Jesus leads us to ascribe universality to the divine love
Jesus leads us to ascribe universality to the divine love(TOC)
There is, however, still a third sense, in which Jesus leads us to ascribe universality to the divine love. This is done not so much in explicit form as by the implications of His attitude toward sinful men in general. We must never forget that our Lord was the divine love incarnate, and that consequently what He did, no less than what He taught, is a true revelation adapted to shed light on our problem. If the Son of God was filled with tender compassion for every lost human soul, and grieved even over those whose confirmed unbelief precluded all further hope of salvation, it is plain that there must be in God something corresponding to this. In the parable of the prodigal son the father is represented as continuing to cherish a true affection for his child during the period of the latter's estrangement. It would be hardly in accord with our Lord's intention to press the point that the prodigal was destined to come to repentance, and that, therefore, the father's attitude toward him portrays the attitude of God toward the elect only, and not toward every sinner as such. We certainly have a right to say that the love which God originally bears toward man as created in His image survives in the form of compassion under the reign of sin. This being so, when the sinner comes in contact with the gospel of grace, it is natural for God to desire that he should accept its offer and be saved. We must even assume that over against the sin of rejection of the gospel this love continues to assert itself, in that it evokes from the divine heart sincere sorrow over man's unbelief. But this universal love should be always so conceived as to leave room for the fact that God, for sovereign reasons, has not chosen to bestow upon its objects that higher love which not merely desires, but purposes and works out the salvation of some. It may be difficult to realize from any analogy in our own consciousness how the former can exist without giving rise to the latter; yet we are clearly led to believe that such is the case in God. A logical impossibility certainly is not involved, and our utter ignorance regarding the motives which determine the election of grace should restrain us from forming the rash judgment that, psychologically speaking, the existence of such a love in God for the sinner and the decree of preterition with reference to that same sinner are mutually exclusive. For, let it be remembered, we are confronted with the undeniable fact that this universal love of God, however defined, does not induce Him to send the gospel of salvation to all who are its objects. If the withholding of the gospel is consistent with its truthfulness, then a fortiori the withholding of efficacious grace must be. That there are good reasons for the former is true: but undoubtedly God has also His wise and holy reasons for the latter. The Scriptures do not assert that election and preterition are arbitrary decrees to the mind of God. All they insist upon is that the motives underlying them are inscrutable to us, and have nothing whatever to do with the worthiness or unworthiness of man.
Neither this indiscriminate goodness in the sphere of nature, however, nor the collective love which embraces the world as an organism, nor the love of compassion which God retains for every lost sinner, should be confounded with that fourth and highest form of the divine affection which the Savior everywhere appropriates to the disciples. This is represented under the figure of fatherhood. Notwithstanding all that has been asserted to the contrary by a host of modern writers, an impartial examination of the facts discloses the principle that the fatherhood of God in its specific sense is realized in the kingdom, so that His fatherhood and kingship appear coextensive. Where both are soteriological conceptions, that is, in by far the majority of cases, they cover the disciples only. That the religious sonship begins with discipleship, and is realized in proportion to the progress made in the latter, Jesus more than once affirms in so many words. The extreme form of the modern theory, according to which all men as such, indiscriminately, are the children of God, certainly cannot claim our Lord's authority in its favor. But even the less extreme form of this theory, according to which God is absolutely and equally the Father of all mankind, whilst men may become partially and relatively His children by spiritual transformation after His image, is not in harmony with the facts. Not merely the sonship, also the fatherhood is given an exclusive reference to the disciples. Jesus always speaks of your Father, their Father, never of the Father absolutely, except where the altogether unique trinitarian relation between Himself and God is meant. This is at least the Synoptical usage. In the Johannine discourses it is different. Here the Father is quite frequent as applying to the disciples. But precisely here it is also easy to show that this form of expression rests on an entirely different basis from that of a universal fatherhood of God. It is because the disciples are co-adopted into the relation of love which exists between the Father and the Son that God in a derivative sense becomes to them also the Father, as He is to Christ in a primordial sense. This, therefore, is a widening application of the term, such as would be inconceivable if the idea of a universal fatherhood were the starting point. Besides this, in the fourth Gospel the divine fatherhood is more than once associated with the begetting of believers and consequently a definite, historical beginning assigned to it. The most convincing proof of the correctness of our position lies in this, that our Lord derives certain specific privileges, which He appropriates to the disciples, from the source of God's fatherhood in reference to them. He reminds them that it is natural for the Gentiles, who do not stand in this close relationship to God, to be anxious about meat and drink and clothing; "but your heavenly Father," He adds, "knoweth that ye have need of all these things" (Matthew 6:32).