by Pastor Del Wray
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When one considers the awfulness of man's sin against GOD and GOD's Omnipotence which includes the power to create another being to take the place of man, if and when he were destroyed by GOD's judgments, there comes a question that demands an answer. It is this. Why does GOD SAVE MAN?
I That Man Shall Not Perish:
The first answer to this question is found in John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Here GOD's purpose is in consideration of man. GOD knows as no one else the awfulness of an everlasting destruction from His presence and from the glory of His power (II Thessalonians 1:9)which shall be the lot of those who are not saved. His love, and that at the cost of His Own SON, would spare the creature from this punishment even though through sin he had
become an enemy. The importance to man of being saved from perishing is so great that no one this side of eternity shall ever realize it even in a small degree.
II Unto Good Works:
Some lightly and mistakenly say that to them salvation is more than "a fire escape from hell!." Its importance to them is for the present life. It is true that one of GOD's purposes in saving man relates to man's life on this earth,but the eternal values of salvation far outweigh any temporal advantages as the infinite is greater than the finite. Furthermore, GOD's purpose for the earthly life of the saved person is that eternal values may result there from. In connection with the statement that salvation is by grace and not of works it is also stated that it is so in order that there may be good works by those who are saved. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which GOD hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). GOD does not save man because of man's good works, but that it may be possible for man to do good works. Neither does GOD save man and deliver him out of an evil world and the power of darkness, to continue a life of sin as before. While GOD's ultimate purposes in salvation are eternal, the new nature given to one who has been saved is necessarily reflected in his present earthly existence. Paul said "How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" (Romans 6:2) and in writing to Titus he said, "I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works" (Titus 3:8). It was to be a constant affirmation by Titus that good works were to be maintained. Certainly GOD's purpose for the life of every saved person is that he do good works. Even His grace abounds toward the saved that they "always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (II Corinthians 9:8). It is important to recognize just what constitutes good works. First of all, there are only certain ones who can perform good works. They are those who are "created in Christ Jesus" thereto. Only those who are saved can do works that GOD will accept as good. Again, not all of the works by those who are saved are "good works." The "good works" of the saved were "afore prepared that we should walk in them." That which has been prepared by GOD beforehand must be according to His will and purpose. Therefore many seemingly good works by saved people which are self-willed and planned do not come under GOD's "good works." Evidently these works, in order to be good, must be to the glory of GOD and not for the glory of man. ". . . whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (I Corinthians 10:31). "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him" (Colossians 3:17). Much of the present day social welfare work which is often prompted by deeply sympathetic feelings and carried out with much sacrifice cannot be included in GOD's good works because GOD is entirely left out. It is not done by saved people. The works are not "afore prepared by God" and the objective is not the glory of GOD. It cannot be denied that these works have an unmistakable value, but that value is a temporal one and has no relation to GOD's work of salvation which involves eternal values. If and when the social work is done as a means of bringing to the needy not only temporal help but also spiritual and eternal aid through salvation, then it becomes "good works" according to GOD's purpose in salvation. The good works are good because they have a part in the carrying out of GOD's whole program of salvation, and are not in themselves the ultimate objective. They are, as it were, a link in the chain of things that shall finally culminate in the praise of the glory of GOD.
III To the Glory and Praise of His Grace:
If GOD had only had in mind the matter of salvation from everlasting separation from Himself and unto good works, His work of salvation could have stopped far short of what it does. It would only have been necessary to have restored man to Adam's original condition in the Garden of Eden. He could there continue in everlasting bliss and fellowship with GOD and carry on good works. But, as has been seen, GOD does far more than restore man to Adam's original state. Consequently there must be another and even far greater reason for GOD to save man. And so there is. That it was the love of GOD that caused Him to save man suggests the possibility that in salvation GOD found a way to express His love as in no other way. JESUS in His prayer to His FATHER said; ". . . the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one . . . that the world may know that thou hast . . . loved them, as thou hast loved me" (John 17:22-23). That part of GOD's work of salvation through which the glory of CHRIST is given to those who accept Him is here expressly said to be in demonstration of GOD's love for them.
Ephesians 2:7 teaches that salvation is in order "that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Ephesian 1:5-6 declare that the saved have been predestinated "unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself . . . to the praise of the glory of his grace." "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalm 19:1). That glory is the glory of His creative power. When GOD's work of salvation has been consummated and they who are saved during this age have been brought into a perfect unity with GOD then shall there be praise, not only to the glory of His creative power, but to the glory of His grace. This is the very highest pinnacle of GOD's glory, and to accomplish this is the greatest reason why GOD in this age saves man. Lucifer, in sinning, refused to give unto GOD His due glory. So also Adam and the entire human race, because of sin, have not glorified GOD as GOD. In saving man, His lost and rebellious creature, GOD does so, not only to restore the lost glory due Him as CREATOR, but to gain a far greater glory, the glory of the REDEEMER and the SAVIOUR. If man could contribute the least bit to salvation, by just that much would the praise of the glory of the grace of GOD is reduced. He could not be praised for that which man contributed. The glory of His grace must be absolute. It cannot be marred. An infinite GOD cannot be infinite if His glory is diminished by the slightest amount. That is why human merit and the works of man are excluded as a contributing factor in salvation. That is why no flesh shall glory in His presence (I Corinthians 1:29) and that is why the basic principle of salvation is by grace through faith.
In salvation GOD does not salvage something that is good in man. He takes an utterly lost and condemned sinner, and raises him apart from any of his own merit to His own divine level and glory, all to the end that the glory of His grace may be praised.
Only as it is seen that the great purpose of GOD in salvation is to the praise of the glory of His grace, is it at all possible to understand why GOD does not destroy man (who in rebellion against Him tried to make himself like GOD) but instead actually transforms him into that exalted condition that he, in rebellion, sought to gain. There can be no greater manifestation of grace than that. Nothing could call forth praise to the glory of GOD's grace more than that action. Herein is also a reason why GOD permitted man to sin. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen."
(Romans 11:33-36)
IS THE GLORY OF GOD’S GRACE BEING PRAISED IN YOUR SALVATION?
Please read two or three times that you may understand what the Bible teaches on true saving grace! Your servant standing at the gates of Hell and the doors of our churches pleading for lost souls to be saved!
Pastor Del Wray
THE LOVE OF GOD
by A. W. Pink
There are three things told us in Scripture concerning the nature of God. First, "God is spirit" (John 4:24). In the Greek there is no indefinite article, and to say "God is a spirit" is most objectionable, for it places Him in a class with others. God is "spirit" in the highest sense. Because He is "spirit" He is incorporeal, having no visible substance. Had God a tangible body, He would not be omnipresent, He would be limited to one place; because He is spirit He fills heaven and earth. Second, God is light (1 John 1:5), which is the opposite of "darkness." In Scripture "darkness" stands for sin, evil, death; and "light" for holiness, goodness, life. God is light, means that He is the sum of all excellency. Third, "God is love" (1 John 4:8). It is not simply that God "loves," but that He is Love itself. Love is not merely one of His attributes, but His very nature.
There are many today who talk about the love of God, who are total strangers to the God of love. The Divine love is commonly regarded as a species of amiable weakness, a sort of good-natured indulgence; it is reduced to a mere sickly sentiment, patterned after human emotion. Now the truth is that on this, as on everything else, our thoughts need to be formed and regulated by what is revealed thereon in Holy Scripture. That there is urgent need for this is apparent not only from the ignorance which so generally prevails, but also from the low state of spirituality which is now so sadly evident everywhere among professing Christians. How little real love there is for God. One chief reason for this is because our hearts are so little occupied with His wondrous love for His people. The better we are acquainted with His love—its character, fulness, blessedness—the more will our hearts be drawn out in love to Him.
1. The love of God is uninfluenced. By this we mean, there was nothing whatever in the objects of His love to call it into exercise, nothing in the creature to attract or prompt it. The love which one creature has for another is because of something in them; but the love of God is free, spontaneous, uncaused. The only reason why God loves any is found in His own sovereign will: "The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: but because the Lord loved thee" (Deut. 7:7,8). God has loved His people from everlasting, and therefore nothing of the creature can be the cause of what is found in God from eternity. He loves from Himself: "according to His own purpose" (2 Tim. 1:9).
"We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). God did not love us because we loved Him, but He loved us before we had a particle of love for Him. Had God loved us in return for ours, then it would not be spontaneous on His part; but because He loved us when we were loveless, it is clear that His love was uninfluenced. It is highly important if God is to be honored and the heart of His child established, that we should be quite clear upon this precious truth. God’s love for me, and for each of "His own," was entirely unmoved by anything in them. What was there in me to attract the heart of God? Absolutely nothing. But, to the contrary, everything to repel Him, everything calculated to make Him loathe me—sinful, depraved, a mass of corruption, with "no good thing" in me.
Or give the Creator delight?
‘Twas even so, Father, I ever must sing,
Because it seemed good, in Thy sight."
2. It is eternal. This of necessity. God Himself is eternal, and God is love; therefore, as God Himself had no beginning, His love had none. Granted that such a concept far transcends the grasp of our feeble minds, nevertheless, where we cannot comprehend, we can bow in adoring worship. How clear is the testimony of Jeremiah 31:3, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." How blessed to know that the great and holy God loved His people before heaven and earth were called into existence, that He had set His heart upon them from all eternity. Clear proof is this that His love is spontaneous, for He loved them endless ages before they had any being.
The same precious truth is set forth in Ephesians 1:4,5, "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him. In love having predestinated us." What praise should this evoke from each of His children! How tranquilizing for the heart: since God’s love toward me had no beginning, it can have no ending! Since it be true that "from everlasting to everlasting" He is God, and since God is "love," then it is equally true that "from everlasting to everlasting" He loves His people.
3. It is sovereign. This also is self-evident. God Himself is sovereign, under obligations to none, a law unto Himself, acting always according to His own imperial pleasure. Since God be sovereign, and since He be love, it necessarily follows that His love is sovereign. Because God is God, He does as He pleases; because God is love, He loves whom He pleases. Such is His own express affirmation: "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" (Rom. 9:19). There was no more reason in Jacob why he should be the object of Divine love, than there was in Esau. They both had the same parents, and were born at the same time, being twins; yet God loved the one and hated the other! Why? Because it pleased Him to do so.
The sovereignty of God’s love necessarily follows from the fact that it is uninfluenced by anything in the creature. Thus, to affirm that the cause of His love lies in God Himself, is only another way of saying, He loves whom He pleases. For a moment, assume the opposite. Suppose God’s love were regulated by anything else than His will, in such a case He would love by rule, and loving by rule He would be under a law of love, and then so far from being free, God would Himself be ruled by law. "In love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to"—what? Some excellency which He foresaw in them? No; what then? "According to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1:4,5).
4. It is infinite. Everything about God is infinite. His essence fills heaven and earth. His wisdom is illimitable, for He knows everything of the past, present and future. His power is unbounded, for there is nothing too hard for Him. So His love is without limit. There is a depth to it which none can fathom; there is a height to it which none can scale; there is a length and breadth to it which defies measurement, by any creature-standard. Beautifully is this intimated in Ephesians 2:4: But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us: the word "great" there is parallel with the "God so loved" of John 3:16. It tells us that the love of God is so transcendent it cannot be estimated.
No tongue can fully express the infinitude of God’s love, or any mind comprehend it: it "passeth knowledge" Eph. 3:19). The most extensive ideas that a finite mind can frame about Divine love, are infinitely below its true nature. The heaven is not so far above the earth as the goodness of God is beyond the most raised conceptions which we are able to form of it. It is an ocean which swells higher than all the mountains of opposition in such as are the objects of it. It is a fountain from which flows all necessary good to all those who are interested in it (John Brine, 1743).
5. It is immutable. As with God Himself there is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17), so His love knows neither change or diminution. The worm Jacob supplies a forceful example of this: "Jacob have I loved," declared Jehovah, and despite all his unbelief and waywardness, He never ceased to love him. John 13:1 furnishes another beautiful illustration. That very night one of the apostles would say, "Show us the Father"; another would deny Him with cursings; all of them would be scandalized by and forsake Him. Nevertheless "having loved His own which were in the world, He love them unto the end." The Divine love is subject to no vicissitudes. Divine love is "strong as death ... many waters cannot quench it" (Song of Sol. 8:6,7). Nothing can separate from it:
Romans 8:35-39.
No change can turn its course,
Eternally the same it flows
From one eternal source."
6. It is holy. God’s love is not regulated by caprice passion, or sentiment, but by principle. Just as His grace reigns not at the expense of it, but "through righteousness" (Rom. 5:21), so His love never conflicts with His holiness. "God is light" (1 John 1:5) is mentioned before "God is love" (1 John 4:8). God’s love is no mere amiable weakness, or effeminate softness. Scripture declares, "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" (Heb. 12:6). God will not wink at sin, even in His own people. His love is pure, unmixed with any maudlin sentimentality.
7. It is gracious. The love and favor of God are inseparable. This is clearly brought out in Romans 8:32-39. What that love is from which there can be no "separation," is easily perceived from the design and scope of the immediate context: it is that goodwill and grace of God which determined Him to give His Son for sinners. That love was the impulsive power of Christ’s incarnation: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). Christ died not in order to make God love us, but because He did love His people, Calvary is the supreme demonstration of Divine love. Whenever you are tempted to doubt the love of God, Christian reader, go back to Calvary.
Here then is abundant cause for trust and patience under Divine affliction. Christ was beloved of the Father, yet He was not exempted from poverty, disgrace, and persecution. He hungered and thirsted. Thus, it was not incompatible with God’s love for Christ when He permitted men to spit upon and smite Him. Then let no Christian call into question God’s love when he is brought under painful afflictions and trials. God did not enrich Christ on earth with temporal prosperity, for "He had not where to lay His head." But He did give Him the Spirit "without measure" (John 3:34). Learn then that spiritual blessings are the principal gifts of Divine love. How blessed to know that when the world hates us, God loves us!
