone) who seeks God's best, will indeed be given that best, (cf. Matt. 7:11); (and that "best" is the Person of the blessed Messiah).

Rev. Mark J. Henninger

Treatise #11

21 March 2025

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