Some Thoughts

Two brief excerpts from a very long email that I didn’t send:

Yes, I do believe that God loves the world as he tells us in John 3:16 [show] [16]"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)
(and I do think it means ‘the world,’ and not just ‘the elect’ – common grace further suggests this). But I also believe that he reserves a special, gracious, extraordinary, covenental husband-wife quality of love for his church, “who is his bride.” He does have a measure of general love for his creatures who will, nevertheless, ultimately perish, for he is good. But his love toward them is not the same in kind, or degree, as his particular, extravagant, covenental love for “his beloved, his fair one, his bride” (Eph. 5:25-32 [show] [25]Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, [26]that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27]so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [28]In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. [29]For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, [30]because we are members of his body. [31]"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." [32]This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (ESV)
). Isn’t that amazing, that he covenants with his people? God, infinite and immense, altogether glorious and majestic, entering into an eternally binding, unconditional, benevolent, irreversible, “marital” covenant with us–finite and fleeting little creatures though we are! But this extraordinary love is not for everyone: covenental, marital love, (itself a picture or shadow of the higher reality of God’s love for his church,) is by its very nature exclusive. “I will love you my whole life; you, and no other.”

[...]

…but when Christ died on the cross, he didn’t purchase some external ‘commodity’ or ‘gift’ that he then offers to me in some state of moral neutrality, as though I may accept it or reject it (or return it!) as I see fit. As a dead, blind, hard-hearted, child of wrath by nature–indeed, as a true enemy of God, I don’t need options; I need a miracle. When Christ died on the cross, he bought me. Some may dare to die for a good man; but God showed his loved for us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! Isn’t it glorious? Me, a sinner and an enemy, comprehensively unworthy! Yet, he purchased my full redemption on Calvary–full, free, infallible, and irrevocable. The first installment on the redemption plan is, as it were, exactly that miracle I so need: the miracle of the New Birth which begets the condition of salvation: repentance and faith. Oh, thank God that he is so passionate about his glory! (Eph. 2:1-9 [show] And you were dead in the trespasses and sins [2]in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- [3]among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. [4]But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5]even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- [6]and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, [7]so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. [8]For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9]not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (ESV)
)

…we’re going to talk instead.