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CHAPTER FOUR
of Things Idly Lost, Divinely Found
Rescued from the Contraband
"I Will Mention the Lovingkindnesses of the LORD"
Isaiah 63:7
Introduction
This lovingkindness of which the text speaks, it is found amid the judgments shown in Isaiah 63:2-6, where
"I looked, but there was none to help,
And I wondered
That there was no one to uphold."Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me...."
God acting as the case required.
In the midst of judgment there is mercy, in the midst of turmoil and confusion, there is the Lord who pursues His way sovereignly, yet with a wonderful relish of desire for His people. Nevertheless, let them not abuse His grace, despise His mercy, or play with His purity!
He even foretells a special day when He will show mercy, thousands of years in advance (as in Zechariah 12:10-13:1), and how, both as to the ground of it and the manner of it. Mercy mingles with judgment, as salvation with guilt, and all these elements play upon the surface of this planet like a rain, to sprinkle here, inundate there. God is good, indeed
"Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.The humble He guides in judgment,
And the humble He teaches His way," (Psalm 25:8-9)..
Goodness issues from His superabundant grace, where no selfish motive rests, where purity is like an incandescent orb, light irradiating all with penetrating splendour (I Timothy 6). In Him there is non iniquity at all (Deuteronomy 32:4). He is like that. Nothing is needed, emotionally, psychically or otherwise. It is all a matter, in the realm of His going forth, of giving, first to create and then to provide for salvation. Titus puts it so splendidly, concerning these things: not only the hope for eternal life, the divine promise before time began, but the grace for sinners which has appeared to all, as we are "looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our grrat God and Saviour, Jesus Christ."
It is the essence of glory provided for us that the great God became incarnate once only and for all as Jesus the Christ, and that it is with Him that we deal and are dealt with, in the countering of the subversion of sin and the immersion in its maw. The "kindness and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared," and this provided a free entry, "not by works of righteousness that we have done," for it is "according to His mercy that He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit."
This is centralised in this,
"that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs
according to the hope of eternal life."
How well this concords with II Timothy 2:10, which declares that "He has saved us..." with His divine purpose,
"revealed by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who has abolished death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel.."
It is immortality in the final realm where death is abolished, and what an abolition is that! deleting a horror fit for sin. How delightful is this gift and gain, how fitting this accomplishment of God, available even to such as ourselves! That, it IS grace!
It is a grace which is not fitful but final, coded in Christ, captured on the cross, evidenced in His life, shouted in His death, fulfilled in His body not resting to rot, but resurrected as a pathfinder, way-shower and indeed, show-stopper, though many are so blinded that even this predicted and duly fulfilled event, at the date foretold*1, does not reach them. What then of the reaching ? what of eternal life ? to whom does it pertain ?
Follow for a moment an imaginary conversation.
Conversation
Tom is speaking to Frank, and Tom begins.
I love this oceanic splendour Frank.
It is like that of the Lord, clothed in splendour and majesty.
Like the ocean, He is not only clean, but cleansing, and like it also, He absorbs in His grace enormous quantities of sin and guilt, as neutralising agent, as pardon plant, where issues the mercy for mankind, which in His kindness as in Titus 2 and 3, He has seen fit to send to us, like a vast reservoir spilling into the dry land, the massive waters without limits.
Still, it troubles me, Tom, that some are predestined not to share in it, I mean, you see that in Romans 8:30, don't you.
There is always a result, Frank. That declares that fact.
A result of what, then, Tom, since the love of God has a height and depth which passes all concepts of limits as in Ephesians 3 ?
Frank, when God says that He would have ALL THINGS to be reconciled to Himself, and repeats this, indicating that this applies whether in heaven or on earth, you had better believe it. Thatg's ion Colossians 1:19 and on.
I do. That is why I am troubled.
Excellent, at last someone who believes what is written, and starts there, instead of contradicting it in a sort of illogical frenzy.
But it is difficult Tom, when some are excluded ... oh, I see, that is the result.
Yes, and results are quite certain, when God is concerned. He does not wobble, indecisive, nor does some ultimate neurosis affect or even afflict Him, since He knows reason, result, in the systems He has created, His own desire, without limit in His wisdom, perception or goodness; and what He has found in advance, becomes fact in the end.
HOW, Tom, then is it all worked out ?
It is best to leave to God the way He operates, though the Bible reveals the basic ingredients in thsi case. I mean, the techniques, technicalities, forms if you will, that is the very nature of God. It is why He acts, on what principles, that is important. Of course, if someone wants to make a challenge in this or any other field, it is readily answered, and this has been done repeatedly in the seven volume work,
ON PREDESTINATION and FOREKNOWLEDGE,
LIBERTY and NECESSITY,
RESPONSIBILITY, DUTY and CREATIVITY.
In fact, the Bible provides the only possible answer on the topic of a liberty which is such indeed, and not just the result of some limitation, direction or meaninglessness, as there shown repeatedly.
Sure, but my concern is not how liberty is possible, since I know it and can see the endless dilemmas of those who seek to despatch God and His love, and yet retain a liberty which counts for actuality, not just a word. My concern is where it comes in, in practice, and how predestination does not pre-empt it, just when it is God who enables it!
If you assess an exam paper and mark it, and list the results, does this mean that you had to do it, and had not real freedom to judge in terms of your own principles ?
No, of course not, Tom, but when the results are out, it is all over.
True, but what went INTO the results BEFORE they were out, both in terms of time on the way to the result, and effort and the grounds of judgment, this is the necessary field for understanding.
Oh, I see, you mean that the God of pity and precision does not mess things up, and knowing what is rightly so aligned, in terms of liberty on the one hand, and His own principles on the other, is what is so predestined.
Correct. SINCE therefore He STATES repeatedly His principle of love, desiring ALL to be reconciled, and of seeking, that He would not have the world judged but saved, while specifying the ground for salvation, and the result of its rejection: it is no sort of appraisal to simply reject this statement. THAT is so close to simple rebellion that it shakes me a little, seeing how many do just that!
Leave the shaking for a moment, Tom, what eliminates some, who are thus predestined out ?
John 3:19 tells us this in the very context of His aims and desires. It is the differential rejection, or more precisely at that point, ultimate preference for darkness, in the presence of His light, truth, reasonableness and sacrificial provision in pity, which seals the matter.
How is that worked out ?
In foreknowledge, and it says so (Romans 8:30).
How is the foreknowledge found ?
God knows all, discerns all, or as the Psalm 11 puts it, His eyes behold, His eyelids try, they test each one of the children of man. The divine Spirit who created all is well aware of all that is in them, and how they operate, and what constitutes preference and what does not. It is not so difficult when your knowledge is infinite; and in fact, that is why I am so delighted that I do not have to judge, for perfect wisdom and knowledge is an excellent prelude to judgment; and it is God alone who has that. When it says that God is judge Himself (Acts 10:42,17:31, Psalm 50:6), this is music to my ears
Well then, I agree, but II don't mean to ask in terms of the form of God, HOW He does it, but in what the matter is determined.
The term 'determined' is quite sound here, but one needs to remove any shadow of thought that it incorporates something less than personal, as in determinism, a mere intellectual rubbish (as seen in Repent or Perish Ch. 7 and Christ Incomparable ... Ch. 2). GOD IS PERSONAL, and His principles are His, not some overhang above Him. As He says, I AM WHO I AM,in Exodus 3:14: self-existent, unincorporated, eternal, without limit, inventor of time, beyond it, construing all its events and episodes (even our computers scoff at mere quantities of knowledge), subject to nothing, He is not without the data!
But what of the principles for their organisation, Tom ?
God does not alter. Hence when Christ - who being in the form of God considered it nothing to be snatched at to be equal with God as in Philippians 2, and for that matter, IS the I AM, in His trinitarian beauty as in John 8:58 - came to earth and spoke, that is just the way God is and has been, in spirit and in reality. IF, said He, you had not seen the works and heard the words which no other man ever spoke, then you would not have had sin; but now your guilt remains (as in John 15:21ff.), it is perfectly clear. He WOULD like to have all saved, and His fairness is profound and original. He does not foul up what He SEEKS! He is no mere man, but became one so that provision might be made for all, and some might be found, paid for in their life and lodgings to be, and shown the way home, which He first took as the great exemplar and Saviour, both, as in I Corinthians 15:20.
You mean in His own way, in infinitude before our time even existed, God knew who in the freedom He had so munificently and magnificently created, was for Him and His grace and His beauty of holiness, and who was not.
Of course, since we were chosen in Christ before time began (Ephesians 1:4). It all depends on Him, but it is He also who makes the principles apply to us. Such is His own will.
So ALL His principles as seen in the whole Bible and in Christ, were at work, and He Himself being so disposed, disposed what had to be disposed, according to truth.
What else! All His ways are truth (Deuteronomy 32:4, Daniel 4:37). Indeed, Christ IS the truth as in John 14:6 and tells it as in John 8:40 and 12:48-50, right from the Father Himself. Indeed, only when the speaker is past all limits, clouds, personal or propositional, is truth even possible. It is from Him we get it, as a gift. It is beyond freedom but not contrary to it. He KNOWS.
Then Christ, being a member of the Trinity, was before incarnation, present in predestination.
Naturally, or if you prefer, supernaturally!
Then His heart was not different then, and all that He showed was operative then, in principle ?
He does not alter (Habakkuk 3:6, Malachi 3:6, Psalm 102:21-28). THAT is why His will is secure.
Then before time, and hence sin, was in the world, before the world even itself was, before man ever breathed or thought, there was divine knowledge, there were the self-same divine principles, there the results, all attained in wisdom, none deviating from the divine specifications, were already clear, time a mere domain of creation. None of all who would ever be, are lost except for this horrid and differential preference for darkness; and this is not only known to God in eternity, of all those concerned. but will be implemented as foreknown, in predestination. This it is which guards against all evil, error, confusion, and is the friend of sinners, for it expresses the mind of God, whose love is such that He IS love, nothing contrary affirmable concerning His will. It is not founded on force, so those who desire it not before all time, being so foreknown, are not found.
Oh I see. That is the certainty that this love of God is not confused, as if man being a sinner in some way were exempted from hope, in some inglorious incertitude, some specious mystery, freed from the divine statements, principles and desire. Sinner now, known before sin, man is appointed in terms of the divine desire that ALL be reconciled, and left out on one stated ground only, namely this: differential desire for darkness as in John 3:19. I WOULD but YOU would not! (as in SMR Appendix B).
Is this, in some way, an harassment of liberty, that some are made with this dark desire incorporated in the poisoned bosom, so that it is then simply left to work out its own shame ?
If this were so, God would not have made man in His own image, which has no inherent sin in it. Instead, this would have meant that He merely manufactured beings that were as determined as clockwork. That is not scriptural. It is in His own free image that man is made. They are not free illimitably, for you cannot make God, since He was there before anything made; but liberty in specified areas can be made, such as terms of desired relationship with God, and its outcome, known to God, and freely implemented.
I see. You know I think there is this strange tendency in some theologians, to imagine that God has some secret desire to exclude, despite the fact He states the precise opposite. There is NO MYSTERY, for He states what are His principles, His desire, and what is the cut-off consideration.
That is a vital point. Take some who follow Calvin's 'horrible decree', and imagine that this means that God has some secret, one could almost say shame (for the horrible), but in any case some secret will which fashions things quite differently from His repeated statements of desire and intent. They think this gives missions a flavour (they die without hope if you do not go), and a special sanctity (in going, you save souls from a hell that otherwise comes). But is God to be dispossessed of the principles He enunciates concerning all ? By whom then, and on what authority! The Gospel is the only way, and Christ only is He who has paid for it, bankrupt are all men before God, and grace only and unmeshed saves any soul, and it is God who effectually applies it by His word and Spirit. That does not even have anything to do with whom it selectively reaches. That is anterior, in foreknowledge, even before predestination encapsulated what that knowledge is.
Whether you go with Calvin's horror in your ears, on the one hand, or with Christ's untainted love, free and open to all and in no way excluding any, having all power, not dashed because of circumstances, but effectual, because only by differential preference on their own part, foreknown before they even acted, and dependent not on their works but on divine knowledge, can any be finally lost: you go. You rely on the power of God. You are an emissary of His passion and provision. You go; it comes.
What then in both cases ? Therefore you preach because it is commanded, because the love of God constrains you, because you desire deliverance as soon as possible, because you known not at all how God will act, but going in obedience, find out. HE in either case has chosen His own, and in either case, you will through preaching hope to find some, while others find more.
The Gospel is effectual where love finds its place, as foreknown, and the love that sent Christ sending you, has provided Him to achieve salvation, now done, and you to broadcast it, is operative in either case, except for one thing.
What is that ?
It is simply that in the Calvin case, there is a horrid mystery, something inscrutable, not as to the way in which God works, His own modes, but as to results and cause. WHY are some lost ? Inscrutable. That, it is a horror; for the real horrid decree, it is nothing from the Lord who is love, and nothing in Him is contrary to it, working to inhibit its application and fulfilment. It is simply its invention by Calvin - not that he is the only one so drawn amiss and awry.
So there is no horrible decree ?
Only that specified gratuitously from the mind of Calvin, and in his own theology: it is this which should perish. Alas theologians are not infallible! It is the word of God which has that quality.
But as to souls, none is going to perish because of a stunting in the love of God, mystesrious or otherwise, and because of withholding. Love is never a forcer, either by arrant tyranny or unscrupulous tampering, by drugs, or by devices. Love requires liberty, or it is merely predisposition, like a device, meaning nothing.
Liberty comes or goes, here or there. God as the maker of liberty has done something it is not even possible for man to do; for it is a spirit which has this power, and any workings dependent on anything of man or his ways, will or disposition, however generated, merely more or less astutely avoid liberty, and implement the will of man as maker. This is the horror of the antichrist figure who manipulates financially and with a horrid strength: one leaves the horror to man; he is good at it. God judges, but the love is His, and horror the invention of man.
To be sure, when you break anything, even a beautiful vase, it is a saddening error. When man breaks with God, in the liberty of divine foreknowledge, which history acknowledges, despite the love God states concerning His own will and ways, then that is the ultimate horror. It is wrought by man, contradistinct from the primary love of God, but inflicting on itself the judgment due man from the outset of his fall, now the more final and fatal because even mercy is mischievously omitted in the heart of man as foreknown.
So the only actual difference between a horrible decree type of concept in some missionary, and a love of God belief, one as ample as He states, is one thing. The one does not carry on in the stated dimensions of divine love, and the other does.
You can say this: God's name and character and will is precious, as is everything about Him. To preserve His name from this sort of limit, to keep it from emplacement in it this sort of 'mystery', rather than that of the very pure love and splendour of His being, when such an action flatly contradicts His written word: this is vitally important.
Is that why you are so concerned that the Presbyterian Church of Australia, in 1991, stated that the Declaratory Statement added nothing to the Confession ?
Of course, for I hate to see a wonder of precision, like the basic thrust of the 1901 Constitution of that Church, partly annulled by such an invasion. It was to preserve things for tender consciences that this emphasis on the fact that God would have none to perish, was statedly instituted. To annul it in this way, concerning another document, a Confession which nowhere states this, is nothing but a coup, an invasion, an unconstitutional re-alignment. It is the name of God which is at stake. We all make errors; but let us not wilfully add to them, let alone by changing the agreement formula of the constitution of an entire Church. I remember one of the main leaders in the days when the Uniting Church left the Presbyterian, saying that Calvinism seemed the only way for the Presbyterians to go on from the mess which the invasion of liberalism had made of the Church in the preceding years, and while he and some others did not believe in this Calvinism, yet they would follow it.
This attitude of God is so frequently put in so many places and ways, with some many implications such as the weeping of Jesus as in Matthew 23:37, and the sorrow of the Lord as in Jeremiah 48, for Moab, that to exclude this genre from the basic doctrinal ground of the Church is like robbery. How could one agree to accept such a word. It is sad that no one arises to restore the constitution from such arid and intemperate assault.
Let's leave that in the good Lord's hands. So any missionary should be doing His duty in response to command, doing it knowing only God can save any, waiting on the Lord to do the works, preaching the Gospel with hope and in love, emphasising the mercy of God and that man alone is responsible for his own predicament and condition; but when the Bible is followed, there is this addition, that it is entirely a misuse of the liberty of man, and nothing unknown, which ultimately excludes. There is no other responsibility, temporal or eternal; there is no escape from responsibility, no mystery in which to repose as if there were some strange addition to the Gospel of the love and mercy of God: man alone, each one alone, is entirely responsible for any consignment to hell, and His own preference is the criterion, divinely stated, in some and not in others, at the ultimate level, known before sin was as in Ephesians 1:4.
Indeed! The profundity of the divine sorrow for lost man, the extravagant clouds of divine desire as in the early Chapters of Jeremiah, and epitomised in Jeremiah 17, when the simplest way back was used as a test: this is not because of a mystery, but because of man who even at that last opportunity, hardened his heart while the Lord amplified His desire for mercy towards it. It is not the His will, for He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he should turn. It is He who puts His own principles above yearning, and will not tamper with liberty to make a manipulative mission out of it. Love issues in glory, but is tempered in self-control, thus maintaining its purity; and God's own purity is infinite, glorious, divine.
Arminians tend to put autonomy in man, not responsibility merely, and Calvinists tend to put mystery into God, where He has stated His mind clearly and repeatedly; but neither simply abide in the limited but real liberty in man, together with the unlimited and entire sovereignty and love in God. Yet it is precisely here that the distemper of all merely human philosophy is total; it is here the sovereign majesty of God is shown, for all components are thus explained, in predestination and will, in God and man, and nowhere else*2. Fancy thus dispelling some of the Lord's own glory and His wisdom when it is so freely available!
When a man is born again in this earth, it is not an impulse of His will which does it (John 1:3), and it is the sovereign work of God (John 6:65); and again, it is a realisation of the universal love of God in its issuing purity, that any are saved. Of this, the results are many, in the loaded world, burdened with sin, as the God above human pathology, implements the truth of His love towards any, saving those foreknown. Informed preference for darkness is the stated and elemental divine resolution (John 3:16-19), and it is that of man and not of God who would have all. Man is entirely and in respects to blame, and it is only over the stricken sacrifice of Christ that any may find the hell of final exclusion. Hatred of evil can focus as a result (Romans 9) on those who have preferred it in the ultimate, and of course this comes into the secondary layer, that of predestination, based on foreknowledge. It is here the divine choice appears, in election.
Foreknown to God, that is the crucial differentiation, receipt of this marvel, or another preference, as known to God; and it is all based not in man, but just there, in HIS divine foreknowledge.
That works strongly. In history, then, let everyone seek God knowing that His love is so broad as that, and it is not stuttering or hidden, but real and robust; and seeking God with confidence, let each know there is no headwind of divine opposition, only to hypocrisy. Trust therefore in the Lord, and go away if you will; but if you do not want to go, then come. THIS, it is what the Lord would like, and nothing can stop the reality of His love, of ultimate liberty, so never pity yourself, blame any circumstance, human or divine. Come then.
Man as a race and as individuals, is idly lost, but the scope of the love of God is elemental, so that among mankind, many may be divinely found, rescued from the contraband.
NOTE
See:
Highway of Holiness ... Ch. 4,
Christ the Citadel ... Ch. 2, .
The Christian Prescription Ch. 2,
You see that set out in Ch. 6 of Aspects of the Glory of the God of All Grace, for example. See also index under P.