God Glorified in Man's Dependence

Way, way back in January, I posted a quotation from Jonathan Edwards that prompted a question from girlfriday (which she reminded me about a few times, and then probably decided I didn't care about answering/forgot about or what have you). But my memory is long, 'tho my time is short. But finally, here is my summary/outline of the sermon that quotation came from "God Glorified in Man's Dependence" (btw, it was Edwards' first published sermon). Hopefully this helps answer the question. If not...I'll take another stab at it between now and July (probably) :)

1 Corinthians 1:29-31: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Introduction:
This text helps us to see why God "chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise..." (v. 22), "That no flesh should glory in his presence." From this we observe:

1. God's goal in the disposition of things in redemption is that man should glory only in God, and not himself.
2. This goal is met by "that absolute and immediate dependence which men have upon God in that work." This dependence is seen in:
   1. All good that they have is in and through Christ ("made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption")
   2. It is God that has given us Christ ("who of God is made...")
   3. It is God that gives us faith whereby we close with Christ, so that we may receive these benefits (see a).

Edwards summarizes his introduction by stating, "So that in this verse [v. 30] is shown our dependence on each person in the Trinity for all our good. We are dependent on Christ the Son of God, as he is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We are dependent on the Father, who has given us Christ, and made him to be these things to us. We are dependent on the Holy Ghost, for it is of him that we are in Christ Jesus; it is the Spirit of God that gives faith in him, whereby we receive him, and close with him."

Doctrine:
"'God is glorified in the work of redemption in this, that there appears in it so absolute and universal a dependence of the redeemed on him.'--Here I propose to show, 1st, That there is an absolute and universal dependence of the redeemed on God for all their good. And 2dly, That God hereby is exalted and glorified in the work of redemption."

1. The nature and plan of our redemption is such, that the redeemed are directly, immediately, and entirely dependent upon God for all of redemption. He is the cause/origin of all the good they receive; he is the channel through which it is obtained; and he is the good itself given.
1. All the good that the redeemed have is from God: he is the author of it, he is the first (and only proper) cause of it. God provided a Savior and Redeemer for us--Jesus is from God as God's only Son, but he's also from God in that God gave him to us, anointed him, appointed him as mediator. God gave the Savior, and God accepts the Savior. This is from God: that Christ becomes our, we are brought to and untied to him; we receive faith to close with him; we receive all the benefits that Christ purchased. God pardons, justifies, delivers, cleanses us from our filthiness, changes us. God gives the redeemed all their wisdom, holiness, excellence. The Holy Spirit is God and it's through his work and indwelling that these are conferred. Also, these goods come from God in that the Spirit proceeds from the Father (as well as the Son).Yes, God uses means to confer grace on the soul's of men--but God gave the means, and he makes them efficacious: the Scriptures; the sacraments (again, their efficacy is dependent upon him); ministers of the Gospel.
1. The redeemed have all from the grace of God--it's of mere grace that God have us his Son.
1. The greatness of this grace is seen in proportion to:
1. the excellency of what is given--the gift is infinitely precious because of his inherent infinite worth and because he was "infinitely near and dear" to God.
2. the benefit we have given us--it's a doubly infinite benefit: we're delivered from infinite/eternal miser and given eternal joy
3. the humiliation and expense of the method and means by which a way is made for our having the gift--he gave him to dwell amongst us, in our nature, in like infirmities; in a low and afflicted state; moreover as slain.
2. The grace of God in giving this gift is free--there was nothing obliging God to give it. He could've rejected man as he did the rebellious angels, but while we were enemies--before we repented--he gave us this gift. It was from God's love ('tho we were not attractive and there was no hope of it being returned), from mere grace, that Christ's benefits are applied--no merit in us.
3. Men depend more on God's grace now than before the fall. Pre-fall, he depended on God's goodness giving the reward for his obedience (God wasn't under any obligation to promise anything to Adam). But now we depend on his grace for much more: not just to glorify us (as Adam), but to deliver us from Hell and his wrath. Adam depended on God to reward his righteousness from his goodness and grace. We depend on God to give us that righteousness, to pardon our sin, and release us from the guilt of it--and this only comes from his free and sovereign grace. Not only are we more dependent upon God's grace, but we're dependent on more of it--it takes a greater degree of grace for the unholy to be made holy, than it took for Adam to be created holy.
4. Our dependence is more obvious, too--because our insufficiency and helplessness is more apparent now than it was before the fall. "It is more apparently free and without merit in us, because we are actually without any kind of excellency to merit, if there could be any such thing." "We are not only without any true excellency, but are full of, and wholly defiled with, that which is infinitely odious. All our good is more apparently from God, because we are first naked and wholly without any good, and afterwards enriched with all good."
2. The redeemed have all from the power of God--the great power of God is seen in bringing sinners from their low state, from depths of sin to the exalted state of holiness (Eph 1:19).
1. We are dependent on the power of God in every step of redemption: to convert us, to give us faith in Christ; to give us a new nature; to preserve us in a state of grace (1 Peter 1:5). Man is dependent upon God for every exercise of grace, for increasing in holiness, doing good works, perfecting grace, for the raising of the body to life.
2. Man was depended on God's power before the fall, too, but moreso now. God's power is needed to do more for us, and more of it is needed. It took power to make man holy, and now moreso, because there is opposition and difficulty in the way. Additionally, it is a more glorious exercise of power to uphold a soul in a state of grace and holiness, to preserve it until it is brought to glory, while there is so much sin resisting that work, and Satan is opposing it too.
2. The redeemed are also depended on God for all good, because it all comes through him. He's the author and source of the good (see 1), but he's also the medium, the conduit of all the good. The wisdom, happiness, eternal life, grace, holiness, etc. comes from God via a Mediator. And the Mediator isGod--whom we have an absolute dependence upon.
1. Adam didn't depend on him this way—he was to have eternal life through his own righteousness--so he partly depended upon himself (though his righteousness was from God, but it was his), it wasn't an immediate dependence upon God. But now the righteousness we depend on isn't ours--it's Christ's.
3. The redeemed have all their good in God. God is all our good.
1. Their objective good in God (the external thing that we possess and enjoy). By our redemption we come into the possession of God himself—he's the highest good, the sum of all the goods Christ purchased. He's the inheritance of the saints; our wealth, treasure, life, food, dwelling place. We have none in heaven but God.
1. "The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another: but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in anything else whatsoever that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what shall be seen of God in them."
2. Their inherent good in God (the excellency/pleasure in the soul itself). Inherent good is either excellency of pleasure.
1. The redeemed have these as they are caused by him, and in him. God puts his own beauty, his own holiness, his moral image in them (2 Pet. 1:4, Heb 12:10). The saints are beautiful and blessed by a communication of God's holiness and joy as the moon is brightened by the sun's light.
2. Saints have both their spiritual excellence and blessedness are a gift the of Spirit, and are theirs as he lives in them. He becomes a fountain of holiness and joy.
3. Here's the foulness of good that the redeemed receive in Christ:they partake of the Spirit, and in that they have communion with the fullness of Christ. The Spirit is the sum of the blessings Christ died to purchase, he's the subject of the Gospel promises (Gal 3:13,14; Lk. 24:49), he's what was promised to Christ, so that when we had finished the work of redemption, he could bestow it on all that the had redeemed (Acts 2:13).
2. God is glorified in the work of redemption by there being so great and universal of the dependence of the redeemed on Him.
1. Man has a great need and opportunity to notice and acknowledge God's perfections and all-sufficiency, and the more we're dependent upon them, the more notice we take of them, the more we focus on them. The things we're most concerned with, are the things we pay most attention to--particularly when it comes to those things we're dependent upon--those "especially tend to command and oblige" our attention. Because we're so dependent on God (in the persons of the Trinity) and his perfections in so many respects, he and our glory are in our view.
1. Similarly, we have greater occasion to take notice of God's all-sufficiency, when all our sufficiency is thus every way of him. "So much as the dependence of the creature is on God, so much the greater does the creature's emptiness in himself appear; and so much the greater the creature's emptiness, so much the greater must the fullness of the Being be who supplies him."
2. Having all from God, shows the fullness of his power and grace; our having all through him, shows the fullness of his merit and worthiness; and having all in him, shows the fullness of his beauty, love and happiness.
2. God's glory is shown by comparing it with the creature's--as we're totally and completely dependent on God, we see that we're nothing and God is all. It's as we see this (and not try to make ourselves equal--or less empty--in our eyes) that we can give God the glory due his name.
3. Because our dependence upon God is so total and absolute, he is to be the object of our undivided "respect" (i.e., worship, reverence). "If we had our dependence party on God, and partly on something else, man's respect would be divided to those different things on which he had dependence. Thus it would be if we depended on God only for a part of our good, and on ourselves, or some other being, for another part: or if we had our good only from God, and through another that was not God, and in something else distinct from both, our hearts would be divided between the good itself, and him from whom, and him through whom, we received it." But we have no opportunity for this now.

Use:

1. We see the "marvellous wisdom of God" in the plan of redemption: he's taken man's fallenness, miserly, fallen state to an occasion of the greater advancement of his own glory, in the display of the utter dependence of man upon God. "And each person of the Trinity is equally glorified in this work: there is an absolute dependence of the creature on every one for all: all is of the Father, all through the Son, and all in the Holy Ghost. Thus God appears in the work of redemption as all in all."
2. Those doctrines and schemes that are in any respect opposite to such an absolute and universal dependence on God, take from his glory and thwart the plan of our redemption. The schemes seek to put the creature in place of God in any of the respects described above, to exalt man into the place of Father, Son, or Spirit in redemption.
1. Yes, they may talk of a dependence on God, but they deny a dependence that is absolute and universal. Dependent for some things, but not all. For example: they grant dependence on the Father for giving the Son, and on the Son for his work, but not entirely on the Spirit for conversion, and coming to Christ. Or they grant dependence on God for the means of grace, but not entirely for the benefit and success of those means.
2. "Now whatever scheme is inconsistent with our entire dependence on God for all, and of having all of him, through him, and in him, it is repugnant to the design and tenor of the gospel, and rob it of that which God accounts its lustre and glory."
3. This shows us one reason that faith is how we partake in redemption: there is included in the nature of faith, an acknowledgment of our utter dependent on God in it. The soul that believes, depends entirely on God for all salvation. "Faith abases men, and exalts God; it gives all the glory of redemption to him alone."
4. We're thus exhorted to exalt God alone, to give him all the glory of redemption. We are to work to understands and increase in the sensibleness of our great dependence on God. This doctrine leads us to exalt God alone--by trust, by reliance and by praise. "Let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord."