By virtue of the believer's union with Christ, he doth really possess
all things. That we know plainly from Scripture. But it may be asked,
how doth he possess all things? What is he the better for it? How is a
true Christian so much richer than other men?
To answer this, I'll tell you what I mean by "possessing all things." I
mean that God three in one, all that he is, and all that he has, and all
that he does, all that he has made or done--the whole universe, bodies
and spirits, earth and heaven, angels, men and devils, sun, moon and
stars, land and sea, fish and fowls, all the silver and gold, kings and
potentates as well as mean men--are as much the Christian's as the money
in his pocket, the clothes he wears, the house he dwells in, or the
victuals he eats; yea more properly his, more advantageously his, than
if he could command all those things mentioned to be just in all
respects as he pleased at any time, by virtue of the union with Christ;
because Christ, who certainly doth thus possess all things, is entirely
his: so that he possesses it all, more than a wife the share of the best
and dearest husband, more than the hand possesses what the head doth;
it is all his. . . .
Every atom in the universe is managed by Christ so as to be most to the
advantage of the Christian, every particle of air or every ray of the
sun; so that he in the other world, when he comes to see it, shall sit
and enjoy all this vast inheritance with surprising, amazing joy.
Jonathan Edwards
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