Love the deliverance, hate the deliverer?

I came across this gem in Jonathan Edwards' sermon "The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners" awhile back:

"There is a great deal of difference between a willingness not to be damned, and a being willing to receive Christ for your Saviour. You have the former; there is no doubt of that: nobody supposes that you love misery so as to choose an eternity of it; and so doubtless you are willing to be saved from eternal misery. But that is a very different thing from being willing to come to Christ: persons very commonly mistake the one for the other, but they are two quite different things. You may love the deliverance, but hate the deliverer. You tell of a willingness; but consider what is the object of that willingness. It does not respect Christ; the way of salvation by him is not the object of it; but it is wholly terminated on your escape from misery. The inclination of your will goes no further than self, it never reaches Christ. You are willing not to be miserable; that is, you love yourself, and there your will and choice terminate. And it is but a vain pretence and delusion to say or think, that you are willing to accept Christ."

His point: We must love Christ, worship Christ, rely on Christ, and submit to Christ. We can talk of a desire to be saved all we want, but unless we are willing to truly repent - stopping living as king and submit to king Jesus, then we don't really want to be saved. To be saved means to treasure Jesus above all else. Challenging huh?

Every page of Edwards' two volumes has zingers just like this one.