The Now of Eschatological Joy (Take 2)

The Now of Eschatological Joy (Take 2):
First we noticed how Luther connects the present experience of joy in the Christian life with eternal joy in heaven, and that by the gracious acting of the Holy Spirit. He does this at a fundamental level in his theological thinking. The same continuity emerges all over the writings of Jonathan Edwards, most profoundly introduced in his doctrine of the Trinity, but for our purposes here it is a point made particularly well in Religious Affections (Yale ed.), 2:235–236]. Note in this excerpt how closely Edwards ties joy to the indwelling Holy Spirit, and how our joy-experience now in the Christian life is a foretaste of the coming banquet. Or to say it another way, note how the indwelling Spirit becomes the link of continuity between our joy now and our joy eternal:

The inheritance that Christ has purchased for the elect, is the Spirit of God; not in any extraordinary gifts, but in his vital indwelling in the heart, exerting and communicating himself there, in his own proper, holy or divine nature: and this is the sum total of the inheritance that Christ purchased for the elect.
For so are things constituted in the affair of our redemption, that the Father provides the Savior, or purchaser, and the purchase is made of him; and the Son is the purchaser and the price; and the Holy Spirit is the great blessing or inheritance purchased, as is intimated, Galatians 3:13–14, and hence the Spirit is often spoken of as the sum of the blessings promised in the gospel (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4 and ch. 2:38–39, Galatians 3:14, Ephesians 1:13). This inheritance was the grand legacy which Christ left his disciples and church, in his last will and testament (John, chs. 14, and 15, and 16). This is the sum of the blessings of eternal life, which shall be given in heaven. (Compare John 7:37–39 and John 4:14 with Revelation 21:6 and Revelation 22:1, 17).
‘Tis through the vital communications and indwelling of the Spirit, that the saints have all their light, life, holiness, beauty and joy in heaven: and ’tis through the vital communications and indwelling of the same Spirit, that the saints have all light, life, holiness, beauty and joy on earth; but only communicated in less measure.
And this vital indwelling of the Spirit in the saints, in this less measure and small beginning, is the “earnest of the Spirit” [II Corinthians 1:22], the “earnest of the future inheritance” [Ephesians 1:14], and “the firstfruits of the Spirit,” as the Apostle calls it, Romans 8:23, where, by the firstfruits of the Spirit, the Apostle undoubtedly means the same vital gracious principle, that he speaks of in all the preceding part of the chapter, which he calls Spirit, and sets in opposition to flesh or corruption.

DIGITAL JUICE