PART SECOND

THE PURPOSE OF ELECTION

66

'I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit."

CHAPTER I

CALLED TO FRUITFULNESS

THE earlier part of this book has offered various Scriptural examples of God's choice of men, and also of the man's response. We were concerned then with the immediate fact of the choice, rather than its ultimate purpose. Not that it would be possible even then to exclude all reference to the purpose. Once and again, especially in the second chapter, the thought has forced itself upon us that if God has chosen to exalt one man to privileges greater than those enjoyed by his neighbors, it was through no unworthy favoritism for the one exalted, but that there was some larger purpose in the choice, from which in due time those very neighbors might hope to reap their share of the benefit. This thought could never be altogether forgotten; but in that earlier part of the book I had no wish to dwell upon it, but simply to set forth enough examples from Scripture to prove that God in His wisdom does choose to make men differ, that He is constantly electing particular individuals to varying advantages; and that the one vitally important question for every individual

must be, What sort of response will he make to this electing choice of God?

Someone may interrupt me at this point to say that, according to the great creeds of the Reformed Churches, this response from the man, whether favorable or unfavorable, has been itself already determined by God's earlier elective decree; he may also say that the creeds can sustain this position by scriptural authority, and also that this is the one important element in the scriptural doctrine. The first of those affirmations I am ready to accept, and the second with some qualifications; but the third must be frankly denied. We have now reached the point at which it is necessary to confess that the doctrine of the creeds had sometimes diverged gravely from the doctrine of Scripture.1 The mystery of human freedom as affected by the Divine decree is sometimes touched upon in Scripture, but only as a mystery which the writer could not altogether ignore. He admits it, and then leaves it one side; for it is not the important element of the doctrine, and does not need to be explained. Scripture plainly asserts the fact of God's almightiness, and as plainly the fact of man's freedom, but takes no pains to solve the apparent inconsistency between those two facts.

'This objection can hardly be urged against the standards of the Presbyterian Church since the revision of 1903.