Desire To Live

In Jonathan Edwards' great discourse, 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God', he writes, "The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours...And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into Hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up."

Now, this is a solemn warning, but where's the good news? If a non-believer were to ask you to show them the gospel in this sermon, where would you find it?

Joh 10:28-29 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. (KJV)

For the believer, there is a whole lot of good news in this passage. Yes the unrepentant sinner is awaiting God's judgment and wrath, but for the believer there is a comfort in knowing that God holds you tight in his hand. In fact, in this passage, it states that not only is the person of Christ holding you, but the Father is holding you too. You are protected by the triune God. Some think that Edwards was saying that God is holding every person over the fires of Hell, hanging by a slender thread. However, this is not what Edwards intends to portray. He is not saying that the believer has anything to worry about regarding the Hell fire. We know this because Edwards makes it very clear in his sermon that this is the state of the person who has not believed in the Lord Jesus:

"Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an unregenerate state"
"Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state"
"But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not yet been born again"
"Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition"
"And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over te pit of Hell


God holds the believer in a tight fist. How much confort is there in knowing that no one can snatch us out of the hands of our God. We are saints in the hands of a merciful God. I love the KJV translation since it uses the word 'pluck' instead of 'snatch.' Now the question we ask is, "Who can pluck us out of His hands?' and we must reply along with Marcus Gray, "Not even the Professional Plucker, who plucks for life, to pluck the unpluckable."