The Love of God to the Elect Part II
In this was
manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten
Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
our sins. I John 4:9-10
In this
article we will, the Lord willing, take up the second assertion made in the
first article of this series; that the doctrine of the Universalists is
degrading to the true love of God. Oh Lord our God, we beseech thee to be to
the writer and to the reader the “spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him: the eyes of our understanding being enlightened; that we may
know the hope of his calling” (Ephesians 1:17, 18) Amen.
First we
should seek to find to whom the first epistle general of John is written, the
subject verse being taken from that epistle. The epistle is called a general
epistle because it is not written to any particular person as were the epistles
to Timothy and that to Titus, nor to a particular church of Christ. But it is
written to those who have fellowship with the Father and the Son, for “That
which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have
fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son Jesus Christ.” (I John 1:3). The fellowship here spoken of is that of the
believer with God in the three persons of the GODHEAD. This epistle is written
to the Church of God, and in that respect it is like the
rest of books of the Bible. The Bible is written to the children of God, this
should be kept in view at all times when the Holy Scriptures are read, and not
only that, but a proper understanding of the Holy Scriptures is only found by
the guidance of the Holy Ghost. This being noted it becomes abundantly clear
that “we” and “us” of the subject verse has reference to the children of God,
who are said to be loved by God Himself.
The epistle to the Romans is
addressed “to all that be in Rome,
beloved of God, called to be saints:” (Romans 1:7). Reader, if this verse is
taken to mean that everyone in Rome is called to
be saints and that all the residents of Rome
are beloved of God, it will be the same misinterpretation as is given to John
3:16 where the word world is taken for all the sons of men without exception or
distinction. The Roman epistle, however, is addressed to all that were in Rome who were beloved of God, and therefore called to be
saints, these are certain individuals that were at that time in Rome who were of the
“remnant according the election of grace.” and to the Church of God in all ages,
(Romans 11:5).
The first Corinthian epistle is
addressed “unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are
sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place
call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:” (I
Corinthians 1:2), this epistle is to the Church of God exclusively. But some
may object by saying, well, it is to all who call on the name of Jesus Christ,
that is true, and how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed,
(Romans 10:14) and if they believe they are in possession of eternal life, (John
6:47) and therefore are of the Church of God. The “we”, “us”, and “our” of I
John 4:9-10 do not speak of the entire population of planet earth, but do speak
to the Church of the elect scattered through out the planet. And it is that
particular group of elect individuals that is beloved of God, and called to be
saints, let men protest as they will, there stands the scripture.
The
Bible is a book of mysteries and is written in mysterious form, on the one hand
it is a self revelation of God in three Persons, and on the other, its
mysteries are hidden (Matthew 13:13; 11:25-27; Romans 16:25; I Corinthians 2:7;
4:1; Ephesians 1:9; 3: 3, 4, 9; 6:19; Colossians 1:25-27; 2:2; 4:3; I Timothy
3:9, 16) to whom He will God “revealeth secrets” (Daniel 2:28, 29, 47; Psalm 91:1 compared to Psalm 90:1)
but to the world these things are hidden (I Corinthians 2:7) it is as our Lord
Jesus Christ said “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes,” (Matthew 11:25). “But the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Corinthians 2:14).
The love of
God to His elect is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39) it is an everlasting or
eternal love because it is of the nature of God Himself and from His most Holy Nature,
therefore the love of God cannot be thwarted nor over come in any degree or
respect. Those whom God has loved He has loved eternally as the Father hath
loved Christ, God has loved the elect in Christ as He has loved Christ Himself,
for our Lord saith “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in
one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them,
as thou hast loved me” (John 17:23). The eternal union that exists between
Christ Jesus and His spiritual members is based on that eternal love of God,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to the elect in Christ. The fall of Adam did not
turn that love from the elect, and the ruin of our nature by the fall did not
over come that love. But Gods elect shall be made willing in the day of His
power, for “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make
thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of
Zion: (that is
the gospel) rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of
the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth,” (Psalm 110:1-3). The enemies of
God, that is, the elect in their unregenerate condition are made suppliants by
the almighty power of God in regeneration. They are given of the life that is
in Christ Jesus, for the Apostle John saith “And this is the record, that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son, (I John 5:11). This
life, New to the child of God makes all things new, the recipient is himself
made a new creature in Christ Jesus. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature: old things are past away; behold, all things are become new”
(II Corinthians 5:17). With this new life comes a new heart, new affections,
and a new will, and the new will instead of being rebellious, is made willing
to serve and worship the fountain from whence it came, that is God , the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in Christ Jesus, “For in Him dwelleth all the
fullness of the God head bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
The
love of God being of the nature of God is unchanging, “I am the Lord, I change
not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6). This is the
love of God to the remnant according to the election of grace among the sons of
Jacob, for Isaiah saith “Though the number of the children of Israel be as
the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:” (Romans 9: 27). And the Apostle
Paul writes “That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not
the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed”
(Romans 9:8). The children of the promise are the children of the covenant who
were chosen in Christ before the world began, from among both Jews and Gentiles.
These were beloved of God from everlasting and God had resolved in himself to
deliver them from the clutches of death spiritual, ruin of nature, and
imprisonment of Satan, and to glorify them in and by His only begotten Son, “to
the praise of the glory of His grace” (Ephesians 1:6). For the love of God is
never frustrated and cannot be frustrated; for, the love of God is such that it
must in every case deliver its object, regardless of circumstances (I John 3:17).
God the Father so loved the world of the elect in Christ, that he gave his only
begotten Son, to be a Sin Offering for them, in order that Jesus Christ might
satisfy the law and justice of God on their behalf, and make them to be the
righteousness of God in Himself, (II Corinthians 5:21). God the Son so love the
world of the elect, that He joined our human nature (sin excluded) to Himself
in eternal, and inseparable union, and in joining human nature to His GODHEAD
He became the “true tabernacle” (Hebrews 8:2; Colossians 2:9) where God and man
can and do “gather together in one” (Ephesians 1:10) and have fellowship together
(I John 1:3). God the Holy Ghost so loved the world of the elect in Christ
Jesus that He condescends to make His abode in them, and teach the elect of
their ruined condition in their natural state, He convinces them of their sins,
He informs of their unrighteous and ruined nature, and He teaches them of how
righteousness is attained in Christ alone. He instructs them of judgment to come.
His presence influences their lives, in their inclinations, and motives, and
His grace alters their desires; for Christ is to the soul resurrected from
spiritual death “the desire of all nations” (Haggai 2:7). Our Lord Jesus Christ
promised that after His glorification, when all dominion over all things was
put in His hand, He would send the Holy Spirit to comfort His beloved Church
and be their guide on their journey to final glorification. The mediatorial
glory of Christ Jesus is an acquired glory, and is given of the Father because
of the completion of the redemption and salvation of the Church of the Elect.
His mediatorial glory is not His essential and personal glory of His GODHEAD that
glory is not capable of change or of increase for it is perfect in Him as the
Son of God. But His mediatorial glory is the glory He merited by His finishing the
salvation of the elect.
“Here in is
love” that God the Father Sent His only begotten Son into the world to save the
Church of His elect. And “Here in is love” that God the Son came into this
world to suffer and die, the Holy, Harmless, and Undefiled GODMAN in the room
and stead of His elect. And “Here in is love” that God the Holy Ghost comes
into the heart of the elect to effectually teach them of their eternal
inheritance in Jesus Christ, and to make them able and willing to believe on
Christ Jesus who has provided all things that pertain to salvation. The elect
of God believe because God has saved them in Jesus Christ. He who has
everlasting life is a saved person, and our Lord Jesus Christ said “Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John
6:47). That is, those who believe on Jesus Christ, as their wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification and redemption, do so because they were: (1.) Chosen to salvation before the world began, (II
Thessalonians 2:13), (2.) they were redeemed, justified, and pardoned by the
precious blood of Jesus Christ when He died for them in Particular at Calvary
(Colossians 1:14; Romans 5:9; Jeremiah 50:20), (3.) they were regenerated by
the Holy Ghost, when He gave them a new heart of faith in Christ, by writing
the law of God in their mind and imprinting it in their heart (Hebrews 8:10),
it is the office of the Holy Ghost to apply the salvation which was purposed by
the Father, and purchased by the Son, to the heart of the elect in Christ.
Many
religious people in our day believe that God loves all men without exception
and that if persons die in unbelief they are cast in to hell fire regardless of
the love of God. If that were the case, God would be as impotent to save the
objects of His love as King Darius was to save Daniel from the Lions Den. But
God did deliver Daniel from the Lions Den (Daniel 6:27) and God has delivered
His own elect from the curse of His own law and justice through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:13). Just as the justice of God cannot be
satisfied until sin is punished, and the sin of the elect was punished in Jesus
Christ who sanctified Himself to be a sin offering (John 17:19) just so, the
love of God cannot be satisfied until the objects of Gods love are delivered to
safety in Jesus Christ. Reader, what parent would allow his child to perish if
he had the means to save the child? “Whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth
his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how
dwelleth the love of God in him?” (I John 3:17). That love that does not deliver
its object from evil is not the love of God.
Many
actually believe that God loves all men regardless of their evil actions; this
provokes the question whether such people have read the books of Joshua, Leviticus
Chapters 18 and 20; or I Samuel Chapter 15 through out? Have Universalists
considered the flood in the days of Noah? In that day God destroyed the entire
world of the ungodly (II Peter 2:5) was that act an act of love for those who
were destroyed, no it was an act of justice, God giving evil men their just
desert. But as the Holy Scriptures have said “the love of God is in Christ
Jesus” (Romans 8:39) and Gods love is of the nature of God Himself, and
therefore can never change, and the love of God will in every case “devise
means, that His banished be not expelled from him” (II Samuel
14:14). No son of Adam has just ground to think that he is beloved of God, if
he is not a believer. “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor
faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealing
with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But
if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards,
and not sons” (Hebrews 12:5-8). Those whom the Lord of Heaven and Earth has loved
from everlasting, He has also predestined to be conformed to the image of His
Son (Romans 8:29), and He treats them with special grace, in love chastening
them for their eternal benefit, but first and foremost for His eternal glory.
This chastening of the Lord in the school of His grace is for those who are His
beloved children in Jesus Christ.
A.J.Ison
