“When we were helpless” by Jonathan Edwards

“Man is in a very miserable state and condition. He lost the favor of God. He lost eternal life. He lost all. Man is a poor lost creature. He is a poor miserable captive in the hands of Satan. Man is a poor prisoner condemned to eternal destruction.

Man is sick with a very terrible and mortal disease, like one that is bitten by a serpent that is full of deadly poison. In this state, man could not help himself. He had no strength of his own. He was poor and had no money.

He had no wisdom. No creature could help. Men could not help one another. None of the angels could help.

But there is help provided for poor, lost sinners in Jesus Christ. When we were helpless, the only begotten Son of God undertook our help. When He saw our miserable case, He pitied us. He was sufficient for our help, though none was found sufficient.

He was wise enough, strong enough, worthy and excellent enough. He came into the world and took on Him the nature of man. He laid down His life, shed His own precious blood, and thereby made full satisfaction for our sins.

He paid a sufficient price to pay all the debt we owed to God. He paid a price sufficient to purchase heaven. He is ascended into heaven and is appointed of God to rule over the whole world.

And He is able to bestow that salvation on sinners that He has purchased by His obedience and sufferings. He is able to overcome the devil and all the enemies of our souls.

God is able to open our eyes and give us new hearts. God is able to bring all His people that trust in Him to heaven. God is able to make them perfectly holy in heaven.

God is able to raise up their bodies at the end of the world. And God is able to make both soul and body happy and glorious unto all eternity.”

–Jonathan Edwards, “Preaching the Gospel Brings Poor Sinners to Christ,” in The Salvation of Souls: Nine Previously Unpublished Sermons on the Call of Ministry and the Gospel, Eds. Richard Bailey and Gregory Wills (Wheaton: Crossway, 202), 152. This sermon was preached by Edwards on August 8, 1751, to Mohican and Mohawk Indians living in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.