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 th is revealed in a
mOre central and glorious way
than in 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 of God and the
Believer's Life In 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
.. * TIll! 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 of 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
revelation of the kingdom will
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 in 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 has 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 in 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 All 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 in 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 his 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 has 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 his 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 in you and to
take up His abode in you. You
October/November, 1997 DIE COUNSEL of Cbalcedon '" 5
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
As 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 is 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.
In 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 and 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 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,
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 THE 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 meaning ofbemg
merc$l;it is piTY PLUS
ACTION. So the Christian has
a feeling of pity. His concern
about .themisery of men and
womeI,l.lead;; to an anxiety to
it. - .That is being
merCifuL It does not mean only
feeling pit}'; it means a 'great
desire, and indeed an endeavor,
to do something to relieve the
situation." - Uoyd-jones, pg. 99f.
.. .
"The perfect and central
. .example pf mercy and being
merciful is the sending by God
of His only begotten into this
world .... Why? Because there is
mercy with Him. He saw our
pitiable estate, He saw the
suffering, and, in spite of the
law breaking, this was the thing
mat moved Him to action. So
the Son came and dealt with our
condition."- Lloyd-jone$, 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 attribu ted
entirely to the love of God and
to His 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, . then 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 tterIy
helpless; I can do nothing. Not
only that. I mourn 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. , 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
of every 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 of God '
The Significance of
the Word, "as"
"Therefore you are to be
perfect, as your heavenly Father is
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 is 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
The Signiftcance of the
Words, "you are to be"
"You are to be ..... is a future
tense' with the force of an
imperative, and the word
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 of
the Word, "perfect"
The Meaning of 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. 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 17: 1 the Lord is worship of the one true God;
calling "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 and 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." _ john
guileless, and upright, in thus Calvin
walking before God,.is me great
duty; of the believer. He alone The Meaning "of "perfe.ct" in
can discharge that duty. 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<;red 4:13; CoL 1:28; CoL 4:12. The
formalitieS. Thei'i-'walk is not, meanings of "full-grown" and
and cannot be, in good faith, a spiritually complete," i.e.
Walk before God, or with 'God, witho\lt any defect and filled
under His eye and subject to Withgoodness, often coincide:
His controL"- Candlish on the mature person is the one
GENESIS. who has reached "the measure of
InOeuteronomy,l8: 13 the stature of the fu.lness of
jehovah "refers to the mutual Christ. .
obligations of that holy . . The Meaning ofJesus'
covenant the one Command In Matthew 5:48
8 '" THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon '" OctoberlNovember, 1997
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 was 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 do without 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
his 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 Contrast In
Definitions of Peifection
Biblical Christianity and
OctoberlNovember, 1997 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 'I' 9
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:
The 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. In
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 mITts 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
10 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 the, 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 it.
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 His 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.lt 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."-
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