In Edwards’s sermon, Glorious Grace, he treats “the mercy of God” and “the wonders of divine grace” as near synonyms.

There’s plenty of helpful analysis in the sermon, but what struck me was Edwards’s description of our plight or lowly position:

“…it was determined, by the strangely free and boundless grace of God, that this his own Son, should die that the offending worms might be freed…” (emphasis added).

I grew up singing, At The Cross, with the line: “…for such a worm as I.” Somewhere along the line it shifted to, “for sinners such as I.”

Still bad, mind you, but “worm” sounds worse.

I am currently reading Carl Trueman’s, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. He borrows a term from Canadian philosopher, Charles Taylor: “expressive individualism…[where] each of us finds our meaning by giving expression to our own feelings and desires.” (p. 46)

That is not the soil in which worms are found!

Reading Edwards, however, I’m reminded of how bad off I was without Christ. That alone magnifies the intensity of my praise for God’s grace and mercy on my life.

As Edward closes out his sermon, five times he repeats, “‘Tis you that…” or “’tis for you that…” No wonder he concludes with:

“When you praise him in prayer, let it not be with coldness and indifferency [you gotta love that word!]…when you praise him in singing, don’t barely make a noise, without any stirring of affection in the heart, without any internal melody. Surely, you have reason to shout, cry, ‘Grace, grace…!”

Like Edwards, our job is to preach the grace and mercy of God. His job is to create humans who know they’re worms in desperate need for His grace and who receive that grace so He receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal