(I)
[Source:
The Protestant Reformed Churches in
America (1947), pp. 325-327]
20. But does not Matt. 5:44, 45 prove the point
synod made in its first declaration?
If the synod’s interpretation of this
text were the correct one, it would prove far too much and, besides, it would
lead to absurdity. It is deplorable that synod merely quoted without even an
attempt at explanation; otherwise synod would have soon realized how untenable
the position is, that in these verses we have a proof that God is gracious to
all men. The interpretation which, evidently, synod would offer, runs as
follows:
a.
We must love our enemies.
b. If we do, we will be children of God and
reflect His love, for He loves all His enemies, as well as the good, in this
present life.
c.
This love to all men is manifested in the rain and sunshine on all
without distinction.
Of this interpretation we assert that,
first, it proves too much and, secondly, it leads to absurdity and is
untenable. It proves too much, for, all the Scriptures witness that God does
not love, but hates His enemies and purposes to destroy them, except them He
chose in Christ Jesus and whom He loves not as His enemies, but as His redeemed
people, justified and sanctified in Christ. God does, indeed, love His enemies,
but not as such, but as His children in Christ. And it leads to absurdity, for
if rain and sunshine are a manifestation of God’s love to all men, the just and
the unjust, what are floods and droughts, pestilences and earthquakes and all
destructive forces and evils sent to all through nature, but manifestations of
His hatred for all, the just and the unjust? But it is absurd to say that God
hates the just, for He loves them. It is also absurd to say that God changes,
now loving the just and the unjust and manifesting this love in rain and
sunshine, now hating them and revealing His hatred in upheavals and
destruction. Hence, the interpretation that leads to this evident absurdity is
itself absurd.
Besides, it must not be overlooked,
that the text does not at all state, that God is gracious to the just and to
the unjust, but that He rains and causes His sun to shine on all.
21. How, then, must the text be interpreted?
We must take our starting point from
verse 44. The Lord admonishes His people that they shall love their enemies.
Now, love is not a sentimental feeling or emotion or affection. It is,
according to Scripture, the bond of perfectness [Col. 3:14]. It is, therefore,
the bond between two parties or persons that are ethically perfect, that seek
each other and find delight in each other because of their ethical perfection,
and that, in the sphere of ethical perfection seek each other’s good. It is in
this true sense that God is love.
However, it stands to reason that in
the case of loving our enemies that despitefully use us, curse us and persecute
us, love must needs be onesided. There cannot be a bond of fellowship between
the wicked and the perfect in Christ. To love our enemy, therefore, is not to
flatter him and to speak sweetly to him; but rather to rebuke him, to demand
that he leave his wicked way and thus to bless him and to pray for him. It is
to bestow good things upon him with the demand of true love that he leave his
wicked way, walk in the light and thus have fellowship with us. If he heed our
love, which will be the case if he be of God’s elect and receive grace, he will
turn from darkness into light and our love assumes the nature of a bond of
perfectness. If he despise our love, our very act of love will be to his
greater damnation. But the cursing and persecution of the wicked may never
tempt the child of God to live and act from the principle of hatred, to reward
evil for evil, and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
As a single illustration from actual
life and experience, the Lord points to the fact, that so God rains and causes
His sun to shine upon the just and the unjust, thus bestowing good things upon
them all, demanding that they shall employ them as means to walk in
righteousness and light. For with God love is delight in perfection in the
highest sense of the word. If now the wicked receive grace with rain and
sunshine, they will walk in the light and have fellowship with God. If they do
not receive grace they will employ the rain and the sunshine in the service of
sin and receive the greater damnation.
But rain and sunshine is never grace
and Matt. 5:44, 45 does not prove the contention of the first point.
---------------------------------------------
(II)
[According] to the current teaching of the Bible, we may not
consider earthly things per se—rain
and sunshine and riches and prosperity—as proofs of God’s love and grace with
respect to the reprobate ungodly. On the contrary, they are slippery places on
which God causes them to fall into eternal destruction [Psalm 73:18]. The
ungodly flourish in order to be destroyed forever [Psalm 92:7]. When we
remember this, we are inclined to look at Matthew 5:44 more closely before we
accept [with defenders of common grace] that it teaches that rain and sunshine
are manifestations of God’s gracious disposition to all the ungodly. When we
study the text more closely and in its context, our objection to [the common
grace] interpretation becomes more serious.
In Matthew 5:44 we read, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use
you and persecute you.” We are exhorted to do these things to our enemies
because we must follow the example of our heavenly Father: “that ye may be the
children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on
the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (v.
45). If we take the text in its context, it means that we must love our enemies because and even
as God loves his enemies. We
must really love them, seek their real good, bless them, pray for them, and
seek their salvation, even as God really loves them, seeks their good, and
saves them to the very end …
Besides, we must not forget that sunshine and rain are not always
blessings. Sometimes the sun causes a scorching heat, and crops dry up and
wither. When rain is too abundant, everything rots in the field. Also then God
causes his sun to shine and the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust
alike, and to both he also sends hail and fire, earthquakes and destruction,
and pestilence and death.
At the most we can say that Mathew 5:44–45 refers to God’s
providential care in sending rain and causing his sun to shine on the just and
the unjust as examples for the children of God to follow. When in this
dispensation God sends good gifts and means to men, he does not limit them to
the righteous, but he sends them promiscuously to the godly and to the ungodly,
to the just and to the unjust alike. He does not leave himself without witness.
This is revealed in its most general form in rain and sunshine. With the rain
and sunshine comes the calling and obligation to glorify the living God and to
give thanks to him who does all these things. When this is done by the
righteous man, he receives favour and blessing from God. When the ungodly man
fails to give God the glory, he receives no blessing, nor is he the object of
God’s favour, even though he receives rain and sunshine. The wrath of God
abides on him.
The child of God, who must be perfect even as his Father in heaven
is perfect, must follow his example in this. He received the love of God and
experienced and tasted that love of God as a love to his enemies. Because he
also was God’s enemy even as others, he must manifest this love to his enemies.
He must not greet only those who greet him and bless those who bless him, but
he must do good to all, even to his enemies.
He cannot reveal this love of God by loving the enemies of God and
having fellowship with them, but he must do good to them by telling them the
truth, by blessing them and praying for them, and by showing them the way of
life. He must not hate those who hate him, and never must he avenge himself by
doing evil to his enemies, for then he would not manifest the love of God, but
the sinful love of the ungodly. He must be a child of his Father in heaven and
be perfect.
The most general example of this he can see in God’s causing his
sun to rise and the rain to descend on the just and the unjust in common. And
did he not send Christ to die in due time for the ungodly?
Of a gracious disposition to every man,
particularly to the reprobate ungodly, there is no mention at all in Matthew
5:44–45 … The passages [Matt. 5:44-45 and Luke 6:35] certainly exhort us truly
to love our enemies. This does not mean that in a general sense we must be nice
to them in regard to temporal things, but that we must love them to the end,
bless them, and pray for them. If in this we must be children of our Father in
heaven and reflect his love, which, it must be admitted, is always infinitely
greater and more perfect than ours, it follows that he also loves his enemies
to the end, answers our prayers when we pray for them, blesses them, and saves
them. How could [one] possibly apply this to all men, specifically to the
reprobate ungodly?
No comments:
Post a Comment