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CHAPTER 9
AN ULTIMATE INTIMATION,
A POSSESSION OF PRIZE
FROM THE LORD BY HIS WORD
Before proceeding with this delightful theme of
predestination, foreknowledge, duty, responsibility, truth, peace, justice,
equity and love in their cohesion and beauty as exposed in the Bible and
attested in life, it is good to rehearse for a brief moment, an emphasis with
provision of references, relating to Gratitude for His Glorious
Grace, Appendix as found in
the list of contents for Volume 6 of
ON PREDESTINATION and
FOREKNOWLEDGE,
LIBERTY and NECESSITY,
RESPONSIBILITY, DUTY and CREATIVITY
namely, The Spiritual
Sagacity of Predestination in Love.
This provides some useful references in this field,
to which we now will be addding.
APPENDIX ON GRACE, LIBERTY, LOVE,
RIGHTEOUSNESS, TRUTH, MEANING
AND THEIR UNIQUE CONSISTENCY
IN THE BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
LOVE
FOREMOST
liberty
not lost
reality
regained
Seeing foreknowledge and
predestination, love and repudiation, history and liberty, in the scriptural
light, that all may be seen in harmonious uniqueness: nothing less is found in the word
of God, than what meets all the scope of man's thought in these arenas, leaving
him naked to the word, but invited to be covered.
While such things have been
touched before, providing a background for this -
cf.
Marvels of Predestination and the Ways of Will
Ch. 6, 'theology'
and Bible;
Ch. 6,
*2,
will
and
meritless
operation;
Ch. 2
(selections);
The Pride of Life, the Prince of Life and the Destiny of Man Ch.
3,
*1
Tender Times for Timely Truth Ch. 11, esp. pp.172ff.;
Great Execrations, Great Enervations, Greater Grace
Ch. 9;
His
Wounds Opened Eternity
Ch.
4
(also
contrasted
with
Islamic
deficiencies);
Sparkling Life ...
Ch.
7,
Earth Spasm...
Ch.
6;
Scaling the Heights ...
Ch.
5
-
yet this is
considered in the light of the findings of Ch. 9, above, so that if any lack,
they may feed on the word of God.
In
this
domain
of
amplitude
of
the
love
of
God,
including
John
3:167ff.,
and
resultants
of
crimping:
see
for
ready
reference
to
title:
 |
Repent
or
Perish
Ch.
1,
*2,
which
being
amplified
recently,
is
here
added
as
an
Excursion,
and
to
this
add
|
|
|
Outrageous
Outages
...
and
the
Courage
of
Christ
Ch.
9
with
|
|
|
The
Celestial
Harmony
...
Ch.
2,whether
correlative
error
in
Calvin
on
Romans,
is
seen,
and
for
a
jolt
to
too
limited
jubilation,
|
|
|
The
Christian
Pilgrimage
Ch.
3,
Appendix,
with
The
Glow
Ch.
4
...and
Great
Execrations
..
Ch.
7
|
It
must
in
talking
of
grace
and
love,
be
clearly
realised
that
the
liberation
of
what
the
Bible
says
about
these
topics
from
the
grievous
mutilations
of
and
impositions
on
its
assertions
in
terms
of a
kind
of
sovereignty
alleged
to
be
in
God
which
somehow
outwits
the
scope
of
the
love
repeatedly
asserted
by
HIm,
is
an
important
objective.
This
error
was
not
only
committed
by
Calvin,
despite
the
excellent
features
of
much
of
his
work.
but
no
less
by
the
opposite
error.
That
comes
from
the
categorical
contradiction
of
the
Bible,
by
making
the
human
will
as
it
is,
operative
in
direct
choice
of
God
(John
1:12
contra),
as
if
predestination
were
beyond
the
pale,
whereas
this
alone
allows
the
full
glory
of
the
word
and
work
of
God
to
be
affirmed.
This
review
done,
we
proceed
to
our
present
application.
Removing
from
unbiblical
extremes,
we
are
then
free
to
show
the
power
of
the
precision
of
the
biblical
account,
how
when
taken
as
it
is,
and
not
distorted,
it
provides
a
solution
of
all
these
areas
of
human
life
in
terms
of
divine
proclamations,
exhibits
and
principles,
which
nothing
else
comes
near.
THE
ESSENCE
OF
POSSESSING
YOUR
POSSESSIONS
It
ALSO
provides
to
Christian
Apologetics
the
necessarily
unique
opportunity
to
present
the
logically
cohesive,
coherent
and
alone
valid
reality
concerning
the
human
will,
the
love
of
God,
the
reality
of
human
responsibility,
the
integrity
of
the
image
of
God
in
man
in
its
fulfilment,
the
meaning
of
duty
and
the
nature
of
love
without
truncation
or
trespass.
This
being
found
in
the
Bible,
not
only
in
text,
but
in
the
very
exhibition
of
the
principles
involved,
it
would
be
folly
to
foul
it
with
imported
philosophies,
defiling
what
God
says.
This
is a
supreme
case
of
the
biblical
word:
Possess
Your
Possessions.
Nothing
else
so
resolves
the
entire
mystery
of
man,
as
the
biblical
teaching,
neither
expansionist
in
what
is
not
attested
in
fact,
nor
reductionist,
in
trying
to
omit
this
or
that
component
of
the
situation
of
man,
and
the
scope
of
his
spirit.
IF
the
human
will
were
sovereign,
it
would
be
its
own
defeat,
since
its
limitations
of
knowledge
and
understanding,
defilements
and
episodic
involvements
would
leave
this
a
marred
master,
and
freedom
a
mere
illusion.
IF,
on
the
other
hand,
the
divine
will
were
to
be exclusivistically
determined,
without
reference
to
the
essential
desire
of
the
human
will,
as
indeed ONLY
God
in
infinite
wisdom
CAN
know
it
(cf.
Jeremiah
17),
then
it
becomes
an
exercise
in
divine
preference,
on
whatever
criterion,
one
that
annuls
human
liberty
in
its
meaning,
as
created,
and
substitutes
another
person
for
the
former
one,
not
thus
giving
freedom
to
the
original,
or
to
its
actual
preference,
but
establishing
from
beyond, a
mere
correlative
being,
created
by
God.
The
regenerate
thus
simply
replaces
the
degenerate.
There
is
no
responsibility,
meaning
to
love
or
relationship
to
choice.
In
God's
choice
the
X-factor*1
of
divine
preference,
however
good
in
itself,
would
then
mean
that
some
being
what
they
are,
in
the
turmoil
of
many
events,
or
even
in
the
character
of
their
construction
with
this
or
that
ingredient,
become
preferable
to
Him.
If
human
will
is
not
even
relevant,
then
the
divine
will
merely
expresses
itself,
and
what
more
desirable
to
God
than
godliness!
Without
human
will
in
the
equation,
freedom
TO
WILL,
becoming
irrelevant,
man
becomes
a
subject
to
the
confines
of
what
he
is,
as
he
wills,
and
so
lacking
in
liberty
to
chose
to
will
as
he
will,
is
left
a
niggardly
relic
of
the
image
of
God,
supplanted
by
what
follows,
like
something
painted
over.
We
would then come to a kind of divine determinism,
where the whole meaning of man in the image of God,
and so equipped with such power to choose that his very choice becomes
assessable,
so that for this he is responsible, and hence arraignable, with results
according,
becomes
what ?
Instead of its birthright, it is ground down to mere human irresponsibility,
where what you are becomes your captive cage and you cannot break out, being
merely judged in situ for being defective and deficient. It is this, or else
you are selected with no type of opportunity to be other or find something other
than yourself, or depart from the limit of your will and the obfuscation of your
sight.
Irrelevant, in such an unbiblical models here entirely is actual fault; for the
question at this level is not how responsible we all are in defects, defection
and the like, for the topic is other.
 |
It is nothing
else or other than this:
|
|
|
how is human
responsibility real, justly estimable,
and human depravity not the governor that eliminates the reality of divine
love,
defacing human liberty to the very heart of the meaning of life ?
|
|
|
How is love
real from God to man, in offering deliverance,
and not a mere selection process to meet desire from above;
and if so, how is it not an expression that favours what is more desirable,
and hence an end to human liberty, responsibility, meaning
and a defilement of life in its very altitude and depth ?
|
|
|
How is
liberty meaningful enough to avoid mockery,
responsibility actual enough to deserve requital,
and love sufficiently authentic to be sustainable in its integrity,
to and in, from and through man, in ultimate terms ?
|
|
|
How is man
more than mockery! |
The
answer
is
found
in
careful
attention
to
divine
prescriptions
concerning
the
love
of
God,
its
scope
in
the
field
of
desired
salvation,
the
nature
of
the
construction
of
man,
the
ability
of
God
to
use
foreknowledge
of
man,
not
in
his
attainments,
but
in
essential
reality,
and
to
apply
this,
the
liberty
which
is
given
by
payment
for
entry
to
pardon
and
peace
out
of
what
does
not
intrinsically
deserve
it,
the
fulfilment
of
mercy,
justice,
love
and
equity
altogether,
the
base
for
life
and
its
meaning.
This
is
precisely
what
is
taught
in
Romans
9:16,
John
3:19,
Colossians
1:19ff.,
John
3:5ff.,
6:55,
5:24,
Matthew
11:27-30,
Proverbs
1,
Ezekiel
33:11,
Isaiah
48:16ff.,
Luke
19:42ff.,
Matthew
23:27ff.
and
in
endless
expressions
of
an
historical
kind
in
which
the
divine
love
flows
like
a
blessed
and
beautiful
stream,
crisp,
cool,
clean
and
moving
with
dynamic,
over
the
slithery
rocks
which
remaining
embedded
in
the
course
of
the
water,
will
not
be
moved
down
the
falls
to
the
pools
of
contentment
below.
It
is
necessary
not
to
flit
about
the
principles
spoken
by
God,
adjusting
and
adapting,
but
to
APPLY
them
as
they
are,
and
find
the
result,
not
of
one's
intrusiveness,
but
of
His
exclusiveness.
It
is
the
divine
mind,
which
expressed
for
our
instruction,
must
be
followed.
Philosophy
loves
to
make
daring
snaps
at
the
heels
of
truth;
but
theology
must
follow,
as
sheep
do,
what
the
shepherd
is
actually
saying,
and
meditating
on
it,
not
diverge.
How
often
would
He
have
moved
them,
but,
as
He
says,
you
were
not
willing.
I
would;
you
would
not.
Not
I
would
not.
There
is
no
question
of
the
thrust
of
His
desire,
or
its
uttermost
intensity;
nor
of
the
thrust
of
the
resistance,
handled
by
the
Lord
with
the
uttermost
integrity;
nor
of
the
doom
which
comes
despite
it
in
the
end
with
the
uttermost
certainty,
where
this
continues.
There
is
no
secret
about
the
love
of
God
in
its
scope
and
intensity,
sincerity
and
backing
with
payment
as
the
case
might
require;
about
human
resistance
and
its
entire
relevance
in
the
mind
of
God
to
what
He
does;
nor
to
His
comprehensive
and
absolute
knowledge
before
time
was
(Ephesians
1:4),
of
all
that
would
be.
In
this,
He
is
neither
mere
observer,
being
participant,
for
it
is
His
will
which
is
final;
nor
breacher
of
the
image-status
of
man
as
made
by
Himself.
There
is
the
entire
passion
of
the
disturbance,
the
dynamic,
the
divine
longing
and
reluctant
award
of
doom
with
such
remonstrances
as
you
find
in
Isaiah
48:16ff.,
and
Jeremiah
1-17.
Thus,
this
is
not
to
prescribe
to
God,
but
the
very
opposite.
It
is
to
note
what
He
says
and
does,
in
history
and
in
principle,
and
to
apply
His
own
word
which
provides
the
standard
for
concern
and
the
answer
to
it.
In
doing
so,
the
resolution
of
all
these
matters
is
total,
without
residue,
and
the
meaningfulness
of
human
life
and
the
intensity
of
the
necessity
to
find
God
alike
are
established.
Nowhere
else
is
this
so;
nor
could
it
be
so,
for
reasons
to
be
noted
briefly,
in
part,
below.
God
did
not
have
to
be
just,
to
be
reasonable,
to
so
love
the
world
that,
statedly
without
desiring
to
judge,
but
to
save
it,
He
came
and
made
free
the
way
back
to
Himself
with
all
responsibility.
Yet
this
He
did,
while
assigning
guilt
to
those
who
rejected
this
saving
provision
made,
in
terms
of
that
very
love.
Either
this
love,
to
the
satisfaction
of
the
knowledge
of
God,
reached
what
rejected
it,
in
reality,
or
it
did
not.
If
it
did
not,
then
there
is
no
ground
for
condemnation
at
the
level
of
rejection,
which
is
the
one
divinely
assigned
in
John
3:19.
Indeed,
Christ
makes
this
eminently
direct
in
John
15:22ff.,
where
they
would
not
have
had
sin
if
He
had
not
come
among
them
and
spoken
the
words
none
other
spoke,
and
done
the
deeds
none
other
had
done! The
issue
?
hating
both
Christ
and
His
Father,
or
not!
hence, being
with
or
without
God
for
ever.
According
to
the
issue,
so
is
its
issuance.
In
THIS
case
?
hating
Jesus
Christ
and
so
God,
despite
auditing
His
words
and
seeing
His
deeds,
hence
a
self-serving
exclusion
notice,
that
is,
one
served
by
oneself
upon
oneself.
The
issues
are
eternal,
and
seeing
and
hearing
thus,
closes
the
issue,
except
they
repent
and
hence
alter
the
input
and
so
the
output.
THIS
is
the
significance
of
the
ISSUE;
and
without
so
seeing
and
hearing,
by
the
direct
word
of
Jesus
Christ,
they
would
not
have
had
sin
to
the
point.
Nothing
could
more
clearly
demonstrate
the
PRINCIPLE
in
view,
that
of
informed
rejection,
however
this
may
be
determined
by
God.
SINCE
moreover
God
expressly
states
that
He
would
have
all
reconciled
and
to
repent
and
come
to a
knowledge
of
the
truth,
this
being His
desire,
AND
accords
guilt
and
failure
in
this
situation
to
those
who
THEN
do
not
come
to
the
light
of
this
love
as
in
John
3,
THEREFORE
it
follows
that
the
human
will,
not
as
incapable
and
so
irrelevant
to
love,
but
as
made
relevant,
is
indeed
responsible
at
this
secondary
level.
That
is,
it
not
only
is
responsible
for
sinning
but
for
the
relevant
sin
of
rejecting
free
salvation.
Before
all
time,
God
has
known
the
results
for
each
without
mere
breach,
before
sin
smirked
or
its
slaveries
slithered
in
to
take
control,
whether
with
conscious
failure
of
will
or
conditioning
of
conscience
to
rationalising
acceptance
of
sin
as
if
it
were
not
so.
Penetration
for
His
knowledge
is
effectual,
and
only
when
He
is
satisfied
does
the
divine
action
that
liberates
occur.
This
is
the
restraint
that
love
always
has,
in
that
its
propulsion
is
not
mere
self-expression,
the
very
opposite
of
love,
but
seeking
of
the
best
for
what
is
before
it.
As
God
IS
the
best
for
what
He
has
created,
it
is
to
Himself
and
His
will
that
it
relates;
since
man
IS
in
God's
image,
it
is
not
a
mere
matter
of
so
desiring,
as
if
man
were
wood
or
stone
or
plastic
or a
momentous
piece
of
dirigible
dynamic.
It
is a
matter
of
divinely
discernible
preference,
in a
divinely
enabled
situation,
categorical
before
time,
impelled
within
it.
Foreknowledge
is
where
it
begins
in
Romans
8:29ff.,
and
justification
is
where
it
leads,
glory
where
it
ends
for
those
who
are
SO
foreknown,
their
authentic
resultant
known
to
God
and
implemented
in
history.
God
took
action
and
paid
for
the
free
pardon,
enabled
the
free
admission
and
all
the
consequential
action,
involved
in
making
redeemed
persons
accessible
to
Him
in
direct
personal
style,
and
Himself
to
them.
Just
as
this
clears
God's
name
from
a
pretentious
and
merely
apparent
love
that
in
fact
by
some
mystery
of
Calvin's
creation,
does
not
really
extend
to
all
things
in
heaven
and
earth
as
He
Himself
states
in
Colossians
1,
and
I
Timothy
2
for
example,
yes
to
all
the
world
as
seen
in
the
context
of
God
on
the
one
side
and
this
world
on
the
other,
as
He
likewise
intimates
in
John
3.
Thus
it
elevates
man
to
meaningfulness
of
life
to
the
ultimate
degree.
Extend
?
perhaps
in
some
way,
says
Calvin,
but
not
in
THIS
way.
Yet
this
way,
that
involved
in
meeting
with,
knowing
and
living
with
and
for
God,
covered
with
mercy,
pardon
and
love,
is
the
very
one
relevant
for
the
application
of
the
divinely
stated
principles
concerning
God
Himself:
and
He
knows
intimately
at
such
levels,
what
we
know
derivatively
by
READING
WHAT
HE
SAYS.
This
provision
and
this
alone
does
contain,
as
it
has
contained
for
millenia,
the
key
to
understanding
and
the
resolution
of
mysteries.
Hence
the
will,
foreknown
as
God
says,
before
time
and
hence
the
human
will
in
sin
and
the
world
in
its
thrall,
the
will
of
man
being
known
in
this
ultimate
manner,
is
not
a
distorting
agent
because
of
circumstances
that
limit
and
scar.
That
horror
is
avoided. What
HE
knows
is
the
truth;
and
the
will
of
man,
this
He
knows.
In
Him
and
Him
alone
is
no
confusion,
neither
extenuation
in soppish
squeamishness,
nor
intrusion
in
fickle
fashion
for
what
is
simply
wanted
more.
HE
SO
LOVED
...
THE
WORLD
...
that
He
sought
to
save
in
so
coming.
He
did
not
so
love
part
of
it,
that
this
part
of
it
....
etc.
etc..
This
is
NOT
what
He
says.
It
contradicts
all
that
He
says.
For
this
resolution
available
over
the millenia
only
in
the
Bible,
that
is
mere
contradiction.
Taking
it
as
it
comes,
however,
this
is
where
it
goes.
Each
part
taken,
must
be
assembled
with
each
other,
and
none
ever
contradicted.
It
is
hardly
injuriously
hard!
Thus
some
are
SO
chosen
in
Christ,
through
divine
foreknowledge,
before
even
this
world
was
founded
(Ephesians
1:4),
so
that
the
human
will
is
freed
in
irrelevance,
from
NOT
being
free
to
will
as
it
will.
Being
chosen
before
sin
smote
man's
will,
and
known
in
reality,
the
will
is
indeed
free
to
will
as
realities
impound,
God
its
guarantor
and
source
of
knowledge
before*1A
knowledge
gaining
departure
from
a
natural
knowledge
of
God,
squirms
in
self-imposed
limitations
which
become
in
source,
the
entire
confounding
of
man,
source
of
his
weakness
of
heart
and
befouled
residual
knowledge,
on
the
one
hand
and
on
the
other.
This
sure
source
of
confusion
God
has
excluded
in
His
divine
foreknowledge
of
the
realities
of
man.
God
in
SO
loving
has
ensured
this
divine
discernment
to
act
in
integrity,
and
in
SO
acting
has
done
it,
first
as
framed
in
foreknowledge,
then
as
this
is
codified
into
predestination.
It
is
effectual
as
founded
on
the
all-capacious
cross,
the
application
following
the
reality
for
each.
It
PLEASED
Him
to
sent
Christ
as
deity
incarnate,
His
word
in
flesh;
to
implement
in
Him
through
the
cross
the
provision
sufficient
to
remove
all
impediment;
and
in
so
doing
to
reconcile
ALL
to
Himself.
With
such
desire
in
heart,
He
PROVIDED
the
cross
adequate
for
any,
not
obstruction
but
enablement;
As
in
Colossians
1:19ff.
perfectly
explicitly,
word
for
word,
such
is
the
case.
The
application
follows
the
reality
for
each
as
the
Spirit
moves
(John
3:7-8)
and
as
the
Father
(John
6:44,55).
It
is
indeed
the
work
of
God
that
they
should
believe
(John
6:29),
and
the
recognition
of
the
relevance
of
the
will
of
man
as
foreknown
to
God,
that
despite
all
this
divine
adequacy,
they
do
not,
will
not,
are
disinclined
and
exercise
their
image-of-God
status
as
at
the
first
granted,
to
the
last.
The
ultimate
tragedy
for
many,
therefore,
is
entirely
their
own
responsibility;
is
despite
the
divine
amplitude
of
embrace
of
things
both
in
heaven
and
on
earth,
so
that
history
itself
does
not
exclude
any
in
its
mode
of
exposure
and
coming
to
be.
Moreover
that
all
but
insufferable
horror,
that
despite
an
ACTUAL
desire
for
the
Lord,
it
CANNOT
be
helped,
even
when
that
desire
is
ultimate
and
utter.
If
it
were
so
in
His
sight,
not
for
mere
distortion
in
historical
melee,
but
in
the
calm
knowledge
of
eternity,
then
that
soul
would
assuredly
have
been
liberated.
But
someone
says,
But
I
myself
would
now
wish
so
to
have
God,
on
His
terms,
yes,
even
though
it
be
through
that
cross,
for
I
trust
Him,
then
the
matter
is
answered
already.
So
act
then.
It
is
enabled.
That
IS
the
door,
where
faith
embracing
the
cross
of
Christ,
and
the
fulness
of
the
Godhead
in
Him,
enters
(John
10:9),
with
results
eternal
(John
10:27-28),
as
eternally
foreknown.
What
then
of
human
life
before
God
?
It
is
given
meaning,
as
only
God
CAN
know
it,
this
will
of
man;
and
while
sin
of
course
degrades
its
significance,
and
erodes
its
integrity,
making
a
mess
of
its
function
like
that
of a
radio
set
in a
crashed
aircraft,
yet
isin
for
all
that, does
not
have
the
last
word
on
man,
since
God
has
the
first
word
on
Him,
and
ensures
its
application
according
to
truth,
to
the
last.
Thus
indeed,
in
the
end,
JUDGMENT
IS
ACCORDING
TO
TRUTH
(as
in
Romans
2).
There
is
none,
in
the
face
of
this
love,
action,
power
and
knowledge,
ABLE
to
be
excluded,
except
for
this
very
preference
for
darkness
in
the
face
of
light
in
Christ.
That
indeed
means
that
the
judgment
accords
with
the
truth
of
the
divine
love
for
this
world,
that
it
might
be
saved,
and
the
reality
of
the
human
rejection
by
many,
to
the
effect that
such
a
provision
can
go
to
blazes,
or
be
left
as
indifferent,
or
be
parodied
or
disregarded.
If
the
mind
is
such,
then
is
heaven
hell
to
the
recalcitrant;
and
hell
is
the
site
chosen
by
the
wilful removal
of
the
mercy
of
the
remedy
in
redemption
of
Jesus
Christ.
In
longing
to
be
free
from
God,
or
lodging
indifference,
man
is
chained
to
what
results
in
such
absence.
There
his
too
willing
heart
goes
in
such
cases.
Outside
the
knowledge
of
man,
the
will
can
be
solicited,
subjected,
distorted,
the
depths
of
his
heart
misaligned
by
various
differential
squalls.
It
is
not
however
outside
the
knowledge
of
God
before
any
squall
could
appal,
or
laceration
benumb.
Hence
nothing
is
simply
adventitious,
nor
does
what
is
merely
meretricious
mangle
meaning.
God
is
indeed
sovereign,
and
it
is
well
that
He
is,
since
nowhere
else
is
infallible
love
found,
for
things
appertaining
to
very
eternity
itself!
Yet
there
is
no
sovereign
OVER
HIS
love
and
mercy
and
principles
and
declared
wishes
concerning
the
scope
of
salvation;
for
it
is
HE
who
IS
the
sovereign
who
IS
love
(I
John
4:7ff.).
Thus
it
is
that
His
VERY
sovereignty,
He
being
who
He
is,
is
indeed
a
glorious
fact,
and
that
nothing
ever
escapes
it,
for
here
is
the
very pith
of
mercy
and
the
acme
of
pity
(Micah
7:19ff.,
Matthew
23:37ff.,
Luke
19:42ff.,
Ezekiel
33:11).
That
life
outside
God
is a
misnomer
is
both
obvious
and
necessary,
since
it
is
designed
to
be
lived
inside
Him,
in
the
sense
of
harmony
and
peace
and
understanding
and
mutual
communication
and
obedience
giving
a
liberty
unmarred
by
presumption.
Thus,
never
outside
the
understanding
of
God
through
its
diverse
delinquencies
and
schemings,
the
human
will
has
relevance.
In
its
own
sovereign
power,
for
exercise
on
this
earth,
it
is
dethroned
(John
1:12),
and
it
is
well
that
it
is!
Only
grace
operates,
purity
of
love
intimates.
Regeneration
then
merely
implements
what
the
reality
of
divine
love
in
its
integrity
has
found.
In
its
own
image-of-God
integrity
it
is
sustained;
in
its
now
inherent
sinfulness
it
is
not
sovereign.
In
His
longing
love,
divine
restraint,
and
entire
comprehensive
knowledge,
God
is;
and
so
is
truth
realised
and
love
fulfilled,
for
in
nature
it
does
not
dictate.
Life
remains,
desired
or
dumped.
The
cross
of
Christ
deletes
not
only
guilt,
but
inability
of
any
to
come
home
to
meaning
and
grace
and
understanding
and
cohesion
in
reality,
to
have even
the
knowledge
of
God,
so
that
life
now
becomes
a
thrilling
opportunity
for
all
that
is
given
man,
to
be
exercised
in
His
will.
It
rather
reminds
one
of
riding
a
horse:
the
greater
the
mutual
understanding,
the
more
excellent
the
riding
on
the
wings
of
the
wind
for
both!
It
is
then
not
a
matter
of
circumstance
or
education,
divine
preference
supervening
the
limitations
through
ignorance,
confusion
or
contorting
sin
and
its
parameters
from
the
past
in
any
given
person,
and
his
arrival
in
this
earthly
setting:
but
of
the
KNOWLEDGE
OF
GOD.
And
that,
it
is
truth.
Judgment
will
be
made
according
to
it
(Romans
2).
It
has
always
been
well
not
to
toy
with
the
truth.
 |
The
integrity
of
the
human
will
is
thus
established
(as
HE
WOULD
HAVE
ALL
SAVED,
as
He
repeatedly
asserts
and
shows
in
the
character
of
both
His
laments
and
exhortations); |
|
|
its
limitations
are
removed
from
dominance,
as
occasioning
limits
on
liberty
in
choice;
|
|
|
its
responsibility
is
established;
|
|
|
its
double
guilt
is
given
ground
(both
to
sin
and
to
refuse
sin's
remedy);
|
|
|
the
sense
of
injustice
in
some
having
more
'chance'
than
others
is
removed;
|
|
|
the
integrity
of
the
Creator
is
made
manifest; |
|
|
the
point
of
history
is
secured,
and |
|
|
the
integrity
of
love
itself
is
shown
resplendent,
with
divine
forbearance
and
restraint
a
vast
mountain
of
wonder,
as
He
WOULD
have
what
He
WON'T
take,
because
He
refuses
to
use
even
transformative
power
to
get
the
ones
He
would
like
to
have.
|
Here
alone
is
the
resolution
of
man's
problem,
and
naturally,
as
in
logical
and
historical
fact,
it
is
from
the
God
who
made
him,
and
equally
naturally,
it
cannot
be
found
elsewhere.
Indeed,
this
solution
has
been
expressed
in
form
and
prelude
from
the
first
of
sin
from
man
(Genesis
3:15),
and
nothing
lagging
or
lacking
is
even
relevant
before
the
God
who
made
man.
Invented
solutions
which
come
to
to
the
mind
of
man
at
some
epoch
or
other
are
irrelevant.
It
is
too
late.
The
omnipotent,
omniscient
God
does
not
linger,
esteem
any
worthless,
beneath
regard.
In
principle
as
in
practice,
there
is
but
one
solution,
and
there
neither
is
nor
can
be
another.
It
does
not
depend
on
the
human
mind
to
find
the
solution
to
the
mind
of
God
in
its
creative
processes;
but
it
DOES
and
should
belong
to
it
to
find
from
the
word
of
God
what
resolving
in
the
coverage
of
all,
attends
to
the
needs
of
any,
and
removing
obstruction
through
the
squirmings
of
sin
or
the
confusions
excursions
away
from
what
God
says,
to
show
the
glow
of
the
truth,
its
wonder
and
its
uniqueness.
When
GOD
sets
HIS
mind
to
it,
the
solution
is
sure
to
appear;
and
it
has
done
so;
and
it
is
in
the
Bible
as
written,
not
as
defiled
or
even
defied
by
the
wandering
and
intrusive
thoughts
of
man.
This
God
is
able
to
secure;
and
He
does.
The
rich
young
ruler
of
Mark
is
an
illustration,
as
are
so
many
others
like
Jerusalem,
Babylon,
Judah
and
Moab
(Luke
19:42ff.,
Jeremiah
51,
Hosea
7:1,
Jeremiah
48).
Despite
divine
desire
for
them
to
the
point
of
deliverance
in
entirety
for
Himself,
from
themselves
and
their
delusive
drag-races
to
destructive
destiny,
they
go,
and
He
does
not
grab
and
compel.
He
laments
whether
as
seen
in
Isaiah
48:16ff.,
or
Luke
19:42ff.,
for
the
Lord
of
the
Old
Testament
who
seeks
is
the
Lord
of
the
New
Testament
who
finds
(cf.
Luke
15).
Nothing
else
CAN
provide
the
entire
solution
in
this
vast
arena
of
will,
responsibility,
justice,
truth
and
love,
but
this.
It
is
as
granted
by
the
One
who
granted
life
to
man,
with
all
that
this
portends
and
enables.
It
is
written,
step
by
step,
principle
by
principle,
desire
by
desire
in
the
Bible,
and
has
been
for
millenia.
Here
alone
is
the
KNOWLEDGE
which
in
very
essence
surpasses
all
circumstances
and
loaded
differentiae
which
might
seem
to
give
to
some
inordinately
better
'chance'
of
divine
felicity.
Here
alone
is
CHOICE
beyond
the
barriers
of
inhibition,
differentially
accorded
- as
when
some
on
this
earth
become
so
scarred
by
early
horrors
that
bitterness
differentially
possesses
their
doubly
ruined
psyches.
It
is
here
a
safeguarded
and
guaranteed
choice
by
KNOWLEDGE
of
TRUTH,
and
truth,
absolute
in
its
entirety,
is
what
is
needed
if
justice
is
to
be
done.
To
know
the
TRUTH
concerning
anyone
gives
a
basis
for
choice,
and
the
divine
choice
is
the
only
way
to
ensure
this;
and
at
the
same
time,
the
divine
principle
that
PREFERENCE
FOR
DARKNESS
IN
THE
LIGHT
OF
SAVING
TRUTH
is
man's
actual
and entire
culpability,
is
verified
and
enabled
(as
in
John
3:19).
The
purity
of a
love
which
does
not
seek
its
own
preference,
but
desires ALL
that
they
might
be
reconciled
to
truth,
to
Himself,
and
this
enabled with
a
payment
sufficient
for
ANY,
to
cover
the
cost
of
EACH
ONE
actually
saved
(as
in
Romans
8:32)
with
what
clears
and
conveys
salvation
(II
Timothy
1:8ff.),
this
is
the
necessary
and
gloriously
actual
preliminary.
It
is this
prevents
a
sovereign
disregard
of
the
love
and
mind
and
will
of
what
is
to
be
saved,
so
making
it a
salvation
of
the
person
concerned,
and
not
a
substitution
of
someone
else
for
that
person,
annulling
all
liberty
in
the
transition.
Liberty
thus
stands;
guilt
stands;
exclusion
is
vindicated;
inclusion
is
enabled;
equity
is
total,
and
salvation
becomes
neither
a
divine
exercise
in
preference
nor
a
human
exercise
in
quaint
delusions
psychically
oppressive;
but
it
is
instead,
a
thing
of
love,
of
the
God
who
SO
loved
the
world
that
He
wanted
to
save
it,
and
took
action
to
the
uttermost
to
secure
this.
He
even
went
so
far
that
He
sacrificed
an
infinitely
precious
life,
at
His
own
level,
that
of
Christ,
as
testimony
and
attestation
to
ALL
in
this
world
that
He
would
have
ANY
who
received
this,
all
costs
covered,
and
that
His
truthful
heart
was
in
this
with
no
reservations.
The
truth
itself
is
the
criterion,
who
He
is
and
what
He
gives,
and
His
word
is
the
guarantee
that
it
will
be
so
used,
never
twisted
to
His
mere
taste,
but
always
open
to
the
ones
He
so
loves,
which
are
ALL.
The
exclusion
is
then
by
preference
for
darkness
in
each
individual,
in
the
face
of
this
saving
light,
and
as
ensured
by
the
KNOWLEDGE,
in
the
form
of
foreknowledge,
of
God,
beyond
the
limitations
and
distortions
of
this
world,
and
with
no
reference
to
mere
taste
or
character
preference
in
Him.
HIS
choice
is
already
made,
in
terms
of a
love
for
ALL
such
that
WHOEVER
comes
to
it
is
received,
and
such,
further,
that
His
desire
that
all
might
be
saved
is
expressed,
not
chopped
down:
the
exclusive
agency
for
negation
being
as
stated,
a
preference
in
SUCH
a
situation
of
divine
power,
provision
and
desire
as
this,
given
in
this
light,
for
darkness!
Neither
is
any
clammily
brought
to
heaven,
dragged
out
of a
will
essentially
to
the
contrary,
either
with
annulment
of
what
the
one
wanted,
or
violation;
nor
is
any
left
out
who
might
have
come,
for
the
divine
power
and
knowledge
and
love
is
such
that
this
is
excluded
before
creation
even
commenced.
When
you
KNOW
what
you
are
doing,
have
all
power
and
wisdom,
and
those
with
whom
you
deal,
with
infinite
depth,
and
having
made
them
in
your
own
image,
so
that
they
relate
to
you
meaningfully
in
will
and
character
and
choice,
and
are
no
robots
for
mere
relish
by
another,
but
rather
objects
of
desire,
then
nothing
is
missed
out.
God
is
the
only
One
who
has
all
that
this
takes,
and
being
willing
and
the
only
One
who
IS
God,
this
is
the
only
possible
way
for
it.
|
|
Here
then
is
not
only
rationality,
but
even
more
of
validation*2:
|
|
|
for
whatever
is
able
to
find
what
resolves
the
intellectual
difficulties
|
|
|
which
philosophy,
for
millenia,
has
woefully
fouled
up,
often
because
of
disingenuous
presuppositions,
capitulation
to
desire
or
flamboyance
without
discipline
since,
as
in a
court
case,
the
sins
of
man
make
him
sensitive
to
truth
and
he
tends
to
shy
away
from
it
as a
horse
from
a
dog
at
his
heels*3:
|
|
|
this
declares
itself.
|
It
works,
and
further,
it
carries
all
before
it,
like
a
correct
mathematical
solution;
but
this
is a
solution
for
the
very
principles
of
logic
and
mathematics
and
psychology,
as
for
the
operations
of
the
spirit
and
the
mind
of
man.
It
covers
all;
it
omits
nothing.
It
moves
like
a
king
among
his
ceremonial
troops.
It
validates
all
these
things,
singly
and
together,
as
based
on
reality,
and
in
reality,
cohesive,
coherent,
comprehensible
realisations
from
their
base.
Where
and
how
and
why
they
begin,
is
to
be
found;
where
they
co-operate
and
why,
this
is
indicated;
how
the
synthesis
of
mind,
matter
and
spirit
CAN
even
be
in
one
unit
(called
man)
and
be
meaningful,
is
totally
explained
in
vast
detail
in
the
Bible,
as
has
been
expounded
in
many
ways
in
this
site,
not
least
Ch.
7
of
SMR.
Indeed,
we
can
go
even
further:
for
these
arenas
of
action,
not
only
penetrable
and
investigable
by
the
rational
mind,
but
comprehensible
in
their
bases,
development
and
dynamic,
in
turn
validate
what
validates
them.
The
mutuality
from
a
common
basis
both
for
the
mind
of
man
and
the
matter
of
His
hands,
is
not
only
explicable,
it
is
intimately
correlative.
It
is
because
the
phases
of
creation,
of
our
world
and
of
man,
are
so
eminently
accessible
not
only
to
rationality,
but
to
comprehensive
coverage
of
each
phase,
when
you
start
and
proceed
with
a
biblical
perspective
and
in
terms
of
the
Bible,
in
your
own
mind
as
explorer,
as
from
the
mind
of
God
as
Creator
at
the
first,
that
not
only
is
there
verification
of
what
thus
so
splendidly
works
in
all
phases,
there
is
an
indifferent
ease
with
which
it
does
so,
as
when
a
tennis
ace
plays
a
child
of
13.
Singly
in
their
highly
diversified
workings,
and
all
together
in
their
relationships,
the
entire
creation,
in
its
sub-kinds
and
its
kinds,
material
and
living,
notional
and
natural,
when
subjected
to
this
same
biblical
discipline
becomes
for
consideration
like
a
lion
lying
down
with
a
lamb.
It
is
satisfied
and
satisfies
only
then.
Furtive
reductionism
and
evasion
can
go
to
philosophy
(cf.
SMR
Ch.
3)
which
provides
many
examples;
forthright
truth
comes
from
the
word
of
God,
which
even
goes
further.
Thus
the
Bible,
with
seemingly
endless
flair,
offers
prediction,
precise
or
atmospheric,
generic
or
detailed,
in
things
small
or
large,
in
trends
or
in
truth,
and
it
calls
attention
to
this
offer
in
self-validating
boldness
(as
in
Isaiah
41,
43,
48);
but
then,
what
would
you
expect
of
God,
a
fearful
series
of
ambiguities!
Scarcely.
His
word
is
in
principle
falsifiable
in
ways
so
numerous
in
terms
of
predictions
so
amazing
in
nature,
that
it
smiles
at
assault
and
assails
unbelief.
He
is
no
modern
theologian
and
has
no
part
of
any
of
it,
in
its
endless
variations.
Leave
that
to
the
false
teachers
to
come
as
the
Age
progresses,
and
which
have
come
as
II
Peter
2:1ff.
has
long
advised
us,
from
within
the
very
company
of
professing
Christians.
They
will
make
merchandise
out
of
you,
said
the
apostle
in
his
forecast;
and
which
the
major
heresies*4,
belligerent
exercises
in
both
using
and
abusing
the
Bible,
has
not
flourished
with
money,
from
Islam
to
all
the
rest,
who
would
put
stock
in
some
parts
of
the
Bible,
and
seek
authentication
in
part
from
there,
and
then
put
in
their
own
ideas!
What
is
built
remorselessly
and
unadventurously
on
His
word,
however,
that
does
in
fact,
stand,
has
stood
and
continues
to
revel
in
standing,
if
by
any
means
some
might
be
saved,
won
from
witless
alienation
to
worldly
wise
knowledge,
to
the
priceless
gift
of
knowing
God
personally,
even
the
everlasting
God
through
His
biblically,
spiritually,
historically
and
appointed
and
revealed
Saviour
for
mankind:
Jesus
Christ,
in
whom
is
no
variation
whatsoever.
As
in
mathematics,
when
you
have
got
it
right,
don't
fidget,
apply!
The
application
of
these
things
in
personal
life,
it
is
itself
a
further
verification,
just
like
endless
generations
of
students
finding,
when
they
go
to
the
trouble
of
doing
the
laboratory
work,
that
...
it
works,
it
DOES
happen.
If
in
this,
it
is
by
faith,
the
results
are
history.
But
look!
consider:
if
you
are
pressed
financially,
and
only
one
way
on
is
present,
and
it
has
no
evils
in
it,
is
this
not
....
enough!
The
power
of
God,
His
purity,
knowledge,
undistorted
desire,
unselfish
sacrificial
readiness
for
any,
and
seeking
for
all,
provides
the
ground
for
the
responsibility
of
man
both
from
the
way
he
was
in
fact
created
and
in
his
response
at
all
levels.
The activation
of
this
divine
power
is
shown
in
the
use
of
means
to
make
so
free
the
restoration
of
diversely
fallen
man,
that
he
does
not
have
to
contribute
from
his
variously
marred
resources,
but
is
taken
not
by
some
event
of
variable
will,
but
by
the
transcendent
power
of
the
God
who
KNOWS
the
case
and
in
integrity
applies
this
knowledge
(John
3,
Romans
8:29ff.).
There
is
no
poverty
here,
in
mind
or
will
or
culture
that
captures,
differentiates:
on
the
contrary,
it
is God
who, overseeing
all,
knowing
all,
acts
beyond
the
thrall
of
the
call
of
this
or
that
defect,
or
defective
twist.
He
calls
who
called
creation
into
being,
as a
CEO
might
call
a
factory
into
existence
by
the
exercise
of
his
power!
In
this
case,
it
is
the
author
of
all
who
called
all
into
being
by
the
exercise
of
His
eternal
power,
without
which
nothing
would
ever
have
been.
The
basis
must
always
be
there,
since
otherwise
it
has
not
even
anywhere
to
come
from,
leaving
nothing
which
does
nothing;
and
at
the
same
time,
it
must
always
be
adequate,
since
otherwise,
by
definition,
it
cannot
do
it.
There
is
One
God,
who
gloriously
has
divulged
one
way
for
man
to
be
in
His
image
and
hence
responsible,
and
that
is
by
knowing
as
only
He
can,
in
absolute
truth,
what
is
what
with
each,
applying
in
absolute
sanctity
what
He
knows,
so
that
those
who
desire
Him
without
distortion
from
the
generic
limitations
of
sin
and
severance
which
it
brings,
may
have
Him,
and
so
loving
that
whatever
it
takes
within
His
divine
counsel,
He
pays,
so
making
freedom
of
access,
not
even
limited
by
the
limits
of
what
finds
Him.
Such
is
the
nature
of
free
passage;
and
in
truth
and
justice,
such
is
the
cost
of
its
provision:
the
cross
of
accursedness,
and
as
man
is
an
historical
being,
so
is
this
an
historical
occurrence,
in
fact
at
Calvary;
and
as
deformation
is
the
consequence,
so
resurrection
is
the
finality
of
the
cure.
Only
in
the
collation
of
such
love,
such
knowledge,
such
undertakings
by
the
God
who
alone
is,
can
this
be
done.
Nowhere
else
COULD
it
be
done,
nor
has
it
found
a
place
to
lodge.
Praise
God
for
His
complete
competence,
brilliant
action
but
above
all,
for
His
constant
caring.
There
is
none
set
in
the
most
loathsome
and
imperilling
of
conditions
whom
He
cannot
reach,
and
nothing
that
can
sever
the
feet
of
His
refugees
(Hebrews
6:19)
from
way
to
His
door.
In
the
invisibilities
of
things
unseen,
the
heart
may
be
moved
though
all
the
world
would
block
the
way
if
it
were
able!
As
in
the
creation,
and
in
the
salvation
through
the
cross
of
Christ:
it
is
said
and
then
done,
and
applied.
It
is
this
which
provides
all
answers,
leaves
no
questions
unmet,
in
its
essence.
Moreover
it
is
not
duplicable,
since
only
the
God
who,
beyond
all,
knows
all
without
limitation,
CAN
know
enough,
all
things
being
beneath
and
dependent
on
Himself,
the
necessary
pre-condition
for
absolute
knowledge,
whether
or
not
it
be
shared.
What
then
? It
is
this.
Just
as
it
is
only
the
all-powerful
God
over
all
who
CAN
know
to
judge
righteously
and
to
run
all
things
absolutely
and
show
this
in
the
Bible
and
in
Christ
incarnate,
so
it
is
only
He
who
can
and
also
DOES
love
in
entire
unselfish
yearning
for
all,
neither
misled
nor
misunderstanding,
nor
seeking,
who
has
all,
who
operates
not
in
vain.
It
is
only
in
Him
where
no
iniquity
can
secretly
lodge,
who
is
subject
to
none
and
to
nothing,
visible
or
invisible,
who
is
light
without
speck
or
shadow
of
turning,
who
is
as
He
is,
whose
word
is
truth
and
whose
ways
co-ordinate,
word
and
deed:
it
is
here
only
that
salvation
of
man
can
be
found,
neither
being
salvation
instead
of
man,
nor
mere
expression
of
man
in
his
own
sinfulness,
nor
yet
a
mere
substitution
of
one
will
for
another,
as
in a
robot.
The
dismissal
rate
must
depend
on
the
sanctity
of
will
in
the
being
made
in
His
own
image,
the
reality
of
personality
in
any
such
case;
and
so
it
does,
and
has
done.
It
is
only
in
the
God
who
has
such
pure
and
sacrificial
love,
and
who
is
WILLING
so
to
act,
that
the
residual
responsibility
CAN
be
man's.
What
then
?
There
is
no
favouritism;
God
is
no
respecter
of
persons
(Acts
10:34).
As
this
enables
truth
to
be
sought,
and
found,
so
it
enables
man
to
be
bought,
and
redeemed.
Moreover,
so
it
enables
man
to
be
free,
not
as
autonomous,
a
myth
of
misconception
for
there
is
one
God;
but
as
meaningfully
related
to
God
within
truth,
neither
being
dumped
in
by
the
misconceptions
of
sin,
nor
excluded
generically
by
the
same,
but
as
in
truth
seen
by
God
as
receiving
Him,
beyond
all
this
disturbance
and
defective
dynamics,
SO
enabled
to
be
freely
found.
Then
is
man
not
circumvented
into
salvation
of a
quiddity
which
never
was,
a
mere
substitute,
someone
made
from
what
he
was,
by a
new
fiat
that
does
not
relate,
evicted
into
a
new
personality
when
converted,
with
no
relationship
to
himself
beforehand
in
his
will;
nor,
on
the
other
hand,
is
man
to
circumvent
his
own
being
in
the
passing
parade
of
psychic
disturbances
in
variable
degrees
of
ignorance.
Within
the
scope
of
God's
foreknowing
power,
man
is
made
safe
freely, beyond
the
limits
of
his
own
self,
just
as
in
the
creation,
also
by
the
word
of
God,
he
was
made
at
all.
So
is
he,
in
multitudes
of
case,
found
by
the
Lord. THEN
liberty
is
real,
responsibility
is
total,
love
that
is
placed
in
man
to
such
vast
degrees
in
potential, but
so
variably,
now becomes
crucial,
for
this
finds
him;
while construction
in
the
form
of
reconstruction
becomes
meaningful
and
man
is
no
longer
the
butt
of
limited
resources,
with
shocking
oversight
left
to a
drag
race
to
hell
or
some
other
site
of
his
creative
thrust
or
just
desert,
with
heartless
oversight.
He
is
found
where
he
was
founded,
or
he
founders;
and
it
is
God
who
provides
his
first
estate,
the
remedy
for
his
second
and
the
way
home
freely
for
his
third
state,
when
this
is
the
culmination
from
the
cross
of
Christ.
It
is
no
drag
race
to
hell,
except
by
desire.
As
for
the
foundation
and
information
of
God,
moreover,
the
contrary
is
the
case.
With
tender
concern,
and
massive
reconstruction,
first
in
the
sending
of
the
Saviour,
then
in
His
attestation
in
humble
human
reality
of
His
identity,
then
in
His
meeting
the
futile
follies
of
dissident
and
pompously
self-possessed
man
in
the
judgment
and
the
crucifixion,
then
in
the
resurrection
of
Christ
from
dead
(just
as
He
had
raised
others
from
the
dead):
God
has
made
all,
stated
all,
done
all.
Some
thus
in
all
integrity
and
reality,
are
won,
and
eternal
life
is
then
theirs,
not
just
to
talk
about
ruminatively
and
discursively,
but
to
HAVE.
Talk
is
futile
compared
with
reality;
it
is
only
when
it
issues
from
reality,
as
the
Word
from
God
as
in
John
1,
5:19ff.,
8:58,
Isaiah
48:16ff.,
Micah
5:1-3,
that
the
word
is
as
beautiful
as
the
original,
or
source.
Some
are
not
won.
Their
will
is
not
violated
by
force.
What
then
of
man
in
that
state
? He
eats
indeed,
the
fruit
of
his
own
doings
as
in
just
such
a
setting,
as
God
affirms
in
both
Proverbs
1 in
the
Old
Testament,
and
John
15:22ff.,
in
the
New.
Nor
is
it
as
if
history
were
irrelevant,
for
God
KNOWS
where
the
impact
penetrates,
how,
and
with
what
integrity,
and
can
so
deal
with
man
on
this
earth,
even
in
this
history,
that
His
Spirit
can
realise
and
release
truth
in
the
very
fallen
heart
of
man,
as
it
reveals
and
binds
up, and
to
man show
so
that
he
may
know
what
is
its
sin,
as
also
what
is
God's
own
righteousness
and
His
just
judgment
(John
16).
So
is
there
imported
from
eternity,
through
divine
grace,
what
is
the
TRUTH.
This
in
all
real
continuity
of
spirit,
man
can
know,
and
at
conversion
does.
Then
in
meaningful
life,
not
as
autonomous
but
as
understood,
in
intimate
communication
and
co-operation
with
God
(cf.
Matthew
28:19ff.,
Psalm
32),
living
in
love,
that
of
the
Lord,
and
seeking
to
export
it,
along
with
truth
in
peace,
man
continues
to
echo
the
trumpet
of
truth
from
the
lips
of
the
divine
Lover,
who
having
given
all,
takes
some,
and
gives
again
to
them,
eternal
life
(I
John
1:1-4,
John
4:14,
5:24,
I
John
5:11-12,
Romans
3:23ff.,
Titus
2-3).
NOTES
*1
On
the
X-factor,
see:
Predestination and Freewill Section 2,
The Kingdom of Heaven
Ch. 4
Christ's Ineffable Peace
... Ch. 2,
The Glow of Predestinative Power Ch.
4, see also
Celestial Harmony ... 2
*1A
EXCURSION:
LOVE, LIBERTY and
FIDELITY
Before
sin entered, not only was the knowledge of God
natural, institutional from the time man was rolled out into realisation from
the creative work of God, so that nothing lacking, he needed no superiority in
order to know God, find Him: indeed, He was found already.
It was more marvellous even than this.
There was therefore no inherent
superiority. Some would not in this state be any better than others, for sin
which has degrees (though all of these deserve death and if present, would make
heaven not itself, being absent, could not achieve any differentiation of nature
in any created individual's value. In such a condition, things proceed as they
are, with freedom, as turned from the hand of God. In this situation,
nothing is lost, there is no dent, and therefore none such larger than another!
Merit is thus irrelevant. Things are as made, man
as constructed, freedom as achieved, and hence dimness is not operative, nor is
differentiation between parties in these pertinent features and foci of moral
and spiritual preference.
Man is this mode, the original and the
envisagable in perfection before all things, as by God Himself, proceeds
according to his natural felicitous relationship with God and environment, self
and consciousness. His spirit roves and his will is operative. The freedom is by
nature, with nurture and as a condition of existence. WHEN it is exercised
toward God, its narrow but profound option in THAT initial state, hypostasised.
In other words, it HAS to run free or it
would be ruined before launched, and so be merely a different model from that
found in the Bible. BEING free by the assurance of God in whose image it is
made, man then exhibits the reality of this freedom by choosing, not in such a
way that he is not free, but by obligation of the model, such that he IS free.
Difference in merit results from this, in that a profound evil is brought on.
This is a later stage and state; and in fact, there is no one left that is
without sin, since the first man and woman BOTH sinned. Beyond and before such a
condition, this is an envisagement of all without sin, able to be
envisaged thus, just as in their case, as the first man and the first woman,
they were actually created.
Freedom does not however have to produce the
result, this way or that: for such would then be a programmatic matter and a
denial of the biblical model which is in fact, our actual mode, though now
fallen. The entire resolution comes to so simple a consideration. IF you want to
estimate the nature of liberty, so that it is not operative according to the
model it is said to be, THEN you are simply talking about something else, in
conscious or unconscious entire irrelevance. It is as pertinent as discussing a
Volkswagen when the topic is a Buick.
How CAN freedom operate in a person who is about
to choose this or that ? That is for the Maker to say, and the taunted taint
which makes man become quaint in such discussions appears often no more than
this, that since HE or SHE is moved by this or that inferior or more inferior
consideration to a greater or lesser degree, therefore anyone
without sin must be the same.
That is merely to affirm what is denied, and to
deny what is affirmed, on the basis of what has a categorical diversity: NO SIN.
What is the use of pondering how sinfulness operates variably when the topic is
sinlessness! Not merely is this irrelevant, it is ludicrous, like discussing
darkness, the absence of light, in terms of the activities of light when it is
there!
The thrust of the will or heart in this prime
case is, by its model nature, free from extraneous impelling; and it is as free
from impulsion as from, compulsion. It declares itself, being informed
correctly, where it desires; and its desire is the product of its freedom.
Before we proceed, let us look for a moment at
this great creation, the spirit of man, which was free, and is allocated liberty
on salvation.
The spirit of man is that invisible competency which surveys
thought and realms, rule and dissidence, disposes love, hatred, acceptance and
rejection, investigates ideas, ideals and truth, inspects motive and morals,
ponders desire, scans ambition, estimates objectives, imagines possibilities,
esteems certainties and moving through will, resolves issues which the mind and
the body can then pick up, like the bill for a meal, and implement.
Again, it is of course true that the
spirit of man may be pathologically oppressed, and one of its main depressions,
obsession or concessions, is this, that it fails to recognise that it exists. It
is precisely for this reason that much modern psychology is forever in the
rumble of contention, error and failure; for it is difficult to amputate or for
that matter, seek the cure of a leg if you do not believe it to be there, and it
is not less so when you fail to know you have a spirit and try to correct its
pathology.
It is by the spirit of man that
morality is considered, systems are opted and indeed, MAY be opted, or declined;
for it has this power in general, this being its field, not least. It can become
obsessed, it is true, with hatred or prejudice, or inflamed with ideologies both
obscure and ridiculous, and it appears empirically sound to say, that this
pathological pittance which the spirits of many take instead of truth, is
normal (cf. SMR Chs. 1,4, 5, 10). When pathology is normal, as if it were the case that most had lung
cancer or syphilis, then obviously there is a problem for the race, which might
destroy it. That is so here. However, destroyed or not, while it remains extant,
the spirit of man is able to subject itself to folly no less than the body of
those who break speed limits around dangerous corners, or fail to discipline
their minds, and so become ignoramuses, liable to vulgar betrayals by rogues.
It is by the spirit of man that love
is resolved, and pursued, or hatred, whether of persons or ideas, scenery or
cultivations, landscapes or people. It is that invisible multi-functional entity
in man by which he is distinguishable on the one hand from angels, which are not
tied to an operating system for their support, in physical format, one which can
be organically injured, and from beasts, which do not have this consciously
resolving power of what is analytically presented and ideologically surveyed.
By the spirit of man, also, there is
the approach to God. Man may become so resolved on his admittedly marvellous
systematics, and integrated systems, both those of bodily parts and mental
contrivances, and the spiritual liaison itself, in an integral whole of
one total project type and facility, conceivable and indeed operable as a unit,
that he forgets the necessity of logic. He may become nescient rather than
merely forgetful in advanced cases, ignoring the aspect that their source must have all they have
and more, or else their first of all material, and then, mental and then
spiritual capacities would neither be nor be integrated, nor controllable nor
subject to intelligible thought without residue.
If then the spirit of man, as originally made,
freely operates on some desire, to be sure, then the freedom may or may not
depart or be compromised, depending on the relationship to reality of that
desire.
In this case, waywardness makes the person's
spiritual finger-print, with the dynamic of the force of sin, and this is
categorically when the sin is directly or indirectly do ditch God.
There is however, in many as first made free in
the image of God, no spiritual print to make it so. He did it freely, listening
as he would, considering as he might, and not because he was made to do so.
Otherwise, it is a case of confounding and confusing result with cause, and
importing a fallen system as a criterion for one unfallen.
This simply fidelity to model of man as made, and
expressed in the Bible. God knows the end for all who are made and who come,
as surely AS IF they were envisaged free, and observed in the essence of an
investigatory mind. He sees past appearances to reality, past pathology to
actuality.
However, the simplicity of it all is just this,
that God KNOWS His own, and has made ALL in His image and WOULD HAVE all
(Colossians 1:19ff.), yes whether they be in heaven or on earth, to be
reconciled to Himself. This we know, on the biblical model, because He says so.
Though their sin, from which none since the first
because of the fall (Romans 5) is free, makes a need for a divine
intervention (as in John 3 and 6), this is not a selection based on a mystery,
except in this one thing (for it is stated what He wants - ALL), that God COULD
have such a love.
This is a splendid finding and needs (even if it
were possible) no amending! Yet let the will, KNOWN and foreknown before sin,
and past its perimeters and constraints, once manage itself in its own
(original, as created) light, and abandoning this, turn to slants and slithers,
then it is as we see. It becomes man Mark II.
And what ? being in this degenerate, it
needs to be regenerate, and God who knows His own, proceeds to do this,
and in mind has done it, and in fact will have done it to all in every time and
clime, so that none who MIGHT have been saved IF ONLY this or that has
been available, WILL fail to be; but that, it is in the hand of God who knows
beyond all 'mights' to actuality without submission to this or that method.
What is certain is this, that whatever His mode
of foreknowing, it was such that it implemented His desire that all might be
freely saved, except those who in the very face of this light, known to Him,
refused it. He sees it beforehand in the heart's motions; and in history as the
news reaches any, in the tumults before Him, life interpreted from beyond mere
thrust of occurrence. TRUTH being what He is, his knowledge IS the truth, and
His foreknowing is the truth concerning any. It involves this, that He would
have all reconciled and come to a knowledge of the truth, and will lament rather
than institute this by any kind of force, distortion (alien to truth),
manipulation or manoeuvre. What is saved is the soul that sinned, and not
something else. What is regenerated is the soul that is found, not shanghaied.
God knows how.
Apologetics shows readily in principle the
criteria: HOW He works it out, as distinct from our envisagement putting HIS
principles together, is HIS business. He keeps to His word and this is pellucid,
consistent and all-embracive of every facet of the spirit of man.
OUR business is never to exclude ANY statement of
God concerning His wishes, works, ways or wisdom, from association with any
other, and NEVER to allow philosophy to imagine that such and such MUST
mean this or that, when we are dealing with reading back into the mind of God
what He says. It is enough to show, for
disfaith's sake, that these things are consistent, cover all the case,
are unique in so doing. The MODE as distinct from the MATTER (the biblical
principles operative in predestination and the logically preceding foreknowledge
- Romans 8:30), is as God has it. The matter Himself, being what He has
declared, is to be preserved in its entirety, as primary data, not accessible to
puny philosophic penchants.
Therefore, ignoring the total certainty of John
3, that God desired NOT to judge the world, but THAT it should be SAVED,
and accordingly in love provided free salvation to faith, sending the infinitely
valued and divine Christ, who came in this schema, scenario to procure it, and
opining some other idea, is a feint. It is acting as if to pretend that He COULD
not have done this, so loved, so much, with such positive and negative poles
operative, and MUST have had applicable inhibitions or restraints or
constraints of some kind, because of imaginations from such and such another
text; and hence is ruinous rationally, ludicrous theologically and an entire
confusion.
What HE MUST have had and done is PRECISELY what
HE says. In fact, since the man-in-sin cannot but think of divine
things except as foolishnessd (I Corinthians 2:14), at the essence level,
relevant for choice, then God may at His sovereign wish and desire, so penetrate
the darkness of man that the light makes him tremble, that he is convicted of
sin, as Christ said would be done by the Spirit of God. In the final resolution
of the matter, the episodic is transcended by the foreknowledge of
God, but only by this in its own reality as what it is TRUTH. Hence
truth moves into the soul and exploring, finds past all finesse of evasion, that
reality which obscured, none but God could have known; and moreover, He HAS
known it before this world was.
The love of God has too much been impugned by
such evasions as theologies sometimes invent. As to the Bible, this is its scope
for that divine desire, compromised by nothing, to bring all to repentance, the
entirety of this race; and this is the restraint even to the heart of weeping
lament, that is His, when the restraint of love in its essential purity, to
which force is subjected, will not breach itself. It WILL not enter in by force,
nor from His own heart will He suffer it to distort. I HAVE NO PLEASURE... He
says, in the death of the wicked, so TURN. HOW OFTEN WOULD I , He says
positively ... but you !
Comparative merit considerations in those who are
to come or not come, are null. This is because they are foreknown, before
sin was. It has nothing to do with their works (as in Romans 9:15-16, Titus
3:5ff., Ephesians 2:1-12). It has to do with the mercy of God which is of the
essential profundity stated. Being chosen for being better is irrelevant. As
foreknown, none is worse. Freedom is total, though of course in a narrow path,
since it is only concerning alliance, allegiance, acceptance and
realisation or otherwise of God, in continuity, that any difference can arise
among men as subjects. At this SPHERE of operations, there is no scope for
estimation of relative goodness; for the evil has yet to come.
In this life-before-sin, or better hypostasis
before sin, before the divine mind, or if you prefer, envisionment or intimate
knowledge before sin, there is no lapse before God. Greater or smaller, in each
there is parity in non-decline, and there is equality in state as at creation.
There is only what the freedom so painstakingly
wrought in making a person in the image of God (who has NO controls over Him,
just as the man-before-sin envisionment has NO thrust one way or the other,
toward the Lord), has secured. Such is the nature with which it is endued, that
of man at the outset, freely made, freely living in free communication with the
Lord. In connection with the whole human race, however, as noted is
hypostasis, that is, there is no biblical reference to man as BEING CREATED
before the creation, but rather is he merely being held in the mind of God with
perfect knowledge before sin in the human race so much as was! The Lord does not
need history to help Him, knowing already the end from the beginning.
God knows all. Thus His is the knowledge of
whether such person or persons (in fact, it covers all the race to be as in
Ephesians 1:4, Isaiah 46:8, being part of all things) is going to sin, is
complete; on whether or not before sin entered the preference was this or that,
is certain; and thus, how choice out of sin is to be enabled, is secure.
Having, by His grace through His own word,
delivered the soul of man from the illusion of mysterious selective
exclusions of divine desire, as if the One who HAS the foreknowledge had ceased
to BE love (and hence incapable of what in the last analysis, fails to come from
this source or to proceed to this realisation), let us finish by noting that
there is no less deliverance for the soul of man from the minds of those,
in endeavouring to speak of biblical truth, invent the notion that man has only
to choose God as one chooses fish on any day. This is categorically denied in
John 1:12 and Ephesians 2:12. It is ONLY in the presence of God that man is
enabled to come, and this only in terms of the foreknowledge of God, who
exercised this before even sin was, man was, the world was, or any other thing
known or unknown, which would pretend either to distort His judgment or restrict
His purity and power on the one hand, or intimidate or qualify His love on the
other. His salvation is not of the flesh nor of blood nor of the will of man. It
is seen in HIM as HE foreknew with HIS knowledge, who KNOWS who are His
(Ephesians 2:19, Romans 8:30, John 10:27-28). Those not so known will never
believe (John 10:26). What is known before time was, is sure when time is.
Blessed be God who would have all to be saved and
come to a knowledge of the truth, who laments rather than distort, who loves
with restraint rather than irresistibly without realisation of what is loved,
and who dismisses all merit in salvation, both by making freedom perfect in kind
in the creation, considering it in reality as it is, and knowing the results,
instituting these with a deftness which, being fashioned in truth, fashions man
accordingly, as love does, never amiss, wedded to wisdom.
*2
See Serenity not Serendipity
Ch.
6,
Deity and
Design ...
Ch.
3,
*3,
and
Ch 8,
It Bubbles Ch.
9,
esp. *1A, for example.
See also index on
validity.
*3
See Romans 1:17ff., Ephesians 4:17ff., Jeremiah 17,
and consult TMR, Crosses and
Losses and SMR Ch.7.
*4
See for example, Errors,
Sects.
.
Islam, like the other sects, uses the authority of the Bible and adds to its
words, others often and basically of opposite schema, meaning and portent. It
has a 'Jesus' divorced from history, and forged and formulated 6 centuries after
the event. It uses this also for elements of its appeal. In this way, it is a
double heresy, partly from the Old Testament distortions, partly from the New,
and amply qualifies as a sect. See
More Marvels ...
Ch. 4, SMR
1080ff., Divine Agenda
Ch. 6, and
index on Islam.