The Fruits of True Conversion in Jonathan Edwards’ «religious Affections»

This presentation offers to examine some of the most wonderful truths discussed by Edwards in his treatise on Religious Affections. I will seek to establish the nature of true godliness and to explain what constitutes a true believer and how we can distinguish him from a hypocrite. The subject is a very practical one and requires to be treated from a very practical point of view. The stress was laid on the inclinations of the heart. The whole objective is to prove that a man’s act must be the proper evidence of the state of the heart. In Edwards’s terms this is called Christian practice and is evidenced by its fruits. After an analysis of the fruits of true conversion we conclude with Edwards that Christian practice ‘is a great and distinguishing sign of true and saving grace’. From the general presentation of the fruits of true conversion I have moved to present a fruit that is absolutely essential to true spirituality: evangelical humiliation. Our interest is first to differentiate between legal humiliation, inappropriate for the true converted believer, and evangelical humiliation, absolutely necessary in the life of the truly converted believer. From there we proceed to discover how evangelical humiliation originates and then manifests itself in the life of the believer. Our conclusion is in saying with Edwards that all Christian affections flow out to Christ from a pure and broken heart.