Man of God and Preacher of the Gospel
It was the New England tour of the evangelist George Whitefield. He had proclaimed the gospel on the Boston Common to 23,000 people, the largest crowd that had ever gathered in America. It was now October of 1740, and Whitefield was riding horseback to Northampton, Massachusetts, having been invited to preach by the Reverend Jonathan Edwards. Two sermons on Friday, one on Saturday, and two more on Sunday followed, the 17th through the 19th.
Sarah Edwards reflected on what happened. “It is wonderful to see what a spell he casts over an audience by proclaiming the simplest truths of the Bible. I have seen upward of a thousand people hang on his words with breathless silence.” “Many, very many persons in Northampton date the beginning of new thoughts, new desires, new purposes, and a new life, from the day they heard him preach of Christ.” Jonathan Edwards was deeply moved. Whitefield wrote, “Good Mr. Edwards wept during the whole time.”
How shall we explain the remarkable power of Whitefield’s ministry? His holy life was the fundamental thing. Nathan Cole, a Connecticut farmer, testified, “When I saw Mr Whitefield come upon the Scaffold he Lookt almost angelical.” “He looked as if he was Cloathed with authority from the Great God; and a sweet solemn solemnity sat upon his brow.” John Wesley spoke in a similar way, “How few have we known of so kind a temper, of such large and flowing affections! Was it not principally by this, that the hearts of others were so strangely drawn and knit to him?”
His incredible impact was also due to the simple fact that Whitefield preached the truth about salvation, thus bringing the outpouring of the divine Spirit. What exactly did he teach? Salvation, he maintained, has two aspects, the legal (justification) and the transformative (regeneration and sanctification).
Justification by Faith Alone
Whitefield warned that we must not base our “hopes of heaven” upon baptism or church membership, calling it “a sorry rotten foundation” upon which to base one’s hope of salvation (“Marks of a True Conversion”). In his last sermon, Whitefield cried out, “Works! Works! a man gets to heaven by works! I would as soon think of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand” (Stout, The Divine Dramatist).
We must place our complete trust in the Lord. Whitefield declared, “When we are justified by faith in Christ, then, but not till then, we have peace with God” (“Walking with God”). We must receive the “blotting out of all our transgressions” and the righteousness of another—”By the obedience of one, Jesus Christ (therein including his passive as well as active obedience), many were made righteous” (“Of Justification by Christ”).
Salvation As Inward Renewal
Our desperate need to be born again is based upon the inborn condition of our heart. Whitefield insisted that the “prevailing power” of “enmity” is found within us: “Enmity rules and prevails in every man that is naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam.” “All that open sin and wickedness, which like a deluge has overflowed the world, are only so many streams running from this dreadful contagious foundation; I mean enmity of man’s desperately wicked and deceitful heart” (“Walking with God”).
The wonder of the gospel is that divine power is unleashed so that we are changed within. The change that passes upon our souls, contended Whitefield, is “great,” “notable, and amazing.” There is an “alteration” worked within us. “Our temper, habit, and conduct” are “changed and altered.” “Whatever were our former high-exalted imaginations, yet we shall now be sensible of our weakness; we shall no more say, ‘We are rich and increased with goods and lack nothing’; we shall be inwardly poor; we shall feel ‘that we are poor, miserable, blind, and naked.’” “We shall be harmless,” “having an honest heart.” “If we are really converted, we shall be loose to the world” (“Marks of a True Conversion”).
The Wonder of Fellowship with God
The legal and transformative blessings of salvation allow us to go through this life in the enjoyment of fellowship with the Father and the Son. Whitefield put it this way: “Walking with God not only implies that the prevailing power of the enmity of a man’s heart be taken away, but also that a person is actually reconciled to God the Father, in and through the all-sufficient righteousness and atonement of his dear Son” (“Walking with God”).
How do we experience the presence of God in our lives? To use the language of Calvin, how is it that “God gives himself to us”? And how do we “possess him, and have full enjoyment of him” (Institutes of the Christian Religion III.3.24)?
Whitefield drew attention to the reading of the Bible and prayer. “Believers,” he said, “keep up and maintain their walk with God by reading of his holy Word.” The day will come when “we shake off these bodies and see Jesus face to face. Till then we must see and converse with him through the glass of his Word.” What does prayer do? “Prayer! It brings and keeps God and man together. It raises man up to God, and brings God down to man” (“Walking with God”).
What Real Happiness Is
The believer answers with a yes to Whitefield’s questions. “Has not one day in the Lord’s courts been better than a thousand?” “Has not his Word been sweeter to you than the honey or the honeycomb?” “Has not the Holy Ghost frequently shed the divine love abroad in your hearts abundantly and filled you with joy unspeakable, even joy that is full of glory?”
This is not to say that the Christian life is free from suffering. Whitefield acknowledged that there are times when we are “afflicted, tempted, destitute, and tormented.” But he reminded us to never forget that “there is a heaven at the end of this walk” with God. “After death, the spirits of those who have walked with God shall return to God that gave them; and at the morning of the resurrection, soul and body shall be forever with the Lord.”
Where do you stand in your relationship with the Lord?
Whitefield addressed those who “are yet strangers to Christ.” May we take his words to heart: “If you love honor, pleasure, and a crown of glory, come, seek it where alone it can be found. Come, put on the Lord Jesus. Come, haste away and walk with God, and make no longer provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof” (“Walking with God”).
Dr. Mark J. Larson
Warrenville, SC
