Dr. Sanday well says, in his "Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans ": " Chapter ninth implies arguments which take away free-will; chapter tenth is meaningless without the presupposition of free-will. And such apparent inconsistency of language and ideas pervades all St. Paul's epistles. The antinomy-if we may call it so-of chapters ninth and tenth is one which is and must be the characteristic of all religious thought and experience. We can but state the two sides; we cannot solve the problem." 1 The theologians who framed our creeds made some attempt at solving that problem, thereby diverging from Scripture. The important element of the scriptural doctrine of election is not concerned at all with this antecedent mystery, but rather with the purpose of the choice. God's choice of Israel-that is the subject forever pressing on the heart of these inspired writers when they speak of election-God's choice of Israel; and for what purpose did He choose that one peculiar people? So also when their study of the doctrine is carried on from the national application to the individual, after once establishing the fact that God in His wisdom does choose different men to varie 1 International Critical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, p. 348. ties of privilege, then Scripture quickly forces each elect soul to the inquiry, What was I chosen for? The Master distributes the talents as he sees best, but each servant must make haste to give account of his own use of the particular talent that has come to him. That solemn responsibility of the chosen servant is the essence of the doctrine in Scripture. Everything else was preparatory to that. Nowhere do we find a clearer or more comprehensive statement of the Christian doctrine of election than in those words of Christ which have been placed at the head of this second part of our book, "I have chosen you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit." This second part of our discussion, therefore, is the important part. The theme is very broad, for it covers the whole field of Christian duty. For the Christian, the study of ethics is no longer abstract,' and lifeless, and monotonous; as if this doctrine were like a lot of dry goods stored on a shelf, and distributed indiscriminately over the counter to the tired and tiresome procession of purchasers; but each man's duty becomes now as vitally personal to himself as the body which God has given him. Duty for him is his own proper use of his own peculiar talent; and the God who chose to give the talent, gave it with a view to that particular use. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." 1 What a truth this is to stir the soul, if once your soul can be opened to it! It is a truth that has captivated the imagination of many who would hardly be called Calvinists. So genial a theologian as Phillips Brooks exulted in the thought of God's ideal for the life of every man. In his sermon on "The Pattern in the Mount" he calls this "one of the loftiest and most inspiring thoughts." He says it "ennobles and dignifies our living;" that it "takes something of this dreadful extemporaneousness and superficialness and incoherence out of our life." 2 And Dr. Horace Bushnell-what reader of his sermons has not been thrilled by that splendid title of one of them "Every Man's Life a Plan of God"? 3 This is the great subject which it now remains for us to consider, every man's life as a plan of God; every man's duty as the doing of that particular work which God had before ordained for that particular man; or the improvement of that particular privilege which God had chosen to give him; or the discharge of that particular office to which God had elected him. 1 Ephesians ii, 10. 'Sermons preached in English Churches, p. 4. The whole sphere of Christian ethics lies open before me. I shall take from it only a few examples here and there of duty or privilege, endeavoring to set them forth in this light as objects of the discriminating choice of God. I believe these examples will sufficiently prove that a sense of being personally chosen of Godand that is the very essence of the doctrine of election-that such a sense is the best support of that personal courage by which a man can live his life through worthily, and then die with good cheer. Therefore I think that a hearty belief in the doctrine of election as it is taught in Scripture will supply the very elements of character needed to meet the peculiar moral perils of our age, enabling the men of our day to play the same manly part that was played by the old Calvinists in the days of the Reformation. Those churches which have inherited this particular doctrine from their fathers may well believe that they are elected to the task of keeping up the supply of such men. CHAPTER II CALLED TO FREEDOM BEFORE going farther, let us resolutely face the question whether this sense of God's choosing of men comes into conflict with our instinctive conviction that men have to choose for themselves. It is often affirmed that it does, and that the doctrine of decrees, or of election, must overthrow the doctrine of the freedom of the will. Is it so? I believe it does just the opposite-that the former doctrine establishes the latter; and I might take as a text for proving this the words of Paul, when he assures the Galatians that they have been "called unto liberty;" but I prefer to take the words of Jeremiah, eighteenth chapter and sixth verse; "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel." So far as I know, this was the first use in Scripture of this figure of the potter and the clay, a figure that was to become famous in doctrinal discussion. For it was a very striking figure; having 1 Galatians v, 13. |