Jonathan Edwards Resolution # 9

A change of subject for a day:

As I was reading through the 72 resolutions of Jonathan Edwards I read #9 which says: Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.

Death is not a popular topic, maybe because we all know it is a subject we will all have to face sometime, but never the less Edwards understood its place when relating to life. Thinking on ones dying is very much antithetical to the modern mans way of thinking. We try more than anything not to only postpone death but if it where even remotely possible to ignore it all together.

Is not today’s attitude, unfortunately taken up by many Christians, the opposite of Paul’s claim in Phil 1:21 where to die is actual “gain”. This is not to dwell on death in a morbid and even narcissistic way but to see death as Paul did. I think that if we were to follow Edward’s resolution and think on our own death and those things that surround it we would have a better view of living. In the United States we are so insulated from the death that much of the rest of the world faces daily that we do not contemplate it as it relates to our living.

To truly see if our living is to “Christ” I think this may best be done in light of thinking on our own mortality as Edwards intended. A healthy look at death, which I think only a true believer can have, gives us a right perspective on life. So I would pray that we would heed Edwards’s resolution and not avoid the thoughts of death but as believers see death as God intends us to see it and see and live life from this new perspective.

Over at The Spugeon Blog they also look at Resolution #9.