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The
IJoing
of
God s
Will and
Fellowship With Christ
" "Everything
is
concentrated
in our relation to Chrisf in
whom God remits our sins and
in whom
He
is
a
Father
to His
people. (According to
Matthew 7:23) it
is
not
in
a
man's appeal to Jesus, ('Lord,
Lord') on his own authOrity, but
in Christ's taking him into
His
fellowship,
(knowing
him),
that
we
mustfmd the
explanation
and the
criterion of
doing
righteousness.
Outside of
this
fellowship
there is no
obedience ...
Only those
who are
known by
Him in the sense of this
fellowship will receive
the
grace
of the doing of the Father's will,
Mat.
13:50.
"There is no passage in
which this au h is revealed in a
mOre central and glorious way
than n the well-known words
of the Savior in Matthew
11:28.:30 ... --- The 'weary' and
the 'heavy laden' are not those
who are bent down by the
weight of
life
or by the burden
of their sins, but,
as
appears
from the words
'IllY
yoke' and
'my burden,' they
are
those who
are oppressed by the heavy
demands of the Pharisaical
conception of the
law, Mat.
23:4. They do not know any
rest or relief, i.e., they are
haunted by uncertainty and
fear. For they cannot bear this
yoke, this burden, Acts 15:10,
and
so
they lack peace, Jer.
6:16.
In contrast to this state of
things, Jesus mentions
his
'yoke'
and his 'burden.'
These
words
are
the
standing phrases
for
what
one
must
DO,
i.e.,
for
Jesus' commandments.
This
yoke is easy
and this burden
is
light, not because
these
commandments are not
heavy
demands
to
man's
self-love
and
self-assertion, Mat.
7:13f,
but
because it
is JESUS
who
teaches
them. --- Those who learn
God's
will from Him and
accept
it,
are,
consequently, not only
dependent upon His
word
as a
COMMAND, but are
also
called
to fellowship with
His
person
for its fulfillment." - Ridderbos,
pg.
253-254.
The Fatherhood
o God
and the
Believer s Life
n
the
World
Jesus taught that
the filial
relationship
His
disciples bore
with the Father was not only
concerned with future
bliss
in
eternity,
Matthew 16:19,20;
Mat. 5:5; Mark 10:30;
Lk.
18:30;
Lk
14:14; 20:36, but
Ill COUNSEL of Chalcedon OctoberlNovember, 1997
also with our temporal life here
and
now. See Luke
12:22-31
and Luke 12:6,7,
(Mat.
6:25-34;
10:29-31)' and
Luke
11:3, (Mat.
6:11); Luke 11:9-13,
(Mat.
7:7-12). God's prOvidence,
which
embraces the whole.
of
God's
creating and preserving
power and wisdom, is invoked
over themselves
by God's
children because they
have
been
adopted as
God's
children in
thetdngdom
of Christ.
And,
conversely,
the kingdom
is the
guarantee
that they will
not be
disappointed
by
God
when they
pray
like this.
- Ridderbos, pg.
269.
The Fatherhood o God and
Eternal Life
It must be emphatically
stated that in Christ's kingdom,
God
will be
the
Father of
His
disciples-children throughout
all
eternity, Mat. 16:19,20; Mat.
5:5;
Mk.
10:30;
Lk 18:30;
Lk.
14:
14; 20:36. It is especially
Significant that in Matthew 5:5
Jesus
also
points
to
THE EARTH
as
the place where the kingdom
will
reveal
its
glory.
--- 'God's
work done to
the
earth not only
consists in cleansing
all
violence
and wickedness
away from
the
church, but also in giving the
earth
into
the possession
of
those to whom Jesus
gives
His
promise.' -- The future
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revelation of the kingdomwill
also be
the
commencement
of
the perfect bliss for the earth in
accordance with
the
prophecies
of the renewal of the cosmos,
Isa.
65:17; 66:12;
Dan.
7:14 .. .
The earth is
involved n
the
divine
deliverance. Thus it can
be
understood that
the future
bliss is repeatedly described not
only
as
a spiritual enjoyment
or
elevation, but
as
a kind
of
joy
embracing the whole of human
life. It is entirely in ;tgreement
with the biblical idea of creation
that the deliverance
of
the
whole of life, including its
bodily and material
aspects,
also
belongs
to
the contents
of
the
preaching of the gospel, Mat.
19:16; 29; Mk 10:17.
Ridderbos,
pgs. 274-75.
Meanwhile,
it
is
clear that
the reception of etemallife is
closely connected with earthly
life, ie. with the way in which
man h s acted with respect to
God's
will.
This is why the
fulfillment of the
.commandments
can
be
called
'the
way
leading to life,' Mat.
7:14.
As a gift
of the
kingdom
of God, this
'life'
is
prepared for
and begun with
the
sonship
brought about by God's Spirit,
. and by God's fatherly care for
His children, Mat. 19:29. -
Ridderbos, pg. 275. Although
life
is everlasting life n a
future-eschatological sense, it
is
nevertheless unmistakable that
there
is
an unbreakable
connection and unity between
this future gift and the salvation
now already
given,
viz., that of
the remission
of sins,
sonship to
God,
the
gift of
the
Holy Spirit.
Both are gifts
of one and
the
same
kingdom, and so are
founded in the great
saving
act
of
the
revelation of Jesus
Christ. - Ridderbos, pg. 275.
The Biblical Doctrine
of
the Adoption
Adoption
is
an act
of
the
free
grace of God, in and
for
His
only Son Jesus Christ, whereby
all those
that are justified
are
received
into the number
of His
children, have His naype put
upon them, the Spirit of
His
Son given
to
them, are under
His
Fatherly care
lind
dispensations, admitted to all
the liberties and privileges of
the sons
of
God,
made
heirs of
all the promises, and
fellow-heirs with Christ in
glory. Westminster
Larger
Catechism, Q. 74.
The Reason For Loving Our
Enemies Godlikeness
The Uniqueness of the
Christian Different
From ll the Rest
The
disciple of Christ
is
to
love like
this because he
is
to be
like God and Christ. He is
to
reflect God's character in his
own behavior. He is to live and
love as
God
lives and loves,
although on a creaturely
level.
He
is to image God in his life
in this world, that he might be
the son of the
Most
High. A
disciple of Christ
is
a
follower
of
Christ and an imitator
of God
from
the heart.
He
always asks
himself: As I examine my
activities, and look at my life in
detail, can I claim for it that
there is something about it
which cannot be explained in
ordinary terms and which can
only be explained in terms of
my relationship to the Lord
Jesus Christ? - Uoyd-Jones
The
Christian is Christ-like,
though never perfectly so n this
life. He is different from the
unbeliever
in
his thinking, his
morality, his attitude toward
sin, his attitude toward himself,
his attitude toward others, and
his views of God. He is also
different in is living and in the
way
he does everything. His
motives are different, as well as
his
standards, his goals, the way
he reacts to what happens to
him in this life and world, the
way
he handles injuries and
injustice, and the way he treats
his enemies. And, finally, he is
different from the unbeliever in
the way he faces death.
What makes
the
Christian so
unique, so different from the
rest?
It
is
the
fact
that he is a
person who h s become a child
of God.
God
has become his
Father in Jesus Christ. How
can a man who has never had
the love of God shed abroad in
his heart love is enemy and do
all these other things? It js
impossible. He cannot do it;
and ftmhertnore he does not do
it.
There never has been a man
outside Christ who can do this.
The Sertnon is not an exorbitant
demand of this kind. When
you
first read it, it discourages
you
and casts you down. But
then it reminds you that you ;lre
a child of your Father in
heaven, that you are not just left
to yourself but that Christ has
come
to dwell n you and to
take
up His abode in you. You
October/November, 1997 DIE COUNSEL ofCbalcedon 5
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are but a branch of
the
Vine.
Power and
life
and sustenance
are there; you
are
simply to bear
the fruit. - lloyd-Jones, pg.
3l9.
The SpedJic Resemblance
of
God
In
Our Lives
s
Christ's Disdples
More specifically we are to
resemble God in showing
kindness and mercy, and in
being perfect as
God
is
perfect.
The Kindness of
God
We are to
love
unselfishly as
sons of the
Most
High; for He
Himself
s
KIND
to
ungrateful
and
evil mm -
Luke
6:35
1
The
Greek word
for
kind
is
chrestos, meaning excellent, .
useful, kind, benevolent, gentle,
considerate, friendly, helpful,
good, gracious, kindly disposed.
n the Old Testament it is often
used to describe God: Psa.
106:1;jer. 33:11; Psa. 52:9;
69: 16; 34:8; 25:8; Dt. 32:4; Psa .
119:41,
65f,
In the
New
Testament kindness constantly
describes God's actions toward
undeserving sinners; and it
finds particular expression and
completion in his savillg work
in and through Christ, I
Pet.
2:3. Hence it defines the
relationship of
the
disciples of
Christ, in whom the
image
of
God
has
been restored, to
ungrateful and
evil
sinners, Lk.
6:35, as well
as
his relationship
to other disciples, Eph. 4:32.
"Thou art good, (chrestos in
LXX), and doest
good.
...
Psa.
119:68 God
is
ABUNDANTLY
GENEROUS and kind
to
all
. human beings, even to
"ungrateful nd evil men..
He
is
BENEVOLENT toward
everything and
everyone
He has
created, because they are His .
workmanship. God's
benevolence toward those
He
has created, conSidered as
created beings,
is
infinitely
greater thml any love of a
creature toward a creature.
No
earthly father
loves
his child
with b e n e v o l e ~ c e equal
to
that
which the
Heavenly
Father
feels
towards
His
created offspring,
Lk..
6:35; Mat. 5:45 ; - W.G.T.
Shedd, DOGMATIC
THEOLOG'(
,
Vol. I, pg. 385f.
Therefore,
we
are to be
abundantly generous,
benevolent, gracious, kindly
disposed, helpful, good, useful
and morally excellent with
reference to all people, even to
"ungrateful
and
evil
men."
The Mercy of God
"Be
merciful,
(oikti' 'Wnes),
just as
your Father is
merdjul,"
Lukft
6:36. Children
are to
be
like their Father; and one of the
outstanding perfections in
God
the Father
is
His
gr
.eat
mercy,
compassion, sympathy and
desire to help people in times of
suffering and misery.2
Therefore, His children are to
keep on being merciful,
o m p ~ o n t e
sympathetic and
helpful
to those wJ:t(l are
'
suffering.
3
The
present
imperatives in
these
verses
express courses of action,
repetitions whenever the
occasions
arise .
- Lenski
Although grace arid
mercy
.
are
expressions of
God
's
goodness, there is a distinction
6 f TH COUNSEL of Chalcedon OctoberlNovember, 1997
between them.
'Grace
is
especially associated with men
in their sins; mercy is especially
associated with men in their
misery.' In other words, while
grace
looks down upon sin
as
a
whole, mercy looks especially
upon
the
miserable
consequences of
sin,
.So that
mercy
really
means a
sense of
pity.plus
a
desire to relieve
the suffering. That
is
the
essential me ning ofbemg
merc l;it
is
piTY PLUS
ACTION. So the
Christian
has
a
feeling
of pity. His concern
about.themisery of men and
womeI,l.lead;;
to
an anxiety
to
r l i ~ v
it.
-
.That
is being
merCifuL It does not mean only
feeling
pit}';
it means a 'great
desire, and indeed an endeavor,
to do something to
relieve the
situation. - Uoyd-jones,
pg.
99f.
The
perfect and central
.example pf mercy and being
merciful is the sending by
God
ofHis only begotten into this
world ....
Why? Because
there
is
mercy
with
Him.
He saw our
pitiable estate,
He
saw the
suffering, and, in spite of
the
law breaking, this was the thing
mat moved Him
to
action. So
the
Son
came
and dealt with our
condition. - Lloyd-jone$,
pg.
100.
jesus said, Blessed are
the
merciftil,
for
they
shall
obtain
mercy."
Our
Lord is
really
saying
that I
am
only truly
forgiven
when I
am
truly
repentant. To be truly
repentant means that I realize I
deserve nothing but
punishment, and that if I
am
forgiven
it
is
to be attributed
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entirely to the love ofGod and
to
is mercy and grace, and
to
nothing else at all. But I go
further; it means thi$. If I am
truly repentant and realize my
position before God, and
realize
that I
am
orily forgiven
in
that
way, . hen of necessity, 1 shall
forgive
those
who
trespass
against me. - Lloyd-Jones, pg,
102.
"Let me put it like this. --
This Beatitude
follows
all the
others; therefore I put it in this
form. I am poor in spirit; I
realize that have no
righteousness; I realize that face .
to
face
with
God
and His
righteousness I
am
u
terIy
helpless; I can
do
nothing. Not
only that. I mourn
e c u ~
of
the sin that is within me; I have
come to
see,
as the
result of the
operation of the
Holy
Spirit, the
blackness of my own heart .I
know what it
is to
cry out,
0
wretched man that I am who
shall deliver
me?'
and
desire to
be rid of this vileness that is
within
me.
Not
only
that. I
am
meek, which means that now
that I have experienced this true
view
of myself, nobody
else
can
hurt me, nobody else can insult
me, nobody can
ever say
anything too bad about
me.
I
have seen myself, and my
greatest enemy does not know
the worst about
me.
I have seen
myself
as
something truly
hateful, and it
is
because
of
this
that I have hungered and
thirsted after righteousness. I
have
longed
for it.
I
have
seen
that I cannot create
or
produce.
it, and that nobody
else can
. I
have
seen my desperate position
in the sight of
God
. I
have
hungered and thirsted. for that
righteousness which
Will.
put
me
right with
God,
that
will
-
reconcile me
to
God, and give
me a new nature and life.
And
I
have
seen it in Christ. I have
been filled; I have received it all
as
a
free
gift.
"Does it not
follow
inevitably
that, if I have seen and
experienced all that,
my
attitude
towards everybody else must be
completely and entirely
changed? If all that is true of
me,
I
no
longer see men
as
I
used
to
see them. I see them
now with a Christian
eye.
I
see
them as
the
dupes and victims
and
the slaves of sm and Satan
and of the way of the world. I
have
COme
to
See them not
simply as
men whom I
dislike
but as men to be pitied. I have
come to see them as being
governed by the god of tIlls
world, as being still where once
I
was,
and would be
yet
but
for
the grace
of
God. $0
I
am
sorry
for
them.
I
do
not merely
see
them and what they do. I
see
them as the slaves of hell and of
Satan, and my whole attitude
toward them
is
changed.
And
because of that, of course, I can
be and must be merciful with
respect to them. ---
But I would take you again
to
the
supreme example.
Look
at
Him
there upon the
cross,
who never sinned, who never
did any harm
to
anyone, who
came
and preached the truth,
who came
to
seek and
to
save
that which was lost. There He
is , nailed and suffering agonies
on the cross, and yet what does
He say as
He
looks upon the
people who are responsible for
it? 'Father, forgive them.' Why?
"For they know not what they
do.' --- Loqk at Stephen the
. martyr
attair:\ing to
that. -
As
they
are stoning
h im.
, h t q he -
say? He prays to his heavenly
Father and cries, '
Lay
not
this
sin
to
their charge.' 'They do not
know what they are doing,
Lord,' says Stephen; 'they are
mad
. They are mad because of
sin; they do not understand me
as Thy servant; they do not
understand my Lord and
Master;
they are blinded
by
the
god of this world. ... Lay; not
this sin to their charge.' And
that, I say, is
to
be the condition
ofevery one who is truly
Christian. We are to feel a
sense of sorrow for all who are
helpless slaves of sin. "
Lloyd-Jones, pg. l02f.
The Perfection o God '
The
Significance o
the
Word,
as
Therefore
you
are
t
be
perfect,
as
your
heavenly Father
s
perfect, Mat. 5:48. Therefore,
because you are the
sons
of
the
Most High,"and disciples of
Jesus, 'you are to
be
perfect, as
your
heavenly Father
s
perfect.
That little word, 'as,' (hos)
shows that we are to make God
our model in all his perfections
and follow Him in spirit and in
truth; not, however, that
complete equality
is
demanded.
For God's attributes are infinite
while our virtues are finite and,
compared with. God's, a mere
shadow. (Starke)- Lenski
OctoberlNovember, 1997 TIlE COUNSEL
of
Chalcedon 7
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The Signiftcance
o the
Words, you are
to be
You are to
be
.... is a future
tense'
with
the force of
an
imperative, and the word y o u ~
in Greek is emphatic, (humeis),
so that it denotes, You, on your
part, in contraSt to the scribes
and
Pharisees.... .. The Pharisees ,
had mutilated and perverted
the law
and
tried to subtract
as
much as possible.... Thus there
was
nothiIig perfect about
their
obedience,
it
consisted of
useless outward scraps. The
disciples ofjesus are
to be
wholly different. - lenski
The Significance o
the Word, perfect
The Meaning
o
the
Hebrew
and Greek
Words for perfect
..
perfect
is te1eioi in Greek,
which
when applied to people
means wholly devoted to the
will of God revealed to every
sincere Israelite
in
the Word of
the divine law and in the model
of the divine conduct. (iahn)
lenski.
Jesus is drawing this
command
from Deuteronomy
18: 13--
You
shall be
blameless,
(complete, perfecr), before
the
LORD
your
God. This verse is
an
echo
of
Genesis 17: 1-- I
am
God
Almighty; walk
btJore
Me,
and be blameless, (perfect,
complete). The Hebrew word
for perfect
in both
these O.T.
passages
has
the fundamental
meaning of completeness and
came to mean ethically sould,
upright,
full
of
integrity. The
Greek word
for perfect
in
the
Septuagint
and
the New
Testament carries the Idea of side He
had
pledged Hitnself to
completion, fulfillment, the jews;
sO on
the other He
maturity. It denotes the final had :made them His debtors, not
step inreaching a goal, along
to
prostitute themselves to idols,
with the idea
of
wholeness and or
to
hanker after strange
of
beilig undiVided. r e l i ~ o n s whereby men's minds
The Meaning
Of the Divine
are led astray. This perfectness,
Commands
in
Genesis 17:1
and
then, is opposed
to
all
those
Deuteronomy
18:13
mixu:ires or corruptions which
withdraw
us
from the sincere
In G e n ~ s i s
17:1the Lord is worship of the one true God;
calling
b r a ~ D ; l Walk
I{efore because the simplicity which
My eyes
in a way that
is
pleasing retains
us in
obedience to
to Me, in
complete
trust nd total heavenly teaching, is that
obedience, ill full integJ;ity of spiritual chastity which God
heart, mind
and
life. His requires of His Church. The
strength for such a life would be Context of the pllSSage proves
found
in
God Alntighty.
To this with
sufficient clearness,
walk before God, is to walk or
viz.,
that God would restrain the
live as in His sight, and under jews from all licentiousness so
His spedal
inspection: to fet;l that being devoted to His
His open and unslumbering
eye
service; they should
not
look
ever upon us. To walk thus this way or that way,
nor
be
before God is impossible,
if
carried away by vanity
and
there be
not
redeeming
lQve on
instability,
but
constantly abide
His
part, apprehended,
by
faith in the pure worship which He
on
our part;
,and to be pqfect, had presciibed
to
them. _ ohn
guileless, and upright, in thus Calvin
walking before God,.is me great
duty;
of
he believer. He alone
The
Meaning
of
perfe
.ct
in
can discharge thatduty. Others Paul's Writings
do
not
like to retain,God in Paul uses the word, teleios,
their knowledge; they have
tc
mean mature, full-grown and
comfort only when all serious . complete
with
respect to the
thought of God is got rid of, and knowledge of God and of
put aside; and so they hide salvation, Rom. 12:2; I Cor. 2:6;
themselves from God amjd I Cor.p lO; I Cor 4:20; Eph.
secularvanitiesorsa
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The Command
jesus
was
not being
perfectionistic here, teaching
that man could reach
sinless
perfection before death. The
Beatitudes and Lord's
Prayer
clearly
reveal
that that w s not
the case. Therefore, what
exactly
is
jesus commanding of
His disciples when
He
demands
that they
be
perfect
as God
is
perfect?
He is commanding
them to be
as
true, upright and
morally superior in
all
their
dealing with other people, as
God is in His dealings with
us.
They must be as complete in
their devotion to love the
unlovely, as
God
is in
lOving us.
They must be complete in their
devotion to God, lacking
nothing, as
God
is complete in
and of Himself lacking
nothing.
Their devotion must be total;
just as
God's
devotion
to
Himself is total.
When our Lord summons
us
to
be 'perfect' or mature, i.e.,
to grow in terms of our
God-appointed end,
He is
summoning us to serve God
with
all
our being, and
to
be
holy unto
Him. 'Ye
shall be
holy
unto Me; for I the LORD
am
holy, have severed you from
other people, that-ye should be
mine,' Lev. 20:26. --- God
alone is
holy; we
are holy
to
the
degree that
we
separate and
dedicate ourselves to
Him
and
to
His
Kingdom.
To
abide
in
Him
means
to bring
forth
fruit,
jn. 15:2; to love God means to
keep
His
commandments, In.
15: 10,14. Our goal thus is to
do the
will
of our Father, to
serve Him
with all our heart,
mind, and being, to
love God
and our neighbor. -
Rj
Rushdoony,
ROOTS OF
RECONSTRUCTION,
pg. 276.
The
Basis
For the
Command
Christ's disciples
are
to be
perfect,
because
God,
their
Father
is
perfect. What does
jesus refer
to
when He speaks of
God's
perfection ? God
is
complete in and of
himself. He
is lacking in nothing. 'He
possesses all perfections.
God
is perfect in that Be is
the sum-total of
all
excellencies, the One than
whom no greater, higher, better
can exist either in thought or in
reality.
In other words,
GOD
ANSWERS
FULLY
TO
THE
IDEA OF
GOD.
That creature
is perfect in a creaturely, finite
manner which
fully
answers to
its norm.
So also God is
perfect
because the idea of
God
is
is full
accord with His being. Of
course, this is the case
humanly
speaking;
it must not
be
misinterpreted.
We
should
remember that God posits the
norm
for the
creature; hence,
this norm is au thoritative
for
the
creature: the creature
is
morally
bound
to
live up
to
it. In that
sense
we
cannot speak of any
idea or norm with reference to
God.
There is no norm which is
authoritative
for
God and
to
which
He
must answer.
But
the
idea
of
God is
derived from the
being of
God
Himself. In Him
being and self-consciousness are
one;
He
IS that which
He
KNOWS Himself
to
be, and He
KNOWS Himself
to
be that
which
He is.
---
Every
attribute of God
becomes dear to
the believer:
he cannot dowithout even a
single
one of them; he is
satisfied with no other God than
the only true God, who has
revealed Himself in Christ, and
he
exalts all
His
virtues. The
Christian is filled with
admiration, love, thanksgiving,
and adoration not only because
is
God is a God of grace and
love
but
also
because
He
is a
God of holiness and
righteousness, not only because
He is benevolent but also
because
He
is omnipotent..
. -
Herman Bavinck,
THE
DOCTRINE
OF
GOD,
pg. 246f.
Therefore, to be perfect
as
God
is perfect means that just
as
God
is everything God should
be; so we who are Christians
should be everything Christians
should be.
This peifection
does not
mean equality but relates solely
to resemblance. However
distant
we are
from the
perfection of God, we are said
to
be
peifect as
He is peifect
when
we
aim at the same object,
which
He
presents
to
us in
Himself. --- There is no
comparison here made between
God and us:
but
the peifection
of
God
means,
FIRST,
that free
and pure kindness, which is not
induced by the expectation of
gain;
and,
SECONDLY,
that
remarkable goodness, which
contends with the malice and
ingratitude of men. - Calvin.
The ontrast In
Definitions
o
Peifection
Biblical
Christianity and
OctoberlNovember, 1997 THE COUNSEL
of halcedon I
9
8/12/2019 1997 Issue 9 - Sermon on Luke 6:17-49 - The Doing of God's Will and Fellowship With Christ - Counsel of Chalcedon
7/7
Humanism have their own
concepts of perfection; and they
are, as always, diametrically
opposed to each other.
requires notice,
the
expectation
of flawless, sinless behavior ill
other people. --- Humanism
leads
us
to demand perfection
"Edna
St.
Vincent Millay
began her poem 'Moriturus'.
with these telling words,
If I
could
have
. ' of other people without '
demanding it of ourselves,
because
we
see ourselves as our
own ultimate, our standard and
our
- - ~
Two things in one:
he
peace
of the grave,
And
the light of
the
sun . ..
Here in a few words
we
have
.an important aspect of
humanism, the attempt to get
the best of
all
possible worlds
without the responsibilities of
any. The desire
is
to be dead to
all that might
hun
liS,
but
alive
to all that we can enjoy; to have
all the fulness of life and
meaning which God has
ordained, butwithout God;
to
have both 'the peace of the
grave, and the light of the sun.'
The humanist wants life to be
an endless smorgasbord
table,
on which
all
the gods of
humanism's past and present, as
well
as
the God of Scripture',
serve up their fineSt
offerings
for
man to pick and choose at,
world without end, forever. n
this humanistic sense,
PERFECTION is the sum total
of everything man can desire,
together with the total absence
of all responsibility, '
accountability and all problems.
-- Aworld, however, in which
one wants
to
enjoy both 'the
peace of the
grave
arid the light
of the sun'
is
a world of
inSanity
and is doomed
to
the slave's cell
and the grave. ---
There
is
another aspect of htinianistic
PERFECTIONISM which
. As
against
the hUIl)anistic
ideal of perfection, it
is
important to understand
the
Biblical doctrine. Perfection in
Scripture
is
not sinlessness but
it
is rather.uprightness, sincerity
and maturity of faith and
obedience. --- A God-centered
perfectioni$m is a relationship
between the individual and
God
:
in terms of
His
grace
and
law;
it
is growth in obedience, integrity
and.maturity. Itis first of all a
standard whereby we see
ourselves in terms of God's,law
word, and then a
standarq. for
,
. assessing others. ,--- HUmaIlistic
perfectionism is not .
God-.oriented;instead, it
is
a
unilater:lil
dem\lnd
wem lke of
other people and then condemn "
them for failing to meet it:
Humanistic perfeclionism leads '
to a fragIl)en,ting society and to
loneliness in a crowded place
...
.
~ Humanistic perfectionism
leads to a flight from man and a .
horror for people and personal
relationships. - .Humanistic
perfection
m Tts
against IIlan, .
because
man fails
to tneet its
hopes."-
Rushdoony,
SALVATION
AND GODLY
RULE, pgs. 79f.
(to be continued.) .
Thisverse is a refutation of Gary
North's view that
c
Ommon grate
does not imply the favor of God to
1 f THE
COUNSEL
of
ChaIcedon
OCtober/November
1997
the unregenerate. God in no way
favors the unregenerate." -page 107
in DOMINION
AND
COMMON
GRACE, (Tyler, T"'IllS, Institute for
Christian Economics,,1987)
it
mustbe pointed out as
Charnock has done in his book, THE
EXISTENCE
AN
.D ,ATTRIBUTES OF
GOD, (as quoted by W.G.T. Shedd,
in his DOGMATIC THEOLOGY,
VoL
I, pg.3890: "The goodness (mercy)
of he,Deity is infinite and
cirC]lmscribed by no limits;
but
the
exercise of His goodness may be
limited
by
Himself. God is
necessarily good in His nature; but
free in
His
communication of i
t.
is not necessarily communicative of
His goodness, as the
sun
of its light;
Which chooses.not its objects,
but
enlightens all indifferently. This were
to make God
ofno
more
understanding than the
sun,
which
shines not where it pleases but where
it must. He is an .understanding
agent, and has a sovereign right to
choose is own subjects. It would
not be supreme, if it were not a
vohmtary goodness." Hence, the
mercy of God is sovereign mercy,
that is,
will have mercy
on whom
He will
have mercy
3Mercy
may not
be
antinomian
Le., bestoWed in a lawless manner,
Deuteronomy 21:18--n. l t is not to
be
bestowed at random without
considering the directions of the
Word
of God. The Christian is not a
person
who
smiles
at
evil
and
transgression of Biblical Law. He is
not "a flabby kind of person,
easy-going, easy to get on with, to
whom it does not matter whether
laws are broken or not who is not
concerned about keeping them."
L l o y d ~ J o n e s STUDIES IN THE
SERMON ON THE MOUNT, Vol. I,
pg. 98.
We
know this to be the case,
because God
is
also said to be
merciful,and He certainly is not '
easy-going and tolerant with
reference
to
the transgression of His
Law.
He
is also righteollS and holy
andjusL