03. Chapter 3. The distinct communion which the saints have with the Father –
Chapter 3. The distinct communion which the saints have with the Father –
What remains to further clear up this distinctive communion, is to introduce a number of examples showing what the saints specifically hold in this communion. I will premise that with some observations: 1. When I assign anything as unique in which we distinctly hold communion with any individual person of the godhead, I do not exclude the other persons from communion in the very same thing. I am only saying that it is held principally, immediately, and eminently with that one person. It is held with the others secondarily, and as a consequence of that foundation. This is because any one of the persons, as the person, is not the prime object of divine worship, except as identified with the nature or essence of God. The outward works of God (called “ Trinitatis ad extra”), which are usually said to be common and undivided, are either completely works of common providence, or else they are distinguished in respect to their manner of operation. So creation is appropriated to the Father, and redemption to the Son.
2. There is a concurrence in the acts and operations of the whole Deity in the dispensation of the work of our salvation, and in every act of our communion with each singular person. Look at whatever act we hold in communion with any person, and there is an influence from every person in that act. Take the act of faith. The Father bestows it on us. “It is not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,” Ephesians 2:8. It is the Father that reveals the gospel, and Christ in it, Matthew 11:25. And it is purchased for us by the Son: “To you it is given on behalf of Christ, to believe on him,” Php 1:29. In him we are “blessed with spiritual blessings,” Ephesians 1:3. He bestows faith on us, and increases faith in us, Luke 17:5. And the Spirit works it in us. He administers that “exceeding greatness of his power,” which he exercises towards those who believe, “according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead,” Ephesians 1:19-20; Romans 8:11.
3. When I assign any particular thing that we hold in communion with any single person of the godhead, I do not exclude other mediums of communion. I am only urging a special and eminent example to prove and manifest the general assertion. Otherwise there is no grace or duty in which we do not have communion with God in that way. In everything in which we are made partakers of the divine nature, there is a communication and receiving between God and us, because we are so near to him in Christ.
4. By asserting this distinct communion, I do not intend in the least to restrict all communion with God to these precincts, nor to prejudice that holy fellowship we have with the whole Deity.
These few observations being made, I will now declare what it is, specifically and eminently, in which the saints have communion with the Father. It is love: free, undeserved, and eternal love. The Father specifically fixes this love on the saints. They are to see this immediately in him, to receive it from him, and to return it to him in any way that delights him. This is the great discovery of the gospel. The Father, as the fountain of the Deity, is only known as full of wrath, anger, and indignation against sin. Nor can the sons of men have any other thoughts of him (Romans 1:18; Isaiah 33:13-14; Habakkuk 1:13; Psalms 5:4-6; Ephesians 2:3). Yet here in the gospel he is now revealed specifically as love, and as full of love towards us. The manifestation of this truth is the unique work of the gospel, Titus 3:4-7.
1. In 1 John 4:8 we read, “God is love.” It is evident from verse 9 that the name of God is taken personally here. It refers to the person of the Father, and not just his essence. He is distinguished from his only begotten Son whom he sends into the world. He says, “The Father is love.” That is, he not only has an infinitely gracious, tender, compassionate, and loving nature, as he proclaimed in Exodus 34:6-7. He is also the one who eminently and specifically gives himself to us in free love. The apostle presents this fact in subsequent verses. “This is love,” he says. “This is what I would have you take notice of in him, that he shows you love in ‘sending his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him,’” 1 John 4:9. The same idea is found in 1 John 4:10, “He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The Holy Spirit plainly declares that this love is specifically seen in him. It is displayed prior to sending Christ, and prior to all the mercies and benefits that we receive through him. This love precedes the purchase of Christ, although its entire fruit is revealed in that alone, Ephesians 1:4-6.
2. The apostle makes such a distribution of graces in his solemn benediction, 2 Corinthians 13:14, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” In ascribing a number of things to the distinct persons, it is love that he specifically assigns to the Father. The fellowship of the Spirit is mentioned with the grace of Christ and the love of God, because it is by the Spirit alone that we have fellowship with Christ in grace, and fellowship with the Father in love. We also have also unique fellowship with the Spirit, as will be declared later.
3. In John 16:26-27, our Savior says, “I do not say to you, that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loves you.” Why does he say, “I do not say that I will pray the Father for you,” when he said plainly in chap. 14:16, “I will pray the Father for you?” The disciples were fully convinced of Christ’s dear and tender affections towards them, and of his continued care and kindness. With all the gracious words, the comforting and faithful promises of their Master, and the opening of his heart to them, they knew that he would not forget them when he was gone from them bodily. But now all their thoughts concerned the Father.
How would they be accepted by him, and what regard did he have towards them? Our Savior says in essence, “Do not worry about that. You do not need to have me procure the Father’s love for you. Instead, know that this is his unique regard for you and what you are in him: ‘He himself loves you.’ It is true, indeed (as I told you), that I will pray that the Father sends you the Spirit, the Comforter, and with him all the gracious fruits of his love. But as to this love itself, his free and eternal love for you, there is no need to intercede for that. For the Father himself eminently loves you. Be resolved in that, so that you may hold communion with him in that love, and not be troubled about it any more. In fact, if you are troubled about the Father’s love, understand that you can no more trouble and burden him than by your unkindness in not believing it.” This must be so when sincere love is questioned.
4. The apostle teaches the same thing in Romans 5:5. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given to us.” God, whose love this is, is plainly distinguished from the Holy Spirit, who sheds that love abroad. And in verse 8, he is also distinguished from the Son, because it is from his love that the Son is sent. Therefore, it is the Father of whom the apostle speaks. And what is it that he ascribes to him? Love, which he also commends to us in verse 8. To carry this to its climax, not only is there frequent and specific mention of the love of God the Father, but he is also called “The God of love” in 2 Corinthians 13:11. And he is said to be “love,” so that whoever wants to know him, 1 John 4:8, or dwell in him by fellowship or communion, 1 John 4:16, must do it because he is love.”
5. There is a twofold divine love. There is beneplaciti, a love of good pleasure and purpose, and amicitiae, a love of friendship and approval. They are both specifically and eminently assigned to the Father:
(1.) John 3:16, “God so loved the world, that he gave...” This is the love of his purpose and good pleasure. It is his determinate will to do good. This is distinctly ascribed to him, and laid down as the cause of sending his Son. See also Romans 9:11-12; Ephesians 1:4-5; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; 1 John 4:8-9.
(2.) In John 14:23, there is mention of that other kind of love. “If a man loves me,” says Christ, “he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.” The love of friendship and approval is eminently ascribed to him here. Christ says, “We will come,” both Father and Son, “to such a one, and dwell with him” by the Spirit. Yet he has us notice that, as to love, the Father has a unique prerogative: “My Father will love him.”
6. As this love is uniquely seen in the Father, it should be understood as the fountain of all subsequent gracious dispensations. Christians are often very troubled concerning how the Father thinks of them. They are well persuaded of the good will of the Lord Christ. The difficulty lies in how well they are accepted by the Father. What is his heart towards them? “Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us,” John 14:8. Now, his love ought to be looked on as the fountain from which all other sweetness flows. This is how the apostle sets it out in Titus 3:4. “After that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared.” It is the Father of whom he speaks, for in verse 6, he tells us that
“he sheds that love upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Savior.” He makes this love the linchpin on which the great alteration and translation of the saints turns. He says in verse 3, “We too were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.” Where, then, does our recovery come from? It all arises from this love of God, flowing out as described. For when the kindness and love of God appeared, then this alteration ensued. To make us secure in this, there is nothing in the world of a loving and tender nature that God has not compared himself to. If we remove all their weaknesses and imperfections, great impressions of love must remain. He is like a father, a mother, a shepherd, a hen over her chickens, and the like, Psalms 103:13; Isaiah 63:16; Matthew 6:6; Isaiah 66:13; Psalms 23:1; Isaiah 40:11; Matthew 23:37.
I will not need to add any more proofs. I have demonstrated that there is love in the person of the Father, specifically held out to the saints, in which he holds communion with them.
Now, to complete communion with the Father in love, two things are required of believers: (1.) that they receive it from him and (2.) that they suitably return it to him.
(1.) That they receive it Communion consists in giving and receiving. Until the love of the Father is received, we have no communion with him in that love.
How, then, is this love of the Father received so as to hold fellowship with him? By faith. We receive it by believing it. God has so fully, and so eminently revealed his love, that it may be received by faith. “You believe in God,” John 14:1, that is, in the Father. And what is it to believe in him? It is to believe in his love, for he is “love,” 1 John 4:8.
It is true that our faith does not act immediately upon the Father, but by the Son.
“He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by him,” John 14:6. Christ is the merciful high priest over the house of God. By him we have access to the throne of grace. By him we are introduced to the Father. By him we believe in God, l Pet. 1:21. When we have access to the Father by and through Christ, then we behold the Father’s glory. We see his love that he uniquely bears towards us, and our faith acts on that love. We are to see it, believe it, and receive it, as it exists in him. The issues and fruits of this love are bestowed on us through Christ alone. Though there is no light for us to see except in the beams, yet by its beams we may see the sun, which is its source.
Though all of our refreshment actually lies in the streams, yet those streams lead us up to the fountain. Jesus Christ, in respect to the love of the Father, is the beam or the stream in which all of our light and refreshment is actually found. Yet, he leads us to the fountain, the sun of eternal love itself. If believers would exercise themselves in this truth, they would discover a substantial spiritual improvement in their walk with God. This is what is aimed at. Many dark and disturbing thoughts are apt to arise in this thing. Few believers can carry their hearts and minds to this height by faith, to rest their souls in the love of the Father. They live below this peak, in the troublesome region of hopes and fears, storms and clouds. Everything at the peak is serene and quiet, but they do not know how to reach it. It is the will of God that he may always be seen as benign, kind, tender, loving, and unchangeable in this attribute. Specifically as the Father, he is the great fountain and spring of all gracious communications and fruits of love. This is what Christ came to reveal: God as a Father, John 1:18. This is the name that Christ declares to those who are given to him out of the world, John 17:6. And this love of the Father is what he effectually leads us to by himself, because he is the only way of going to God as a Father, John 14:5-6. By doing so, he gives us the rest of what he promises; for the love of the Father is the only rest for the soul.
It is true, as was said, that we do not formally understand this in the first instant of believing. We believe in God through Christ, 1 Peter 1:21. Faith seeks out rest for the soul. This is presented to the soul by Christ, the mediator, as the only procuring cause. The soul does not remain here. By Christ it has access to the Father, Ephesians 2:18, and access into his love. It finds out that he is love, and that he has a design, a purpose of love, and a good pleasure towards us from eternity. The soul finds delight, contentment, and good will in Christ, because all cause of anger and aversion has been taken away. The soul reposes and rests itself there. By faith through Christ and by Christ, the soul has been brought into the heart of God, into a comforting persuasion and spiritual perception and sense of his love. This is the first thing that the saints do in their communion with the Father. More will be said of how to properly improve this communion later.
(2.) That the saints suitably return this love to him God loves so that he may be beloved. When he commands the return of his received love to complete communion with him, he says, “My son, give me your heart,” Proverbs 23:26, your affections, your love. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind,” Luke 10:27. This is the return that he demands. When the soul sees God in his dispensation of love, and it sees that he is love, infinitely lovely and loving, it rests upon and delights in him as such. Then has it communion with him in love. This is love: that God loves us first, and then we love him again. I will not go into a description of divine love now. Generally, love is an affection of union and nearness, with contentment in it. Whenever the Father is looked upon as acting in any other way than with love upon our soul, it breeds dread and aversion in us. Hence the fleeing and hiding of sinners in the Scriptures. But when the Father is considered as a father, acting in love on the soul, it stimulates the soul to love him again. In faith, this is the foundation of all acceptable obedience, Deuteronomy 5:10; Exodus 20:6; Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 11:1; Deuteronomy 11:13; Deuteronomy 13:3. This is this whole of what is stated by the apostle in Ephesians 1:4, “According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” It begins in God’s love for us, and ends in our love for him. That is what the eternal love of God aims at in us, and works us up to do. It is true that our universal obedience falls within the compass of our communion with God. But that communion is with him as God. He is our blessed, sovereign, lawgiver and rewarder. We have communion with God because he is the Father, our Father in Christ, revealed to us as being love, above and contrary to all the expectations of the natural man. So it is in love that we have this intercourse with him. I am not just referring to that love which is at the heart of all moral obedience, but to a unique delight in the Father, acquiescing in him, which is effectually revealed to the soul as love. To make this love of God to us and our love to him clearer, I will show two things: [1.] In what they agree, and [2.] In what they differ. This will further uncover the nature of each.
[1.] They agree in two things:
1st. They are each a love of rest and contentment.
2nd. The issues and fruits of these loves are communicated only in Christ.
[2.] There are a number of things in which they differ:
1st. The love of God is a love of bounty; our love to him is a love of duty.
2nd. The love of the Father to us is a prior love; our love to him is a consequential love.
3rd. The love of God is equal, constant, and incapable of augmentation or diminution; our love is unequal, increasing, waning, growing, and declining.
[1.] Things in which they agree:
1st. They are each a love of rest and contentment.
(1) The love of God is such a love. Zephaniah 3:17, “The LORD your God in the midst of you is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over you with joy, he will rest in his love; he will joy over you with singing.” Both these things are assigned here to God in his love.
REST and DELIGHT. The words are, “yacharish be’ahavato” [OT:2790,160]
“He will be silent because of his love.” To rest with contentment is expressed by being silent. That is, it is done without whining, and without complaint.
God does this because of his own love. It is so full, complete, and absolute, that it will not allow him to complain of anything in those whom he loves.
Instead, he is silent because of it. “Rest in his love.” That is, he will not remove his love and he will not seek another object for it. His love will make its abode forever with the one on whom it has become fixed.
CONTENTMENT or DELIGHT: “He rejoices with singing” as one who is fully satisfied in that object he has fixed his love on. Here are two words used to express the delight and joy that God has in his love: yasis and yagil
[OT:7797, 1523] The first denotes the inward affection of the mind, and the joy of heart. To indicate the intensity of it, it is said that he will do it besimchah [OT:8057], in gladness, or with joy. To have joy of heart in gladness, is the highest expression of delight in love. The latter word denotes not the inward affection, but the outward demonstration of it. It is to exult in an outward demonstration of internal delight and joy. It is to leap as if overcome with some joyful surprise. Therefore, God is said to do this berinnah [OT:7440], with a joyful sound, or singing. To rejoice with gladness of heart, to exult with singing and praise, argues that this is the greatest delight and contentment possible. When he expresses the contrary of this love, he says “ouk eudokese”
[NT:2106], “he was not well pleased,” 1 Corinthians 10:5. He did not fix his delight or his rest on them. “If any man draws back, the Lord’s soul has no pleasure in him,” Hebrews 10:38; Jeremiah 22:28; Hosea 8:8; Malachi 1:10. He takes pleasure in those who abide with him. He sings to his church, “A vineyard of red wine: I the LORD keep it,” Isaiah 27:2-3; Psalms 147:11; Psalms 149:4. There is rest and contentment in his love. In the Hebrew there is only a transposition of a letter between the word that signifies a love of will and desire (“‘ahav” [OT:157] is to love this way), and what denotes a love of rest and acquiescence (which is
‘avah [OT:160]). Both are applied to God. He wills good to us, so that he may rest in that will. Some say that agapain [NT;25], “to love,” is from agan potestai, which is to perfectly acquiesce in the thing loved. And when God calls his Son “agapeton,” “beloved,” Matthew 3:17, he adds, as an exposition of it, “en hoi eudokesa,” “in whom I rest well pleased.”
(2) The return of love that the saints make to God – It is returned to complete their communion with him. It holds some analogy to God’s love in this matter, for it is also a love of rest and delight. “Return to your rest, my soul,” says David, Psalms 116:7. He makes God his rest. That is, his soul rests in God without seeking a more suitable and desirable object. He says, “Whom have I in heaven but you, and there is no one upon earth that I desire besides you,”
Psalms 73:25. Thus the soul gathers itself from all its wanderings, from all its other loves, to rest in God alone, to satiate and content itself in him, choosing the Father for its present and eternal rest. And this is also done with delight.
“Your loving-kindness,” says the psalmist, “is better than life; therefore I will praise you,” Psalms 63:3. “Than life,” “michayim” [OT:2416], literally means “before lives.” What is meant is the whole of life, with all its concerns, which makes it considerable.
Writing on this passage, Austin [Augustine] reads it “super vitas,” extending it to the several seasons of life that men engage in. It at least means life in its entirety, with all its advantages. Seeing himself in the jaws of death, rolling into the grave through innumerable troubles, David found more sweetness in God than in a long life. He preferred God to a life with all the best and noblest possibilities, including with all the enjoyments that make it pleasant and comfortable. The church returns this same kind of love in both these aspects in Hosea 14:3, “Asshur will not save us; we will not ride upon horses: no longer will we say to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods:’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.” They reject the best rest and contentment in favor of God. They throw themselves on him as otherwise helpless orphans.
2dly. The love of the Father to us and the love of the saints returned to God are the same in this: the issues and fruits of these loves are communicated only in Christ. The Father communicates no issue of his love to us except through Christ; and we return no love to him but through Christ. He is the treasury in which the Father disposes all the riches of his grace, riches taken from the bottomless mine of his eternal love. Christ is the priest into whose hand we put all the offerings that we return to the Father. Consequently, the Father is said to love the Son first and eminently. He loves him not only as his eternal Son, the delight of his soul before the foundation of the world, Proverbs 8:30, but also as our mediator, and as the means of conveying his love to us, Matthew 3:17; John 3:35; John 5:20; John 10:17; John 15:9; John 17:24. And we are said to believe in and to have access to God through him.
(1.) The Father loves us, and “chose us before the foundation of the world.” But in the pursuit of that love, he “blesses us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,” Ephesians 1:3-4. From his love, he sheds or pours out the Holy Spirit richly upon us, through Jesus Christ our Savior, Titus 3:6. In the pouring out of his love, not one drop falls apart from the Lord Christ. The holy anointing oil was poured all over the head of Aaron, Psalms 133:2; from there it dripped down to the skirts of his clothing. Love is first poured out on Christ, and from him it drips like the dew of Mt. Herman upon the souls of his saints. The Father wants him to have “pre-eminence in all things,” Col.
1:18; “it pleased [the Father] that all fullness should dwell in [the Son],” verse 19; that “we might receive from his fullness, grace for grace,” John 1:16. The love of the Father’s purpose and good pleasure arise from and have their foundation in his mere grace and will. Yet its accomplishment is only in Christ. All its fruits are first given to him, and only in him that they are dispensed to us. Although the saints see an infinite ocean of love in the heart of the Father, they are not to look for one drop from him apart from what comes through Christ. He is the only means of communication. Love in the Father is like honey in the flower. It must be in the comb before we can use it.
Christ must extract and prepare this honey for us. He draws this water from the fountain through union, and then he dispenses its fullness. By faith, we draw from the wells of salvation that are in him. This was discussed in part before.
(2.) Our return of love to the Father is completely in Christ and by him. It is good for us that it is. Otherwise, what lame and blind sacrifices we would present to God! Christ bears the iniquity of our offerings, and he adds incense to our prayers. Our love is fixed on the Father, but it is conveyed to him through the Son of his love. He is the only way for our graces, as well as for us, to go to God. Through Christ passes all of our desire, delight, contentment, and obedience. More of this afterward.
[2.] Things in which these two loves differ 1st. The love of God is a love of bounty; our love to him is a love of duty.
(1.) The love of the Father is a love of bounty, a descending love. His love moves him to do good things to us, and great things for us. His love lies at the bottom of all his dispensations towards us. We hardly find any mention of it, but it is the cause and fountain of the free gifts that flow from it. He loves us, and he sends his Son to die for us. He loves us, and he blesses us with all spiritual blessings. Loving is choosing, Romans 9:11-12. He loves us and he chastises us. It is a love like the heavens have for the earth, when, being full of rain, they pour forth showers to make the earth fruitful. It is a love like the sea, which communicates its waters to the rivers out of its own fullness; they return to the sea only what they receive from it. It is the love of a spring or a fountain that always communicates. It is a love from which proceeds everything that is lovely. It infuses into and creates goodness in those who are loved. One who loves will do good to those he loves as he is able. God’s will and his power are commensurate; what he wills, she works.
(2.) Our love to God is a love of duty, the love of a child. His love descends upon us in bounty and fruitfulness; our love ascends to him in duty and thankfulness. He adds to us by his love; we add nothing to him by ours. Our goodness does not extend to him. Though our love is immediately fixed on him, no fruit of our love immediately reaches him. Though he requires our love, it does not benefit him, Job 35:5-8, Romans 11:35, Job 22:2-3. Our love includes four things: rest, delight, reverence, and obedience. By these four things we hold communion with the Father in his love. Hence God calls the love that is due to him as a father “honor.” Malachi 1:6, “If I be a father, where is my honor?” It is a deserved act of duty.
2dly. The love of the Father to us is a prior love; our love to him is a consequential love.
(1.) The love of the Father is prior in two respects:
[1.] It is prior in respect to our love. 1 John 4:10, “This is love, not that we loved God, but that he first loved us.” His love goes before ours. The father loves the child even when the child does not know the father, much less love him. By nature, we are “Teostugeis,” Romans 1:30, haters of God. In his own nature, God is “philanthropos,” a lover of men.
Surely all mutual love between God and us must begin in his hand.
[2.] It is prior in respect to all other causes of love. It not only precedes our love, but it also precedes anything in us that is lovely. Romans 5:8,
“God commends his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” His love and its eminent fruits are showered on us as sinners. Our sin displays all the unloveliness and undesirability that can exist in a creature. The very mention of that sin removes every cause and motivation for love. Yet the Father’s love is commended to us by this most signal testimony. It is not only when we have done no good, but while we are still in our blood, that he loves us. It is not because we are better than others, but because he is infinitely good in himself. His kindness appears when we are foolish and disobedient.
Hence he is said to “love the world.” That is, he loves those who have only what is in and of the world, whose whole being lies in evil.
(2.) Our love is a consequence of his in both these regards:
[1.] In respect to the love of God No creature would ever turn his affections toward God if the heart of God were not first set on him.
[2.] In respect to the sufficient causes of love God must be revealed to us as lovely and desirable, as a suitable object for our soul to rest upon, before we can bear any love to him. In this sense, the saints do not love God for nothing, but for his excellence, loveliness, and desirability. As the psalmist says in Psalms 116:1, “I love the LORD, because!” Or, as David says in another case, “What have I done now? Is there not a cause?” (1 Samuel 17:29). If anyone inquires about our love for God, we may likewise ask, “What have we done now? Is there not a cause?”
3dly. They differ in this also: the love of God is like himself. It is equal, constant, and incapable of augmentation or diminution. Our love is like ourselves. It is unequal, increasing, waning, growing, and declining. His love is like the sun. It is always the same in its light, though a cloud may sometimes interpose. Our love is like the moon. It is sometimes enlarged, sometimes reduced.
(1.) The love of the Father is equal. The one he loves, he loves to the end, and always the same. “The Strength of Israel is not a man, that he should repent,”
1 Samuel 15:29. His love is immutably fixed on the one he loves; it does not grow or diminish at any time. It is an eternal love that had no beginning or end. It cannot be heightened by any act of ours, nor lessened by anything in us. However, there are two regards in which changes may be seen:
[1.] In respect to its fruits. As I said, it is a fruitful love, a love of bounty.
Those fruits may sometimes be greater, sometimes less; its communication varies. Who among the saints finds this is not so? What life, what light, what strength, we sometimes have! And again, how dead, how dark, how weak we sometimes are! God is pleased to release or restrain the fruits of his love. All the graces of the Spirit in us, all the sanctified pleasures we have, are fruits of his love. Personal experience abundantly testifies how these are variously dispensed, and how differently and seasonally they may be dispensed to the same person.
[2.] In respect to its manifestations He “sheds abroad his love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,” Romans 5:5. He gives us a sense of his love, manifesting it to us. This varies and changes, sometimes more, sometimes less. Now he shines his face upon us, another time he hides it, as necessary for our profit. Our Father will not always chide us, or we may be cast down. He does not always smile, or we may be full and neglect him. Yet, his love in itself remains the same. Even though he may hide his face for a moment, he gathers us with everlasting kindness.
Objection. You may say, “This comes close to blasphemy. You say that God loves his people in their sinning as well as in their strictest obedience. If so, then who will serve him more, or walk with him to be well-pleasing?”
Answer. There are few truths of Christ that someone has not attacked with this.
They do not vary in their content. The love of God in itself is the eternal purpose and act of his will. This is no love less changeable than God’s. Otherwise, no flesh could be saved. But God’s love does not change, and we are not consumed.
What then? Does he love his people in their sinning? Yes. He loves his people, but not their sinning. Does he not alter his love towards them? He does not alter the purpose of his will, but he does alter the dispensations of his grace. He rebukes them; he chastens them; he hides his face from them; he strikes them; he fills them with a sense of his indignation. But woe to us if he changes in his love, or removes his kindness from us! Those things that seem to indicate a change in his affections towards us, are as much a demonstration of his love as those kindnesses we prefer. “But will this not encourage people to sin?” No one who ever tasted of the love of God can seriously make this objection. The doctrine of grace may be turned into wantonness, but the principle cannot. I will not wrong the saints by giving a different answer to this objection. Detesting people’s sin may well be separate from God’s accepting them and designating them to eternal life. And so our love to God ebbs and flows, wanes and waxes. We lose our first love, and we grow again in love, scarcely a day stands still. What poor creatures we are! How unlike the Lord and his love! “Unstable as water, we cannot excel”
(Genesis 49:4). Now it is, “Though all men forsake you, I will not” (Mark 14:29), but in another place, “I do not know the man” (Matthew 26:74). One day we say, “I will never be moved, my hill is so strong” (Psalms 30:6-7), and the next, “All men are liars, I will perish” (Psalms 116:10-11). Was there ever a time and place that our love was equal towards God?
Thus, these agreements and differences further describe the mutual love of the Father and the saints, in which they hold communion. I will not give other examples of the Father’s love, but I will try to improve on this description in the next chapter.