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#16. The Muniment Room (1: 3 - 14).
The Threefold Charter of the Church.
The Father's Motive. In Love.
pp. 181 - 183
Some believers, who hold the Calvinistic doctrine of the decrees, are so antagonistic to
the suggestion which we have earlier put forward, namely that the Divine foreknowledge
which could see beforehand whether a free moral agent would or would not believe the
gospel, that one of them, after reading the article in Volume XXVII, page 33, stooped to
attack us by means of "an open letter", but if we will but read to the conclusion of
Eph. 1: 4 we shall discover that the initial cause of our election and salvation, is neither
the Sovereign decree of the Most High, nor the foreseen faith of the poor human
recipient, but simply and solely the promptings of Divine Lord, which is the root and
cause of the whole purpose of redeeming grace.
"IN LOVE."--This we shall find is true of other callings than that of Ephesians.
"Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God hath chosen thee
to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you because ye were . . . . . but
because the Lord loved you" (Deut. 7: 6-8).
Blessed "arguing in a circle"! The Lord loved you . . . . . because He loved you.
Here we meet with "choice" a "special people", "above all" in connection with this
earthly calling, which reflects the high glories of the super-heavenly calling. Yet,
however diverse these callings may be, whatever dispensational differences are apparent,
however great the contrast between law and gospel, one thing remains constant, the
primes cause of all causes, is Love.
This phrase ("In love") occurs six times in the epistle, namely in 1: 4; 3: 17; 4: 2,
15, 16 and 5: 2. The first occurrence deals with pure doctrine, speaking of the choice of
the Father before the foundation of the world; the second occurrence reveals this love to
be the root and the ground from which all Christian graces spring; the remaining
occurrences have to do with Christian walk and practice, "forbearing in love", "speaking
the truth in love", "edifying in love" and "walking in love".
Those who have had the responsibility of translating the Scriptures into the tongue of
a people who have hitherto entertained very depraved conceptions of God, or of moral
virtue, will appreciate the problem that was before the writers of the New Testament
when the time came for the Gospel of God's love to be written. Paul was about to
declare of that trinity "faith, hope and love", that the greatest of these is "love". John was
to write that golden verse "John 3: 16", and in his epistle was to reveal that "God is