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THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
By Arthur W. Pink
Chapter 11
DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS
"Yet ye say, The way of the
Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not My way equal? are not
your ways unequal?"
Ezekiel 18:25
A convenient point has
been reached when we may now examine, more definitely, some of the
difficulties encountered and the objections which might be advanced against
what we have written in previous pages. The author deemed it better to
reserve these for a separate consideration, rather than deal with them as he
went along, requiring as that would have done the breaking of the course of
thought and destroying the strict unity of each chapter, or else cumbering
our pages with numerous and lengthy footnotes.
That there are difficulties
involved in an attempt to set forth the truth of God’s sovereignty is
readily acknowledged. The hardest thing of all, perhaps, is to maintain the balance of truth. It is largely a matter of perspective. That God is
sovereign is explicitly declared in Scripture: that man is a responsible
creature is also expressly affirmed in Holy Writ. To define the relationship
of these two truths, to fix the dividing line betwixt them, to show exactly
where they meet, to exhibit the perfect consistency of the one with the
other, is the weightiest task of all. Many have openly declared that it is impossible for the finite mind to harmonize them. Others tell us it is not
necessary or even wise to attempt it. But, as we have remarked in an earlier
chapter, it seems to us more honoring to God to seek in His Word the
solution to every problem. What is impossible to man is possible with God,
and while we grant that the finite mind is limited in its reach, yet, we
remember that the Scriptures are given to us that the man of God may be
"thoroughly furnished," and if we approach their study in
the spirit of humility and of expectancy, then, according unto our faith will
it be unto us.
As remarked above, the
hardest task in this connection is to preserve the balance of truth while
insisting on both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of
the creature. To some of our readers it may appear that in pressing the
sovereignty of God to the lengths we have, man is reduced to a mere puppet.
Hence, to guard against this, they would modify their definitions and
statements relating to God’s sovereignty, and thus seek to blunt the keen
edge of what is so offensive to the carnal mind. Others, while refusing to
weigh the evidence that we have adduced in support of our assertions, may
raise objections which to their minds are sufficient to dispose of the whole
subject. We would not waste time in the effort to refute objections made in
a carping and contentious spirit, but we are desirous of meeting
fairly the difficulties experienced by those who are anxious to
obtain a fuller knowledge of the truth. Not that we deem ourselves able to
give a satisfactory and final answer to every question that might be asked.
Like the reader, the writer knows but "in part" and sees through a
glass "darkly." All that we can do is to examine these
difficulties in the light we now have, in dependence upon the Spirit of God
that we may follow on to know the Lord better.
We propose now to
retrace our steps and pursue the same order of thought as that followed up
to this point. As a part of our "definition" of God’s
sovereignty we affirmed: "To say that God is sovereign is to declare
that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in heaven and earth, so
that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will. .
. The sovereignty of the God of Scripture is absolute, irresistible,
infinite." To put it now in its strongest form, we insist that God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He
pleases: that whatever takes place in time is but the outworking of that
which He decreed in eternity. In proof of this assertion we appeal to the
following scriptures—"But our God is in the heavens:
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased" (Ps. 115:3). "For the Lord of hosts hath
purposed, and who shall disannul it? and His hand is stretched out,
and who shall turn it back?" (Isa. 14:27). "And all the
inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to
His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou?" (Dan. 4:35).
"For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to
whom be glory for ever. Amen" (Rom. 11:36).
The above declarations
are so plain and positive that any comments of ours upon them would simply
be darkening counsel by words without knowledge. Such express statements as
those just quoted, are so sweeping and so dogmatic that all controversy
concerning the subject of which they treat ought for ever to be at an end.
Yet, rather than receive them at their face value, every device of carnal
ingenuity is resorted to so as to neutralize their force. For example, it
has been asked, If what we see in the world today is but the outworking of
God’s eternal purpose, if God’s counsel is NOW being
accomplished, then why did our Lord teach His disciples to pray, "Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven"? Is it not a clear
implication from these words that God’s will is not now being done
on earth? The answer is very simple. The emphatic word in the above clause
is "as." God’s will is being done on earth today, if it
is not, then our earth is not subject to God’s rule, and if it is not
subject to His rule then He is not, as Scripture proclaims Him to be,
"The Lord of all the earth" (Josh. 3:13). But God’s will is not
being done on earth as it is in heaven. How is God’s will
"done in heaven"?—consciously and joyfully. How is it "done
on earth"?—for the most part, unconsciously and sullenly. In heaven
the angels perform the bidding of their Creator intelligently and gladly,
but on earth the unsaved among men accomplish His will blindly and in
ignorance. As we have said in earlier pages, when Judas betrayed the Lord
Jesus and when Pilate sentenced Him to be crucified, they had no conscious
intention of fulfilling God’s decrees yet, nevertheless, unknown to
themselves they did do so!
But again. It has been
objected: If everything that happens on earth is the fulfilling of the
Almighty’s pleasure, if God has fore-ordained—before the foundation of
the world—everything which comes to pass in human history, then why do we
read in Genesis 6:6, "It repented the Lord that He had made man
on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart"? Does not this
language intimate that the antediluvians had followed a course which their
Maker had not marked out for them, and that in view of the fact they had
"corrupted" their way upon the earth, the Lord regretted that
He had ever brought such a creature into existence? Ere drawing such a
conclusion let us note what is involved in such an inference. If the
words "It repented the Lord that He had made man" are regarded in
an absolute sense, then God’s omniscience would be denied,
for in such a case the course followed by man must have been unforeseen by
God in the day that He created him. Therefore it must be evident to every
reverent soul that this language bears some other meaning. We submit that
the words, "It repented the Lord" is an accommodation to
our finite intelligence, and in saying this we are not seeking to escape a
difficulty or cut a knot, but are advancing an interpretation which
we shall seek to show is in perfect accord with the general trend of
Scripture.
The Word of God is
addressed to men, and therefore it speaks the language of men.
Because we cannot rise to God’s level He, in grace, comes down to ours and
converses with us in our own speech. The apostle Paul tells us of how he was
"caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not
possible (margin) to utter" (2 Cor. 12:4) Those on earth could not
understand the vernacular of heaven. The finite cannot comprehend the
Infinite, hence the Almighty deigns to couch His revelation in terms we may
understand. It is for this reason the Bible contains many anthropomorphisms—i.e.,
representations of God in the form of man. God is Spirit, yet the Scriptures
speak of Him as having eyes, ears, nostrils, breath, hands etc., which is
surely an accommodation of terms brought down to the level of human
comprehension.
Again; we read in
Genesis 18:20, 21, "And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and
Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down
now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry
of it, which is come up unto Me; and if not, I will know." Now,
manifestly, this is an anthropologism—God, speaking in human language. God knew the conditions which prevailed in Sodom, and His eyes had
witnessed its fearful sins, yet He is pleased to use terms here that are
taken from our own vocabulary.
Again; in Genesis 22:12
we read, "And He (God) said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither
do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God,
seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me." Here
again, God is speaking in the language of men, for He "knew" before He tested Abram exactly how the patriarch would act. So too
the expression used of God so often in Jeremiah (7:13 etc.), of Him
"rising up early", is manifestly an accommodation of terms.
Once more: in the
parable of the vineyard Christ Himself represents its Owner as saying,
"Then said the Lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send My
beloved Son: it may be they will reverence Him when they see
Him" (Luke 20:13), and yet, it is certain that God knew perfectly well
that the "husbandmen" of the vineyard—the Jews—would not "reverence
His Son" but, instead, would "despise and reject" Him, as His
own Word had declared!
In the same way we
understand the words in Genesis 6:6— "It repented the Lord
that He had made man on the earth"—as an accommodation of terms to
human comprehension. This verse does not teach that God was confronted with
an unforeseen contingency, and therefore regretted that He had made
man, but it expresses the abhorrence of a holy God at the awful
wickedness and corruption into which man had fallen. Should there be any
doubt remaining in the minds of our readers as to the legitimacy and
soundness of our interpretation, a direct appeal to Scripture should
instantly and entirely remove it—"The Strength of Israel (a Divine
title) will not lie nor repent: for He is not a man, that He should
repent" (1 Sam. 15:29)! "Every good and perfect gift is
from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with Whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1 :17)!
Careful attention to
what we have said above will throw light on numerous other passages which,
if we ignore their figurative character and fail to note that God applies
to Himself human modes of expression, will be obscure and perplexing.
Having commented at such length upon Genesis 6:6 there will be no need to
give such a detailed exposition of other passages which belong to the same
class, yet, for the benefit of those of our readers who may be anxious for
us to examine several other scriptures, we turn to one or two more.
One scripture which we
often find cited in order to overthrow the teaching advanced in this book is
our Lord’s lament over Jerusalem: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Matt.
23:37). The question is asked, Do not these words show that the Saviour acknowledged
the defeat of His mission, that as a people the Jews resisted all His
gracious overtures toward them? In replying to this question, it should
first be pointed out that our Lord is here referring not so much to His own mission, as He is upbraiding the Jews for having in all ages rejected
His grace—this is clear from His reference to the "prophets."
The Old Testament bears full witness of how graciously and patiently Jehovah
dealt with His people, and with what extreme obstinacy, from first to last,
they refused to be "gathered" unto Him, and how in the end He
(temporarily) abandoned them to follow their own devices, yet, as the same
Scriptures declare, the counsel of God was not frustrated by their
wickedness, for it had been foretold (and therefore, decreed) by Him—see,
for example, 1 Kings 8:33.
Matthew 23:37 may well
be compared with Isaiah 65:2 where the Lord says, "I have spread
out My hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way
that was not good, after their own thoughts." But, it may be asked, Did
God seek to do that which was in opposition to His own eternal purpose? In
words borrowed from Calvin we reply, "Though to our apprehension the
will of God is manifold and various, yet He does not in Himself will things
at variance with each other, but astonishes our faculties with His various
and ‘manifold’ wisdom, according to the expression of
Paul, till we shall be enabled to understand that He mysteriously wills what
now seems contrary to His will." As a further illustration of the same
principle we would refer the reader to Isaiah 5:1-4: "Now will I sing
to my well Beloved a song of my Beloved touching His vineyard. My well
Beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And He fenced it, and
gethered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine and
built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and He
looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild
grapes. And now, ) inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray
you, betwixt Me and My vineyard. What could have been done more to My
vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it
should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" Is it
not plain from this language that God reckoned Himself to have done enough
for Israel to warrant an expectation—speaking after the manner of men—of
better returns? Yet, is it not equally evident when Jehovah says here
"He looked that it should bring forth grapes" that He is
accommodating Himself to a form of finite expression? And, so also when He
says "What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not
done in it ?" we need to take note that in the previous
enumeration of what He had done—the "fencing" etc.—He
refers only to external privileges, means, and opportunities,
which had been bestowed upon Israel, for, of course, He could even
then have taken away from them their stony heart and given them a new heart,
even a heart of flesh, as He will yet do, had He so pleased.
Perhaps we should link
up with Christ’s lament over Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37, His tears over
the City, recorded in Luke 19:41: "He beheld the city, and wept over
it." In the verses which immediately follow, we learn what it
was that occasioned His tears: "Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou,
at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now
they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine
enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep
thee in on every side." It was the prospect of the fearful judgment
which Christ knew was impending. But did those tears make manifest a
disappointed God? Nay, verily. Instead, they displayed a perfect Man. The
Man Christ Jesus was no emotionless stoic, but One "filled with
compassion." Those tears expressed the sinless sympathies of His real
and pure humanity. Had He not "wept", He had been less than
human. Those "tears" were one of many proofs that "in all things
it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren" (Heb. 2:17).
In chapter one we have
affirmed that God is sovereign in the exercise of His love, and in
saying this we are fully aware that many will strongly resent the statement
and that, furthermore, what we have now to say will probably meet with more
criticism than anything else advanced in this book. Nevertheless, we must be
true to our convictions of what we believe to be the teaching of Holy
Scripture, and we can only ask our readers to examine diligently in the
light of God’s Word what we here submit to their attention.
One of the most popular
beliefs of the day is that God loves everybody, and the very fact that it is
so popular with all classes ought to be enough to arouse the
suspicions of those who are subject to the Word of Truth. God’s Love
toward all His creatures is the fundamental and favorite tenet of
Universalists, Unitarians, Theosophists, Christian Scientists,
Spiritualists, Russellites, etc. No matter how a man may live—in open
defiance of Heaven, with no concern whatever for his soul’s eternal
interests, still less for God’s glory, dying, perhaps with an oath on his
lips,—notwithstanding, God loves him, we are told. So widely has this
dogma been proclaimed, and so comforting is it to the heart which is
at enmity with God, we have little hope of convincing many of their error.
That God loves everybody, is, we may say, quite a modern belief. The
writings of the church-fathers, the Reformers or the Puritans will (we
believe) be searched in vain for any such concept. Perhaps the late D. L.
Moody—captivated by Drummond’s "The Greatest Thing in the
World"—did more than anyone else last century to popularize this
concept.
It has been customary
to say God loves the sinner, though He hates his sin. [1]
But that is a
meaningless distinction. What is there in a sinner but sin? Is it not true
that his "whole head is sick", and his "whole heart
faint", and that "from the sole of the foot even unto the head
there is no soundness" in him? (Isa. 1:5,6). Is it true
that God loves the one who is despising and rejecting His
blessed Son? God is Light as well as Love, and therefore His love must be a holy love. To tell the Christ-rejector that God loves him is to cauterize his
conscience, as well as to afford him a sense of security in his sins. The
fact is, that the love of God, is a truth for the saints only, and to
present it to the enemies of God is to take the children’s bread and cast
it to the dogs. With the exception of John 3:16, not once in the four
Gospels do we read of the Lord Jesus—the perfect Teacher— telling
sinners that God loved them! In the book of Acts, which records the
evangelistic labors and messages of the apostles, God’s love is never
referred to at all! But, when we come to the Epistles, which are addressed
to the saints, we have a full presentation of this precious truth—God’s
love for His own. Let us seek to rightly divide the Word of
God and then we shall not be found taking truths which are addressed to
believers and misapplying them to unbelievers. That which sinners need to
have brought before them is, the ineffable holiness, the exacting
righteousness, the inflexible justice and the terrible wrath of God. Risking
the danger of being mis-understood, let us say—and we wish we could say it
to every evangelist and preacher in the country—there is far too much
presenting of Christ to sinners today (by those sound in the faith), and far
too little showing sinners their need of Christ, i.e., their
absolutely ruined and lost condition, their imminent and awful danger of
suffering the wrath to come, the fearful guilt resting upon them in the
sight of God—to present Christ to those who have never been shown their need of Him, seems to us to be guilty of casting pearls before swine. [2]
If it be true that God
loves every member of the human family then why did our Lord tell His
disciples, "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is
that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father. . . . .
If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him"
(John 14:21,23)? Why say "he that loveth Me shall be loved of My
Father" if the Father loves everybody? The same limitation is
found in Proverbs 8:17: "I love them that love Me." Again; we
read, "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity"—not merely
the works of iniquity. Here, then, is a flat repudiation of present teaching
that, God hates sin but loves the sinner; Scripture says, "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity" (Ps. 5:5)! "God is angry with
the wicked every day." "He that believeth not the Son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God"—not "shall abide,"
but even now—"abideth on him" (Ps. 5:5; 7:11 John 3:36). Can God
"love" the one on whom His "wrath" abides? Again; is it
not evident that the words "The love of God which is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:39) mark a limitation, both in the sphere and objects of His
love? Again; is it not plain from the words "Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated" (Rom. 9:13) that God does not love
everybody? Again; it is written, "For whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" (Heb.
12:6). Does not this verse teach that God’s love is restricted to
the members of His own family? If He loves all men without exception, then
the distinction and limitation here mentioned is quite meaningless. Finally,
we would ask, Is it conceivable that God will love the damned in the Lake of
Fire? Yet, if He loves them now He will do so then, seeing that His love
knows no change—He is "without variableness or shadow of
turning"!
Turning now to John
3:16, it should be evident from the passages just quoted, that this verse
will not bear the construction usually put upon it. "God so loved the
world". Many suppose that this means, The entire human race.
But "the entire human race," includes all mankind from Adam till
the close of the earth’s history: it reaches backward as well as forward!
Consider, then, the history of mankind before Christ was born.
Unnumbered millions lived and died before the Saviour came to the earth,
lived here "having no hope and without God in the world", and
therefore passed out into an eternity of woe. If God "loved" them, where is the slightest proof thereof? Scripture declares, "Who
(God) in times past (from the tower of Babel till after Pentecost) suffered all nations to walk in their own ways" (Acts 14:16). Scripture declares
that, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God
gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
convenient" (Rom. 1:28). To Israel God said, "You only have
I known of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3:2). In view of these
plain passages, who will be so foolish as to insist that God in the past
loved all mankind! The same applies with equal force to the future. Read
through the book of Revelation, noting especially chapters 8 to 19, where we
have described the judgments which will yet be poured out from heaven on
this earth. Read of the fearful woes, the frightful plagues, the vials of
God’s wrath, which shall be emptied on the wicked. Finally, read the 20th
chapter of the Revelation, the great white throne judgment, and see if you
can discover there the slightest trace of love.
But the objector comes
back to John 3:16 and says, "World means world". True,
but we have shown that "the world" does not mean the whole human
family. The fact is that "the world" is used in a general way.
When the brethren of Christ said, "Shew Thyself to the world" (John 7:4), did they mean "shew Thyself to all mankind"? When the Pharisees said, "Behold, the world is gone after
Him" (John 12:19), did they mean that "all the human
family" were flocking after Him? When the apostle wrote,
"Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world" (Rom.
1:8), did he mean that the faith of the saints at Rome was the subject of
conversation by every man, woman, and child on the earth? When Revelation 13:3 informs us that "all the world wondered after the
beast", are we to understand that there will be no exceptions? What of
the godly Jewish Remnant, who will be slain (Rev. 20:4) rather than submit?
These, and other passages which might be quoted, show that the term
"the world" often has a relative rather than an absolute force.
Now the first thing to
note in connection with John 3:16 is that our Lord was there speaking to
Nicodemus—a man who believed that God’s mercies were confined to
his own nation. Christ there announced that God’s love in giving His Son
had a larger object in view, that it flowed beyond the boundary of
Palestine, reaching out to "regions beyond". In other words, this
was Christ’s announcement that God had a purpose of grace toward Gentiles
as well as Jews. "God so loved the world", then, signifies, God’s
love is international in its scope. But does this mean that God loves
every individual among the Gentiles? Not necessarily, for as we have seen,
the term "world" is general rather than specific, relative rather
than absolute. The term "world" in itself is not conclusive. To
ascertain who are the objects of God’s love other passages where His
love is mentioned must be consulted.
In 2 Peter 2:5 we read
of "the world of the ungodly". If then, there is a
world of the ungodly there must also be a world of the godly. It
is the latter who are in view in the passages we shall now briefly consider.
"For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth
life unto the world" (John 6:33). Now mark it well,
Christ did not say, "offereth life unto the world", but
"giveth". What is the difference between the two terms? This: a
thing which is "offered" may be refused, but a thing
"given", necessarily implies its acceptance. If it is not accepted, it is not "given", it is simply proffered. Here, then,
is a scripture that positively states Christ giveth life (spiritual, eternal
life) "unto the world." Now He does not give eternal
life to the "world of the ungodly" for they will not have it, they
do not want it. Hence, we are obliged to understand the reference in
John 6:33 as being to "the world of the godly", i.e., God’s own
people.
One more: in 2 Corinthians
5:19 we read, "To wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
Himself". What is meant by this is clearly defined in the words
immediately following, "not imputing their trespasses unto
them". Here again, "the world" cannot mean "the
world of the ungodly", for their "trespasses" are "imputed"
to them, as the judgment of the Great White Throne will yet show. But 2 Corinthians
5:19 plainly teaches there is a "world" which are "reconciled",
reconciled unto God, because their trespasses are not reckoned to
their account, having been borne by their Substitute. Who then are they?
Only one answer is fairly possible—the world of God’s people!
In like manner, the
"world" in John 3:16 must, in the final analysis, refer to the
world of God’s people. Must we say, for there is no other
alternative solution. It cannot mean the whole human race, for one
half of the race was already in hell when Christ came to earth. It is unfair
to insist that it means every human being now living, for every other
passage in the New Testament where God’s love is mentioned limits
it to His own people—search and see! The objects of God’s love in
John 3:16 are precisely the same as the objects of Christ’s love in John
13:1: "Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His
time was come, that He should depart out of this world unto the Father,
having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto
the end". We may admit that our interpretation of John 3:16 is no novel
one invented by us, but one almost uniformly given by the Reformers and
Puritans, and many others since them. [3]
Coming now to chapter
three—The Sovereignty of God in Salvation—innumerable are the questions
which might be raised here. It is strange, yet it is true, that many who
acknowledge the sovereign rule of God over material things, will cavil and
quibble when we insist that God is also sovereign in the spiritual realm.
But their quarrel is with God and not with us. We have given scripture in
support of everything advanced in these pages, and if that will not satisfy
our readers it is idle for us to seek to convince them. What we write now is
designed for those who do bow to the authority of Holy Writ, and for
their benefit we propose to examine several other scriptures which have
purposely been held over for this chapter.
Perhaps the one passage
which has presented the greatest difficulty to those who have seen that
passage after passage in Holy Writ plainly teaches the election of a limited
number unto salvation is 2 Peter 3:9: "not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance".
The first thing to be
said upon the above passage is that, like all other scripture, it must be
understood and interpreted in the light of its context. What we have quoted
in the preceding paragraph is only part of the verse, and the last part of
it at that! Surely it must be allowed by all that the first half of the
verse needs to be taken into consideration. In order to establish what these
words are supposed by many to mean, viz., that the words "any" and
"all" are to be received without any qualification, it must be
shown that the context is referring to the whole human race! If
this cannot be shown, if there is no premise to justify this, then
the conclusion also must be unwarranted. Let us then ponder the first
part of the verse.
"The Lord is not
slack concerning His promise". Note "promise" in the singular
number, not "promises." What promise is in view? The
promise of salvation? Where, in all Scripture, has God ever promised to save the whole human race!! Where indeed? No, the "promise"
here referred to is not about salvation. What then is it? The
context tells us.
"Knowing this,
first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their
own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming?" (vv. 3,4).
The context then refers to God’s promise to send back His beloved Son. But
many long centuries have passed, and this promise has not yet been
fulfilled. True, but long as the delay may seem to us, the interval
is short in the reckoning of God. As the proof of this we are
reminded, "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one
day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day" (v. 8). In God’s reckoning of time, less than two days have yet
passed since He promised to send back Christ.
But more, the delay in
the Father sending back His beloved Son is not only due to no
"slackness" on His part, but it is also occasioned by His
"longsuffering". His long-suffering to whom? The verse we are now
considering tells us: "but is longsuffering to usward". And
whom are the "usward"?—the human race, or God’s own people? In
the light of the context this is not an open question upon which each
of us is free to form an opinion. The Holy Spirit has defined it. The
opening verse of the chapter says, "This second Epistle, beloved, I
now write unto you". And, again, the verse immediately preceding
declares, "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing
etc.," (v. 8). The "usward" then are the "beloved"
of God. They to whom this Epistle is addressed are "them that have obtained (not "exercised", but "obtained" as God’s
sovereign gift) like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1:11). Therefore we
say there is no room for a doubt, a quibble or an argument—the "usward"
are the elect of God.
Let us now quote the
verse as a whole: "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as
some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Could
anything be clearer? The "any" that God is not willing should
perish, are the "usward" to whom God is "longsuffering",
the "beloved" of the previous verses. 2 Peter 3:9 means,
then, that God will not send back His Son until "the fulness of the
Gentiles be come in" (Rom. 11:25). God will not send back Christ till
that "people" whom He is now "taking out of the
Gentiles" (Acts 15:14) are gathered in. God will not send back His Son
till the Body of Christ is complete, and that will not be till the ones whom
He has elected to be saved in this dispensation shall have been brought to
Him. Thank God for His "longsuffering to us-ward". Had Christ come
back twenty years ago the writer had been left behind to perish in His sins.
But that could not be, so God graciously delayed the Second Coming.
For the same reason He is still delaying His Advent. His decreed purpose is
that all His elect will come to repentance, and repent they shall. The present interval of grace will not end until the last of the
"other sheep" of John 10:16 are safely folded,—then will Christ
return,
In expounding the
sovereignty of God the Spirit in Salvation we have shown that His power
is irresistible, that, by His gracious operations upon and within
them, He "compels" God’s elect to come to Christ. The
sovereignty of the Holy Spirit is set forth not only in John 3:8 where we
are told "The wind bloweth where it pleaseth. . . . . .so is every one
that is born of the Spirit," but is affirmed in other passages as well.
In 1 Corinthians 12:11 we read, "But all these worketh that one and the
self same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will." And again; we read in Acts 16:6, 7— "Now when they had gone
throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the
Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia. After they were come to Mysia,
they assayed to go in to Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not." Thus we see how the Holy Spirit interposed His imperial will in
opposition to the determination of the apostles.
But, it is objected
against the assertion that the will and power of the Holy Spirit are irresistible that there are two passages, one in the Old Testament and the other in
the New, which appear to militate against such a conclusion. God said of
old, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man" (Gen.
6:3), and to the Jews Stephen declared, "Ye stiffnecked and
uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy
Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not
your fathers persecuted?" (Acts 7:51, 52). If then the Jews
"resisted" the Holy Spirit, how can we say His power is irresistible? The answer is found in Nehemiah 9:30—"Many years didst Thou
forbear them, and testifiedst against them by Thy Spirit in Thy Prophets: yet would they not give ear." It was the external operations
of the Spirit which Israel "resisted." It was the Spirit speaking
by and through the prophets to which they "would not give
ear." It was not anything which the Holy Spirit wrought in them that
they "resisted," but the motives presented to them by the
inspired messages of the prophets. Perhaps it will help the reader to catch
our thought better if we compare Matthew 11:20-24—"Then began
He to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done,
because they repented not. Woe unto thee Chorazin!" etc. Our
Lord here pronounces woe upon these cities for their failure to repent because
of the "mighty works" (miracles) which He had done in their
sight, and not because of any internal operations of His
grace! The same is true of Genesis 6:3. By comparing 1 Peter 3:18-20 it will
be seen that it was by and through Noah that God’s Spirit
"strove" with the antediluvians. The distinction noted above was
ably summarized by Andrew Fuller (another writer long deceased from whom our
moderns might learn much) thus: "There are two kinds of
influences by which God works on the minds of men. First, That which is
common, and which is effected by the ordinary use of motives presented to
the mind for consideration; Secondly, That which is special and
supernatural. The one contains nothing mysterious, anymore than the
influence of our words and actions on each other; the other is such a
mystery that we know nothing of it but by its effects—The former ought to
be effectual; the latter is so." The work of the Holy Spirit upon or towards men is always "resisted," by them; His work within is always successful. What saith the scriptures? This: "He which
hath begun a good work IN you, will finish it" (Phil. 1:6)
The next question to be
considered is: Why preach the Gospel to every creature? If God the
Father has predestined only a limited number to be saved, if God the Son
died to effect the salvation of only those given to Him by the Father, and
if God the Spirit is seeking to quicken none save God’s elect, then what
is the use of giving the Gospel to the world at large, and where is the
propriety of telling sinners that "Whosoever believeth in Christ
shall not perish but have everlasting life"?
First; it is of great
importance that we should be clear upon the nature of the Gospel
itself. The Gospel is God’s good news concerning Christ and not concerning
sinners,— "Paul a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated unto the Gospel of God . . . . concerning His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord" (Rom. 1:1-3). God would have proclaimed far and wide
the amazing fact that His own blessed Son "became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross." A universal testimony must be borne to
the matchless worth of the person and work of Christ. Note the word
"witness" in Matthew 22:14. The Gospel is God’s
"witness" unto the perfections of His Son. Mark the words of the
apostle: "For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them
that are saved, and in them that perish" (2 Cor.
2:15)!
Concerning the
character and contents of the Gospel the utmost confusion prevails today.
The Gospel is not an "offer" to be bandied around by evangelistic
peddlers. The Gospel is no mere invitation, but a proclamation, a
proclamation concerning Christ; true, whether men believe it or no.
No man is asked to believe that Christ died for him in particular. The
Gospel, in brief, is this: Christ died for sinners, you are a sinner,
believe in Christ, and you shall be saved. In the Gospel, God simply
announces the terms upon which men may be saved (namely, repentance and
faith) and, indiscriminately, all are commanded to fulfill them.
Second; repentance and
remission of sins are to be preached in the name of the Lord Jesus
"unto all the nations" (Luke 24:47), because God’s elect are
"scattered abroad" (John 11:52) among all nations, and it
is by the preaching and hearing of the Gospel that they are called out of
the world. The Gospel is the means which God uses in the saving of His own
chosen ones. By nature God’s elect are children of wrath "even as
others"; they are lost sinners needing a Saviour, and apart from Christ
there is no salvation for them. Hence, the Gospel must be believed by them before they can rejoice in the knowledge of sins forgiven. The Gospel is God’s
winnowing fan: it separates the chaff from the wheat, and gathers the latter
into His garner.
Third; it is to be
noted that God has other purposes in the preaching of the Gospel than the
salvation of His own elect. The world exists for the elect’s sake, yet
others have the benefit of it. So the Word is preached for the elect’s
sake, yet others have the benefit of an external call. The sun shines,
though blind men see it not. The rain falls upon rocky mountains and waste
deserts, as well as on the fruitful valleys; so also, God suffers the Gospel
to fall on the ears of the non-elect. The power of the Gospel is one of God’s
agencies for holding in check the wickedness of the world. Many who are
never saved by it are reformed, their lusts are bridled, and they are
restrained from becoming worse. Moreover, the preaching of the Gospel to the
non-elect is made an admirable test of their characters. It exhibits
the inveteracy of their sin: it demonstrates that their hearts are at
enmity against God: it justifies the declaration of Christ that "men
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John
3:19).
Finally; it is
sufficient for us to know that we are bidden to preach the Gospel to
every creature. It is not for us to reason about the consistency between
this and the fact that "few are chosen." It is for us to obey. It
is a simple matter to ask questions relating to the ways of God which no
finite mind can fully fathom. We, too, might turn and remind the objector
that our Lord declared, "Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be
forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall
blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never
forgiveness" (Mark 3:28, 29), and there can be
no doubt whatever but that certain of the Jews were guilty of this
very sin (see Matt. 12:24 etc.), and hence their destruction was inevitable.
Yet, notwithstanding, scarcely two months later, He commanded His disciples
to preach the Gospel to every creature. When the objector can show us
the consistency of these two things—the fact that certain of the Jews had
committed the sin for which there is never forgiveness, and the fact that to them the Gospel was to be preached—we will undertake to furnish a
more satisfactory solution than the one given above to the harmony between a universal proclamation of the Gospel and a limitation of its
saving power to those only that God has predestined to be conformed to the
image of His Son.
Once more, we say, it
is not for us to reason about the Gospel; it is our business to preach it. When God ordered Abraham to offer up his son as a burnt-offering, he
might have objected that this command was inconsistent with His
promise "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." But instead of
arguing he obeyed, and left God to harmonize His promise and His precept.
Jeremiah might have argued that God had bade him do that which was
altogether unreasonable when He said, "Therefore thou shalt speak all
these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee; thou shalt
also call unto them; but they will not answer thee" (Jer.
7:27), but instead, the prophet obeyed. Ezekiel, too, might have
complained that the Lord was asking of him a hard thing when He said,
"Son of man, go, get thee unto the House of Israel, and speak with My
words unto them. For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and
of an hard language, but to the House of Israel; Not to many people of a
strange speech and of a hard language, whose words thou cans’t not
understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto
thee. But the House of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they
will not hearken unto Me; for all the House of Israel are impudent and hard
hearted" (Ezek. 3:4-7).
"But, O my soul, if truth so bright
Should dazzle and confound thy sight,
Yet still His written Word obey,
And wait the great decisive day."—Watts.
It has been well said,
"The Gospel has lost none of its ancient power. It is, as much today as
when it was first preached, ‘the power of God unto salvation’. It needs
no pity, no help, and no handmaid. It can overcome all obstacles, and break
down all barriers. No human device need be tried to prepare the sinner to
receive it, for if God has sent it no power can hinder it; and if He has not
sent it, no power can make it effectual." (Dr. Bullinger).
This chapter might be
extended indefinitely, but it is already too long, so a word or two more
must suffice. A number of other questions will be dealt with in the pages
yet to follow, and those that we fail to touch upon the reader must take to
the Lord Himself who has said, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him
ask of God, that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not"
(James 1:5).
ENDNOTES:
[1] Romans
5 :8 is addressed to saints, and
the “we” are the same ones as those spoken of in 8:29, 30.
[2]
Concerning the rich young ruler of whom it is said Christ “loved him” (Mark 10:21), we fully believe that he was one of God’s elect,
and was “saved” sometime after his interview with our Lord. Should it be
said this is an arbitrary assumption and assertion which lacks anything in
the Gospel record to substantiate it, we reply, It is written, “Him that
cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out,” and this man certainly did “come” to Him. Compare the case of Nicodemus. He, too, came to
Christ, yet there is nothing in John 3 which intimates he was a saved man
when the interview closed; nevertheless, we know from his later life that he was not “cast out.”
[3]
For a further discussion of John 3:16 see Appendix 3.
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